• Gerald Wang, Carnegie Mellon University
• Amit Acharya, Carnegie Mellon University
• Franziska Weber, Carnegie Mellon University

When two bulk patterns come together at a surface, but this separating surface suddenly terminates, we term the termination frontier as a topological defect. Topological defects feature prominently in a captivating range of phenomena, ranging from patterns in the cosmos, to rupture fronts on fault planes in Earth's crust, to the microscopic structure of metals, to configurations within liquid crystals, and potentially all the way down to the subatomic constituents of matter itself. Owing to their ubiquitous nature, topological defects have attracted significant attention not only from mechanicians, but also from mathematicians, physicists, and chemists (amongst several other flavors of scientists and engineers), with each community using idiosyncratic vocabulary and methodology. Nevertheless, there is a commonality to these many disparate fields of scholarship: Computation plays a critical (and ever-increasing) role in elucidating the multi-scale connections that are necessarily inherent in the (strongly) nonlinear models necessary to describe defect nucleation, interactions, and dynamics. To bring these many communities to the same table, promote exchange of ideas, and take first steps towards unifying these diverse perspectives, we propose a "broad tent", convergence-motivated mini-symposium centered around computational science and engineering of topological defects. We believe that WCCM would be a natural and intellectually enriching venue for this mini-symposium; moreover, we believe that this mini-symposium will be able to attract first-time attendees to WCCM who might not otherwise have the conference on their radar.