Day: June 11, 2020

Doctoral Finishing Fellowship Summer 2020 Recipient- Haitao Cao

Haitao Cao

I am a Ph.D. candidate studying Geophysics and Seismology in the Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences. I started working under the supervision of Dr. Wayne Pennington and Dr. Askari for my master program in Fall 2014. My master project focused on numerical simulation on the ambient noise seismic interferometry with an application to CO2 sequestration monitoring. After finishing MS in summer 2016, Dr. Askari offered me an opportunity to continue my PhD program. In my PhD project, we developed optical and acoustic experimental apparatuses to visualize and analyze the behavior of a special seismic waves called crack waves that propagate in hydraulic fractures. Our laboratory experiment on the crack waves helps to better understand the physical properties of fluid-filled reservoirs undersurface.

I cannot express my gratitude and appreciation to the graduate school for awarding me the Finishing fellowship. It will give me peace of mind to finish my dissertation more effectively and publish more papers out of my research in the summer.

Doctoral Finishing Fellowship Summer 2020 Recipient- Shahab Bayani Ahangar

I have joined Dr. Choi’s research group in Fall 2015 to pursue my PhD studies in Mechanical engineering. In my Ph.D. studies, I have worked on the development of an automated surface plasmon resonance imaging system to visualize dropwise condensation. Our developed microscope can measure the evolution of water film with the thickness as low as 1 Å at 10,000 frames per second. We have shown experimentally the existent of a monolayer thin film between distinct droplets during dropwise condensation for the first time. Our next step would be to understand the effect of this thin film in droplets (nuclei) growth and heat transfer from the surface. I would like to thank the Graduate School for financial support during the last stage of my research.

Doctoral Finishing Fellowship Summer 2020 Recipient- Eassa Hedayati

I am a fourth-year Ph.D. Candidate in Computational Science and Engineering living in the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department.  The multidisciplinary nature of my field of study is imposing a special kind of variation in my research area. However, I tried to keep my research around finding sparsities light-field (LF). In doing so, I have been involved simulating LF and compressing it. In pursuing my research, I have used machine learning techniques to further enhance the quality of my research. My research heavily involves computation and use of algorithms, therefore, I had to devote some parts of my time to obtain a Masters in Computer Science.

I am extremely grateful to the Graduate Dean Awards Advisory Panel and dean for recommending me for the Finishing Fellowship for the summer 2020 semester. Furthermore, I am obliged to the Graduate School for providing this generous support. I will make use of the extra time in summer to finish writing my dissertation and add to my publication records. I am looking forward to defending my dissertation in the summer of 2020. I am also grateful to Dr. Jeremy P. Bos for his guidance throughout my Ph.D. studies and to the ECE Department for supporting my academic efforts since I joined the Department in 2017.