STUDENTS
Doctor of Philosophy
[D1] Maruti Kumar MUDUNURU
Dissertation title: "On enforcing maximum principle and element-wise species balance for advective-diffusive-reactive systems," University of Houston.
Graduation: August 2015
Career after degree: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).
Current job: Staff Scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)
Awards/honors: Best dissertation award at the department level, best dissertation award at the college level, and 2016 Melosh award.
[D2] Mohammad SHABOUEI
Dissertation title: "Viscous fingering and mixing in porous media: Scaling laws, stability analysis, and numerical formulations," University of Houston.
Graduation: August 2016
Career after degree: Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Notre Dame.
Current job: a Senior R&D Engineer at Caterpillar Inc.
[D3] Saeed KARIMI
Dissertation title: "Computational methods for multi-scale temporal problems: Algorithms, theoretical analysis, and applications," University of Houston.
Graduation: December 2016
Career after degree: Lecturer at the University of Houston.
Current job: Senior Software Engineer at MathWorks.
[D4] Justin CHANG
Dissertation title: "Stucture-preserving high-performance computational methods for transport equations with an emphasis on subsurface applications," University of Houston.
Graduation: May 2017
Career after degree: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Computational & Applied Mathematics, Rice University.
Current job: Member of Technical Staff at AMD.
Awards/honors: Best dissertation award at the department level.
[D5] Can XU
Dissertation title: "Modeling material degradation due to moisture and temperature," University of Houston.
Graduation: May 2017
Career after degree: Pursued another Ph.D. in Statistics at the University of Dallas.
Current job: Model Development Officer at Comerica Bank.
[D6] Seyedeh Hanie Seyed JOODAT
Dissertation title: "Theoretical and computational study of flow through porous media with double porosity/permeability," University of Houston.
Co-advisor: Dr. Roberto Ballarini
Graduation: August 2018
Career after degree: Lecturer at the University of Houston.
Current job: Geotechnical Project Engineer, Aviles Engineering Corporation.
[D7] FNU WITARTO
Dissertation title: "Periodic materials for seismic base isolation: Theory and applications to small modular reactors," University of Houston.
Co-advised with Dr. Yi-Lung Mo
Graduation: December 2018
Career after degree: Associate at Matrix Structural Engineers.
Current job: Structural Engineer, Kiewit OGC.
Awards/honors: Best dissertation award at the department level.
[D8] Mohammad Sarraf JOSHAGHANI
Dissertation title: "Multi-scale and interface mechanics for porous media: Mathematical models and computational frameworks," University of Houston.
Graduation: August 2019
Career after degree: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Computational and Applied Mathematics Department, Rice University.
Current job: Senior R&D Engineer, Ansys
Awards/honors: Winner of the best poster in Computational Mechanics, ASCE Engineering Mechanics Institute [News article]; travel award from SIAM; and runner-up best dissertation award at the department level.
[D9] Hsuan-Wen (Sharon) HUANG
Dissertation title: "Periodic Metamaterials-based Barriers for Seismic Isolation: Field studies and computational modeling," University of Houston.
Co-advised with Professor Y.-L. Mo
Graduation: December 2020
Career after degree: Structural Engineer, Consultancy firm
Awards/honors: Best dissertation award at the department level.
[D10] Rajgopal NANNAPANENI
Dissertation title: "Computational Modeling of Wave Propagation in Heterogeneous Microstructures Using Discrete and Continuum Frameworks," University of Houston.
Co-advised with Professor Konrad Krakowiak
Graduation: May 2021
Career after degree: Senior Engineer, Applied Science, Thornton Tomasetti.
[D11] Tejasree PHATAK
Dissertation title: "Optimal material design for transport and multi-criteria problems using topology optimization," University of Houston.
Graduation: December 2021
Career after degree: Lecturer at the University of Houston (UH-DMU Institute).
[D12] Nimish V. JAGTAP
Dissertation title: "Scientific machine learning methods for reactive-transport and thermal-transport problems," University of Houston.
Graduation: August 2022
Career after degree: Senior Specialist at Kalsi Engineering, Inc.
Master of Science (M.S.) with thesis
[M1] Abhineeth AKKASALE, May 2011
Thesis title: "Stability of coupling algorithms," Texas A&M University. [Thesis web-link]
Career after degree: Cummins, Columbus.
[M2] Maruti MUDUNURU, May 2011
Thesis title: "A framework for coupled deformation-diffusion analysis with application to degradation/healing," Texas A&M University. [Thesis web-link]
Career after degree: Continued with Ph.D.
[M3] Priyanka GOTIKA, December 2011
Thesis title: "Non-smooth dynamics using differential-algebraic equations perspective: Modeling and numerical solutions," Texas A&M University. [Thesis web-link]
Career after degree: MathWorks (MATLAB), Boston.
[M4] Justin CHANG, May 2013
Thesis title: "Modification to Darcy model for high pressure and high velocity applications and associated mixed finite element formulations," University of Houston.
Career after degree: Continued with Ph.D.
[M5] Nischal Karthik MAPAKSHI, August 2017
Thesis title: "A scalable variational inequality approach that preserves maximum principles for porous media flow with pressure-dependent viscosity," University of Houston.
Career after degree: Pursued Ph.D. at Virginia Tech
[M6] Dolunay ONIZ, August 2021
Thesis title: "Shapley values and machine learning to characterize metamaterials for seismic applications," University of Houston.
Career after degree: Associate Project Consultant at Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, San Francisco
[M7] Sumnima SINGH, August 2021
Thesis title: "Effects of viscoelasticity and hyperelasticity on attenuation characteristics of periodic foundations," University of Houston.
Career after degree: Bridge Design Engineer at Popli Design Group
Undergraduate Research
[U1] James KAFER, Texas A&M University, February -- August 2011.
[U2] Adolfo ARANZALES, Provost Undergraduate Research Scholarship (PURS), University of Houston, November 2011 -- August 2012.
[U3] Mohammad ALI, Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF), University of Houston, 2014.
[U4] Aisulu SALIYEVA, Provost Undergraduate Research Scholarship (PURS), University of Houston, 2014.
[U5] Tommy TRAN, Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF), University of Houston, 2019.
[U6] Matthew ZAMBRANO, October 2019--August 2020, Provost Undergraduate Research Scholarship, Spring 2020.
Awards to Students
At CAML, students are encouraged to compete for awards and honors. Below is a synopsis of their successes, a testament to their scholarly achievements.
2024, Kripa ADHIKARI: College's Best Teaching Assistant Award. (UH eNews Coverage) (flicker)
2024, Kripa ADHIKARI: Internship at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. (UH eNews Coverage)
2023, Kripa ADHIKARI: UH-Chevron Energy Fellowship. (UH eNews Coverage) (energy-capital-htx coverage)
2023, Kripa ADHIKARI: Travel grant from the US Association for Computational Mechanics (USACM) to attend the US National Congress on Computational Mechanics Conference, Albuquerque. She won the award based on the abstract (and reference letters): "Adjoint-based sensitivity analysis for thermal regulation via fluid flow in thin vascular systems." (UH eNews Coverage)
2022, Kripa ADHIKARI: Scholarship from the Houston chapter of the Structural Engineers Association of Texas (SEAoT).
2021, Hsuan-Wen (Sharon) HUANG: Best Dissertation Award, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. [Co-advised the student with Dr. Yi-Lung Mo.]
2019, Mohammad JOSHAGHANI: Travel award from the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) to attend the SIAM CSE19 Conference in Spokane, Washington, February 25-March 1, 2019.
2018, Mohammad JOSHAGHANI: Winner of Computational Mechanics Student Competition at EMI 2018, Boston. (UH eNews Coverage)
2018, FNU WITARTO: Best Dissertation Award, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. [Co-advised the student with Dr. Yi-Lung Mo.]
2017, Justin CHANG: Best Dissertation Award, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
2016, Maruti MUDUNURU: Melosh Medal, which is given to the best student paper in Computational Mechanics, Duke University.
2015, Maruti MUDUNURU: Best Dissertation Award.
Cullen College of Engineering (College of Engineering News Article.)
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
2015, Justin CHANG: Selected to participate in the Argonne Training Program for Extreme-Scale Computing (ATPESC). The official selection statement reads: “With around 65 participants accepted each year, admission to the ATPESC program is highly competitive. ATPESC is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.” (UH eNews Coverage)
2015, Maruti MUDUNURU: Student travel award from the Haythornthwaite Foundation, ASME IMECE 2015 conference. The award is typically given to 10-15 students.
2015, Justin CHANG: Travel grant from the US Association for Computational Mechanics (USACM) to attend the US National Congress on Computational Mechanics conference.
2015, Saeed KARIMI: Travel grant from the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics to attend the SIAM Conference on Computational Science and Engineering (CSE15) in Salt Lake City. He won the award based on the conference talk abstract, statement of purpose, and reference letter. The title of his talk is, "Monolithic multi-time-step coupling methods for transient systems." (College of Engineering Article) (UH eNews Coverage)
2014-2015, Justin CHANG: U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Graduate Research Award, awarded based on a research proposal. (UH eNews Coverage)
2013, Maruti MUDUNURU: Travel grant from the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics to attend the SIAM Conference on Computational Science and Engineering (CSE13) in Boston. He won the award based on the abstract (and reference letters): "A robust non-negative numerical framework for diffusion-controlled bimolecular-reactive systems." (CEE UH News web-link)
2011, Maruti MUDUNURU: Travel grant from the US Association for Computational Mechanics (USACM) to attend the USNCCM 2011 conference. He won the award based on the abstract: "A mathematical model and computational framework for degradation / healing of materials and structures," M. K. Mudunuru, and K. B. Nakshatrala.