Personnel

VTPL Alumni

Ma Rui has been a member of the VTPL since August, 2009.  She is a Mary V. Jones Fellow and a Cahill Fellow pursuing her PhD degree by researching the effects of synthesized and measured terrain on ground vehicle reliability predictions through vehicle dynamic, tire dynamic and finite element models focusing on finite element analysis.  She completed her undergraduate studies at the Politecnico di Torino in Italy where she received her Bachelor’s Degree in Automotive Engineering in 2009.

Rebecca Bandy has been a member of the VTPL since August 2010.  She is currently pursuing her Dual Master’s degree with TU-Darmstadt (Germany) by researching terrain mapping and simulation techniques.  She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of South Carolina where she received her Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2010.

Philip Chin has been a member of the VTPL since September 2011.  He is currently pursuing his PhD degree by researching stochastic and deterministic hybrid modeling techniques for terrain surface and profile characterization.  He completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering in 2002 and 2005 at The University of Alabama.

Jacob Lambeth has been a member of the VTPL since January 2012.  He is currently pursuing his MS degree by researching terrain processing, modeling, and code development.  He completed his undergraduate degree at Virginia Tech, where he received his Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2011.

Sukwhan Cho has been a member of the VTPL since September 2011. He is currently pursuing his PhD degree by researching location aware adaptation of vehicle dynamics. He completed his undergraduate degree in Mechanical and System Design Engineering in 2006 at the Hong-Ik University in South Korea and completed his master degree in Mechanical engineering in 2007 at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, after which he worked as a research engineer developing the Advanced Driver Assistant System (ADAS) for Hyundai Motor Company.

Cullen Matthews has been a member of the VTPL since May 2011.  He is currently pursuing his MS degree by researching location aware adaptation of vehicle dynamics.  He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Central Arkansas, where he received his Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry and Mathematics in 2005, after which he worked as a Nuclear Submarine Officer in the United States Navy.

John Celli has been a member of the VTPL since June 2010.  He is currently pursuing his Master’s degree by researching the effects of synthesized and measured terrain on ground vehicles through vehicle dynamics modeling and finite element analysis.  He completed his undergraduate degree at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, where he received his Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2010.

Cameron Rainey has been a member of the VTPL since June 2010.  He is currently pursuing his PhD degree by researching terrain mapping and simulation, and data processing.  He completed his undergraduate studies at Francis Marion University where he received his Bachelor’s Degree in Computational Physics in 2009.

Stephen Chapell has been a member of the VTPL since June 2010.  He is currently pursuing his Master’s Degree by researching terrain mapping, ground vehicle modeling, and simulation.  He completed his undergraduate studies at Virginia Tech where he received his Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2009.

Heather Chemistruck has been a member of the VTPL since July, 2008.  Heather is a Walts Fellow and a Dean’s Diversity Scholar pursuing her PhD degree.  Her research is focused on developing a compact representation of 3D terrain surfaces to aid in studying the effects of this terrain representation on ground vehicle reliability predictions through vehicle dynamic, tire dynamic and finite element models.  She completed her undergraduate studies at Virginia Tech where she received her Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2008.

Sujay Kawale has been a member of the VTPL since August 2009.  He is currently pursuing his Master’s Degree by performing ground vehicle reliability simulations through vehicle dynamics modeling, and prediction of fatigue and durability of suspension components through finite element analysis.  He completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering at K. J. Somaiya College of Engineering, Mumbai, after which he worked in the Vehicle Engineering department at Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. in Nashik, India.

Haeyong Chung has been a member of the VTPL since January, 2009.  Haeyong is pursuing his PhD degree by researching the information and scientific visualization of large, complex data sets. He completed his graduate studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where he received his Master’s Degree in Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering in 2005.

Robert Binns has been a member of the VTPL since January, 2009.  Robert is pursuing his MS degree by researching automated terrain mapping and validation and verification of ground vehicle modeling and simulation.  He completed his undergraduate studies at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo where he received his Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2006.

Zachary Detweiler joined the VTPL in August, 2007.  Zach earned his MS degree in May, 2009 by researching the creation of uniformly spaced terrain topology data, terrain topology visualization, vehicle dynamic modeling, and psychometric studies of ride.  He completed his undergraduate studies at Mansfield University of Pennsylvania where he received his Bachelor’s Degree in Physics in 2007.

Wescott Israel has been a member of the VTPL since August, 2007.  Wescott is pursuing his M.Eng. degree by researching Markov Chain representations of terrain profiles.  He completed his undergraduate studies at Carnegie Mellon University where he received his Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2007.

Hurtford Smith joined the VTPL in August, 2007.  Hurtford earned his MS degree in May, 2009 by researching techniques for correcting and calibrating terrain measurement systems and collapsing 3D terrain mappings to mitigate the effects of small localized disturbances.  He completed his undergraduate studies at North Carolina State University where he received his Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2007.

Shannon Wagner has been a member of the VTPL since August, 2006.  Shannon is pursuing her MS degree by researching methods to use polynomial chaos to describe uncertainties in terrain models and developing new signal processing techniques for terrain topology measurements.  She completed her undergraduate studies at Delaware State University where she received her Bachelor’s Degree in Physics and Mathematics in 2006.

Josh Kern joined the VTPL in August, 2005. Josh earned his MS degree at Virginia Tech in June 2007 by researching measurement and characterization techniques for road profiles. He completed his undergraduate studies at New Mexico Tech where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in 2005.