November 2, 2022

photo of jin yangJin Yang, an assistant professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics (ASE/EM) at The University of Texas at Austin, is one of five recipients of the 2022 Haythornthwaite Initiation Grant from the Applied Mechanics Division (AMD) of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

The $20,000 award targets university faculty who are conducting research in theoretical and applied mechanics in the beginning of their academic years. The funding is intended to support the purchase of lab equipment and instrumentation, development of a unique apparatus, travel and other items that serve the researcher’s objectives.

Yang joined ASE/EM in the Cockrell School of Engineering in the fall of 2022. His research seeks new depths of understanding soft materials viscoelastic behavior, dynamic instabilities, and their material failure under ultra-high-rate loading conditions by developing (i) laser-induced inertial cavitation experimental techniques and (ii) new material constitutive models. The Yang Research Group also focuses on leveraging state-of-the-art machine learning and data-driven methods to keep improving 2D and 3D full-field deformation and other material characterization experimental techniques.

The award was announced at the AMD Awards Banquet at the ASME’s International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition in Columbus, Ohio on Nov. 1.

Learn more about Yang in this Q&A.