Going with the Flow

Chandramouli Viswanathan Chandramouli, Ph.D. - Professor of Mechanical and Civil Engineering

Flood Technology for NWI

Professor Chandra is a specialist in water resources and water quality modeling. He set his research focus to study the climate change impacts on low flow and flood flow regimes. He also researches about the influence of these regimes on water quality in the northwest Indiana region. He uses state of the art techniques such as artificial intelligence and fuzzy logic to handle the uncertainties in hydrologic data for water resources analysis.

He collaborated with PNW Center for Innovation, Visualization and Simulation and developed virtual 3D labs for students by blending his research with immersive virtual 3D through NSF TUES Grant support. In this research, 6 undergraduate senior design groups and 3 graduate students participated in field data collections such as channel cross section surveys and modeling development. For flood modeling, Hydrologic modeling and Hydraulic modeling were developed initially.

Calibrated modeling results were taken to unity 3D game engine platform to develop immersive virtual 3D flood model for a real world system located in northwest Indiana known as Little Calumet – Hart Ditch River system. Developed resources were used as lab modules in training students and a field resource for flood planning. He also developed education and outreach tools for northwest Indiana.