CCB Brown Bag Seminar: "Applications of Finite State Machines & Statecharts in Software Engineering" (Julien Funk) and and "Modeling Tissue Mechanics in 3D" (XinXin Du)

1st presenter:  Julien Funk, Senior Software Engineer, Genomics

Topic:  Applications of Finite State Machines & Statecharts in Software Engineering

A demonstration of statecharts as used in the context of developing the client side user interface for a web application.  We will explore some of the available tools and situations where statecharts are most effective in preventing defects and communicating requirements.

2nd presenter: XinXin Du, PhD, Associate Research Scientist, Biophysical Modeling

Topic: Modeling Tissue Mechanics in 3D

Although epithelia is one of the most often-studied animal tissues, it is still not well-understood. In particular, until fairly recently, epithelia had mostly been modeled as a two dimensional, planar system.  However, recent microscopy technologies have begun to show molecular phenomena and dynamics in the third dimension of the tissue.  With this in mind, we have developed a self-sculpting three-dimensional model of epithelia whose dynamics are driven by active forces on its surface.  The model describes mechanical properties such as viscoelasticity, as well as active forcing, relevant tissue geometry, and fluid surroundings.  Employing such a model, one can make quantitative predictions about cell shapes and cell dynamics in a three dimensional setting.