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My introduction to ES 242r

J. Alberto Ortega's picture

My name is J. Alberto Ortega, and I am a PhD student in civil engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). My undergraduate education took place in Texas A&M University (I am a proud member of the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Class of 2002, WHOOP!), majoring in Structural Engineering. I recently obtained my Master of Science degree in Structures and Materials from MIT.

Currently, I am working under the supervision on Prof. Franz-Joseph Ulm in the topic of engineering nanomechanics of natural composite materials. Information regarding the work of my research group could be found in http://cee.mit.edu/index.pl?id=4407&isa=Category&op=show

I am very thrilled with the future directions of my research. In the area of nanomechanics, my current focus is the model of mechanical properties of shale materials at nanoscales. I hope to translate my developments in homogenization theory and upscaling of mechanical and strength properties to different composites systems such as cement-based materials, thin films, and bones.

My background in solid mechanics is specially diverse due to the opportunities I have had for taking related courses in continuum mechanics and homogenization theory, durability mechanics, and structural mechanics.

Perhaps my strength coming into this course may be intuition to navigate in the world of mechanics of materials at different scales: my MS work focused on nondestructive evaluation of concrete structures, while my PhD work is geared towards analysis of natural composite materials at nanoscales. My weakness related to this course may certainly be the little attention I have paid to fracture phenomena during all these years of civil engineering education.

My goal for enrolling into this challenging course is to gain experience and insight in the world of fracture phenomena, which will be an important consideration when venturing my research into the area of multi-scale strength properties of composite systems. Additionally, being taught fracture mechanics by Prof. John Hutchinson and Zhigang Suo themselves would complement my general mechanics understanding and provide me with new tools to address new engineering challenges.

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