Recent Graduates

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SIU  graduation ceremony

new dimensions

Stephanie Venis 
Degree: B.S. in Mechanical Engineering 5/2017
LinkedIn: Stephanie Venis
http://www.testek.com/?home

Stephanie received her BS degree in Mechanical Engineering and was minoring in Mathematics and Biological Sciences. She was the President of the Illinois Epsilon chapter of Tau Beta Pi, the Vice President of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Treasurer of Engineering Student Council, and was very involved in her sorority, Alpha Gamma Delta. In 2013, she was a recipient of the Chancellor’s Scholarship at SIU. She began working in Dr. Chu’s lab as a freshman through the Research Rookies program doing research in Biomedical Engineering. She was later supported by the undergraduate research assistantship to conduct research in the field of Nondestructive Evaluation and biomedical engineering. She received the college of Engineering Outstanding Senior award early this year. She is now a graduate student with full scholarship to study biomedical engineering at Purdue University.


peter

Runyu Zhang
Degree: B.S. in Mechanical Engineering 5/2017
LinkedIn: Runyu Zhang

My name is Runyu Peter Zhang. I started working in IMEL for Dr. Chu from 2015 to 2017, as an undergraduate research assistant. This experience has been tremendous for me, during which time I start to learn how to conduct research. Also other members from IMEL taught me a lot, especially Dr. Chu. With their help, I was honored to be awarded 2016 ASNT Engineering Undergraduate Scholarship. Right now I am a Ph.D. student at University of California, Riverside. It is with IMEL, Dr. Chu and my knowledgeable labmates’ help, I am able to do the research that I am devoted to. Great thanks to them!


mahshad 200x200

Mahshad Mosayebi
Degree: M.S. in Mechanical Engineering 5/2017
LinkedIn:  Mahshad Mosayebi 

Mahshad Mosayebi completed her Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering at SIU. She did her Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering in Iran and joined IMEL in the summer of 2016. Now she worked under the supervision of Dr. Chu on optical methods of nondestructive evaluation. In her research, she uses different laser speckle pattern techniques to incorporate DIC images. She is currently working for Santec at Torrance, California.


new dimension

Foad Karimian
Degree: M.S. in Mechanical Engineering 5/2017
LinkedIn: Foad Karimian

Foad Karimian has been working as a Graduate Research Assistant with IMEL from 2015 to the present. Foad worked with IMEL while pursuing his Master's degree and performing research for his thesis entitled "Evaluation of Adhesive Joints with Ultrasonic Digital Image Correlation." During this time, he also served as Laboratory Manager of IMEL. He now continues to work towards his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering here at SIU and serves as Laboratory Supervisor.

new dimension

Ryan Spencer
Degree: M.S. in Mechanical Engineering 5/2017
LinkedIn:  Ryan Spencer

Ryan Spencer received his Master’s degree at SIU studying Mechanical Engineering this year. In 2013, Dr. Chu hired Ryan as an Undergraduate Research Assistant at IMEL. Since then, Ryan has conducted research and worked on projects in Nondesctructive Evaluation. These projects include evaluating adhesive bonds and composite components for aerospace applications using multiple methods such as ultrasonics, infrared thermography, and digital image correlation. Ryan’s research focuses on using an ultrasonic technique to evaluate porosity within carbon composite components.

Outside of his research with IMEL, Ryan was active with the SIU Moonbuggy design team, a student organization that competes in the annual NASA Rover Challenge. In 2013, Ryan was the President of the SIU Moonbuggy Design Team. As President, Ryan worked directly with Dr. Chu, the team's faculty advisor, and led the team to a successful 2nd and 3rd place finish. Ryan also serveed as the President of the SIU NDE student organization, which aims to increase interest and understanding of NDE in the community. Ryan is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree at University of Tennessee in Knoxville and conducting research at Oakridge National Laboratory.


Sam

Samuel Oltman
Degree: B.S. in Mechanical Engineering 5/2016
LinkedIn: Samuel Oltman

Samuel Oltman worked as an Undergraduate Research Assistant with IMEL from 2012-2014. As freshman he was funded by the Research Rookies Program, and then was funded by the Saluki Scholars Research Opportunity the following year. During his time he worked on projects such as Non-Destructive Evaluation of Aerospace Composites, and presented a poster on this topic. Since leaving IMEL, Sam has enrolled as a Master’s student at Florida Institute of Technology studying Mechanical Engineering. 


Kelby

Kelby Rogers
Degree: B.S. in Mechanical Engineering 5/2016
LinkedIn: Kelby Rogers

Kelby Rogers worked as an Undergraduate Research Assistant with IMEL from Spring 2015 until she graduated in May of 2016. She was funded through Research-Enriched Academic Challenge ( REACH) at SIU. Through this program, she was able to research the Optimal Speckle Pattern for Adhesive Joints Using Ultrasonic Digital Image Correlation and present a poster on this topic. Kelby is now working at Naval Sea Systems Command ( NAVSEA) in Indiana. 


Kathleen

Kathleen Wendell
Degree: B.S. in Mechanical Engineering 5/2016
LinkedIn:  Kathleen Wendell

Kathleen Wendell was an Undergraduate Research Assistant hired by Dr. Chu in August 2015, and she worked with IMEL until she graduated in May 2016. While here, she worked in collaboration with Anish Poudel to research a possible project with Transportation Technology Center, Inc. on Rail Neutral Temperature (RNT) Measurement.  


Caleb

Caleb McGee
Degree: M.S. in Mechanical Engineering 8/2015
LinkedIn:  Caleb McGee

Caleb McGee worked with IMEL from Spring 2010 until Fall 2015.  He began work with IMEL as a freshman pursuing his Bachelor’s degree after serving as the President of SIU's Moonbuggy team (which Dr. Chu advises) and continued onto his Master’s. In fulfillment of this degree, Caleb submitted a thesis entitled “Numerical Evaluation of Adhesive Joints in Composite Structures using FEA.” Beyond this, Caleb researched Impact Damage Detection in CFRP Laminates with Ultrasonic NDE and NDE of Aged CFRP Panels using Infrared Thermography. Caleb also did some research in biomedical engineering with his work on a dual core biopsy needle. Caleb is now working with Navel Sea Command ( NAVSEA) in Indiana. 


Anish

Anish Poudel 
Degree: Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering 5/2015
LinkedIn: Anish Poudel 

Anish Poudel worked with IMEL as Lab Supervisor from August 2009 until July 2015 after graduating with his Ph. D. His dissertation associated with this degree was entitled “Bond Strength Evaluation in Composite Adhesive Joints Using Acoustography and Digital Image Correlation Methods.” His time with IMEL was nowhere near limited to this research. His additional projects include:

  • Several projects that were aimed at developing effective non-destructive evaluation (NDE) techniques for commercial Carbon/Carbon composite aircraft brake disks by using air-coupled ultrasonic and infrared thermography methods
  • Prediction of bond strength in composite joints by using hybrid NDE and Digital Image Correlation (DIC) methods (ongoing effort with the Boeing Company)
  • Non-destructive characterization of kissing bonds in adhesive joints (NAVY STTR project in which there was collaboration with Dr. Jaswinder Singh Sandhu, President, Santec Systems, Inc.)
  • NDE of composite repairs (Collaboration with Keven Mitchell, Prof. Aviation Technologies, SIUC and Sandia National Laboratories)
  • Intelligent NDE expert system for carbon based composites used for aircraft and aerospace applications (Funded by Boeing Company)
  • Automated circular air-coupled ultrasonic approach for Carbon/Carbon aircraft brake applications

Since leaving SIU, Anish has begun working with Transportation Technology Center, Inc. in Colorado as a Principle Investigator.  Anish contributed a great deal to our lab in terms of organization, collaboration with outside sources, and publications. 


Shashi

Shashi Shrestha
Degree: M.S. in Mechanical Engineering 5/2015
LinkedIn: Shashi Shrestha

Shashi Shrestha worked with IMEL from Summer 2014 until Spring 2015 when he graduated with his Master’s degree. His thesis for this degree was entitled “Evaluation of Composite Adhesive Bonds Using Digital Image Correlation.” While here, he also worked on comparison and analysis of acoustography with other NDE techniques for foreign object inclusion detection in graphite epoxy composites. Shashi now works as a project engineer at Testek, and has been able to implement much of the technical and theoretical knowledge that he obtained in his time at SIU. He attributes part of his success in the field of aerospace engineering to his time with IMEL, and has shared that he finds himself "very lucky to be a part of IMEL and SIUC."


Shant

Shant Alexanian
Degree: B.S. in Mechanical Engineering 5/2015
LinkedIn: Shant Alexanian

Shant Alexanian worked with IMEL as an Undergraduate Research Assistant hired by Dr. Chu in August 2014 until he graduated in May 2015. While working here, he researched NDE of Adhesively Bonded CFRP-Aluminum Lap Joints using Acoustography and presented a poster on this topic. Shant now works as a Project Engineer at ITW-Deltar Fuel Systems while pursuing his Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern University


Former Students
Name of the Student Degree Received Title of Thesis Current Affiliation
Samueeddin Samueeddin M.S. 05/2014 Automated Ultrasonic Signal Classification of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic Laminates  
Olanrewaju Adeniyi M.S. 8/2012 Fusion of Ultrasonic C-scan Data with Finite Element Analysis Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.
Anish Poudel M.S. 5/2011 An Intelligent Systems Approach for Detecting Defects in Aircraft Composites by using Air-coupled Ultrasonic Testing Transportation Technology Center, Inc.
Matthew Lane B.S. 2011   Hamilton Sundstrand
Bradley Bainbridge M.S. 8/2010 Optimization of Transient Thermography Inspection of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics Caterpillar Inc.
Kohki Ishii M.S. 8/2010 Design and Stress Analysis of Dynamic Spinal Stabilizers Atlanta Kubota
Yi-Cheng Pan Ph.D. 5/2010 Intelligent Non-Destructive Evaluation Expert System for Carbon/Carbon Composites Using Thermography, Ultrasonics, and Computed Tomography Emerson
Ondrej Stonowski M.S. 12/2008 Non-Destructive Evaluation of Carbon/Carbon Brakes Using Air-Coupled Ultrasonic Inspection Systems  
Gautham Ganesh M.S. 12/2008 Analysis and Optimization of a Spinal Implant Connector Design  
Richard Miller M.S. 12/2008 NDE Methods for Carbon-Carbon Composite Disk Brakes The Boeing Company
Ying Zhang Ph.D. 12/2007 Whole Field Thermal Diffusivity Measurement for C/C Brake Pads  
Doohun Kim M.S. 12/2006 Multi-Scale Analysis of a Refractory 3-D Braided Composite  
Scott Nance M.S. 12/2006 Fiber Orientation Determination in Carbon-Carbon Composites using Laser Point Source Heating Sandia National Laboratories
Sailesh Pradhan M.S. 8/2006 Strain Measurements on Thin Film Materials and Nano-structures in N/MEMS  
Sujatha Adapa M.S. 5/2006 Determine Local Strain Distribution of Friction Stir Weld by Digital Image Correlation  
Xinnan Wang M.S. 8/2003 FEA of Silicon Micro-machined Vibratory Gyroscopes  
Ying Zhang M.S. 5/2002 Analysis of Short Crack Growth in Particulate Composites  
Anthony DiGregorio M.S. 8/2001 Transient Thermal Analysis of Carbon Composite Laminates  
Rohit Ramkumar M.S. 10/2000 Finite Element Analysis of Allograft Fixation of Bones  
Junduo Zhao M.S. 12/1999 Effect of Thermal Diffusivity on the Detectability of TNDE  
Mikael Nystrom M.S. 12/1999 Experimental Investigation and Finite Element Analysis of Contact Stresses on Curved Surfaces  
Jarret Terry M.S. 8/1998 A Finite Element Based Analysis of Surfaces in Contact: A Preliminary Study of Contact Stresses among Scroll Compressor Components  
Hui-Der Lin M.S. 5/1996 Strength Recovery of Impact Damaged Thermoplastic Composites through a Reconsolidation Process  
Yu-Feng Wu M.S. 5/1996 Geometry Generation for Computer-Aided Dedicated Fixture Design  
Bruce Rodely M.S. 10/1995 Rule-Based On-Line Image Analysis of Pyrite Liberation in Coal  
Yee Hoe Lee M.S. 12/1994 Bending and Torsional Tests for Allograft Fixation of Bones  
Rajesh Parasarathy M.S. 5/1994 Displacement and Deformation Measurement using Digital Image Correlation Techniques  
Ching Ying Yeap M.S. 2/1994 Damage Assessment of Structure by Imaging Method  
Anthony Allison M.S. 10/1993 FEM Preprocessor for Impact Damage to Composite Laminates  
Sethuraj Palaniappan M.S. 7/1992 Group Technology Based Computer-Aided Design for Modular Fixture Assembly   
Jasanka Ramalingam M.S. 8/1992 Assessment of Fire Damage on Composites Using Imaging Techniques  
Vijay Sankaran M.S. 8/1992 Machine Vision Applications for Geometric Model Generation  
Zella Kahn-Jetter Ph.D. 8/1987 Stereoscopic Principles using Digital Image Correlation for Three-Dimensional Displacements