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Ammar Hakim

Ammar Hakim

Academic Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, University of Washington. (March 2006)
  • Master of Science, University of Washington. (June 2002)

Research experience

Tech-X Corporation, Boulder, CO, April 2006 - current

  • Developing computational software for plasma physics applications, radiative transfer and the solution of hyperbolic balance laws.

University of Washington, March 2002 - March 2006

  • Developed high performance distributed algorithms for the solution of hyperbolic conservation laws, with focus on plasma science applications. The algorithms are being used to study moment-equations of the Vlasov-Maxwell equations. The application is written in C++ and is scripted in Python and runs on parallel clusters using the Message Passing Interface (MPI) library. This work was funded by the Air-Force Office of Scientific Research and has resulted in two publications in the Journal of Computational Physics and several conference proceedings.
  • Wrote a compiler for a strongly typed language of the ML family. The language has complete formal semantics, supports automatic type inference, continuations, garbage collection and a module system. The language was designed to study problems in Algorithmic Information theory.
  • Developed an accurate semi-analytical discrete ordinates algorithm to compute light fields in participating media. The code has applications to realistic physics-based computer graphics and biomedical optics. Used the code to study underwater light distributions inside the ocean bounded by a stochastic wave-driven surface. Algorithms are implemented as a C++ class library scripted using the Python programming language.

University of Washington, October 2000 - February 2002

  • Developed inverse algorithms and software implementing the algorithms to determine optical properties of light scattering media. This work has application to ocean water optics and realistic light scattering from surfaces, and has resulted in two publications in Applied Optics. The application was written in C++.

Software development experience

Tata Consulting Services, India, August 1999 - September 2000

  • Ported Windows application to Mac OS-X. Developed device drivers for IEEE-1394 devices.

Skill set

  • Expert in computational physics, finite volume methods and Discontinuous Galerkin finite element methods as applied to numerical solutions of hyperbolic conservation laws.
  • Expert in computational plasma physics.
  • Advanced knowledge of modern programming language theory, formal specification using operational and denotational semantics and automatic type inference.
  • Parallel programming with the Message Passing Interface.
  • Expert in C/C++, Python programming languages. Advanced C++ programming techniques: template meta-programming, generic programming.
  • Expert in OCaml, Scheme and Common Lisp programming languages.
  • Knowledge of advanced web-programming techniques using continuations and functional techniques.

Recent Journal Publications

  • A. Hakim, J. Loverich, U. Shumlak, "A High Resolution Wave Propagation Scheme for ideal Two-Fluid Plasma Equations", Journal of Computational Physics. Available online.
  • J. Loverich, A. Hakim, U. Shumlak, "A Discontinuous Galerkin method for ideal Two-Fluid Plasma Equations", Journal of Computational Physics. To appear
  • A.H. Hakim B.D. Piening and N.J. McCormick. "Near-asymptotic angle dependence of ocean optical radiance", Applied Optics, 43, (2004)
  • A.H. Hakim and N.J. McCormick. "Ocean optics estimation for absorption, backscattering, and phase function parameters", Applied Optics, 42, 931-938 (2003)

Recent Conference Publications

  • A. Hakim, U. Shumlak, "A High Resolution Wave Propagation Scheme for Two-Fluid Plasma equations with Applications to Field Reversed Configurations.", APS Division of Plasma Physics Conference, Denver, Colorado, (October 2005).
  • A. Hakim, U. Shumlak, "A High Resolution Scheme for Two-Fluid Plasma model", IEEE Conference on Plasma Physics, Monterey, California, (June 2005).
  • A. Hakim, U. Shumlak, "A High Resolution Scheme for the Two-Fluid Plasma Equations", American Physical Society Conference on Plasma Physics, Savannah, Georgia, (Nov 2004)
  • A. Hakim, U. Shumlak, "Maxwell Equation Solver for Plasma Simulations Based on Mixed Potential Formulation", 16th AIAA-CFD Conference, Orlando Florida. (2003). AIAA paper number 2003-3829