Current Members

David received his B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez in May 2020. By June of the same year, he started his M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering continuing at UPRM. In spring of 2020, David joined High Performance Computing & Visualization Lab Team as an Undergraduate Research Assistant, where he assumed the responsibility of large-scale, direct numerical simulations (DNS) data post-processing and visual representation using Virtual Reality. Since he joined the team, he has worked on continuously optimizing the Virtual Wind Tunnel by improving data manipulation within the visualization process for subjects like: spatially-developing turbulent boundary layers (SDTBL) subject to very strong favorable pressure gradient (FPG), and Large Eddy Simulation (LES) for SDTBLs subject to strong concave-convex surfaces to study flow separation. From 2016 through 2019, David was member of Aero Design RUM-Air Team where besides reaching Team Captain position in his last year, he also achieved collective top-places awards in every yearly international competition. David also had Engineering Internship/Co-op experiences in aerospace industry with Collins Aerospace and Honeywell Aerospace.

Christian received his B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez in 2019. Christian is a PhD Student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. From 2015 through 2017, he performed numerical analysis of experimental data obtained from highly-loaded composite materials. From 2017 through 2018, he performed applied research on the detection of micro-bubbles using artificial intelligence techniques. In 2016, he performed an internship for GE Aviation as part of the EID program. He also conducted applied research as part of the US Government during 2017 as part of a 6-month COOP experience and during the 2019 summer period. He joined the HPCVL in spring of 2019 where his current research includes large-scale, direct numerical simulations (DNS) of supersonic/hypersonic, spatially-developing turbulent boundary layers (SDTBL) at high Reynolds numbers and the development of massively parallel DNS post-processing algorithms tailored for heterogenous, distributed-memory computing environments. As an undergraduate, he received the PR-LSAMP scholarship for his work studying compressibility effects of a supersonic SDTBL via DNS. He is an NSF Bridge to the Doctorate Fellow, and his PhD research is aimed at advanced turbulence modeling in hypersonic flows subject to very strong curvatures via DNS-data-driven methods and physics-informed Machine Learning. He received his Doctoral Candidacy in April 2020.

Miguel received his B.S. in Sciences of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Turabo in 2014 and his M.S. in Science of Mechanical Engineering with Specialization in Renewable Energy at the University of Turabo in 2018. At the University of Turabo Heat Transfer Conduction Energy Laboratory, his research involved the investigation of Experimental Study of the Cooling Capacity in a Solar Thermoelectric Generator. He joined the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus (RUM), in 2018 and is currently researching DNS of Supersonic/Hypersonic Spatially-Developing Turbulent Boundary Layers (STDBL) Subject to Surface Curvature (Concave and Convex Walls).

German is a senior undergraduate honor student in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez campus. From 2015 to 2018 he was involved in compressor cascade boundary layer research. He was an EID Coop intern in GE Aviation at the Early Identification Program during 2016 and 2017. In 2018, he pursued a summer internship at the Goddard Space Flight Center in camera boresight metrology uncertainty reduction for the NASA’s Restore-L space flight project. More recently, German has been awarded the NASA-John Mather Nobel Scholarship and the 2018-2019 NASA PR Space Grant Fellowship. Currently, he is interested in studying the Lagrangian coherent motions emanating from crossflow jets.

Jean is currently a senior undergraduate student pursuing a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. His work in undergraduate research involves visualization of turbulent events in wall-bounded flows via virtual reality. He joined HPCVL in Spring of 2018 and his research interests include scientific visualization and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).

Manuel is a senior undergraduate student in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez campus. He is a member of the honor society Tau Beta Pi and Phi Kappa Phi.  His work in undergraduate research involves high-order statistics of spatially-developing turbulent boundary layers and the development of C++ code for managing/reading an extensive database of Direct Numerical Simulation. He joined HPCVL in the Spring of 2018.

Former Members

Gabriel is a senior undergraduate student in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez campus. In 2015, he contributed to the construction of the ASME (UPRM) wind tunnel. In 2016, Gabriel started researching algorithms for scientific flow visualization under the supervision of Dr. Araya. Most recently, in 2017, Gabriel received the PR-LSAMP scholarship for his research on high-order statistics of spatially-developing turbulent boundary layers. In addition, Gabriel is a member of Idea Platform student base organization and has experience with rapid prototyping tools and entrepreneurship concepts.

Born in Yauco, Puerto Rico. Carlos has always had an interest in mechanical engineering, especially in the fluid dynamics/aerodynamics aspects. It helps that his father was a military pilot so he was constantly surrounded by fantastic flying machines which drove him head long to Mechanical Engineering. Currently, he is pursuing a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at UPRM in the field of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). His graduate research is based on a very fundamental, but still not well understood turbulence problem: the jet in a crossflow. This fluid dynamics problem can be found in several aerospace applications, such us film cooling or fuel combustion. The acquired knowledge on the transport phenomena and coherent structures in crossflow jets will permit a more efficient design of aircraft engines. He is currently a CFD Engineer at General Motors.

Ernie received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in May 2018, from the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. He worked under the supervision of with Prof. Guillermo Araya in turbulent boundary layer of supersonic and hypersonic flows subject to concave and convex surfaces by using a RANS approach. He is currently employed by NAVAIR as a Mechanical Engineer.

Daniel received his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus in 2017. During his undergraduate years researching at the HPCV Laboratory, he created an algorithm to visualize Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) data of boundary layers in the quasi-laminarization process in a fully immersive environment or Virtual Reality. He is currently working for General Motors as a CAE engineer.