Principal Investigator
Ruda Zhang is an assistant professor in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Houston (UH), where he leads the Uncertainty Quantification (UQ) Lab. He received his B.E. degree in Engineering Structure Analysis from Peking University, Beijing, China, and master's degree in Economics and Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA. Before joining UH in Fall 2022, he was a Phillip Griffiths Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Duke University.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Bach Do will join the Uncertainty Quantification Lab as a Postdoctoral Researcher in June 2023. He received his B.E. degree (honors) in Civil Engineering from Ho Chi Minh University of Technology, Vietnam; his M.E. degree in Structural Engineering from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand; and his Ph.D. degree in Architectural Engineering from Kyoto University, Japan. He has worked in the industry for 2.5 years as a structural engineer and trainer. His research focuses on uncertainty quantification, optimization under uncertainty, data-driven engineering design, inverse problems in solid mechanics, and computational mechanics.
Graduate Students
Taiwo A. Adebiyi is currently a PhD student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Houston. He received his BSc. degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Lagos, Nigeria in 2021, where he graduated with First Class (Honors) and as the Overall Best Student in Service Delivery. He also received his PGCert. in Technology, Entrepreneurship, and Design from the Nigerian University of Technology and Management in 2022, where he graduated with Distinction and clinched the All-round Excellence Award. He became the first Nigerian to clinch the Millennium Oceans Prize in 2020 with two more grant awards for his work on environmental sustainability. His research interests include uncertainty quantification, reduced ordered modelling, resilient systems, and computational fluid dynamics.
Akash Yadav will join the UQ Lab as a Ph.D. student in Fall 2023. He received his B.Tech. degree (First division with distinction) in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India. He is currently in his final year of M.Tech. (research) program in the civil engineering department at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. He has worked in the industry for over two years as a senior Project Engineer. His research focuses on system identification, structural health monitoring, and computational mechanics. Besides research, Akash has many interests, including Hiking, Chess, and Taekwondo. He also holds a black belt in Taekwondo and has represented the Indian state Uttarakhand in the 36th national Taekwondo championship held at Haridwar in December 2017.
Nafeezat Adetoro Ajenifuja will join the UQ Lab as a Ph.D. student in Fall 2023. She received her BSc. degree (Honors) in Civil Engineering at the University of Lagos, Nigeria in 2021. Professionally, she has worked in civil engineering construction and consultancy firms contributing to over 30 projects within 1.5 years. Nafeezat was particularly opportune to work in both the public (Lagos State Ministry of Works) and private sectors as a budding Civil Engineer. Her research interests include intelligent systems, surrogate modeling, and uncertainty quantification; all centered around data-driven engineering and artificial intelligence.