Computational Science and Engineering: numerical methods and parallel computing, free and moving boundary problems, control of vibrating structures.

Following his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Civil Engineering from Stanford University in 1963 and 1966, respectively, Professor Bruch joined the College of Engineering at UCSB. He is the author of numerous papers on free and moving boundary problems, the finite element method applied to unsteady, linear, and nonlinear problems, and active and passive control of linear vibrating structures. In addition to serving as a reviewer for numerous journals, he is a member of the editorial boards of Numerical Methods for Partial Differential Equations and Engineering Computations. One of his research areas centers around the use of domain decomposition techniques and heterogeneous modeling which are also being applied in a parallel computing setting to solve free and moving boundary problems. He is also currently conducting research in the area of vibration control of distributed-parameter structures. The mechanisms used include: optimal control, optimal boundary control, pointwise controllers, and piezoelectric actuators and sensors.