Advanced Mechanics and Materials Group

At the Advanced Materials and Mechanics Group, our research is at the intersection of mechanics and materials science. We study the structure-processing-property correlation in advanced materials like aerospace composites and nanomaterials using experimental mechanics methods and computational approaches like finite element, lattice beam models and molecular dynamics simulations.

Another focus area is the modeling of active particles (pedestrians, bacteria, etc.). We adapt molecular dynamics-based approaches to pedestrian movement and apply them to evaluate movement and contacts among passengers during air travel. This has applications in formulating air travel-related policies for minimizing infection transmission. We are a part of the multi-university Project VIPRA (Viral Infection Propagation Through Air-Travel), which studies infection modeling using pedestrian movement, phylogeography and parallel computing.

Our group is housed in the Composites Laboratory and Structures Laboratory in the Lehman Building and the new MicaPlex, and uses the experimental capabilities of both labs. We also use the computational facilities of our in-house Rigel cluster and external computing clusters like the Stampede supercomputer (#7 in the world) and the National Center for Supercomputing Application’s (NCSA) Blue Waters supercomputer. Composite lab facilities include space for wet lay-up and prepreg assembly, vacuum bagging facilities and an oven for composites curing. The lab also has large work tables for composite lay-up, a wet-saw for cutting specimens from larger panels, materials storage freezers and a down-draft table with air filtering capabilities for specimen sanding.

Dr. Namilae's research has been funded by the NSF, NIH, NASA and DOT, as well as internally by Embry-Riddle. Our work has been featured in media, including The Economist, the NSF media website and more.

News and Updates

• Nov. 2021: Congratulations to Sandeep Chava on successfully defending their Ph.D. thesis.
• Aug. 2021: Dr. Namilae named PI for new NIH-NLM grant. This is the first NIH grant awarded to Embry-Riddle.
• May 2021: Dr. Namilae awarded as Embry-Riddle's College of Engineering Researcher of the Year.
• March 2021: Several new journal papers from the group in Spring 2021! Sandeep in Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing; Samarth in Applied Composite Materials; Sabique in IET Intelligent Transportation Systems; Pierrot in IISc Journal; Audrey in ASME JEMT; and a couple of other papers with collaborators.
• June 2020: Several new journal papers from the group in Fall 2020! Audrey in Nanotechnology, Smart Materials and Structures; Sabique in PLOS One; Nengda in ASME JEMT; Yachna in Composite Communications; and Pierrot in PLOS One.
• June 2020: Received NSF funding for "Nanoscale Design of Interfacial Kinematics in Composite Manufacturing."
• May 2020: Received NSF funding for "Leveraging New Data Sources To Analyze the Risk of COVID-19 in Crowded Locations."
• Feb. 2020: Dr. Namilae co-chairs the NSF-funded workshop "Pedestrian Dynamics and Epidemic Modeling."
• Feb. 2020: New Funding from DOT for "Discrete Models for Epidemic Spread."
• Feb. 2020: New Funding from DOT for "Modeling Secondary Crashes Using Point-Process Methods."
• Dec. 2019: Congratulations to Pierrot Derjany on successfully defending their Ph.D. thesis.
• Dec. 2019: Congratulations to Audrey Gbaguidi on successfully defending their Ph.D. thesis.
• Nov. 2019: Received NSF funding for "Cyberinfrastructure for Pedestrian Dynamics-Based Analysis of Infection Propagation Through Air Travel."
• Dec. 2017: Dr. Namilae appeared on Channel 9 news. Watch here.
• Dec. 2017: Congratulations to Pierrot Derjany on successfully completing their Ph.D. preliminary.
• Aug. 2017: Congratulations to Audrey Gbaguidi on successfully completing their Ph.D. preliminary.
• Aug. 2017: Our work on infection transmission in airplanes is featured in several international newspapers and websites, including Economic Times, the Deccan Chronicle and the Hindustan Times.
• Aug. 2017: Congratulations to Sandeep Chava for joining the team as a new Ph.D. student starting this Fall 2017. Welcome back Sandeep!
• Aug. 2017: Audrey Gbaguidi's first journal paper appeared in ASME JEMT. Congratulations! 
• July 2017: Congratulations to Pierrot Derjany for publishing his first journal paper in Phys Rev E.