Lab Personnel
Alberto Aliseda
PACCAR Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Alberto Aliseda is the PACCAR Professor in Mechanical
Engineering at the University of Washington, where he has been
in the faculty since 2006. Prior to the UW, he spent 7 years
at the University of California, San Diego, where he obtained
his PhD and did postdoctoral research in Mechanical and Bio
Engineering. He is the recipient of the NSF CAREER award and
the USGS Director's Award.
Originally from Spain, he earned a B.S./M.S. in Aerospace
Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid. His
current interests focus on biomedical flows, with an emphasis
on the role of fluid mechanics on cardiovascular physiology,
in health and disease, as well as on turbulent multiphase flows,
including energy conversion and environmental problems such as
cloud microphysics, liquid atomization and marine renewable
energy. In 2020, he was a Visiting Professor at the Laboratoire des
Ecoulements Geophysiques et Industriels (LEGI) in Grenoble,
France and at the Center for Healthcare and Biomedical Engineering,
Mines Saint-Etienne, France.
Ting Ting (Maria) Yang
Ph.D. Student
Tingting (Maria) Yang joined the lab as a master's student in June 2018 after earning her BS in Aviation Engineering in Xian, China. After engaging in various projects from aviation engines to electrohydrodynamics, she is now pursuing her interests in multiphase and turbulent flow related to cardiovascular dynamics. Most recently, she is working on the project involving numerical simulation of flow patterns in a deforming ventricle.
During her PhD, she will continue to develop numerical methodologies to simulate flow patterns inside a beating heart. Her aim is to use engineering insight to improve existing treatments for patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases.
Gautam Jalori
Ph.D. Student
Gautam started his MS at the UW in September 2023 and joined the lab in March 2024. Before attending UW, he earned his BS in MEchanical Engineering from Shri Govindram Seksaria Institute of Technology and Science, Indore, and worked as a software engineer at Principal Financial Group, focusing on AWS services. After joining the lab as an MS student, he transitioned to the PhD program in March 2025. His research focuses on patient-specific CFD analysis of airway collapse in infants with Robin Sequence using 4DCT-derived geometries, as well as CFD analysis of subglottic stenosis using structure-from-motion (SfM)-derived geometries.
When he is not working, you will probably find him playing chess or planning a hike.
Ama Darkwah
Ph.D. Student
Ama earned her BS from the University of Mines and Technology in Ghana before moving to the United States in 2022 to pursue a MS at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. During her MS, she applied machine learning and data science techniques to predict the behavior and properties of polymers. She joined the lab in 2024. Her research focuses on understanding airflow in diseased tracheas. Her work combines medical imaging and computational fluid dynamics to investigate how changes in airway structure affect airflow and respiratory function in babies.
Ama enjoys reading, baking, and going on long walks.
Julian Reis
Ph.D. Student
Julian joined the lab in 2024. He completed his BS in Mechanical Engineering in 2021 at the Technical University Darmstadt, doing some experimental work on cloud cavitation. In 2024, he completed his MS at Technical University Munich, working on computational fluid mechanics using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH). Currently he's working on inertial particle dynamics in turbulent/non-turbulent interfaces by using Lagrangian Particle Tracking in the wind tunnel of the lab. He's hoping to improve the understanding of the flow dynamics at the interfaces of clouds.
Outside of the lab he's actively involved in the Mechanical Engineering Graduate Association, currently serving his term as president, or training for his next marathon.
Solomia Dzhaman
Ph.D. Student
Solomia earned her BS in Mechanical Engineering at Columbia University, after which she spent time as a simulations engineer at Caterpillar, working on large engine cooling and lubrication systems. She joined the lab in 2024, and now her research focuses on experimental cardiovascular fluid mechanics, examining the ways mechanical circulatory support affects flow inside the left ventricle. In her research, she uses laser imaging techniques such as PLIF and PIV, along with a patient-specific ventricle model in a cardiac flow loop.
In her free time, Solomia enjoys improving her cardiovascular health by running and rowing crew, and impairing it by drinking an occasional craft cocktail.