Members

Kun Zhang (PI)

• Assistant Professor, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, UMD

Kun is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Minnesota Duluth. He is a hydrologic researcher interested in explaining urban hydrologic processes and supporting watershed and infrastructure management, and hazard mitigation through physically-based hydrologic modeling, data-driven methods, and hydrologic sensing and automation.

Amit Kumar

Postdoctoral associate, UMD

Amit is a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Minnesota Duluth. He has been awarded the McKnight Postdoctoral Teaching Fellowship for 2024-2026 at UMN Duluth. As a hydro-meteorologist, Amit focuses on the impact of climate and anthropogenic changes on water resources. His research involves integrating remote sensing data, climate models output, and hydrological datasets using physics-based hydrological models and machine learning techniques to provide comprehensive insights into these critical issues.

Zihang Ding

Water Resources Science Ph.D. student, UMD

Hello there! I'm Ding Zihang. Gentle to have, but not compromise, I want to be in quiet, not strong. I love listening to music and watching both movies and anime. I'm also passionate about photography and swimming. Currently, I'm delving into data-driven modeling, with many other potential directions yet to be explored. I'm looking forward to sharing the joys of life with all of you!

Topic: Integrating physically-based and data-driven models in urban hydrology

Imran Md. Azizul Islam

Civil Engineering M.S. Student, UMD

Imran Md Azizul Islam was born and brought up in Barishal, Bangladesh which is a beautiful city surrounded by rivers. He is a civil engineering lecturer at Dhaka International University - (DIU) and currently, he is on a study leave to pursue his master's in Civil Engineering (Water/Environmental Engineering Specialization) at U of M Duluth starting in Fall 2024. His primary research interests include hydrological model-based analysis, stormwater management, and flood studies. His primary hobbies are singing, watching movies, and sitcoms. He also loves programming and building beautiful software and watching soccer and cricket matches of his favorite teams.

Topic: Effect of urban sewers and soil profiles on surface-subsurface hydrology

Vivek Dhakal

Civil Engineering M.S. Student, UMD

Hi, I am Vivek, originally from Nepal. I earned my undergraduate degree from Tribhuvan University, then spent four years working on hydropower projects-mostly doing hydrological analysis, hydraulic design, and river training works. These experiences sparked my interest in hydraulic modeling, hydrology, and climate science. Outside of work and research, I am a big soccer fan and also enjoy playing video games.

Topic: Evaluating the effect of stormwater ponds on sediment removal via computational fluid dynamics modeling