Computer Science & Engineering
Department of
Advisors & Principal Investigators

Omar Amer
Civil Engineering
Omar is a postdoctoral researcher from the Civil Engineering Department at Clemson University. Ph.D. from Clemson University and a Master's degree from San Diego State University. My research focuses on the sustainability of construction materials and finding beneficial uses of industrial wastes in construction.

Chris DeGrendele
Electrical Engineering
Chris DeGrendele is a computation scientist who is working on his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics at the University of California Santa Cruz. He is currently a researcher at NASA Ames Research Center in the Advanced Supercomputing Division - Computational Aerosciences Branch.
Pragati Dharmale
Electrical Engineering
Pragati Dharmale has 14 years of academia / industry research experience and received her M. Eng in Digital electronics and M.S. in computer science from Southern New Hampshire University, NH. Her research interest includes application of EEG analysis with machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI), as well as STEM based applications designed for Raspberry PI with Python programming.
Robert A. Downing
Data Science, Astronomy, Cryptography. Chair, Computer Science & Engineering
Prof. Downing has 40 years of industry research experience from 3COM and IBM and as a former adjunct professor. The Downing research group applies the tools of data mining and data science to astronomy and cryptography. Through applied computer science and data science, the group hopes to move towards deciphering the Voynich manuscript and also detecting near-earth objects using signal-to-noise detection mining of NASA datasets. He is also the director for the Astrophysics Research Institute at ASDRP.
Joseph Laurienzo
Computer Science, Physical & Biological Systems Simulation
Joseph Laurienzo is an ambitious interdisciplinary scientist specializing in latent pattern recognition and simulation of physical and biological systems. Joseph received his BS in math and physics and MS in applied math from Case Western Reserve University, along with a BA in Japanese, and has collaborated with the University of Tokyo in condensed matter physics. Joseph’s research interests include the application of novel mathematical techniques in the assessment of brain activity patterns to construct cognitive models, as well as game theory. Joseph’s personal interests include world literature, Jiu Jitsu, and competitive Esports.
Larry McMahan
Electrical Engineering, Computer Science
Dr. McMahan received his M.S. and Ph.D. from Rice University. His research group utilizes computer science modeling to understand phenomena at the quantum level and is interested in quantum computing applied to small molecule and single-atom perturbations, materials science and engineering, and chaos theory as it relates to chromodynamics and photophysical phenomena. Dr. McMahan oversees our quantum computing emulator.
Phil Mui
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Computer-Human Interaction
Dr. Mui received his B.Sc., M. Eng, and PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and an M.Phil from Oxford as a Marshall Scholar, and is currently a Senior Vice President of technology at SalesForce. The Mui group studies the impact of computer algorithms (particularly machine learning and artificial intelligence) on society at large. His recent students are engaged in research on algorithmic bias, AI ethics, data analyses of impact of the pandemic and the justice system on different groups around the world.
Valens Nteziyaremye
Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Valens Nteziyaremye was born in Kigali, Rwanda. In 2008 he was selected among the top students in science in Rwanda and received the Rwandan Presidential scholarship to study at the University of Arkansas at Little, USA in Systems Engineering Mechanical from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
He received his PhD and MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Florida where he worked on the interface of surface engineering for biomedical devices. He has worked for Intel, Tokyo Electron (TEL) and Lam Research Corporation.
Suresh Subramaniam
Data Science
Suresh is a seasoned executive and data scientist with experience in managing large operations and applying data science to solve business problems. His group works on data science and its various applications to society, policy, and organizations.
Facilities & Instrumentation
Princeton Applied Research Scanning Potentiostat
Our Princeton Applied Research scanning potentiostat is utilized for electrochemical measurements and for monitoring of redox-active materials.

3D Printers
ASDRP operates four 3D printers for model production and for engineering and fabrication of turbines, components for hardware, and much more. Students learn how to operate the 3D printers and use cad software in the 3D printing course.

Quantum Computing Simulator Environment
Our server cluster operates a quantum computing emulator which allows research students and research groups to launch jobs that require QC applications.

Raspberry Pi systems
ASDRP has several raspberry pi miniature computers used in research students' projects.

High-Throughput Computing Server & Cluster
ASDRP operates four industry-grade Dell PowerEdge serves equipped with Xeon 48-core processors, over 64 GB RAM, and remote access to meet the needs of our computational students.

Laser Cutter
Our industrial-grade laser cutter is used for research students who construct and engineer components or models. It uses a high-power laser to cut wood, plastic, and other materials.

Former Advisors
Asmita Dani
Electrical Engineering, Applied Radiofrequecy Physics
​
Dr. Dani received her MS and PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Colorado. Her research interests involve using radiorequency (RF) physics to understand the world around us, and her research group at ASDRP applies a combination of hardware, software, and mechanical-electrical engineering to solve such problems.
Sam Fendell
Software Engineering, Machine Learning
​
Sam is a UC Berkeley graduate with several years experience as a software engineer at Google and Amazon. His group is interested in using machine learning to classify and analyze real-world problems - specifically, the utilization of machine learning to perform sentiment analysis on large datasets from social media platforms towards understanding how society responds to global events such as climate change and, more recently, COVID-19.
Calvin Leung
Quantum Mechanics and Applied Physics
​
Calvin Leung is pursuing a PhD in physics at MIT studying the phenomena of fast radio bursts: brief, intense flashes of radio-frequency light originating from outside the Milky Way. His past research interests have included quantum communication and searching for dark matter using atomic clocks. In addition, he was a vibration engineer working on the Falcon 9 at SpaceX. Students interested in joining his group should reach out to him.
Nicholas Papano
Mechanical Engineering, Physics, Computer Science
​
The Papano research group at ASDRP is interested in applying the tools of 3D printing and computer science towards applications in physics, engineering, and mechanical design. The group has been previously involved in aerodynamics research, using 3D printing to optimize turbine design - this summer he will be involved in capturing gigajansky radiobursts using a trans-national Raspberry Pi cluster.