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The interface between a liquid and a solid is the location of plethora of intrincate mechanisms at the nanoscale, at the root of their specific emerging properties in natural processes or technological applications. However, while the…
In ancient times, electricity was viewed as a spirit or soul residing in an inanimate substance. A fluid image was introduced in an attempt to visualize its movement. It was also an effort to concretize its nature into the realm of physical…
Modeling the complex interactions of systems of particles or agents is a fundamental scientific and mathematical problem that is studied in diverse fields, ranging from physics and biology, to economics and machine learning. In this work,…
Recent advances at the intersection of control theory, neuroscience, and machine learning have revealed novel mechanisms by which dynamical systems perform computation. These advances encompass a wide range of conceptual, mathematical, and…
An electronic current driven through a conductor can induce a current in another conductor through the famous Coulomb drag effect. Similar phenomena have been reported at the interface between a moving fluid and a conductor, but their…
Predicting future observations plays a central role in machine learning, biology, economics, and many other fields. It lies at the heart of organizational principles such as the variational free energy principle and has even been shown --…
Real-world scenarios demand reasoning about process, more than final outcome prediction, to discover latent causal chains and better understand complex systems. It requires the learning algorithms to offer both accurate predictions and…
Molecular dynamics simulations are used to study the mechanism and kinetics of hydrated electron diffusion. The electron center of mass is found to exhibit Brownian-type behavior with a diffusion coefficient considerably greater than that…
Agent-based computational economics is a field with a rich academic history, yet one which has struggled to enter mainstream policy design toolboxes, plagued by the challenges associated with representing a complex and dynamic reality. The…
With the interactivity and multiple representation features, computer simulations lend itself to the guided inquiry learning. However, these simulations are usually designed for post-elementary students. Thus, the aim of this study is to…
The process of constructing knowledge is typically taught to students by having them reproduce established results (e.g., homework problems). An alternative pedagogical strategy is to illustrate this process using an open problem, such as…
Computer experiments refer to the study of real systems using complex simulation models. They have been widely used as alternatives to physical experiments. Design and analysis of computer experiments have attracted great attention in past…
This study investigates a group of high school students in a physics classroom interacting with a computer simulation that simulates the electrostatic interaction as a hockey game, the Electric Field Hockey. The activity featured in this…
We report on several specific student difficulties regarding the Second Law of Thermodynamics in the context of heat engines within upper-division undergraduates thermal physics courses. Data come from ungraded written surveys, graded…
These are lecture notes for various Summer and Winter schools that I have given. The notes describe the methodology called Variational Modelling, and focus on the application to the modelling of gradient-flow systems. I describe the…
In real-world systems, phase transitions often materialize abruptly, making it difficult to design appropriate controls that help uncover underlying processes. Some agent-based computational models display transformations similar to phase…
Advances in the fabrication and characterization of nanoscale systems now allow for a deeper understanding of one of the most basic issues in science and technology: the flow of energy at the microscopic level. In this Colloquium we survey…
As the share of renewable energy sources in the present electric energy mix rises, their intermittence proves to be the biggest challenge to carbon free electricity generation. To address this challenge, we propose an electricity pricing…
Active perception has been employed in many domains, particularly in the field of robotics. The idea of active perception is to utilize the input data to predict the next action that can help robots to improve their performance. The main…
Integrating computation into physics teaching is a curricular move that, at present, has been predominately studied for its cognitive impacts. However, if this modality of instruction shifts how students engage with physics, we argue there…