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Title:
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Meshfree and Generalized/Extended Finite Element Methods 

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Organizers:
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J. S. Chen
University of California, Los Angeles
jschen@seas.ucla.edu

Ivo Babuska 
The University of Texas at Austin
babuska@ices.utexas.edu

Ted Belytschko
Northwestern University
tedbelytschko@northwestern.edu

Wing Kam Liu
Northwestern University
w-liu@northwestern.edu

Hirohisa Noguchi
Keio University
noguchi@sd.keio.ac.jp 

Sang-Ho Lee 
Yonsei University, Korea 
lee@yonsei.ac.kr
 
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Minisymposium description:
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Meshfree and generalized finite element Methods have undergone substantial development
and have received much attention since mid 1990s. The most significant advantage of
meshfree and generalized finite element methods is the flexibility in customizing
approximation functions for desired accuracy or for capturing essential physics and
features of the particular problems of interest. This symposium aims to promote
collaboration among engineers, mathematicians, computer scientists, and national
laboratory and industrial researchers to address development, mathematical analysis, and
application of meshfree and generalized finite element methods. While contributions in
all aspects of meshfree methods are invited, some of the topics to be featured are

* Mathematical theory of meshfree and generalized finite element methods
* Coupling of meshfree methods, finite element methods, and finite difference methods
* Local (such as moving least-squares, reproducing kernel) approximations vs. nonlocal
  (such as radial basis functions) approximation
* Application of meshfree and generalized/extended finite element methods
* Fast and stable domain integration methods
* Enhanced treatment of boundary conditions
* Temporal stability analysis
* Parallel computation in meshfree methods
* Identification and characterization of problems where meshfree, generalized finite
  element, and related methods have clear advantage over classical approaches