Postdoctoral researchers
Dr. Arka Reksowardojo
Arka is a postdoctoral researcher coming from the Lightweight Structures and Conceptual Design (ILEK), University of Stuttgart. Since January 2025, he is a Walter Benjamin Fellow at the Sychterz Modular Adaptive Resilient Transformable Infrastructure lab (SMARTI lab), University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. He obtained his Ph.D. in 2020 from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL). In his doctoral thesis, he developed a design method for shape-morphing lightweight adaptive structures (https://youtu.be/x8kqWI07aSY). He obtained his M.Sc. from the University of Tokyo (2015), with a focus on indirect bridge frequency identification employing instrumented vehicles. His current research agenda on adaptive structures is focused on the areas of: (1) lightweight and low-carbon design, (2) novel adaptation strategies, (3) resilience and damage detection.
Angshuman Baruah
Angshuman is a postdoc in Structural Engineering and works at Datum Engineers in Chicago. He obtained his PhD in 2025 in Civil and Environmental Engineering with Dr. Sychterz, his MS in 2021 in Civil Engineering at UIUC, and his BTech in Civil Engineering from NIT (National Institute of Technology) Silchar and has 5 years of professional experience in the field working for the Govt. of India. His topics of research includes dynamic behavior of mid-scale adaptive origami structures, active control of adaptive origami structure undergoing damage and Virtual Reality interactive experience for actively controlled and deployable tensegrity structures. abaruah2 at illinois.edu
PhD graduate students
Sagnik Paul
Sagnik is a PhD student in Structural Engineering. He joined the SMARTI Lab in August 2020. He obtained his MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering with a specialization in Structural Engineering from UC Davis and BTech in Civil Engineering from NIT Rourkela. He has experience working on statistical distribution models, supplementary cementitious materials, and large-scale experiments. He is currently working on resiliency of deployable tensegrity structures to mitigate natural hazards harnessing smart materials and machine learning. His research interest lies in the use of statistical tools in Structural Engineering, Hazard Mitigation and Risk Assessment. sagnikp2 at illinois.edu
Khuzaima Hummad
Khuzaima Hummad is a PhD student in structural engineering, building upon his strong foundation in civil engineering. He completed his bachelor’s degree from the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Pakistan. In January 2024, he joined the SMARTI lab, where he is currently focusing on the innovative field of deployable thick origami geotechnical anchors through experimental work and computation. khummad at illinois.edu
Zhixing Wang
Zhixing Wang is PhD student in Structural Engineering. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering (Structural Engineering) from Purdue University and MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. His future topic in the research group covers leveraging digital twins, deep learning models in point cloud, finite element analysis monitoring, and deep learning models in reliability analysis to enhance risk assessment with high accuracy and give reasonable mitigation strategies for infrastructure systems. zw88 at illinois.edu
Masters graduate students
Yulin Zhu
Yulin is a Master student in the Structural Engineering. She obtained her bachelor degree from Tianjin Chengjian University. Her research focuses on deployable structures and structural form-finding, especially the simulation of origami-inspired systems using dynamic relaxation. She is currently working on the folding behavior of Ron Resch structure with active elements.
Larry St. Pierre
Larry is a Master’s student in Structural Engineering. He obtained his bachelor’s degree at UIUC in Mechanical Engineering in May 2025. He joined the SMARTI Lab in 2023 to research tensile behavior of Multilayered Randomly Architected Material (MLRAM). Currently, his research explores off-grid energy solutions for de-icing roadways such as solar panels and piezoelectrics.
Brian Dionicio
Brian is a Master’s student in Structural Engineering. He joined the SMARTI Lab in September 2024 as an undergraduate researcher. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a primary focus in Structural Engineering. His research interests include structural health monitoring of movable bridges, with emphasis on machine learning, damage detection, and the influence of traffic loading. bdion2 at illinois.edu
Past Visiting Researchers
Dr. David Forster, University of Stuttgart
Past Students of SMARTI lab
Elizabeth Capretta, MS, employed at TYLin Silman
Heather Gathman, MS, employed at IMEG, Naperville
Juan Torres, MS, employed at Thorton Tomasetti, Milwaukee
Kaylee Tucker, MS, employed at Wiss, Janney, and Elstner Associates, Chicago
Mohamed Mohamed Abshir, Sofia Tovar de Leon, Tohma Kobayashi, Sheel Sansare, Christina Garcia, Tu Huynh, Matt Grendzinski, Abraham Xu, Richard Yoo, Hongjie Luo, Konstantin Kotelnikov, Jesse Ekanya, Jon Guttello, Aidan Wefel, Sirapop Chavavelchakul, Casey Rodgers, Michael Naranjo