Rachel Sun
Rachel Sun is a PhD candidate whose research is focused on the mechanics of solids and structures as they apply to materials, sustainable technology, and medicine. Specifically, she is exploring acoustic metamaterials and reconfigurable architected materials. Supported by a MathWorks Fellowship, Rachel will continue her promising explorations of the acoustic properties of metamaterials at the microscale, with the goal of designing and analyzing an acoustic braced cubic micro-lattice with band ...
Sami Yamani Douzi Sorkhabi
Sami Yamani Douzi Sorkhabi is a PhD candidate whose research explores the flows of dilute polymer solutions. Specifically, Sami is investigating a commercially important phenomenon called polymer drag reduction (PDR), which is used in oil transport and exploited by marine mammals such as dolphins, who secrete a layer of mucin-rich polymer through their skin. Sami has made field-advancing contributions to the emerging area of turbulent fluid physics called elasto-inertial turbulence and has co ...
Kaymie Shiozawa
Kaymie Shiozawa is a PhD candidate whose research interests focus on the development of diagnostic, assistive, and rehabilitative technologies to support balance for post-stroke patients and other individuals with compromised balance. Specifically, Kaymie is investigating the neural control strategies of balance across patient populations to inform the design of novel rehabilitation devices that provide continuous care in and out of the clinic. Recently, she developed a biomechanically plausi ...
Alan Papalia
Alan Papalia is a PhD candidate whose research in ocean engineering and robotics focuses on novel algorithms for certifiably correct robotic perception, a critical capability for real-world deployment of autonomous systems in performing runtime verification of their models and understanding of the world. Specifically, Alan’s research has developed a certifiable state estimation technique to incorporate range measurements into simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) systems, dubbed cert ...
Amin Heyrani Nobari
Amin Heyrani Nobari is a PhD student whose research explores mechanical design automation and applied machine learning (ML) for mechanical design, with the goal of making major advancements in engineering design and product development. His current work focuses on automating CAD generation using sequential ML models and large language models, introducing ML models for expediting or replacing high-fidelity physics simulations, and designing under constraints using ML. With the support of his t ...
Moses C. Nah
Moses C. Nah is a PhD candidate whose research interests lie at the intersection of robotics engineering and motor neuroscience. Specifically, Moses seeks to understand how humans achieve dexterity far superior to modern robots and apply this understanding to bridge the gap between human and robot performance. Through close consideration of the ways in which humans manipulate infinite-dimensional objects with complex dynamics (e.g., a bullwhip), he is testing the hypothesis that humans achiev ...
Andrea M. Lehn
Andrea M. Lehn is a PhD candidate whose research integrates analytical science, solid mechanics, and environmental chemistry to investigate microplastics (MP), which pose a serious and growing threat to the health of living things and our planet. With the support of a MathWorks Fellowship, Andrea will continue to refine and evaluate her novel physical model for predicting the generation of MP pollution from the fragmentation of plastic debris; this model accounts for environmental conditions, ...
Kyle Jiang
Kyle Jiang is a PhD candidate whose research leverages electrochemistry to develop lithium (Li) metal anodes for applications requiring greater capacity and energy density than currently achievable with Li-ion batteries. Specifically, Kyle is investigating factors limiting the cycling performance of Li metal anodes, which primarily originate from the thermodynamic instability of the solid-electrolyte interphase. In previous work, he successfully isolated molecular structural features of elect ...
Chase M. Hartquist
Chase M. Hartquist is a PhD candidate whose research focuses on developing and understanding soft materials and systems. Specifically, Chase investigates the mechanical and thermal responses of soft materials such as hydrogels and elastomers with controlled network architecture, with the aim of advancing new technologies and applications in this field. He has developed an elastomer that contains a homogenous network architecture and intrinsically toughens to prevent failure through strain-ind ...
Samuel Dutra Gollob
Samuel Dutra Gollob is a PhD student whose research interests focus on the design, modeling, and fabrication of soft robotics. To advance this work, Sam has built a generalized modeling tool for soft actuator design and multi-modal models for use in controls and the design of other soft robotic architectures. With the support of a MathWorks Fellowship, he will extend these approaches to create a modular multi-physics modeling tool to design novel soft robotic pneumatic power sources that addr ...