Laura Villafañe Roca
Assistant Professor, Aerospace Engineering
Affiliate Assistant Professor, Beckman Institute
AIAA Illinois Section Chair
AIAA Associate Fellow
Graduate Students
Tuhin Bandopadhyay
Ph.D. Student
Aerospace Engineering
Particle-laden flows,
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
tuhinb2@illinois.edu
Nicolas Rasmont
Ph.D. Student
Aerospace Engineering
Plume-surface interactions,
Mmwave interferometry,
Ejecta modeling and reconstruction
rasmont2@illinois.edu
Cutler Phillippe
Ph.D. Student
Aerospace Engineering
Parachute textile mechanics and FSI
cutlerp2@illinois.edu
German Saltar Rivera
Ph.D. Student
Aerospace Engineering
Machine learning models for turbulent particle-laden flows
germans3@illinois.edu
Liam Heuser
Ph.D. Student
Aerospace Engineering
Plume surface interactions
Lorenzo Bruni
Ph.D. Student
Aerospace Engineering
Plume-surface interactions, data reduction and model discovery
Visiting Graduate Students
Luca Placco
Ph.D. Student
University of Padova
Fluid-structure interactions,
Numerical simulations of parachute canopies
Claudia Jimenez Cuesta
Ph.D. Student
University of Glasgow
Plume-surface interactions,
Landing pads
cjc25@illinois.edu
UnderGraduate Students
Nicolas Vincent
Junior
Aerospace Engineering
Plume surface interactions
Pranet Patil
Junior
Aerospace Engineering
Particle-laden flows
Joseph Pelletiere
Junior
Aerospace Engineering
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Ray Guo Zhao
Junior
Aerospace Engineering
Particle-laden flows
Rishabh Srinivas
Junior
Aerospace Engineering
Material permeability
Aerospace Engineering
Alumni
Hussein Al-Rashdan
Plume surface interactions
Carla Conesa Fuentes
MS Thesis 2024 - Three-Dimensional Concentration Measurement in Turbulent Flows through Advanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Techniques.
Abhisheka Mathur Sekar
MS Thesis 2024 - Experimental Techniques for Concentration Measurements using Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Evan Crowe
NASA Ames
MS Thesis 2022 - Design of a New Vertical Channel Flow Facility to Study Particle Laden Turbulent Flows
Ari Jain
Georgia Tech, PhD. student
MS Thesis 2022 - Experimental Investigation of Particle-Laden Underexpanded Jet Flows
Alvaro Tomas Gil
MS Thesis 2020 - Topological and Temporal Analysis of Particle Clusters in Turbulent Flows using Density-based Clustering Algorithms
Undergraduate Students Alumni
(Underlined major contributors to research activities)
Group Photos
Dr Rasmont!!
And we have a doctor. After a lot of great work, celebrations are in order. Congrats Nick!
Spring 2025
A summer day in February.
Eclipse day - Spring 2024
With MRI test preparation ready in advance... decided to go Eclipse watching with West Point visitors and friends
Post-pandemic BBQ - Spring 2022
Mission accomplished! Vertical channel team - Fall 2021
Design, structural analysis, manufacturing, lots of polishing, and channel rising completed!