Computational modeling and experimental investigation of cellular transduction/transfection to develop theoretical basis for ex-vivo cellular reprogramming and design high throughput transduction devices for CAR T cell therapy.

1. Mathematical modeling of viral cellular transduction in porous biomaterial scaffolds1.1. Collaborated with the Molecular Pharmacoengineering lab at NCSU to develop a CFD-DEM model of cell-virus dynamics during fluid flow using Ansys Fluent and custom C++ code.1.2. Formulated a novel effective diffusion hypothesis that produced a theoretical basis for viral cellular transduction based on strong correlation between computational modeling and experimental measurements.1.3. Managed the purchase of computer workstations for the project.2. Developing convolution neural networks to accelerate prediction of turbulent flow in porous media2.1. Developed a convolution neural network model framework using Python and Tensorflow to predict microscale turbulent drag force in porous media with over 95% accuracy and O(106) speed-up over Large Eddy Simulation.2.2. Devised a conservative interpolation method that decreased the error in drag prediction sixfold to less than 5%.3. Characterization of microscale turbulent structures and heat transfer in porous media3.1. Developed Large Eddy Simulation and Direct Numerical Simulation models of microscale turbulence in porous media using ANSYS Fluent and Incompact3d Fortran code.3.2. Analyzed dynamics of turbulent structures and secondary instabilities using Tecplot and demonstrated potential for improvement of heat transfer efficiency by leveraging flow instabilities.3.3. Performed statistical and signal processing analyses on turbulent flow datasets using MATLAB.

MAE 306 – Mechanical Engineering Lab 2

MAE 306 – Mechanical Engineering Lab 2

1. Modeling moisture wicking in textile fabrics1.1 Collaborated with Eastman Innovation Center to develop a VOF two-phase flow computational model of moisture wicking in fabric.1.2 Recommended key parameters for product optimization with a physics-based investigation of wicking performance.