Dr. Ajay B. Harish is a Lecturer in Engineering Simulation and Data Science at the School of Engineering, University of Manchester, UK. You can reach me over email at [email protected].

Group website: Harish Lab website

Research overview

Dr. Ajay B Harish joined the University of Manchester in January 2022 as Lecturer (equivalent to Assistant Professor) in Engineering Simulation and Data Science. Before joining Manchester, he was an Post-doctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley (USA). Dr. Ajay B Harish’s research spans a wide range of challenges lying at the interface between mechanics and other disciplines, such as materials science, biology, and structural engineering. He combines experiments, theory and computer simulations to develop mechanistic models that can reliably capture material deformations under various forms of loading.

Dr. Ajay B Harish’s research focuses on the development of advanced computational mechanics methods, including classical computing methods (finite element techniques, machine learning, and uncertainty quantification) and more recently, new paradigms in quantum computational mechanics. His work bridges fundamental method development with real-world applications, particularly in materials modelling. Recent efforts have been directed towards biomedical engineering, with projects in mathematical ophthalmology, neurovascular and cardiovascular flow modelling, and tendon mechanics. Additionally, he has also pushed the boudnaries of developing advanced materials using tensegrity technology. His research has been supported through a range of funding sources, including the British Foundation, Alan Turing Institute, Innovate UK, Impact Acceleration Account, among other competitive schemes. In total, he has secured approximately £2 million in research funding.

Awards

• 2024 - UK-Italy Trustworthy AI Fellowship by the Alan Turing Institute (UK)
• 2022 - Ramanujan Fellowship from the Government of India
• 2017 & 2019 - LUT Foundation scholarship
• 2017 - Best researcher in Mechanics by the Mechanics division of Leibniz Foundation
• 2016 - Viktor-Rizkallah Award for best international researcher by the Leibniz Foundation
• 2011 - 15 - Scholarship from Continental AG 
• 2007 - Russel R. Vought Fellowship at Caltech
• 2003 - NTSE Karnataka state scholarship

Teaching

At Manchester, he teaches:

• Vibration and aeroelasticity
• Computational fluid dynamics