William Ditto
Adjunct Professor

Phone: (404)894-5216
Room:3306/Biomed
E-Mail: william.ditto@bme.gatech.edu

Research

Nonlinear dynamics is an exciting interdisciplinary field which encompasses all of the physical and natural sciences. The mandate of Professor Ditto's Applied Chaos Laboratory is the better understanding and manipulation of such nonlinear systems. Studies being performed in the Applied Chaos Lab include a wide range of computational and experimental projects both here at Tech and in collaborations with labs throughout North America. One exciting new area of recent interest is the control of chaos -- exploiting the sensitivity of chaotic systems to achieve control. Successes of the lab in this area include the control of: vibrating magnetoelastic ribbons, chaotically beating heart tissue and chaotically spiking brain tissue.

Computational models of neural and cardiac excitable tissue and coupled nonlinear oscillators have been developed to enable us to understand basic temporal and spatiotemporal chaotic behaviors. Such models facilitate the development of novel methods for the detection, understanding and manipulation of chaos in biological and physical systems. Additional computational studies include utilization of noise, disorder, and chaos to enhance arrays of coupled nonlinear oscillators such Josephson Junctions and Duffing Oscillators. Electronic analog circuit experiments of such arrays are being planned to test the efficacy of nonlinear control and synchronization techniques.

The biological experimentation is performed in collaboration with various institutions which include: Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC (brain), Emory University (heart) and the Department of Medicine at the University of Alberta (heart). Computational neuroscience projects initiated in the lab are constantly being updated with the latest physiological inputs from our collaborative experiments in hippocampal brain tissue performed at Children's National Medical Center. Such interdisciplinary interactions provide the basis of new discoveries and research directions for the lab.

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Publications

1. W. L. Ditto and L. M. Pecora, "Mastering Chaos," Scientific American, 269, 78 (1993).
2. S. J. Schiff, K. Jerger, D. H. Duong, T. Chang, M. L. Spano and W. L. Ditto, "Controlling Chaos in the Brain," Nature 370, 615 (1994).
3. A. Garfinkel, M. L. Spano, W. L. Ditto and J. Weiss, "Controlling Cardiac Chaos," Science 257, 1230 (1992).
4. W. L. Ditto, S. N. Rauseo and M. L. Spano, "Experimental Control of Chaos," Phys. Rev. Lett. 65, 3211 (1990).
5. W. L. Ditto, M. L. Spano, H. T. Savage, S. N. Rauseo, J. Heagy and E. Ott, "Experimental Observation of A Strange Nonchaotic Attractor," Phys. Rev. Lett. 65, 533 (1990).
6. Proceedings of the First Experimental Chaos Conference; S. Vohra, M. Spano, M. Shlesinger, L. Pecora and W. Ditto, Eds.; World Scientific: Singapore, 1992.

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