I will be visiting Yosemite park to wrap up my work for a paper I have been writing. I am a graduate student in the Mechanical Engineering department at UC Santa Barbara, working with Prof. Alban Sauret. My PhD thesis investigates the underlying mechanisms of land slides, cliff erosion, cliff collapse and so on. Indeed, the underlying principles are motivated by how soil gets loose (loss of biocohesion) over time due to human activities, forest fires, natural erosion, and so on. My plan is to hike in the nearby trails, and make observation of the wind induced erosion, and forest fire related damages, and how that has influenced land movements. The overall focus here is to develop a good motivation for my thesis.

Approved