Lanza di Scalea's Group at UC San Diego 

Experimental Mechanics / Non-Destructive Testing / Structural Health Monitoring 

Director

Professor Francesco Lanza di Scalea (e-mail)


Current Graduate Students

Ali Zare Hosseinzadeh  (email)

Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Vibration-based Damage Localization and Quantification, Defect Imaging, System Identification, Non-destructive Evaluation and Testing, Vision-based Vibration Monitoring, Machine Learning 

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=8UlVWSoAAAAJ&view_op=list_works 

Izabela Batista  (email)

Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), Non-destructive Evaluation (NDE) and Testing (NDT), Ultrasonic Guided Waves, Signal Processing, Machine Learning, Vibration-based Damage Localization and Quantification, Dynamics of Structures.

Chengyang Huang  (email)

Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: non-destructive testing, structural health monitoring, ultrasonic imaging 

Former Students (currently in academia)

Ranting Cui (email) 

Ph.D. (2021)  Thesis: "Ultrasound Based NDE/SHM Techniques for Critical Components in Aerospace and Transportation Structures” 

Currently: Assistant Professor, College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Guangxi University, China (URL)

Margherita Capriotti (email)

Ph.D. (2019)  Thesis: "Elastic and Thermal Wave Propagation based Techniques for Structural Integrity Assessment ” 

Currently: Assistant Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA (URL)

Guillermo Azuara (email)

Ph.D. (2021)  (co-advised with prof. E. Barrera) Thesis: "Development of Innovative Techniques for Lamb Wave-based Structural Health Monitoring Systems in Aeronautics ” 

Currently: Assistant Professor, Instrumentation & Applied Acoustics Group, Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain (URL)

Xuan "Peter" Zhu (email) 

Ph.D. (2016)  Thesis: "Non-destructive and Semi-destructive Methods for Thermal Stress Measurement in Continuous Welded Rails ” 

Post-doc (2016-2017)

Currently: Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (URL)

Stefano Mariani (email) 

Ph.D. (2015)  Thesis: "Noncontact Ultrasonic Guided Wave Inspection of Rails: Next Generation Approach ” 

Post-doc (2015-2016)

Currently: Assistant Professor, Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering, Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Italy  (URL)

Salvatore Salamone (email) 

Post-doc (2007-2010) 

Currently: Associate Professor, Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, The University of Texas, Austin  (URL)


Lei Zhang (email) 

Post-doc (2009-2011) 

Currently: Professor, School of Transportation / Intelligent Transportation System Research Center, Southeast University, Nanjing, China 


Ankit Srivastava (email) 

Ph.D. (2009)  Thesis: "Quantitative structural health monitoring using ultrasonic guided waves ” 

Currently: Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago (URL)

Ivan Bartoli (email) 

Ph.D. (2007)  Thesis: "Ultrasonic guided wave models for structural health monitoring  ” 

Post-doc (2008-2010)

Currently: Full Professor, Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA  (URL)

Piervincenzo Rizzo (email) 

Ph.D. (2004)  Thesis: "Health monitoring of tendons and stay cables for civil structures ” 

Post-doc (2004-2006)

Currently: Full Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA   (URL)

Alessandro Marzani (email) 

M.S. (2004)  Thesis: "Modeling ultrasonic guided waves for structural health monitoring ” 

Currently: Full Professor, Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering, Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Italy   (URL)

Gaetano Restivo (email) 

M.S. (2004)  Thesis: "Damage detection in aircraft structures by multi-sensor ultrasonic inspection ” 

Currently: Lecturer, department of Mechanical Engineering, Santa Clara University, CA   (URL)

Former Students (currently in industry)

Diptojit Datta (email)

Ph.D. (2022)  Thesis: "Topics on In-motion Non-contact Ultrasonic Structural Monitoring of Railroad Tracks ” 

Currently: Associate, Exponent, Inc., Denver, Colorado

Albert Liang (email)

Ph.D. (2020)  Thesis: "Ultrasonic Structural Monitoring via Passive Identification and Synthetic Aperture Imaging Techniques” 

Currently: Structures Engineer, SpaceX, California

Simone Sternini (email)

Ph.D. (2018)  Thesis: “Inspection of Structures by Passive Extraction of Acoustic Transfer Functions and Ultrasonic Imaging” ” 

Currently: Structures Engineer, SpaceX, California

Thompson Nguyen (email)

Ph.D. (2015)  Thesis: "Applications of Ultrasonic Nondestructive Evaluation and Ultrasonic Defect Imaging on Rails ” 

Currently: Data Analyst at Caesars Entertainment Corporation, Las Vegas, NV 

Jeffrey Tippmann (email)

Ph.D. (2014)  Thesis: "Applications of Passive Vibration Control and Damage Detection in Composite Wind Turbine Blades  ” 

Currently: Scientist, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 

Robert Phillips (email)

Ph.D. (2012)  Thesis: "Ultrasonic methods for rail inspection ” 

Currently: diseased

Arun Manohar (email)

Ph.D. (2012)  Thesis: "Quantitative Nondestructive Testing Using Infrared Thermography ” 

Currently: Quantitative Analyst, SAS Institute, Inc., San Diego, CA  

Claudio Nucera (email)

Ph.D. (2012)  Thesis: "Propagation of nonlinear waves in waveguides and application to nondestructive stress measurement ” 

Post-doc (2012-2014)

Currently: Senior Analyst at Deutsche Bank, Berlin, Germany   

Stefano Coccia (email)

Ph.D. (2007)  Thesis: "Structural health monitoring of railroad tracks  ” 

Post-doc (2008-2011)

Currently: consultant, data analytics  

Howard Matt (email)

Ph.D. (2006)  Thesis: "Structural monitoring of aerospace components by ultrasonic waves and embedded sensors ” 

Currently: Director of Business Development, ATA Engineering, San Diego, CA   

John McNamara (email)

Ph.D. (2003)  Thesis: "Health monitoring of railroad tracks by elastic-wave based non-destructive testing  ” 

Currently: Senior Associate,Thornton Tomasetti Structural Engineering Consulting, New York   

Former Visiting Professors 

Prof. Antonino Spada (email) (URL)

Assistant Professor, Theory of Structures and Solid Mechanics, University of Palermo, Italy

Fulbright Research Scholar at UCSD 

Research Interests: Mesomodeling of heterogeneous structures by means of interface/interphase elements; Multiscale approach for the analysis of structures constituted by heterogeneous periodic materials; Meshless methods; Discrete Deformation Analysis method for structures constituted by large blocks; Non-linear static analysis of reinforced concrete framed structures; Non-destructive evaluation methods and structural health monitoring. 

(Full CV)


Prof. Annamaria Pau (email) (URL)

Associate Professor, Department of Structural Engineering, La Sapienza University, Rome, Italy

Research Interests: nondestructive evaluation (NDE), wave propagation in structures and their applications to structural health monitoring (SHM),  continuum mechanics.  

Prof. Roberto Montanini (email) (URL)

Professor, Mechanical and Thermal Measurements, University of Messina, Italy 

Research Interests: nondestructive evaluation (NDE), experimental mechanics, thermal measurements.