Fertig Research Group

Ray S. Fertig III, Ph.D., P.E. received BS (2001) and MS (2003) degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wyoming and MS (2005) and PhD (2010) degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from Cornell University. Fertig joined the Mechanical Engineering Department in 2011. He is also a faculty participant in the interdisciplinary Materials Science and Engineering Program.

Kyle Kuhn (PhD), Email: kkuhn3@uwyo.edu

Kyle is from Laramie, Wyoming. He has a B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wyoming and joined the group in Summer 2016. He is actively involved in PRS shooting competitions as well as snowmobile racing. His research is focused on modeling and predicting performance of ballistic armor using realistic projectile geometries and properties.

Sarah Hankins (PhD), Email: shankins@uwyo.edu

Sarah is from Thornton, Colorado. She has a B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wyoming and joined the group in Fall 2018 and earned her M.S. in Summer 2020. Throughout her undergraduate career and into her first year of graduate school, she played Division I golf for the University of Wyoming Women’s golf team. Her research is focused on coupling machine learning with biomimetic pattern generation to develop next-generation composite materials.

William Baumchen (PhD), Email: wbaumche@uwyo.edu

Will is from Canon City, Colorado. He has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wyoming and joined the group in Summer 2022. His research focuses on biomimicry and the optimization of new composite materials, including pattern generation via cellular automata structures.

Dr. Niranjan Patra (Postdoctoral), Email: npatra@uwyo.edu

Dr Niranjan Patra is originally from India. He received his PhD in material science from Italian Institute of Technology, Genova and University of Genova, Italy investigating oxide based nanostructures and its applications. He worked with Prof. W.E (Bill) Lee research group at Imperial College London as postdoctoral fellow where he developed preceramics polymer precursor infiltrate carbon fibers ultra-high temperature ceramics composites. At UW he worked on additive manufacturing of high performance silicon carbide microstructures using preceramic polymers. His research interests include processing of materials (Ceramics, polymer, nanostructures), and their applications in aerospace, energy storage, biomedical as sustainable cost effective future technologies.

Geeta Monpara (PhD), Email: gmonpara@uwyo.edu

Geeta is originally from India. She completed her Bachelors and Masters degrees in Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. She joined the group in Summer 2014 as a PhD student. Her research work is focused on developing methodologies to couple crystal plasticity, irradiation damage, and fracture/cohesive failure modeling in the MOOSE framework. The modeling tools that she is developing will be used to better predict performance of nuclear cladding materials.

Faisal Bhuiyan (PhD), Email: faisalhbhuiyan@gmail.com

Faisal is from Chittagong, Bangladesh. He has a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) and joined the group in Fall 2014. His research involved the development of a physics-based methodology for reliability prediction in composite structures. In addition to static, fatigue and creep damage prediction in composites, Faisal also spent considerable effort studying the effects of microstructure variability on the performance of composites.

Hamid Sanei (PhD), Email: sanei@psu.edu

Hamid is from Mashhad, Iran. He earned his bachelor s and master s degrees at Azad and Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, respectively. He started his Ph.D. at University of Wyoming in Spring 2012 and joined the group in Spring 2014. His research focused on the reliability prediction of fiber reinforced polymers. He has worked to correlate the variability in microstructures to scattering of mechanical properties at the macroscale. To that end, he created a microstructural model with multiscale defects and isolated the effect of individual defects to monitor their influence on composite structural reliability. Modeling the real rather than the ideal, and random instead of deterministic microstructures, enables simulation of random failures similar to those observed experimentally. Hamid is currently an Assistant Professor at Penn State University-Behrend College.

Jennifer Hankins (MS), Email: jhankin5@uwyo.edu

Jennifer is from Thornton, Colorado. She has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering Technology from Metropolitan State University of Denver and joined the group in June 2020. Throughout her undergraduate career, she played Division II golf and was co-captain for the Metropolitain State University of Denver Women’s golf team. Her research is focused on mechanically and thermally optimizing an inner structure for a ceramic turbine vane to accommodate higher turbine entry temperatures.

Shah Rahman (MS), Email: srahman2603@gmail.com

Shah is from Bangladesh. He has a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). He joined the group in spring 2018. His research involved predicting fatigue life of nonlinear plate springs, focusing on the effects of manufacturing and material parameters. Shah is currently product engineer at Siemens Healthineers in New York.

David Leonhardt (MS), Email: dleonha1@uwyo.edu

David is from Thermopolis, Wyoming. He has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wyoming and joined the group in Summer 2015. His research focused on improving the fatigue life of nonlinear plate springs. His work involved parameterized finite element modeling of the plate geometry, coupled with material characterization. Both the material properties and plate geometry have a significant impact on the actuation force and fatigue life. The end result of this research was a software package enabling more robust nonlinear spring design. 

Siavash Sarrafan (MS), Email: ssarrafa@uwyo.edu

Siavash is from Mashhad, Iran. He joined the group in Spring 2013 and graduated in Fall 2015. He has his BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. His research focused on dislocation dynamics in thin films, specifically on developing a computationally efficient 2.5D methodology for studying methods to tailor dislocation microstructures. This will lead to better understanding and control of dislocations thin films, which promises significantly enhanced mechanical, optical, and electrical properties.

Eric Jensen (MS), Email: eric.jensen@allegion.com

Eric is from Douglas, WY and has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wyoming. His research focused on the creep and fatigue behavior of fiber reinforced polymers. He extended a physics-based fatigue model to also predict creep behavior of composite laminates. In conjunction with this effort he developed an optical strain measurement system to monitor strain distributions during testing, particularly for long term creep tests. This will allow for future improvements to the creep/fatigue model and permit robust model validation.

Kedar Malusare (MS), Email: kedar.malusare@stutzkiengineering.com

Kedar is from Mumbai, India. He has a B.E in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Mumbai and joined the Fertig Group in Fall 2012 and graduated in the Spring of 2014. He investigated the relationship between strain energy and volume average constituent stresses. His research focused on developing computer simulations to study the variation of interaction energy for a variety of different fiber configurations, load states, and constituent properties. This will be used to augment the existing failure theories that use volume average quantities to better predict failure.