Will is a fifth-year Ph.D. student at UT. He joined the Acoustics Department in 2019 after graduating with a BSE in Mechanical Engineering and BS in Physics from Duke University. Under the supervision of Dr. Mark Hamilton and Dr. Charles Tinney, William studies shock waves formed from Mach waves, underwater explosions, and other sources. He enjoys traveling to new places, playing Texas Hold’Em with his friends, and running D&D campaigns for fellow grad students.

Xiaoyu is a fourth-year Ph.D. student at UT Austin. He received his B.S. degree in Underwater Acoustics from the Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China, in 2019. He studied at the Institute of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, supervised by Dr. Xiaodong Li until 2020. Currently, he is working in UT Acoustic MEMS Lab advised by Dr. Neal A. Hall. His passions include various acoustic MEMS devices, like piezoelectric sensors, photonic waveguide microphones, parametric array directional speakers, Carbon Nanotube microphones, etc. He enjoys playing basketball, automotive mechanics, and woodworking.

Nick is a second year PhD student. He received his bachelors degree in physics at Brigham Young University Idaho in 2022. Working on architectural acoustics for his senior thesis he switched when coming to UT, joining the Underwater Acoustics group at ARL. His work currently includes numerical modeling of fine grain sediments from previous sea expeditions data, and is advised by Megan Ballard and Preston Wilson. Nick enjoys playing volleyball, golf, and board games in his free time. 

Sasha is a second-year graduate student at UT. She graduated from Trinity University with a B.S. in Engineering Science. She joined the Acoustics department in the fall of 2022. Under the supervision of Dr. Michael Haberman, her research focuses on the ultrasonic inspection of lithium-ion batteries. In her free time, she enjoys rock climbing, cooking, playing chess, and hanging out with her cat, Zhuzhu.

Meet Dante, a third year graduate student in Acoustics. Before joining the program, he earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from UT in 2018. He is supervised by Dr. Preston Wilson, and his research is focused on geoacoustic characterization of submarine sediments. Dante was critical in coordinating the Fourth Annual Inaugural Acoustical Society of America University of Texas at Austin Student Chapter Tailgate, which led to his promotion to Social Chair. In his free time, Dante enjoys playing/producing music, working on his unreliable cars, and golfing with the boys.