Leadership and Members

Matthew has focused his career upon the development of complex simulation frameworks and required interfaces to allow these powerful tools to be used by a wide variety of people. Holding his PhD in Mechanical Engineering (2013) from the University at Buffalo, he is well versed in the mathematics, physics, and software programming methods associated with CFD and FE based formulations. He is experienced in developing models using a wide variety of frameworks and languages including full web stack, modern software methods, and developing new computational methods/tools.

mtmcgurn@buffalo.edu

Kenny is a postdoc in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department under the advisement of Dr. Paul DesJardin. Kenny received his masters in Aerospace Engineering at UB in 2019 and his Bachelors in Physics in 2017.

Research Focus: Extending current Boundary Layer combustion theory to couple in detailed radiation models that can simulate the burning regimes inside a hybrid rocket engine. Application of the developed model as a near-wall LES model which will be validated using small/large - scale experiments.

klbudzin@buffalo.edu

Georgios is a Data Scientist at Tufts University. As part of CHREST, he is primarily focusing on introducing uncertainty quantification to machine learning and building surrogate models for large scale simulations. Georgios earned his PhD from the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue University. He has a Master's degree from Purdue University and an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). His doctoral research included the development of a crowd-based prototype to predict future project failures using machine learning and human analytics, he also investigated whether targeted feedback helps in preventing such failures. He has previously worked with jet engines, rocket propulsion systems, and on an experiment that flew on Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket to space.

Research Focus: AI methodology and fundamentals of rocket propulsion.

Georgios.Georgalis@tufts.edu

Joe is a post doctoral associate in the Research Engineering Laboratory for Advanced Computational Science (RELACS). He graduated with a PhD in Computer Science and Engineering from the University at Buffalo in 2022. In his graduate work, Joe focused on the conservative simulation of kinetic plasmas with particle-in-cell discretizations leveraging a variety of tools to construct a framework within the Portable Extensible Toolkit for Scientific Computing (PETSc). A current research focus is added support for the scalable particle manager within PETSc and conservative transitions between particle and field representations, in addition to conservative particle basis collision operators for plasma simulation, and PETSc support for Lattice QCD experimentation.

Research Focus: Scientific Software, Conservative Plasma Simulation, Particle Methods

josephpu@buffalo.edu

Albert is a 4th year PhD student in the Computer Science and Engineering Department under the advisement of Dr. Matthew Knepley. In his prior education he received a BA from Canisius College in Economics with concentration in Finance and Minors in Applied Mathematics and Classics and received an MD from UB.

Research Focus: High performance and scientific computing, specifically efficient scaling of numerical solutions to partial differential equations.

arcowie@buffalo.edu

Venus is a 4th year PhD student in the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department under the advisement of Dr. Mark Swihart. Venus received a Master’s of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from UB in 2018. She holds a Bachelor’s of Engineering (Hons.) in Electronics majoring in Nanotechnology from Multimedia University. During her undergraduate studies, she worked on electrochemical properties of carbon nanotubes and graphene oxide. After joining UB, Venus began her research in the field of computational fluid dynamics with the main focus on numerical modeling of droplet-based microfluidics.

Research Focus: Detailed chemical kinetic modeling of paraffin-oxygen combustion. Characterization of uncertainty in state-of-the-art soot models with generation of comprehensive reaction mechanisms for paraffin hydrocarbon waxes.

venoosam@buffalo.edu

Mae is a 4th year PhD student and a native of Western New York, currently pursuing her Doctorate in mechanical engineering with a concentration in computational and applied mechanics under advisor Dr. James Chen. Mae earned a Master's of Science degree in aerospace engineering at UB in 2019, and graduated Magna Cum Laude with Bachelor's of Science degrees in mechanical and aerospace engineering from UB in 2017.  During her undergraduate studies, Mae conducted research in bio-inspired fluid mechanics and now focuses on the interfacial instability and droplet formation.

Research Focus: Develop simulations of all thermal, mechanical, and dynamic aspects of the hybrid rocket engine fuel burn. Model small-scale experiments in collaboration with the experimental team.

maesemen@buffalo.edu

Dwyer is a 3rd year PhD student in the CDSE/CSE PhD program with a Master's in Data Science. Dwyer has been programming independently since he was 15. His interests and personal projects have been very broad ranging from computer graphics/OCR, cyber security, networking, and AI. When he entered college he decided to specialize in AI and Data Science, while also deepening his understanding of advanced mathematics. He has since worked as a data science intern at Brown University and on a physics/AI project funded jointly by NASA and MIT as an undergraduate. Now he has graduated with Suma Cum Laude honors for his Master's and has recently wrote another publication which is under review.

dwyerdei@buffalo.edu

Kolos is a 3rd year Master's student in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department.  As an undergraduate junior and senior, Kolos has been one of the leaders for UB’s AIAA student chapter and one of the team leaders for AIAA’s Design Build Fly competition.

Research focus: Develop a particle tracking mechanism to describe the motion of the wax particle after atomization. Develop an instability model for thin liquid layers for different blowing rates and high Reynolds numbers for paraffin wax. Develop atomization experiments for liquid paraffin wax to validate the instability model with field measurements.

kolosret@buffalo.edu

Elektra Ismael is a second year PhD student in the Mechanical and Aerospace Department. She received her BS in Chemistry from UC Santa Barbara and MS in Aerospace Engineering from SUNY Buffalo. She is a Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation (SMART) scholar and will be working on the experimental design and evaluation of liquefying/gelling fuels for hybrid and ramjet motor applications.

Research Focus: Design a high flow slab burner for evaluating fuels, validate simulations using combustion experiments and gathering thermodynamics data for specific materials, design novel gel binders.

elektrak@buffalo.edu

Schooner is a senior undergraduate pursuing a degree in Aerospace Engineering. He is the current propulsion lead for the UBSEDS rocketry team, which competes in the Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition at Spaceport America.

Research Focus: Design, manufacture, and test the intermediate and full scale hybrid rocket. Design and upgrade current hybrid rocket grain manufacturing infrastructure. Design data acquisition software interface.

schooner@buffalo.edu

Richie is a third year undergraduate student in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department. He is pursuing a degree in Aerospace Engineering. He is the President of the UB SEDS rocketry team, which competes in the Intercollegiate Rocketry Engineering Competition at the Spaceport America Cup.

Research Focus: Design and manufacturing of bench scale and full scale hybrid rocket motors for simulation validation. Designing test rigs for motor retention and data collection.

remagnan@buffalo.edu

Alex Post is a junior undergraduate pursuing a degree in Aerospace Engineering. He is the current Dynamics lead for the UBSEDS rocketry team, which competes in the Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition at Spaceport America.

Research Focus: Optimization of hybrid rocket design through combustion analysis. Design of optimization software for integration of trajectory and propulsion system.

alexpost@buffalo.edu