News
2024
Rob Campbell Proceeds to PhD Candidacy
Congratulations to Rob Campbell on passing the oral Ph.D. qualifying exam and becoming a Ph.D. candidate! Rob presented on the development of models for 3-stage gravitational collapse in colloidal gels. The presentation started from a constitutive model based on poroelasticity, incorporating information about network structure and fluid pressure into our understanding of gel compaction. It then proceeded to show how a phase-diagram-based analysis reveals how gravitational effects are tied to...
Rheoinformatics at SoR in Austin!
We’re at the 95th Annual Society of Rheology Meeting this week in Austin, Texas! Look for a packed schedule of talks from our team on Wednesday: Machine Leaning in the morning (Room 501) 10:10am, Deepak Mangal: (DR2) “Learning tensorial rheological models through neural operators” 10:30, Donya Dabiri: (DR3) “Obtaining rheological constitutive equations for geopolymer systems from scarce data via rheology informed neural networks (RhINNs)” 11:10, Safa representing Milad Saadat: (DR5) ...
Welcome to the group, Maedeh and Saghar!
The group just got bigger and better! We have two new graduate students joining the group this Fall as a part of the PhD program. Welcome, Maedeh and Saghar, to the group!
Successful NG-21 Rocket Launch to the ISS
This weekend our bimodal colloid project, developed with Ali Mohraz at UC Irvine, successfully launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus Spacecraft! Our science is now well on its way to orbit alongside 8200lbs of other research cargo, scheduled to dock at the ISS ~3am ET on Tuesday August 6. Huge thanks to our NASA, ISS National Lab, and Leidos support team Renee Bell, Shawn Stephens, Phillip Irace, Richard Edelmann, and William Therrien for getting us ...
This week Rob Campbell is at the International Space Station Research and Development Conference here in Boston, sharing our progress developing an open source simulation platform for colloidal gel rheology in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO). Colloid research has a long history on the ISS, and Rob has been working with existing data from NASA’s public database of ISS results as well as collaborating with Calvin Zhuang and Ali Mohraz at UC Irvine on the design of new ISS experiments (launching this Sat...
Welcome to the group, Mingyang!
Dr. Mingyang Tan has joined the group as a postdoctoral researcher. He is interested in simulating the dynamics and physical properties of colloidal suspensions and applying machine-learning techniques to accelerate the identification of the relationship between macroscopic physical properties of soft matters and microscopic signatures of particles. Welcome to the group, Mingyang!
Milad Saadat Defends Dissertation!
Congratulations to Milad for successfully defending his dissertation! We are thrilled to announce the successful dissertation defense of Milad Saadat. Milad’s Ph.D. thesis, titled “Data-Driven Frameworks for Rheology,” showcases innovative methodologies that leverage neural network models to revolutionize rheological analysis. His research includes the application of Rheology-Informed Neural Networks (RhINNs) and Multi-Fidelity Neural Networks (MFNNs), as well as the introduction of Universa...
Two Papers in Soft Matter! - Impact of Particle-level Interactions on Colloidal Microstructures
Exciting news! I am delighted to share our two recent publications in Soft Matter, shedding light on the profound impacts of particle-level interactions on colloidal microstructures and dynamics. In our first paper titled “Small variations in particle-level interactions lead to large structural heterogeneities in colloidal gels”, we look into how minor spatial variations in particle-level interactions change the colloidal microstructures across various length scales. The second paper titled ...
2024 Akira Yamamura Research Ph.D. Award
Congratulations to Milad for receiving the 2024 Akira Yamamura Research Ph.D. Award! Milad Saadat’s receipt of the 2024 Akira Yamamura Research Ph.D. Award honors his dedicated work in applying machine learning techniques to the study of complex fluids. His research has contributed valuable insights into fluid dynamics, emphasizing the practical applications of advanced computational models in thermofluid sciences. Milad’s scholarly efforts, reflected in several respected publications and co...
Josh DaRosa Defends Master's Thesis
Congratulations to Josh for successfully defending his Master’s thesis! Josh DaRosa successfully defended his MS thesis, titled “Generation of Colloidal Crystals Under Pressure Driven Flow within Converging Diverging Nozzle Geometry”. Josh’s thesis introduced a novel method for forming colloidal crystals using a low particle volume fraction (10%) with a converging-diverging nozzle geometry. His simulations showed that adjusting nozzle geometry and inlet pressure controlled flow patterns, di...
Congratulations to Paniz on Passing Her Oral Exam and Becoming a PhD Candidate! In her oral examination, Paniz explored the topic of “Emergence of rigidity in colloidal gels,” explaining the physics of gelation. She provided a detailed explanation of the structure of colloidal particles at the gelation point and its effects on the rheological responses of gels, as well as the potential for hierarchical organization within colloidal gels. Paniz’s thorough analysis demonstrated her understandi...
Congratulations to Donya on passing the oral Ph.D. qualifying exam and becoming a Ph.D. candidate! In her exam, Donya delved into the recent data-driven methods proposed for discovering dynamics from scarce and noisy data. Her presentation started with a physics-inspired algorithm capable of finding a symbolic expression that matches data from an unknown algebraic function, proceeded with the well-known method of sparse identification of nonlinear dynamics (SINDY), and ended with the PINN-SR...
New paper - Model Construction from Experiments
We have a new paper out today on unbiased construction of constitutive relations for soft materials from experiments via rheology-informed neural networks. You can read a press release on the paper here. Traditional methods often rely on simplifying assumptions, leading to biases and limitations in precise material-specific characterization. In contrast, the proposed rheology-informed neural network framework learns the hidden rheology of complex fluids from a limited number of experiments, ...
2023
Soohee Bae Defends Master's Thesis
Congratulations to Soohee Bae for successfully defending her Master’s thesis! Soohee Bae successfully defended her MS thesis, titled “A Structural Analysis of Colloidal Gels for Various Short-Range Attractions under Poiseuille Flow.” This project explored the relationship between colloidal gel structure and yielding behavior under pressure-driven flow, considering the effects of different particle volume fractions and different types of inter-particle attraction. Her simulations lay the fou...
Rheology Comics Launches at ICR 2023
Rob Campbell’s Rheology Comics launched it’s first issue this week at the International Congress on Rheology (ICR) in Athens, Greece. The Rheology Comics project is a new project funded by the Society of Rheology’s Rheology Venture Fund. Rob started this project to create a short series of comics that help readers connect with the joys of rheology. The first issue, “Rheology of Cats,” covers the basics of stress and strain to ask if cats are solid or liquid. Each comic is aimed at ages 10+ a...