Principal Investigator
Dr. Luigi Perotti
Dr. Perotti received his Laurea (B.S./M.S.) in Civil Engineering from Politecnico di Milano, Italy and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology. His graduate studies focused on developing new finite element methods for thin shells and on solving high-rate fluid-solid interaction problems. As a postdoctoral scholar at UCLA, he applied the continuum and computational mechanics tools he learned during his Ph.D to understand the electrophysiology and mechanics of the healthy and failing heart and the conformational changes occurring during the maturation of viral capsids. As an Assistant professor at the University of Central Florida in the MAE department, Dr. Perotti continues the study of cardiac kinematics and function by combining computational mechanics and MR Imaging and of thin shell morphing structures inspired by the maturation of viral capsids.
| Favorite things to do: | Kayak Polo and Backcountry Hiking |
| Links: | (Google Scholar) (Linkedin) |
Graduate Students
Mehlil Ahmed
Mehlil completed her B.Sc in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). During her undergraduate studies she was involved in designing Wind and Solar powered Oceangoing vessels for both her undergraduate thesis and 3rd year research project using computer aided design, Rhinoceros 3D, and Fluid Dynamics. The goals of her research are to compute the material properties and material laws describing the passive myocardium material response. A quantitative understanding of the passive myocardium material behavior will provide mechanistic and clinical insights into cardiac diseases, such as Heart Failure with preserved Ejection Fraction (HFpEF), for which diagnostic biomarkers and causes are still elusive.
| Favorite things to do: | Painting, Cooking, Reading books |
| Links: | (Linkedin) |
Mohammad Tanjib Rahman
Tanjib received his B.Sc in Mechanical Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). His background includes stress analysis, computer aided designs, fluid dynamics and finite element analysis. The goal of his research project is to develop a robust method for evaluating myocardial stiffness based on cardiac microstructure and displacement measures. His research involves Heart Failure with preserved Ejection Fraction (HFpEF), cardiac microstructure, and cardiac kinematics.
| Favorite things to do: | Soccer, Reading fictions and Playing video games |
| Links: | (Google Scholar) (Linkedin) |
Shah Wasif Sazzad
Wasif received his B.Sc in Mechanical Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). The goal of his research project is to study packing and unfolding of colloids on deformable membranes to design bio-inspired thin-shell deformable structures.
| Favorite things to do: | Soccer, Competitive Programming |
Undergraduate Students
Daniel Biller
Daniel is a senior Computer Engineering Student at the University of Central Florida. He is also a Burnett Honors Scholar. His current research involves implementing the Kinetic Monte Carlo method to study colloids movement on 2D manifolds, the formation of lattice defects, and how they relate to the morphing of viral capsids. Outside of his research, Daniel works as a UAV Technician at Harris Aerial.
| Favorite things to do: | Surfing, cooking, building drones |
| Links: | (Linkedin) |
Jared Decker
Jared is an undergraduate Mechanical Engineering student at UCF. His current research seeks to model fluid-structure interaction using finite element analysis to investigate the deformation of the structure when fluid loads are applied. Long-term, this line of research could lead to customizing material placement to achieve desired deformations under specified fluid loading conditions.
| Favorite things to do: | Baking, Singing |
| Links: | (Linkedin) |
Kylie Heckman
Kylie is a Sophomore pursuing an undergraduate Mechanical Engineering degree with a Bioengineering minor at the University of Central Florida. Her research involves utilizing TensorFlow in order to apply machine learning to the segmentation of MR Images.
| Favorite things to do: | |
| Links: |
Saar Peles
Saar is a Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Science student at UCF. He is a Burnett Medical Scholar and MEDD Honors premed student aspiring to be a physician. The goal of his research is to evaluate regional measures of left ventricular kinematics. His research includes computing representative values of ventricular strains during atrial systole, characterizing their regional variation, and identifying their statistical significance.
| Favorite things to do: | Sleeping, Reddit |
| Links: | (Linkedin) |
Kestrel Pourchot
Kestrel Pourchot is a Junior studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Central Florida. He is currently working on prototyping an apparatus for generating skid marks, which will serve as training samples for chemical analysis. Kestrel second research project focuses on the design and fabrication of a simple apparatus to study bone cell growth under different mechanical stimuli. He also works as an Optical Glass Intern at OptiGrate, a company which focuses on making laser filters.
| Favorite things to do: | Flying racing drones, building impractical robots, cooking |
| Links: | (Personal Site) (Linkedin) |
Emily Whitt
Emily Whitt is a pre-med freshman majoring in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Central Florida. She is also a Burnett Honors Scholar and a LEAD Scholar. Her research involves segmenting swine cardiac MR Images in order to later develop a machine learning model that will be able to segment cardiac MR Images.
| Favorite things to do: | Traveling, Baking, Volunteering, Watching Movies |
| Links: | (Linkedin) |
Past Group Members
2020
Geela Margo Ramos
| Favorite things to do: | Taekwondo, Traveling, Eating |
| Links: | (Linkedin) |
Munish Persaud
Munish is a pre-Med student currently majoring in Molecular Cell Biology and Minoring in Mathematical Biology. His goal once he graduates is to attend medical school. His role in the lab was studying myocardial microstructure to enable microstructural anchored measures of cardiac kinematics and stiffness.
| Favorite things to do: | Car photography, baking and cooking, binging memes |
| Links: |
Maria Bower
Maria graduated in Environmental Engineering with a minor in Bioengineering. Her research included segmentation of MR images, image registration, and establishing a link between diffusion tensor invariants and the presence of scar tissue. The goal of her research was to construct tensor invariants as biomarkers to detect scar tissue as an alternative to gadolinium-based contrast agents.
| Favorite things to do: | Reading, traveling, music, movies |
| Links: |
Carlos Borras
Carlos is an undergraduate student in Mechanical Engineering. He has previously worked on the fabrication of graphene-based single electron transistors for studying transport of metal nanoparticles. His current field of study is nonlinear solid mechanics, finite element analysis, and the virtual fields method. The goal of his research was to determine arterial material properties and generating finite element models of the aortic artery.
| Favorite things to do: | Reading, Soccer |
| Links: |
Anne Marie Ferron
Anne Marie Ferron is a fourth year undergraduate student at University of Central Florida in Mechanical Engineering. Her research focused on bone remodeling theories and their application to study implants’ failure.
| Favorite things to do: | Watching Netflix and Hulu |
| Links: |
Sarah Villamil
Sarah is an undergraduate Biomedical Sciences student at UCF. Her research project focused on the analysis of cardiac kinematics based on preclinical DENSE MRI data.
| Favorite things to do: | Play soccer, Listen to music and visit the beach |
| Links: |
2019
William Hardy
William received his B.Sc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Central Florida. During his undergraduate studies, he was part of the micro-gravity flight vehicle (MGFV) project who sought to create free-fall induced micro-gravity for research experiments involving particle collision. There he was the head of the simulation team, conducted fluid flow and stress simulation, which influenced airfoil selection and the design of the vehicle. His background includes computational fluid dynamics, stress and strain analysis, part modeling, finite element methods and numerical methods. While in the lab, William participated in the analysis and simulation of electroporation experimental data.
| Favorite things to do: | Driving, Cooking, Violin |
| Links: | (Linkedin) |
University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL
Engineering 1, Room 222