Fellowship Awardees 2021
Ria D. Corder
Ria Corder will collaborate with co-advisors, Dr. Arezoo Ardekani, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Dr. Kendra Erk, Associate Professor of Materials Engineering, on research in the area of rheology of concentrated particle suspensions. She earned her PhD in Chemical Engineering at North Carolina State University. Ria’s research focus is in applying principles from rheology, fluid dynamics, and polymer science in the design of soft composite materials.
David J. Gunderman
David Gunderman will work with co-advisors Dr. Hector Gomez, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Dr. Craig Goergen, the Leslie A. Geddes Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, in the research of software framework for numerical algorithms for the high-order immersed boundary method in cardiovascular simulation. He received his PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Colorado – Boulder. David’s research expertise lies in computational science, high-performance computing, numerical methods for partial differential equations, and computational geometry.
Fellowship Awardees 2020
Evgeniy Boyko
Evgeniy Boyko is a PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Evgeniy will be working with co-advisors, Dr. Osman Basaran, Burton and Kathryn Gedge Professor of Chemical Engineering, and Dr. Ivan Christov, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, to explore fundamental fluid mechanical problems involving non-Newtonian fluids at the microscale. His research focuses on understanding and modeling microscale flow physics in the field of fluid-structure interaction and its coupling with electrokinetics.
Aishwarya V. Menon
Aishwarya Menon completed her PhD in an interdisciplinary program within the Centre of Nanoscience and Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. Aishwarya will be working with co-advisors, Dr. Julie Liu, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, and Dr. Jonathan Wilker, Professor of Chemistry, to develop a series of adhesives that will connect tissues surrounded by blood, and creating surgical adhesives and sealants for bonding soft, as well as hard, tissues. Her research interests lie in the field of polymer materials with various applications including adhesives, self-healing materials, and stimuli-responsive materials.
Yijing Xie
Yijing Xie will receive her PhD in Automation from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. Yijing will be working with co-advisors, Dr. Shaoshuai Mou, Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and Dr. Shreyas Sundaram, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, to design distributed resilient algorithms for multi-agent systems with various constraints. Her research interest lies in distributed control and optimization of multi-agent systems and event-triggered control of systems with various constraints.
Fellowship Awardees 2019
Daniel L. Gonzales - PhD, Rice University
Dr. Gonzales is working with co-advisors, Dr. Krishna Jayant, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, and Dr. Scott Pluta, Assistant Professor of Biological Science, to develop a flexible nanoelectrode net to investigate sub-cellular integration at the cortical surface. His research focuses on bridging the gap between engineering and neuroscience through the development of brain-machine interfaces.
Melinda A. Lake - PhD, The Ohio State University
Dr. Lake is working with co-advisors, Dr. Jacqueline Linnes, Marta E. Gross Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, and Dr. Steven Wereley, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and collaborator, Dr. Tamara Kinzer-Ursem, Marta E. Gross Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, to design a smartphone-based disease diagnostic platform to assist in the eradication of malaria. Her research interests are in microelectrochemical systems (MEMS), microfluidic devices, and cell mechanics.
Ke Ma - PhD, University of Colorado – Boulder
Dr. Ma is working with co-advisors, Dr. Letian Dou, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, and Dr. Jianguo Mei, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, to use polyelectrolytes to guide perovskite growth and improve their electronic properties for next-generation optoelectronics. Her research interests include inorganic nanomaterials, photocatalysis, and DNA nanotechnology in catalysis and biomedicine.
Marie Maros – PhD, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Dr. Maros is working with co-advisors, Dr. Gesualdo Scutari, Thomas and Jane Schmidt Rising Star Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering, and Dr. Guang Cheng, Professor of Statistics, to develop a theory of the fundamental tradeoffs that govern statistical learning in a large-scale nonconvex networked setting. Her research interests include distributed optimization methods in time varying environments.
Hamid R. Seyf – PhD, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Seyf is working with co-advisors, Dr. Vilas Pol, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, and Dr. Partha Mukherjee, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, to suppress lithium dendrites in Li-S batteries. His research interests include grid-scale energy conversion and storage, atomistic level modeling and simulation of thermal transport in various materials, solid-state energy conversion, and energy storage technologies.
Fellowship Awardees 2018
Chinmay C. Khandekar – PhD, Princeton University
Dr. Khandekar is conducting interdisciplinary work at nanoscale with co-advisors, Dr. Zubin Jacob, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Dr. Adrian Buganza Tepole, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, in the areas of nonlinear thermal radiation, nanoscale heat transport and quantum nanophotonics. His research interests include nanophotonics, nonlinear dynamics, heat transfer and thermal devices.
Jeffrey S. Lowe – PhD, University of Michigan
Dr. Lowe is working with co-advisors, Dr. Jeff Greeley, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, and Dr. Christina Li, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, on research to develop a combined computational/experimental approach to develop structure-property relationships for electrocatalysts. His research is focused on the atomistic modeling of renewable energy technologies.
Caitlin R. Proctor – PhD, Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule (ETH), Zurich, Switzerland
Dr. Proctor’s experience in the area of microbiology, drinking water quality and building plumbing is positively impacting the work of her co-advisors, Dr. John Howarter, Associate Professor of Materials Engineering and Environmental and Ecological Engineering, Dr. Paul Robinson, the SVM Professor Cytomics & Professor of Biomedical Engineering, and Dr. Andrew Whelton, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering and Environmental and Ecological Engineering, and their drinking water and materials research project.
Kimberley A. Stevens – PhD, Brigham Young University
Dr. Stevens works with co-advisors, Dr. Ivan Christov, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Dr. Vitaliy Rayz, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, researching fluid-structure interactions for modeling blood vessels and biomedical devices. Her research is focused in the areas of phase-change heat transfer and superhydrophobic surfaces.
Hai-Tian Zhang – PhD, The Pennsylvania State University
Dr. Zhang is working with co-advisors, Dr. Shriram Ramanathan, Professor of Materials Engineering, and Dr. Kaushik Roy, Edward G. Tiedemann, Jr., Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, to bridge the frontiers of quantum materials and brain-inspired computing and machine intelligence. His research interest lies in the fabrication of energy efficient, brain-like electronic devices using quantum materials.