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Welcome!

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR).  

I have about two decades of progressive and diversified academic and industry experience in Structural and Mechanical Engineering research and practice. Before joining UNR, I worked as a senior engineer in Industry and as a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech. My Ph.D. is in Structural Engineering from UC San Diego. Prior to that, I worked as an engineering consultant, an academic lecturer, and an entrepreneur.

My research primarily revolves around the following board subjects:

  • Wildfire Engineering: our focus is on computational modeling, data analytics, and integrating models with data toward developing technology solutions for disaster management.

  • Integration of physics-based models with data through Bayesian inference methods for data assimilation, uncertainty quantification, and digital twinning. Applications include data-informed monitoring, diagnosis, and prognosis of civil structures and offshore wind turbine systems. 

  • Experimental and computational structural mechanics, including large-scale testing and structural behavior studies, as well as finite element simulation and model updating.   

As an academic researcher, I enjoy questioning, investigating, thinking, and exploring. The broad reach of my research interests stems from my passion to pursue new learning opportunities. As a teacher, I strive to convey my passion, knowledge, and technical experience to students in an engaging and stimulating manner. I believe research and teaching should not be confined to purely scholastic materials, but rather, it should bridge the gap between theory and practice.

My academic future lies in the marriage of the realm of the scholastic research with the real-life world of engineering. Moving forward, I expect my academic research and interests to be increasingly geared toward addressing real-world problems using creative technology solutions to improve the quality of our lives and better safeguard our assets. 

FAVORITE QUOTE

 

We are the children chasing wondrous thrills
Chasing a vision, baby, like we're running downhill

 

― "Alive" Song by NEEDTOBREATHE

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