Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) finite element methods are becoming important techniques for the computational solution of many real-world problems describe by differential equations. They combine many attractive features of the finite element and the finite volume methods. These methods have been successfully applied to many important PDEs arising from a wide range of applications. DG methods are highly accurate numerical methods and have considerable advantages over the classical numerical methods available in the literature. DG methods can easily handle meshes with hanging nodes, elements of various types and shapes, and local spaces of different orders. Furthermore, DG methods provide accurate and efficient simulation of physical and engineering problems, especially in settings where the solutions exhibit poor regularity. For these reasons, they have attracted the attention of many researchers working in diverse areas, from computational fluid dynamics, solid mechanics and optimal control, to finance, biology and geology. In this talk, we give an overview of the main features of DG methods and their extensions. We first introduce the DG method for solving classical differential equations. Then, we extend the methods to other equations such as Navier-Stokes equations. The Navier-Stokes equations are useful because they describe the physics of many phenomena of scientific and engineering interest. They may be used to model the weather, ocean currents, water flow in a pipe and air flow around a wing
