Research Statement

My research interests are in numerical methods applied to solid and fluid mechanics, thermal hydraulics, reactor safety and uncertainty quantification applications.

I joined the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering at USD in September 2014 after working at Sandia National Laboratories for ten years where I started my research as a code developer for nuclear power plant. My role at Sandia Labs evolved from a technical researcher to a technical manager where I mentored scientists and researchers working on different energy related projects.

Since I joined USD, I have been working on a novel method that incorporates uncertainty quantification into the fluid and heat transfer modeling to accurately captures the temperatures inside spent nuclear fuel assemblies used in nuclear reactor. After fuel is used in a nuclear reactor, the fuel pellets continue to generate heat. The spent fuel assemblies are stored underwater in a spent nuclear fuel pool at the nuclear power plant while heat generation and radioactive decay rates decrease. The spent fuel is then placed in packages for dry storage or transportation. Package designers must accurately predict the temperature of spent fuel to assure it stays below the melting point of the fuel rods containing the fuel. We use the commercial software ANSYS as a tool for modeling the fluid and heat transfer flow inside the fuel assemblies. Our modeling involves intensive computations in order to solve for the fluid flow. We do run our simulations in parallel using the High Performance Computing facility at USD.

The biggest assets to my research are the bright USD engineering students supporting my project and allowing me to make great progress on the research. I inform my students in my heat transfer class about current open research problems. I also assign research projects to junior and senior heat transfer classes to ignite the scientific curiosity in my students and to encourage them to pursue research in this field. I respect every question I get from my students so they are never intimidated from asking me anything. My mentoring methods balance the need of giving students as much help as possible while encouraging their independence. By being enthusiastic about the research I help students appreciate its importance. My goal is to develop students that are independent and talented researchers. I also encourage my students to present and publish the research at the appropriate venues.

In addition to hard work, I believe the recipe for success is collaboration with other experts to complement and enhance current ideas and approaches. I am currently collaborating with professor Roger Ghanem at USC, who is an expert in the field of uncertainty quantification. My students and I meet with our collaborator periodically to discuss our project. I believe the benefits of research collaboration positively impact my students. In addition to USD students, I host graduate students from other universities who are interested in gaining experience in my research field.

Einstein's principle of "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler," is the statement which guides and shapes my philosophy in mentoring my students.