A doctoral candidate in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the Cullen College of Engineering has been hired for an internship with a national laboratory this summer.
Kripa Adhikari will work as an intern for AI/ML Models Testing at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington from May to August this year. Her advisor is Kalyana Babu Nakshatrala, associate professor and associate chair of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department.
"I have been working in the field of renewable energy, including geothermal energy," she said. "My expertise lies in modeling, where I integrate concepts from continuum theories, mathematics, simulations, and machine learning perspectives. To validate our models effectively, we collaborate closely with experimentalists and field scientists from various universities and national labs."
She added, "Based on our previous work on microvascular composites, published in renowned journals like PNAS Nexus and Communications in Computational Physics, researchers at PNNL were interested in collaborating with our research group at UH. Together, we recently completed a manuscript on geothermal energy using conventional modeling tools. To further our collaborative efforts, PNNL offered me an internship. After undergoing multiple steps in the screening process, I successfully secured the internship offer."
At the PNNL, Adhikari's duties will include the complete testing and validation of AI/ML models for carbon storage. She will work closely with PNNL researchers and the CAML group at UH in implementing the code and running simulations on massively parallel supercomputers. The project aligns with her dissertation and it will be a part of her doctoral dissertation.
"I aim to leverage machine learning techniques and apply them to the field of carbon capture and storage, which also involves subsurface modeling," she said. "Our laboratory, CAML at UH, has extensive experience in subsurface modeling, and incorporating machine learning-based modeling is a recent addition to our research group. This internship opportunity will enable me to utilize my existing knowledge while also acquiring new skills in this domain after working closely with researchers at PNNL."
Adhikari has had a distinguished academic career at UH. In July, she presented research on thermal cooling after earning a travel award for the 17th U. S. National Congress on Computational Mechanics (USNCCM). In November, a paper by her and Nakshatrala about temperature regulation was published in PNAS Nexus. This year, she was also named to the inaugural cohort of UH-Chevron Energy Graduate Fellows.
"My experience at UH has been truly remarkable, offering numerous opportunities in novel research fields," she said. "None of this would have been possible without the guidance and support of my advisor, Dr. Nakshatrala, for whom I am immensely grateful. Additionally, I express my gratitude to our collaborator at PNNL, Dr. Maruti K. Mudunuru, an earth scientist, for his invaluable guidance. Finally, I am thankful for all the motivation and support from my family and friends. "
Adhikari plans to defend and graduate in the spring of 2025.
"As one of the few women in the field of clean energy solutions, I am enthusiastic about continuing my research in this area," she said. "As a modeler, I am excited for the research and development platform that involves critical thinking and problem-solving, which are essential for the success of renewable energy systems."