Principle Investigator
![]() | Pania Newell Adjunct Faculty, School of Computing, The University of Utah. Adjunct Faculty, Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Utah. Post-Doc, Engineering Sciences, Sandia National Laboratories, 2011-2012. Ph.D., Civil Engineering, University of Colorado-Boulder, 2011. M.S., Civil Engineering, University of Colorado-Boulder, 2009. M.S., Civil Engineering, University of New Mexico, 2006. B.S., Civil Engineering, Baha'i Institute for Higher Education, 2001. |
Postdoctoral Researcher
![]() | Bozo Vazic is currently a postdoc in the Mechanical Engineering Department. He obtained his masters degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Zagreb, Croatia and his PhD in mechanical engineering from University of Strathclyde, UK. He worked on optimization methodology, software development for design and maintenance of software package for electrostatic modeling and simulation. In his spare time, he enjoys running, hiking and skiing. Project: Higher-order thermo-mechanical homogenization. Sponsor: The Department of Energy-Office of Basic Sciences |
![]() | Xiaoming Zhang is currently a postdoc in the Mechanical Engineering Department. She obtained both her bachelor's and master's degrees in petroleum engineering from the China University of Petroleum, and she obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Wyoming. She worked on history matching to predict the fracture distribution in fractured reservoirs, coupled Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) with the Discrete Element Method (DEM) to simulate fluid-solid flow for different conditions. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, hiking, and exercising. |
Graduate Student
![]() | Yanbo Wang is a 3-yr Ph.D. student in the Mechanical Engineering program. He obtained both master and bachelor degrees in petroleum engineering. He has worked as petroleum engineer for 2 years in CNOOC. In spare time, he enjoys reading, hiking, fishing and spending time with friends and families. Project: Thermo-mechanical characterization of porous media Sponsor: The Oak Ridge National Laboratory |
![]() | Seo Ahn Young is a 2-yr Ph.D. student in the ME program. She received her Bachelors of Science from the University of Utah in Physics with Applied Physics emphasis. She worked at Domo for 1.5 years as a QA Technician and a Technical Support Engineer, and as a professional model. In her free time, she enjoys watching movies, cooking, long boarding, and photography. Project: In-situ nanomechanical characterization of porous media Sponsor: The Department of Energy-Office of Basic Sciences |
![]() | Andrés Felipe Porras Giraldo is 1-yr Ph.D. student in the Mechanical Engineering Program. He obtained his bachelor's degree in Petroleum Engineering from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Universidad Nacional del Sur, Arg. He worked on thermodynamic modeling of phase equilibria involving fluid phases and solid solutions. He worked as a Chemical Treatment Engineer with Ecopetrol S.A. In his spare time, Andrés loves to read about philosophy and practices outdoor sports. |
![]() | Al Muatasim Al Nadabi is currently a master's student in the Mechanical Engineering program. He has a bachelor of science from Penn State University in Petroleum Engineering. He worked in the oil and gas industry with Schlumberger in Texas and New Mexico. In his free time, he goes on adventures, hiking, traveling and cooking food. Project: Chemo-mechanics of cementitious materials Sponsor: The University of Utah-Start up |
![]() | Ryan Nielsen is currently a master's student in the Mechanical Engineering program. He received his bachelor of science from the University of Utah in Mechanical Engineering with an emphasis in Solid Mechanics. He currently works in the aerospace industry as an engineer for Williams International . During his free time, Ryan enjoys traveling, playing music, rock climbing and skateboarding. Project: Thermo-mechanical homogenization in porous materials. Sponsor: Industry |
![]() | Abdullah Arafat is currently a master's student in the Mechanical Engineering program. He obtained his Bachelor's degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Khulna University of Engineering and Technology (KUET). He has experience in Computer-aided design (CAD), Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), and Molecular simulations (e.g: Molecular Dynamics, DFT, etc). In his spare time, he enjoys reading, watching movies, spending time with friends, and 3d modeling. Project: Investigation of thermo-mechanics of nano channels. |
Undergraduate Student
![]() | Joseph Spencer is a senior at Brigham Young University, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. Joe comes from Ammon, Idaho, and loves to exercise and spend time in the great outdoors. In his free time, he also writes computer programs to visualize problems and solve them. |
![]() | Tyler Walker is a second-year undergraduate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He's interested in studying computational solid mechanics and intends to go through the BS/MS program at The University of Utah. In his spare time, he plays the piano, guitar, and enjoys snowboarding. |
![]() | Parker Dunn is a fourth-year undergraduate student majoring in computer science and writing and rhetoric studies. He is interested in data science, machine learning, and natural language processing. In his spare time, Parker likes to hike, play basketball, and go to concerts. |
Group Alumni
PostdocDr. Bikash Dey Former postdoc currently at Microvast (March 2021-December 2021) |
Dr. Truong Vo Former post-doc, currently at the US Army (August 2019-July 2020) |
Dr. Raul Velasco Former post-doct, currently at Intel (Fall 2017-Spring 2018). |
Dr. Bang He Former PhD student, currently at Simulia (Fall 2017-Spring 2020). |
Brett Reeder Former masters student, currently at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (February 2017-May 2020). |
Alex Ring Former undergraduate/Masters from Department of Mechanical Engineering (January 2021-May 2022). |
Aria Burk Former undergraduate from Department of Mechanical Engineering (August 2021- May 2022). |
Dawson Slaughter Former undergraduate from Department of Mechanical Engineering (August 2021-May 2022). |
Emma Kerr Former undergraduate from Department of Applied Mathematics (January 2022-August 2022). |
Edward Stanford Former undergraduate from Department of Computer Science (January 2022-August 2022). |
J-Rey Corcuera Former undergrad student (January 2019-September 2020). |
Michael Blum Former undergrad student (August 2019-June 2020). |
Eva Bol Former undergraduate from Department of Chemistry (Fall 2019). |
Zhoushiyuan Xue Former undergraduate from School of Computing (Fall 2019). |
Aini Liang Former undergraduate from School of Computing (Fall 2019). |
Ebsa Eshete Former undergraduate from Department of Mechanical Engineering (Fall 2018). |
Louis Schuler Former undergraduate intern from Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay, where he is now a masters student (October 2018-July 2019). |
Katherine Vega Former undergraduate from Department of Mechanical Engineering (Spring 2018). |
Heilly Galviz Former undergraduate from Department of Chemical Engineering (Fall 2017). |