Mahzad Khoshlessan | People | Beckstein Lab

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Mahzad Khoshlessan
Aug 15

Mahzad Khoshlessan

Mahzad worked on the SPIDAL (Middleware and High Performance Analytics Libraries for Scalable Data Science) project from August 2016 to May 2018. The overall goal of the SPIDAL project is to create middleware and analytics libraries to allow data science to work at large scale on high-performance computing systems. Mahzad’s work will increase the performance of the MDAnalysis library through effective use of high performance computing (HPC) resources. MDAnalysis is an object-oriented python library to analyze molecular dynamics trajectories generated by various packages for molecular dynamic simulations. MDAnalysis enables users to access to the raw simulation data through a uniform object-oriented Python interface. Typical trajectory sizes range from gigabytes to terabytes and this work will implement algorithms for efficiently analyzing data-intensive biomolecular simulations. By bringing “BigData” tools to the computational biophysics community new questions regarding structure-function relationships of biomolecules can be answered with the goal to develop a deeper understanding of the processes underlying life and thus improving biotechnology and human health.

Mahzad obtained her B.S. (2010) and M.S. (2013) in Aerospace Engineering (Aerodynamic) from Amirkabir University of Techonlogy (Tehran Polytechnic). She began her PhD in Mechanical Engineering in August 2014 and joined the Beckstein Lab in Fall of 2016 to pursue her research in the field of computational biophysics.

She was previously performing research in an applied field of fluid mechanics and turbulence, specifically Large Eddy Simulation (LES) of flow and heat transfer in pin-fin arrays. She is mostly experienced in developing and debugging finite difference, control volume based finite element and spectral solvers, verification/validation, and high-fidelity computing. She has a strong background in Physics, especially in the field of Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer as well as scientific computing. She has worked extensively in the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for simulating scientific problems and her knowledge of computer programming includes Fortran, Linux shell scripting, MATLAB and parallel processing (MPI, OpenMP).

She is very interested in different applications of high performance computing and computational methods for the representation of multi-physics and multi-scale systems, and numerical modeling of biological systems. She continually tries to extend her knowledge at the interface of physics, and computer science through her eagerness to share ideas and her strong background in physics and engineering.

Publications

  1. Khoshlessan, M.; Paraskevakos, I.; Jha, S.; and Beckstein, ‘‘Parallel Analysis in MDAnalysis using the Dask Parallel Computing Library’’, Proceedings of the 16th Python in Science Conference, pages 64—72, Austin, TX, 2017; DOI 10.25080/shinma-7f4c6e7-00a.
  2. Khoshlessan, M., and Karimian, S.M.H., ‘‘Detailed Numerical Study on the Aerodynamic Behavior of a NACA 0008 Airfoil Fitted with Gurney Flap in the Regime of Ultra-low Reynolds Number’’, Journal of Aerospace Technology and Management- Vol 9, No 2 (2017); DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5028/jatm.v9i2.631
  3. Kannan, K., Khoshlessan, M., Herrmann, M., and Peet, Y., ‘‘Detailed Numerical Study of Flow and Heat Transfer in Staggered Pin-Fin Arrays Within a Channel” Proceedings of the ASME 2016 TURBO EXPO & Turbomachinery Technical Conference & Exposition IDETC/CIE 2016 June 13-17, 2016, Seoul, COREA; DOI:10.1115/GT2016-57968
  4. Khoshlessan, M., Karimian, S.M.H., and Mani, M., ‘‘Numerical Study of Transient Behavior of a NACA 0008 Airfoil Equipped with a Gurney Flap Using a Control-Volume Based Finite-Element Collocated Scheme (AIAA 2014-1109),” 52nd Aerospace Sciences Meeting, 2014; DOI:10.2514/6.2014-1109
  5. Khoshlessan, M., Karimian, S.M.H., and Daemi, N., “Evaluation of a Control-Volume Based Finite-Element Collocated Scheme for the Solution of External Steady and Unsteady Incompressible Flows at Low Reynolds Numbers,” 11th International Conference of Numerical Analysis and Applied Mathematics 2013, AIP Conf. Proc. 1558, 1421-1424 (2013); DOI: 10.1063/1.4825783
  6. Daemi, N., Karimian, S.M.H., Alisadeghi, H. and Khoshlessan, M., “Comparison of Different Schemes for Convection Modeling of Incompressible Flow Equations on Unstructured Grids,” 11th International Conference of Numerical Analysis and Applied Mathematics 2013, AIP Conf. Proc. 1558, 1425-1428 (2013); DOI: 10.1063/1.4825784

Presentations & Posters:

  • SciPy 2017, Austin, TX, Poster: Parallel Analysis in MDAnalysis using the Dask Parallel Computing Library.
  • BioPhest Meeting 2017, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, Poster: Detection of Slow Degrees of Freedom in Absolute Binding Free energy Calculations of Sodium Ions to the Sodium/Proton Antiporter NapA.

Honor & Awards:

  • Member of Tau Beta pi, The engineering honor society, Arizona State University (2014-2017)
  • Best M.Sc. Thesis of Aerospace Engineering Department, Aerospace Engineering Department, Amirkabir University of Technology (2013)
  • National Doctorate Entrance Exam Exemption, Aerospace Engineering Department, Amirkabir University of Technology (2013)
  • Top Graduate Students Award, Aerospace Engineering Department, Amirkabir University of Technology (2013)
  • Dean’s List, Aerospace Engineering Department, Amirkabir University of Technology (2006-2013)
  • Member of Exceptional Talent’s Office, Amirkabir University of Technology (2006-2013)
  • Best B.Sc. Thesis of Aerospace Engineering Department, Amirkabir University of Technology (2010)
  • National Masters Entrance Exam Exemption, Amirkabir University of Technology (2010)
  • Top Undergraduate Students Award, Amirkabir University of Technology (2010)
  • Award for an aircraft design group project: Conceptual Design of GRJ-110, A Green Regional Jet Suitable for Iranian Domestic, and Regional Routes, Aerospace Engineering Department, Amirkabir University of Technology (2010)