MCE Faculty Research Groups

Professor Andrade's research focuses on developing a fundamental understanding of the multiscale and multiphysical behaviors of porous materials—everything from soils, rocks, and concrete to bone. He also studies the behavior of granular materials like sand, snow, and even grain stored in silos. His research has particular applications to geologic and engineering infrastructure materials, as well as to the petroleum industry.

Professor Asimaki's research combines geotechnical engineering, computational mechanics and structural dynamics to study natural ground surface features and man-made geotechnical systems --such as ridges, valleys, dams, tunnels, building foundations and offshore structures. She is particularly interested in assimilating high fidelity numerical simulations, field and experimental data, to develop engineering design models of infrastructure, resilient to hazards on urban scales and regional scales.

My research aims mainly at understanding better earthquakes, crustal deformation, and geomorphic processes. We use field observations, seismological and geodetic measurements, remote sensing to develop kinematic and dynamic models and inform theory. Currently active projects concern: seismicity and mountain building processes in the Himalaya; the imaging and dynamic analysis of seismic (‘regular earthquakes’) and aseismic (‘slow earthquakes’) fault slip; probabilistic forecasting of ground deformation and seismicity, in particular in the context of subsurface engineering operations (for CO2 storage or geothermal energy production for example; the effect of hydrology on crustal deformation and seismicity; ); dune dynamics on Mars and Earth

Professor Bhattacharya studies the mechanical behavior of solids, and specifically uses theory to guide the development of new materials. Current research concerns three broad areas: (i) Active materials such as shape-memory alloys, ferroelectrics and liquid crystal elastomers, (ii) Heterogeneous materials and designing unprecedented properties by exploiting heterogeneities, (iii) Coarse-grained density functional theory to understand defects in solids.

Guillaume Blanquart focuses on modeling the interactions between combustion processes and turbulent flows. At the center of the work are fundamental problems such as the formation of pollutants, the effects of turbulence on the dynamics of nano-particles, and various hydrodynamic and flame instabilities.

John Brady focuses on fluid mechanics and transport processes, and complex and multiphase fluids.

Professor Burdick focuses on robotics, kinematics, mechanical systems and control. Active research areas include: robotic locomotion, sensor-based motion planning algorithms, multi-fingered robotic manipulation, applied nonlinear control theory, neural prosthetics, and medical applications of robotics.

Professor Colonius studies complex, multiscale flow phenomena and their control using theory, numerical experiments, and simulations. Simulations from his lab have provided key insights into such subject areas as turbulence, instabilities, sources of sound, and shock and bubble dynamics. His research has broad applications—from ultrasound imaging and therapy to mitigating jet noise to generating energy from flow systems.

John Dabiri’s research focuses on unsteady fluid mechanics and flow physics, with particular emphasis on topics relevant to biology, energy, and the environment. Current interests include biological fluid dynamics in the ocean, next-generation wind energy, and the development of new experimental methods.

Professor Daraio focuses on materials science, condensed matter physics, and solid mechanics. Her lab is primarily interested in: 1. Developing a physical understanding of how stress propagates in nonlinear, ordered and disordered solid media at length scales ranging from nanometers to meters. 2. Studing the fundamental connections between structure and function in different physical domains (temperature sensitivity, electrical conductivity, etc.). 3. Exploiting this understanding for the creation of new materials and devices for engineering applications ranging from optomechanics to shock absorption. To achieve these goals, her research takes advantage of nonlinearities in local material interactions (e.g., Hertzian contact interactions between particles or nonlinear interactions between nanostructures) to create novel systems and new materials with unprecedented global properties. These materials are composite systems in which typically basis elements that interact are arranged in well-defined geometries, such that the aggregate system as a whole exhibits properties that are not usually found in natural systems and can be exploited in engineering applications. Our work is primarily experimental, but it is informed by numerical and analytical studies, which serve as a guide in metamaterial construction and validation of their properties.

Ruby Fu studies subsurface fluid mechanics and how they shape our natural and engineered environments. Her work is applied to a wide range of geoscience problems in energy, resources and geohazards. Her current interests include clathrate and ice formation in porous media, hydrology, geologic carbon sequestration, and volcanic/geothermal systems.

Professor Greer focuses on nano-scale phenomena: mechanical properties, in-situ deformation, and nano-fabrication

Professor Hunt focuses on the transport and mechanics of multiphase systems including granular and particulate flows, fluidized beds, porous media, and related energy systems.

Professor Lapusta studies friction and fracture phenomena on both fundamental and practical levels. Her work focuses on analytical and numerical modeling that incorporates and explains experimental findings. She has a special interest in failure of geomaterials in the presence of fluids, physics of earthquakes, and induced seismicity, where frictional faulting and cracking are key ingredients.

Professor Minnich's research focuses on advancing microwave and millimeter-wave technology used in radio astronomy, quantum information science, and other applications. Current topics include investigation of electronic noise and nanofabrication processes for ultralow noise transistor amplifiers and quantum simulation using superconducting qubit quantum computers.

Research in Richard Murray's group is in the application of feedback and control to networked systems, with applications in biology and autonomy. Current projects include novel control system architectures, biomolecular feedback systems and networked control systems

Professor Pellegrino's research focuses on lightweight structures and particularly on problems involving packaging, deployment, shape control and stability.

Professor Ravichandran's research focuses on deformation and failure of materials, dynamic behavior, wave propagation, micro/nano mechanics, composites, active materials, biomaterials and cell mechanics, and experimental mechanics.

Solid mechanics, dynamic mechanical properties, ballistic impact, hypervelocity impact of micrometeorites on spacecraft, dynamic fracture and fragmentation, adiabatic shear banding, mechanics of metallic glasses, mechanics of thin films, mechanics of geological materials, restoration of ancient stone monuments, earthquake fault mechanics, induced seismicity

Joe Shepherd teaches and conducts research on fluid mechanics, solid mechanics, chemistry, thermodynamics, and structural mechanics with applications to explosion dynamics, industrial safety including aviation and nuclear power, high-speed flight and propulsion, fluid-structure interaction, energy conversion technologies, and medical devices.

Professor Tai’s research uses MEMS/NEMS technologies for medical applications. He has built the Caltech MEMS Laboratory (http://mems.caltech.edu), an 8,000-square-foot facility completely dedicated to medical devices. This facility has a clean-room (~3,000 sq. ft), CAD lab, a measurement/test/metrology lab, and a biological lab. It supports more than 20 researchers (graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, visiting scholars and industrial members) to develop innovative MEMS/NEMS and medical devices. Examples of MEMS/NEMS devices include micromotors, microphones, neural chips, micro relays, micro power generators, micro valves, micro pumps, etc. Over the past 15 years, Prof. Tai has launched a major research effort to apply all these technologies to medical devices. Research examples include HPLC-on-a-chip, blood-labs-on-a-chip, and micro drug delivery. More specifically, Tai’s group has had a major program for miniature or micro implants. To this end, Prof. Tai collaborates with many medical doctors and biologist (such as from USC, UCLA, and industries) to develop integrated implants for cortical, retinal and spinal applications. Micro implant devices included spinal neural stimulators, ECG implants, retinal prosthetic devices, intraocular lenses, etc. Tai's group is always looking for students, postdocs and researchers who love technology and enjoy building medical devices.

The Laboratory of Interfacial and Small Scale Transport {LIS2T} in the Department of Applied Physics and Materials Science at the California Institute of Technology specializes in both fundamental analysis and engineering design of micro/nanoscale fluidic systems. Of particular interest are small scale systems dominated by large surface forces due to patterned capillary, van der Waals, Maxwell, thermocapillary and Marangoni fields. Theoretical analysis, numerical simulations (both continuum and molecular scale) and experimentation are all used to develop fundamental physical insight as well as robust design principles for application driven projects. Group focus is on formation, propagation, stability, coupling and control of nonlinear wave phenomena at the micro/nanoscale which induces rapid transport of mass, momentum and heat at moving interfaces. Systems of current theoretical interest include cusp formation in thermally and electrically driven thin films for super anti-reflecting coatings and space micropropulsion devices; nanofluidic phenomena involving Kapitza thermal jumps, layering transitions and thermal rectification in nanoscale devices; spatio-temporal parametric resonance and array formations in thin polymeric films exposed to large thermocapillary and Maxwell patterned fields; Lyapunov, modal and transient growth stability analyses of non-normal systems at zero Reynolds number; capillary and field enhanced propellant management systems for space micropropulsion applications; and solution of inverse problems for 3D lithographic patterning of nanofilms. Systems of current experimental interest include non-contact lithography of 3D micro-optical structures by patterned external fields; Marangoni wave phenomena and fractal wavefronts in biophysical systems; influence of layering transitions on slip behavior in nanoscale films; and optical wave propagation in structured polymeric waveguides.