Mentor: Tim Doyle
Complex materials
My research involves the computer modeling and experimental measurement of ultrasonic waves, electromagnetic waves, mechanical fields, and nuclear radiation in complex heterogeneous materials. Applications of this research include:
•Ultrasonic characterization of tissues for medical diagnostics. My current program focuses on the development of computational and experimental ultrasonic methods to detect microscopic breast cancer in tissues during surgery.
•Nondestructive evaluation of aerospace composites.
•Remote sensing of moisture content and microstructure of soils.
•Monitoring of cavitation and crystallization in liquids for advanced food processing applications.
•Modeling the micro-biomechanics of breast cancer, biological tissues, and biocomposites.
•Application of tomography and other imaging methods to upper atmospheric research and the detection of nuclear materials.
Projects associated with this research would be to have students run the computer programs to simulate wave propagation in “virtual” tissues or particle packings for a range of structures, properties, and wave parameters; to analyze the data; and to compare the computer predictions with published and experimental results. Students may also participate in the building of experimental systems and assist in collecting experimental data.
Skills needed: the ability to understand and work with Excel and Mathcad files for evaluating the data. Knowledge of basic wave principles (sophomore-level physics), Matlab, or FORTRAN would also be helpful.
