Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering · South Dakota Mines

Predictive mechanics with controlled approximation.

I study how physical and numerical approximation shape trustworthy prediction: which physics a model must retain, which errors actually change an engineering decision, and where computation is worth spending. I pursue these questions across nonlinear solid mechanics, multiscale and fracture modeling, computational design, and scientific AI, from heterogeneous and active materials to error-controlled neural operators.

32 published works since 2018 $290K PI-led awards 3 graduate researchers

Research CV CEAD Lab

Output

Rendered from raw simulation output and from the group's own teaching material

MatTO hMSM beam: density and magnetic fraction optimized together

hMSM beam: density and magnetic fraction optimized together

Nonlocal fracture Crack deflecting around a void

Crack deflecting around a void

Adhesion A flat foot and a mushroom tip pulled off the same substrate

A flat foot and a mushroom tip pulled off the same substrate

PeriDEM 500 deformable particles under compaction, damage at contacts

500 deformable particles under compaction, damage at contacts

Debonding Stiff inclusions separating from the soft matrix as the load builds

Stiff inclusions separating from the soft matrix as the load builds

Residual correction Reference, neural operator, and corrected, side by side

Reference, neural operator, and corrected, side by side

Angiogenesis A vascular network growing through tissue, 3D tissue coupled to 1D vessels

A vascular network growing through tissue, 3D tissue coupled to 1D vessels

Out of distribution Surrogate error under 1.3% on the prior it trained on, and far off it once the input drifts

Surrogate error under 1.3% on the prior it trained on, and far off it once the input drifts

Mode-I propagation A crack running through a plate pulled from top and bottom

A crack running through a plate pulled from top and bottom

Teaching example First tutorial problem: a nonlinear cantilever beam under bending and twisting

First tutorial problem: a nonlinear cantilever beam under bending and twisting

Attrition Four particle shapes in a rotating drum, colored by contact force

Four particle shapes in a rotating drum, colored by contact force

Interface fracture A crack running along a bonded interface, double-cantilever beam

A crack running along a bonded interface, double-cantilever beam

80% → <7% One residual/tangent correction cut neural-operator minimizer error from as high as ~80% to below 7% across the tested surrogates, in topology optimization. Fracture inside particles PeriDEM resolves deformation and fracture within individual grains alongside particle-to-particle contact, which rigid-particle DEM cannot represent. 21 model combinations Seven effective shear-modulus relations against three strain-energy functions, compared on actuation problems, with experiment selecting the relation carried into joint optimization of density, particle fraction and magnetization. $290K in PI-led awards NSF ERI and SDBOR support particle-resolved mechanics, multifidelity modeling and joint material-structural design.

Three thrusts

All research

Mechanics and design of field-responsive materials

How electric and magnetic fields interact with microstructure, interfaces and geometry, and how those interactions determine actuation, adhesion and degradation in soft composites.

Overview

Fracture and failure in heterogeneous materials

How matrix cracking, interface debonding, particle fracture and contact interactions compete to control strength, toughness, localization and residual load capacity.

Overview

Reliable scientific AI for mechanics, discovery and design

How residuals, error estimates and targeted high-fidelity solves can determine when a reduced or learned model is accurate enough for inference, optimization or design.

Overview

Teaching

All teaching

Machine design five semesters running, solid mechanics, applied finite element analysis, and a graduate finite element course — six courses across three institutions since 2021. Three graduate students and an undergraduate alumna, an open textbook written as the graduate course runs, and twelve notebooks anyone can execute.

6 courses across three institutions

semesters in the classroom

students advised in the group

Open textbook, written as the course runs

Selected work

All 32 published works

The open implementation behind the method: C++, documented, tested, and citable.

PeriDEM — High-fidelity modeling of granular media consisting of deformable complex-shaped particles JOSS · 2025 · sole author

A continuous finite-element representation of peridynamics with an L2 estimate of order Δt + h²/ε², under the paper's regularity assumptions.

Nodal finite element approximation of peridynamics CMAME · 2025 · first & corresponding author

One residual/tangent correction cut optimization-minimizer relative L2 error from as high as 80% to below 7%, in the reported examples.

Residual-based error corrector operator to enhance accuracy and reliability of neural operator surrogates of nonlinear variational boundary-value problems CMAME · 2024 · sole author

Long-range electrical interactions in a discrete nanostructure pass to a continuum limit that is not simply the naive average: the coarse-grained energy keeps a dipole-scale contribution the pointwise limit discards.

Discrete-to-Continuum Limits of Long-Range Electrical Interactions in Nanostructures ARMA · 2023 · first & corresponding author

Diagnoses where a learned PDE surrogate amplifies error, and repairs the prediction using the residual, with no new labeled data required.

Residual-Based Error Correction for Neural Operator Accelerated Infinite-Dimensional Bayesian Inverse Problems JCP · 2023

Goal-oriented estimates of model error, used to aid parameter estimation rather than to certify the model.

Goal-Oriented A-Posteriori Estimation of Model Error as an Aid to Parameter Estimation JCP · 2022 · first & corresponding author

Fracture inside arbitrarily shaped, interacting particles: deformation and breakage resolved together with contact, which rigid-particle DEM cannot represent.

Peridynamics-Based Discrete Element Method (PeriDEM) Model of Granular Systems Involving Breakage of Arbitrarily Shaped Particles JMPS · 2021 · first & corresponding author

Projects underway

All projects

active

Adhesion of field-responsive materials

A pull-off force is one number describing at least four different mechanisms. Separating them is what lets a measurement support a design rule that transfers, instead of one fitted curve.

Field-responsive materials

active

Interface fracture in particle composites

Effective properties for a composite have to come from somewhere. This project derives them from resolved micro-scale fracture simulations, after first settling which description of the interface to trust.

Fracture & failure

active

Failure and fatigue in magnetic soft materials

Magnetic soft composites are designed as if the particle–matrix interface were perfect. This project asks what changes when it is not, and whether that is what sets how long the material keeps working.

Field-responsive materials · Fracture & failure

active NSF ERI