Computational Biomechanics Group

We have received the NIH Trailblazer Award! We will be working on developing new approaches for improving targeted embolization and drug delivery. This was a two-PI grant and would not have been possible without our collaborator Jingjie Hu. This is our lab’s first NIH grant. More details here (PI: Jingjie Hu & Amir Arzani).

We have received an NSF EAGER grant (one year) from CBET for our proposal “EAGER: Understanding complex wind-driven wildfire propagation patterns with a dynamical systems approach”. We will use our lab’s expertise in modeling convective transport and dynamical systems to study wildfire transport. PI: Amir Arzani, Co-PI: Dr. Rob Stoll (Utah), Dr. Ali Tohidi (SJSU), and Dr. Fatemeh Afghah (Clemson).

Hunor will present his work titled “Enhancing Corrupt Cardiovascular Flow Data With Machine Learning” at the Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering, and Biotransport (SB3C) conference. Dr. Arzani will chair the “Machine Learning in Biofluids” session (June 4-8, Vail, CO). Later this summer, Dr. Arzani will present our latest research on explainable AI (XAI) titled “Towards Interpretable and Generalizable Deep Learning in Mechanics” at the U.S. National Congress on Computational Mechanics (USNCCM) conference (July 23-27, Albuquerque, NM ). Dr. Arzani’s XAI presentation can be viewed below. Also, a longer version of this talk was recently delivered at the DDPS seminar series and can be viewed here.

Dr. Arzani recently presented at the CRUNCH seminar series at Brown University about scientific machine learning modeling of near-wall transport.

Dr. Arzani, Hunor, and Maryam will present their research on scientific machine learning at the APS DFD conference. Dr. Arzani will chair the “Boundary Layers: General I” session and has also been invited to judge the Gallery of Fluid Motion video submissions. Nov 20-22 Indianapolis, IN.

Our previously called cardiovascular biomechanics Lab at Northern Arizona University (NAU) has now moved to the University of Utah (SCI Institute and Mechanical Engineering Department).

Our undergrad researcher Ethan Shoemaker will start an internship at NASA Glenn Research Center this summer where he will continue his research on physics-informed neural networks (PINN). Ethan will then move to UC Irvine for grad school. Also, our PhD student Maryam has been going through multiple internship interviews at Apple and Google.

Dr. Arzani received the NAU College of Engineering, Informatics, and Applied Sciences 2022 Distinguished Mentorship Award (one award for the entire college).

Dr. Arzani has received the highly prestigious NSF CAREER Award. The five-year project (~$508k) is titled “CAREER: Synergistic physics-based and deep learning cardiovascular flow modeling” and is funded by the NSF Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Program. The award will build a foundation for scientific machine learning and fluid dynamics research and will enable lifetime leadership for integrating the related research with education activities.

Dr. Arzani, Maryam, and Mostafa will present their work at APS DFD conference. Dr. Arzani is part of the organizing committee (abstract sorting and in charge of assigning session chairs) and will chair the “Biological Fluid Dynamics: Data-driven Hemodynamics” session. This is a new session at APS that we created for the first time due to the growing interest in using data science and machine learning in blood flow modeling. Nov 21-23 Phoenix, AZ.

We have received a new Collaborative NSF grant (ECCS-Comms Circuits & Sens Sys Program) to support our scientific machine learning research. Specifically, we will be enhancing 4D flow MRI data by data assimilation, deep learning, and image processing. In collaboration with Roshan D’Souza at UW-Milwaukee (NAU PI: Amir Arzani; UWM PI: Roshan D’Souza). Thanks NSF!

Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering, and Biotransport (SB3C):

Sara will present her work titled “Role of coherent structures in airflow mediated infectious disease spread with expiratory particles”, and MohammadReza will present his work titled “Aortic valve dynamics coupled with growth and remodeling due to aging and calcification”. Dr. Arzani will co-chair the “Patient Specific Flow and Physiology II” session.

U.S. National Congress on Computational Mechanics (USNCCM):

Dr. Arzani will present his work titled “Hybrid Physics-based and Data-driven Modeling of Near-wall Blood Flow with Physics-Informed Neural Networks”. The recorded talk could be accessed here:

Dr. Arzani and Milad will present at the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics (DFD) 2020 conference (virtual). Dr. Arzani’s talk on data-driven modeling in blood flow could be viewed here:

We have been awarded an NSF grant from NSF’s Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC). The project is about multiscale modeling of cardiovascular disease growth. Thank you NSF! (PI: Amir Arzani).

Ali defended his MS thesis. He published three first-author journal papers, presented at multiple conferences, and contributed to other projects in our lab. He has got three fellowships (UC Berkeley, Michigan, UIUC). Ali will join University of Michigan to do his PhD in data-driven modeling in fluid mechanics. He also won NAU’s 2020 Grad College Graduate Research Assistant Award ($1000).

Dr. Arzani, graduate students Ali, Milad, and Reza as well as undergraduate students Connor and Chad will present their research at the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics Conference on 11/23/19 (Seattle, WA). Dr. Arzani will be the Chair for the “Biological Fluid Dynamics : Cardiac Flows” session.

Mostafa will present his research on atherosclerosis biomechanics at the upcoming Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) conference on 10/17/2019 (Philadelphia, PA).

We have received a research grant from W. L. Gore & Associates for research collaboration on computer modeling of medical devices.

Mostafa will present his research on coronary artery atherosclerosis (podium talk) at the upcoming US National Congress on Computational Mechanics (USNCCM) conference on 7/28/2019 (Austin, TX). Also, Dr. Arzani is invited by the “Computational Multiphysics Modeling of Cardiovascular Systems” minisymposium organizers to present at the conference.

Ali will present his research (podium talk) related to particle transport in lung airways at the upcoming Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering, and Biotransport Conference (SB3C) Conference on 06/25/19 (Seven Springs, PA). Dr. Arzani will be the Chair for the “Patient-specific flow and physiology” session.