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Minghan Xu (he/him)*
Assistant Professor, Civil & Mineral Eng.
Team Lead and Principal Investigator (P.I.)
Philip Adebayo (he/him)
Postdoctoral Researcher, Civil & Mineral Eng.
Project: Climate resilient ground source heat pump systems using physics-informed neural network.
Achievement: Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellowship (2026).
Vasudha Kaura (she/her)
PhD Student, Civil & Mineral Eng.
Project: Experimental investigation and mathematical modeling of phase change materials for thermal energy storage in northern mines.
Achievement: Bert Wasmund Graduate Scholarships for Sustainable Energy Research (2026); Lassonde International Graduate Scholarship in Mining (2026).
David Nsa (he/him)
MASc Student, Civil & Mineral Eng.
Project: Multi-scale and multi-physics modeling of saline water spray freezing for mine air heating.
Elorie Bernard-Lacroix (she/her)
UG Thesis Student, Engineering Sci.
Project: Multi-objective optimization framework for mine restoration in Canada.
Melissa Cao (she/her)
UG Thesis Student, Engineering Sci.
Project: AI-assisted computational fluid dyanmics (CFD) modeling for airflow predictions in underground mines.
Edwin Chasko (he/him)
UG Thesis Student, Engineering Sci.
Project: Physics-informed neural network (PINN)-based modeling for u-loop geothermal heat exchangers.
Tanakorn Wongaree (he/him)
UG Thesis Student, Engineering Sci.
Project: Energy modeling of wind-powered battery electric vehicles (BEVs) for underground mining operations.
Boyan Gao (he/him)
UG Student, Mechanical & Industrial Eng.
Project: Physics informed neural networks (PINNs) for heat conduction problems with phase change.
Achievement: UnERD2026 Most Innovative Award Runner-Up (2026); Summer UG Data Sciences Research Award (2026); CivMin’s UG Summer Research Fellowship (2026).
Helen Li (she/her)
UG Student, Electrical & Computer Eng.
Project: Electrifying mine energy systems with small and micro modular reactors in Northern Canada.
Achievement: NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards (2026); UnERD2026 Best Poster Award (2026); CivMin’s UG Summer Research Fellowship (2025).
Wania Khalid (she/her)
UG Student, Electrical & Computer Eng.
Project: Develop a physics-informed neural network (PINN) for solving geothermal borehole heat exchangers.
Achievement: NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards (2026); UnERD2026 Third-Place Poster Award (2026); CivMin’s UG Summer Research Fellowship (2025).
Ashfaq Sadi (he/him)
UG Student, Civil & Mineral Eng.
Project: Integrating spray freezing technology for renewable mine heating and cooling in Northern Canada.
Achievement: J. Edgar McAllistar Foundation UG Summer Research Award (2026).
Sophia Krassiouk (she/her)
UG Student, Civil & Mineral Eng.
Project: Development of saltwater spray freezing for renewable mine heating and cooling.
Achievement: First Year UG Summer Research Fellowship (2026).
Michael Wang (he/him)
UG Student, Materials Sci & Eng.
Project: Integrating phase change materials in mine energy systems for Northern Canada.
Achievement: NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards (2026).
Ryura Ramadhina (she/her)
UG Student, Mechanical & Industrial Eng.
Project: System-level analysis of spray freezing for renewable heating and cooling in northern mines.
Achievement: CivMin’s UG Summer Research Fellowship (2026).
Keira Kawada (he/him)
UG Student, Engineering Sci.
Project: CFD modeling of underground mine ventilation: Comparative analysis with field tests.
Achievement: UnERD2026 Future Researcher Award Winner (2026); CivMin’s UG Summer Research Fellowship (2026).
Aidan Ma (he/him)
UG Student, Engineering Sci.
Project: Modeling and multi-objective optimization of phase change materials for cold thermal energy storage.
Achievement: Engineering Science Research Opportunities Program Fellowship (2026).
Junseo Kim (he/him)
UG Student, Mathematics & Physics.
Project: Asymptotic analysis to two-phase Stefan problems for droplet solidification subject to a convective boundary
Achievement: CivMin’s UG Summer Research Fellowship (2026).
Brian Beem (he/him)
UG Student, Electrical & Computer Eng.
Project: Techno-economic assessment of phase change materials in cold regions.
Achievement: J. Edgar McAllistar Foundation Undergraduate Summer Research Award (2026).
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Former Master’s or Master’s-Equivalent Students (Visiting/Exchange):
- Mouhamed Amine Kortoba (he/him), École Nationale d’Ingénieurs de Monastir (TN). CFD modeling of spray freezing for mine heating in cold regions (2026).
- Gaston Boëda (he/him), École d’ingénieurs créée de Lyon (FR). Semi-analytical solutions to artificial ground freezing in cold regions (2026).
- Haru Toya (he/him), Kyoto Institute of Technology (JP). Multi-scale thermomechanical analysis of phase change materials (2026).
Former Undergraduate Students (Thesis):
- Stephanie Gao (she/her), Engineering Sci. Sustainable electrification of northern mines: A multi-objective optimization framework for wind-diesel hybrid systems (2026).
Former Undergraduate Students:
- Matthew Van Ham (he/him), Chemical Eng., McGill University [secondary and joint supervision]. Analytical and numerical modeling of hyperbolic Stefan problems for non-Fourier heat conduction with phase change (2026).
- Stefan Walker (he/him) Electrical & Computer Eng. Techno-economic assessment of solar power for northern mining operations (2026).
- Karan Kardam (he/him), Electrical & Computer Eng. Case studies on renewable energy integration in remote mines located in Northern Canada (2026).
- Daksh Khanna (he/him), Civil & Mineral Eng. Multi-objective evolutionary algorithms for renewable energy integration in northern mines (2025-2026).
- Jack Zhang (he/him), Civil & Mineral Eng. Mathematical modeling of spray freezing for mine wastewater decontamination (2025).
Footnotes:
* Preferred pronouns are shared with the member’s consent.