Stochastic Mechanics and Multi-Disciplinary Optimization Laboratory (SMO Lab)
Introduction
The Stochastic Mechanics and Multidisciplinary Optimization (SMO) Laboratory at the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics, University of Alabama is focused on developing novel algorithms for uncertainty quantification, optimization, and machine learning. The lab also focuses on implementing the computationally efficient and highly accurate algorithms for improving the safety and reliability of engineering structures.
Our main aerospace research thrusts are aircraft structures and computational aerodynamics. Some of the software that are used for simulation are MSC NASTRAN/PATRAN, ANSYS Mechanical/FLUENT, ABAQUS, SOLIDWORKS, and CATIA.
Our goal is to implement the novel algorithms for the optimal designs and improve the reliability of structures.
Dr. Sameer B. Mulani (Director)
Dr. Sameer B. Mulani is an associate professor at the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics at the University of Alabama. His research interests/expertise are uncertainty quantification, optimization, aircraft structures, random vibrations, and numerical methods.
Education:
- Ph.D., Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2006
- M. Tech., Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India, and University of Stuttgart, Germany, 2000
- B.E., Civil Engineering, Walchand College of Engineering, Sangli, India, 1996
Address:
1103E Bevill Building
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0280
E-mail: sbmulani@eng.ua.edu
Phone: (205) 348-5087
UA College Webpage, Researchgate, Google Scholar, LinkedIn
SMO Lab Personnel
Current Members
Dr. Mishal Thapa (Senior Research Faculty)
Dr. Thapa is a Senior Research Personnel at The Remote Sensing Center, The University of Alabama and is also working with Dr. Mulani on several research topics.
His research interests/expertise includes uncertainty quantification, stochastic optimization, wind energy, composite structures, and machine/deep learning among others. He has years of experience in CAD modeling and simulations using finite element analysis (FEA) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD).
His current research is focused on adaptive sparse polynomial chaos expansion for efficient UQ of high dimensional inputs, global sensitivity analysis of multi-responses, manifold learning, and long-short term memory for forecasting of dynamic responses.
Email: mthapa@crimson.ua.edu
Personal Website, Linkedin, Researchgate, Google Scholar
Dr. Achyut Paudel (Research Associate)
Achyut joined the group in Fall 2018 and graduated in Fall 20222. Prior to joining the group, Achyut did his masters in Naval Engineering at the University of Nantes, France.
His research interests include uncertainty quantification focusing on higher-order perturbation methods, l1-regularization methods, polynomial chaos expansion, and non-linear analysis of composite structures. He also has a good experience working with finite element modeling of composite structures.
Email: apaudel@crimson.ua.edu
Subham Gupta (Ph. D. Candidate)
Subham is a third year Ph.D. student at the SMO lab. He completed his Bachelors from West Bengal University of Technology, India and joined the group in Fall 2019.
His research interests include robust optimization, machine learning, and curvilinear composites. He is currently developing an efficient sampling method for multi-layer feed forward neural network based on the optimality criterion for weights and biases. The goal is to minimize the number of function evaluation required to achieve a high accuracy for neural networks based modeling as surrogates.
Email: sgupta7@crimson.ua.edu
Nadiya Rowshan (Ph. D. Student)
Nadiya is a first year Ph.D. student and joined the SMO lab group in Fall 2022. She completed her Bachelors of Science in Aeronautical Engineering from Military Institute of Science and Technology (MIST), Bangladesh.
Her research interests include uncertainty quantification and composite structures. She is currently working on the sampling methods for efficient uncertainty quantification. In this regard, she is developing an antithetic sampling method based on the tuples of random variables.
Email: nrowshan@crimson.ua.edu
Talal Mehdi Senhaji (Ph. D. Student)
Talal joined the lab in Fall 2023. He comes with a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Mississippi State University and Diploma in Engineering from International University of Rabat. He has experience performing fracture and fatigue crack growth analysis of alloys.
His academic/research interests include fracture mechanics, fatigue analysis, composite structures, uncertainty quantification, and design optimization among others.
Email: tmsenhaji@crimson.ua.edu
Colton Campbell (Ph. D. Candidate)
Colton is a first year distance Ph. D. student at the SMO lab. He completed his Bachelors and Masters from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He is currently doing research on optimization algorithms.
Brennan White (Ph. D. Candidate)
Brennan is a third-year distance Ph. D. student at the SMO lab. He is currently employed by Lockheed-Martins.
Alumni
Dr. Yanbin Li (Visiting Researcher 2014-2015)
Dr. Yanbin Li was a visiting researcher for a year at the lab. During his time at the lab, he performed research on random vibrations using Karhunen-Loeve Expansion. Currently, he is an Associate Professor at Southeast University, China. His research interests include structural dynamics, random vibrations, and acoustics.
Dr. Omar Shokry Ahmed(Ph. D., 2017)
Dr. Ahmed completed his Ph.D. in 2018. Currently, he is working as an Assistant Professor at the University of Cairo. His research interests/expertise includes optimization, aeroelasticity, and composite structures.
Dr. Mishal Thapa (Ph. D., 2019)
Dr. Mishal Thapa completed his Ph.D. in 2019 and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Arizona for a year in 2020. Currently, he is working as a Senior Research Personnel at the Remote Sensing Center at the University of Alabama.
Dr. Achyut Paudel (Ph. D., 2022)
Dr. Achyut Paudel completed his Ph.D. in 2022. Currently, he is working as a Research Associate at the Remote Sensing Center at the University of Alabama.
Matthew Fister (M. S. Thesis Option, 2020)
Matthew completed his Masters in Spring 2021. Currently, he is working as researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
His research interests/expertise includes uncertainty quantification, quadrature methods, and aerodynamics.
Andrew Haefner (M. S. Thesis Option, 2017)
Andrew is working with Cirrus Aircraft. He designed new carbon composite flap for the Cirrus SF50 jet aircraft. The plan was to get approval of upper management to introduce in the manufacturing for new aircrafts.
Adam Horstman (M. S. Non-Thesis Option, 2021)
Adam was working on the design and manufacturing of KOPRI pylon. He is currently employed by L3Harris.
Carson Haack (M. S. Non-Thesis Option, 2017)
Carson carried out research on ‘Gradient-Based Optimization using Hypercomplex Variable Sensitivity.’ He is currently employed by US Navy.
Omar Taha (M. S. Non-Thesis Option, 2022)
Omar was a Master’s student in the lab. He carried out multi-fidelity aerodynamic analysis of aircraft wing using CFD in ANSYS Fluent.
Shawn Alcorn (M. S. Non-Thesis Option, 2023)
Shawn was a Master’s student in the lab. He carried out the buckling analysis of functionally graded stiffened plate.
Abbe Tassin (M. S. Non-Thesis Option, 2023)
Abbe was a Master’s student in the lab. She carried out the progressive failure analysis of the composite panel. She is currently employed by the Lockheed-Martins.
- Valdrie Buford (B. S.)
- Paul Krimmel (B. S.)
- Vincent Hill (B. S.)
- Felipe Gaya Scandiffio (Visiting under-graduate, Brazil)
- Sandra Biswenger (Visiting under-graduate, Germany)