Scientific Calendar Event



Starts 17 Nov 2004
Ends 19 Nov 2004
Central European Time
Trieste - Italy
Fractal geometry has become a common tool to describe objects or phenomena in which a scale invariance of some sort exists. The variety of scientific applications is enormous, as such structures exist from physics to astrophysics, from biology to chemistry but also in market fluctuations analysis. However, up to a recent period, fractal concepts were more used to understand than to build. The period is now appropriate to stress the importance of the practical applications of fractal objects and fractal concepts in many fields of direct importance to industry, communications, environment, and to physiology. The meeting will thus be devoted to the main topics where fractal concepts have direct practical applications. After an introduction by Benoit Mandelbrot on "The saga of fractals, from practical questions, to geometry, and back to applications" the following themes will be discussed: 1- Fractals in industry and man-made fractals: Fractal antennae Fractal sound barriers Use of fractal polymeric surfaces Fractal reactor design Fractal studies of heterogeneous catalysis Petroleum research 2- Natural fractal objects: Fractal bronchial trees in mammals Growth of fractal trees in nature Optimal fractal distribution Absolute limitations of tree distributive structures River Networks Fractals and allometry 3- Applications of fractal concepts to the study of complex systems: Image analysis and compression Multifractal signal analysis Scaling topology of the internet and the www Fractal aviation communication network

Organizers

B. Sapoval, A. Vespignani