Assad Anshuman Oberai

Assad Anshuman Oberai is a Professor at the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering. His research spans computational mechanics, inverse problems, and machine learning applications in nuclear engineering and biomedical imaging.

• Key Research Areas: Multi-fidelity modeling, Bayesian inference in mechanics, conditional GANs for posterior estimation, ultrasonic sensing of nuclear fuel canisters, mechano-microscopy for tumor elasticity imaging
• Methodological Contributions: Novel operator network architectures, dimension-reduced Bayesian frameworks, active noise cancellation techniques, and error estimation in variational multiscale methods

Recent work focuses on non-invasive nuclear fuel inspection using ultrasonic sensing and machine learning, achieving significant signal-to-noise ratio improvements with active noise cancellation. In biomedical domains, his team develops cGAN-enhanced elasticity imaging for cancer differentiation, outperforming traditional algebraic methods. Methodologically, he pioneered VarMiON (Variationally Mimetic Operator Networks) with rigorous error analysis, demonstrating superior performance over DeepONet in partial differential equation approximations.

His publications address high-dimensional inverse problems through generative models, with applications in epidemic modeling (capturing algebraic decay via behavioral feedback), 3D traction microscopy accounting for cell-induced matrix degradation, and compressible phase change simulations using discontinuous finite element methods. Co-authors include researchers from mechanical engineering, biomedical informatics, and nuclear safety domains.