Dr. Siddhartha Verma
Friday, Oct 23, 2020
Dr. Siddhartha Verma is an assistant professor at FAU Sea Tech’s Ocean and Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering and Computer Science. This past April, research by Dr. Verma and Department Chair Dr. Manhar R. Dhanak, and Senior Engineer John Frankenfield examining how quickly airborne cough droplets travel made local and national news, including NBC's The Today Show. The public, at the time, were learning how to better protect themselves against COVID-19.
"Every time we cough, sneeze, talk, or even just breathe, we expel respiratory droplets ranging in size from a few microns to several hundred microns," Dr. Verma said. "We have been able to visually depict how the small aerosolized droplets behave when released into the environment. This will hopefully help convey the rationale behind recommendations against large gatherings, and the urgent need for using masks."
Dr. Verma's primary research interests are in machine learning in fluid mechanics, turbulence modelling and large eddy simulation, fluid mechanic of collective behavior, and numerical methods and high performance computing.
"I currently teach Ocean Wave Mechanics, and next term I'll be teaching Ship Hydrodynamics. My graduate students and I work on various different projects, looking at better ways of understanding the flow-dynamics of fish swimming, using machine-learning techniques to study fundamental flow physics, and more recently, to make highly autonomous marine vehicles collaborate with each other to perform important tasks, such as mapping the ocean floors, or mounting search-and-rescue missions," Dr. Verma said.
Dr. Verma received his bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech in 2009 and a doctorate in Aeronautical Engineering from Caltech in 2014. During his graduate studies, he studied the turbulent transport of low-diffusivity particles using high-fidelity simulations. After completing his Ph.D., he moved to ETH Zurich as a postdoctoral scholar, where he combined simulations of bioinspired locomotion with optimization and machine learning techniques. These studies led to a better understanding of how fish exert fine-tuned control over flow, in addition to uncovering the complex interplay between fluid mechanics, sensing, and decision-making in coordinated groups.
His favorite memory of FAU was in 2018 when he first started teaching at the FAU Sea Tech campus in Dania Beach. "My very first day at Sea Tech I was met with the most unimaginably picturesque view one could ask for at a workplace!" Dr. Verma said.
You can see Dr. Verma on The Today Show.
