Guillermo Araya

Guillermo Araya is the Wayne and Julie Fagan Endowed Professor and Associate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). He leads the Computational Turbulence and Visualization Lab (CTV Lab), focusing on high-fidelity numerical simulations of turbulent flows, scientific visualization, and HPC applications. His research bridges fluid dynamics, aerospace engineering, and immersive technologies like VR/AR for education and research.

• Affiliations: Klesse College of Engineering, CTV Lab Director
• Education: Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), 2008

Research Interests: Turbulent boundary layers, hypersonic flows, DNS/LES, VR/AR visualization, flow separation mechanisms, and HPC infrastructure. He emphasizes translating complex fluid dynamics phenomena into educational tools for K-12 and university students.

Recent Technical Contributions: Development of the Narwhalito GPU cluster (2025) for large-scale DNS simulations. Recent work includes studies on wall-curvature effects in supersonic flows (APS 2024), periodicity detection in turbulent boundary layers (AIAA 2024), and coherent structure analysis in crossflow jets (AFOSR-funded).

• Awards: PECASE (2023), NSF CAREER (2019), AIAA Associate Fellow (2021)

Grants & Collaborations: PI or Co-PI on $2.8M+ in grants (AFOSR, DoD, NSF). Collaborates with institutions like Los Alamos National Lab and the University of Colorado. Supervises a diverse team of graduate/undergraduate researchers and postdocs.

Labs/Teams: CTV Lab (founded 2023) specializes in HPC, DNS, and immersive visualization tools. Hosts workshops and training programs for students in supercomputing and fluid dynamics.