Faculty
Vijay Vedula, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Vijay received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, working under Prof. Rajat Mittal. He gained his postdoctoral research experience at UCSD and Stanford University with Prof. Alison Marsden. Vijay received a Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK), India, and a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Trichy, India. His Master’s thesis was supervised by Prof. Tapan Sengupta. His research interests are in the areas of cardiovascular biomechanics, computational fluid dynamics, fluid-structure interaction, and more recently, multiphysics modeling, inverse analysis, machine learning, uncertainty quantification, etc.
Research Scholars
Kewei Li, Ph.D.
Associate Research Scientist, Dept. of Surgery, CUMC
Google Scholar
Kewei received his Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut with a focus on biomechanics and gained postdoctoral experiences at the University of Connecticut and at the Institute of Biomechanics in Graz University of Technology, Austria, working under Prof. Gerhard Holzapfel. He is currently affiliated with the Department of Surgery at Columbia University Medical Center as an Associate Research Scientist. Co-advised by Prof. Jeffrey Kysar and Dr. David Kalfa (CUMC), Kewei performs fluid-structure interaction modeling in a prosthetic pediatric heart valve device.
Students
Yurui did his B.S. at Tsinghua University in China, and MS at Columbia University, before joining CBRL. Yurui is excited to work on using predictive modeling with uncertainty to assist surgical decision-making in patients with borderline left ventricles, and to perform FSI simulations in patients with ascending aortic aneurysms. In his free time, Yurui likes to spend time with his cat, play poker and tennis, and explore restaurants in NYC.
Hannah Zohal Haider, Ph.D. Student
Hannah grew up in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles and attended UC San Diego for her B.S. in aerospace engineering. She researched the computational methods of reduced order modeling and predictive space weather in her undergraduate career, which introduced her to the world of computations and led her to pursue a PhD. Hannah is excited to perform multiphysics modeling cardiac function in health and disease. In her free time, she enjoys reading fiction novels and spending time with her cat.
Hannah grew up in Madison, WI, and got her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. Her research interests include using both experimental methods and computational modeling for biomechanical applications. Hannah is excited to apply these tools to study aortic root aneurysms. When not working, Hannah enjoys traveling, skiing, and exploring new restaurants.
Hailing from Hangzhou Zheizhang in China, Yeqing received a B.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic in Mechanical Engineering and joined Columbia for a Master’s degree. Yeqing is excited to perform multiscale blood flow modeling in the aorta and coronaries. Yeqing likes playing basketball, watches the NBA, and loves to travel and read books.
Coming from China, Chen pursued her BS in Applied Physics at Columbia before entering our M.S. program in Mechanical Engineering. Chen is excited to research different cellular activation models and implement them to perform electrophysiology simulations. Besides research, she is passionate about music and art and loves taking care of animals.
Prince Mwenda Kagunyi, B.S. Student
Double majoring in Physics and Mechanical Engineering, our undergraduate student, Prince, is excited to work with Hannah Haider in generating synthetic coronary networks in patient-specific biventricular myocardium. Prince’s research interests span biomanufacturing, organ treatments, and energy and sustainability. Prince is from Nairobi, Kenya, and enjoys playing and watching soccer.
Alumni
Cardiovascular Biomechanics Research Lab 