Van Hai Nguyen

Curriculum Vitae

Van Hai Nguyen

📍 Austin, TX | 📞 512-461-2988 | ✉️ haivnguyen2021@gmail.com | 💼 LinkedIn
Education
PhD in Aerospace Engineering, GPA: 3.9/4.0
Dec 2025 (Expected)
The University of Texas at Austin
Dissertation: "Model-Constrained Machine Learning Approach for Forward and Inverse Problems"
Honor: M. J. Thompson Endowed Presidential Graduate Scholarship (2023) for great research performance
Master of Science in Civil and Industrial Construction Engineering
Jun 2017
Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology
Bachelor Engineering in Civil and Industrial Construction Engineering
Jun 2015
Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology
Skills
Programming Language:
Advanced Python (JAX, PyTorch, TensorFlow), MATLAB, Julia, MPI computing
Software & Tools:
Docker, Git, bash, Paraview, Firedrake, LaTeX, Microsoft Office, MAPLE, Flask, Kubernetes, ANSYS, AutoCad
Work Experience
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Computing
May 2025 - Aug 2025
Computational Science Intern
Livermore, CA, USA
Project: Physics-based generative AI models for spinodal decomposition from stochastic differential equations (SDE)
  • Developed physics-based generative AI models for accelerating the simulation from 36.67 hours to 30 minutes
  • Performed training models with highly noisy low-dimensional SDE data, generalized well to high-dimensional simulations
  • Performed comprehensive analysis of the stochastic effects on accelerating the spinodal decomposition process
  • Prepared the research manuscript to submit a peer-reviewed journal (On preparation)
Chevron Cooperation, Subsurface Innovation Lab
May 2024 - Aug 2024
Subsurface Modeling Intern
Houston, TX, USA
Project: Physics-informed implicit neural representation for geomodelling and geophysics inversion
  • Filed a U.S patent on inventing a unified machine-learning approach for efficiently solving problems in geomodeling and geophysics inversion. It was the first time that an internship project at Chevron returned a U.S. patent
  • Performed data parallelism training on multiple GPU clusters with JAX and enabled high-resolution complex geology objects
  • Accelerated 40× computation time, and saved 60× computation memory compared to legacy grid-based code
  • Improved significantly the performance of FWI with complex salt by removing the need for initial models
  • Published the research work in a peer-reviewed conference
Chevron Cooperation, Computation Reservoir Geophysics R&D
May 2023 - Aug 2023
Earth Science Intern
Houston, TX, USA
Project: Physics-informed machine learning for elastic full waveform inversion (FWI)
  • Inverted successfully the subsurface earth models for field data without initial models, for the first time, in academia and industry
  • Reduced drastically from months or more to a few days the cycle time for imaging inversion than the conventional FWI approach
  • Accelerated 57× computation time for solving wave equations, accelerated 23× training time, and saved 35% GPU memory
  • Parallelized training on 8 of A100-GPUs, thus scaling for large-scale 2D&3D synthetic and field data problems
  • Published the research work in a peer-reviewed conference
JFE Steel Corporation, Steel Research Laboratory
Jul 2018 - Sep 2018
Steel Foundation Internship
Nagoya, Japan
Project: Research on steel pipe pile foundation design and geological ground survey
  • Carried out a critical comparative analysis of Vietnamese and Japanese foundation design standards, establishing the groundwork for Vietnam's first steel foundation design standard
  • Led a geological ground survey in Vietnam to successfully evaluate the applicability of JFE steel pipe pile foundations
Research Experience
The University of Texas at Austin
Jan 2021 - Present
Graduate Research Assistant
Austin, TX, USA
Project: Model-constrained machine learning frameworks for simulating time-dependent PDEs with discontinuities
  • Designed neural network surrogate models for 10× faster time-dependent PDEs simulations with discontinuities
  • Generalized neural networks for unseen scenarios, including discretization, boundary conditions, geometry, and parameters
  • Parallelized the training models and differentiable numerical PDEs simulations on a GPU cluster of 128 GPUs
Project: Model-constrained autoencoder machine learning frameworks for solving PDE-constrained inverse problems
  • Learned inverse solver surrogate models with one arbitrary training sample, thus reducing drastically the training data requirement
  • Accelerated computation time 25,000× faster than the classical Tikhonov framework while achieving the same accuracy level
Project: Redesigning Transformer architecture for simulating time-dependent PDEs and forecasting time-series data
  • Redesigned the transformer architecture via the perspective numerical methods for PDEs
  • Achieved a higher-order convergence rate than the vanilla transformer in PDEs numerical simulations with JAX
Project: TorchFire - A combination of PyTorch and Firedrake for differentiable machine learning framework
  • Embedded the Firedrake PDE simulations within PyTorch to form an end-to-end differentiable training framework
  • Distributed Firedrake PDE simulations within PyTorch on multiple CPUs for faster training neural networks
Project: Data-informed active subspace regularization framework for inverse problems
  • Identified the data-informed active subspace of parameter leading to higher quality solutions compared to conventional frameworks
  • Reduced drastically effort on tuning regularization parameters in Tikhonov framework, leading to a more robust inverse framework
Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology
July 2017 - Dec 2020
Graduate Research Assistant
Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
  • Implemented direct design method for portal steel frames using structural analysis according to ANSI/AISC 360-16
  • Developed finite element method programs for non-linear plastic analysis of 2D/3D steel semi-rigid frames
Publications
  1. H.V. Nguyen, et. al. Learning noisy dynamics of spinodal decomposition from stochastic differential equations. On preparation
  2. H.V. Nguyen, et. al. Taen: a model-constrained Tikhonov autoencoder network for forward and inverse problems. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering (2025)
  3. H.V. Nguyen, et. al. A model-constrained discontinuous Galerkin network (DGNet) for compressible Euler equations with out-of-distribution generalization. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering (2025)
  4. H.V. Nguyen, et. al. Physics-informed dual implicit neural representations for FWI with salt. International Meeting for Applied Geoscience & Energy (2025)
  5. H.V. Nguyen, et. al. JAX acceleration of physics-informed FWI and field data application. International Meeting for Applied Geoscience & Energy (2024)
  6. H.V. Nguyen, et. al. Tnet: a model-constrained deep learning approach for inverse problems. SIAM Journal of Scientific Computing (2024)
  7. R.S. Philley, H.V. Nguyen, et. al. Model-constrained empirical bayesian neural networks for inverse problems. American Congress on Computational Methods in Engineering (2023)
  8. J. Wittmer, H.V. Nguyen, et. al. On unifying randomized methods for inverse problems. Inverse Problems (2023)
  9. H.V. Nguyen, et. al. A model-constrained tangent slope learning approach for dynamical systems. International Journal of Computational Fluid Dynamics (2022)
  10. H.V. Nguyen, et. al. A data-informed active subspace regularization framework for inverse problems. Computation (2022)
  11. H.V. Nguyen, et. al. Large Displacement Elastic Analysis of Planar Steel Frames with Flexible Beam-to-Column Connections Under Static Loads by Corotational Beam-Column Element. Journal of Science and Technology in Civil Engineering (2019)
  12. H.V. Nguyen, et. al. Large Displacement Elastic Static Analysis of Semi-Rigid Planar Steel Frames by Corotational Euler--Bernoulli Finite Element. Journal of Science and Technology in Civil Engineering (2019)
Conferences
  1. Invited talk - SIAM Texas-Louisiana Section, TX, USA, 2025
  2. Poster presentation - 5th International Meeting for Applied Geoscience & Energy (IMAGE), USA, 2025
  3. Invited talk + Symposium organizer - 18th U.S. National Congress on Computational Mechanics, USA, 2025
  4. Invited talk - SIAM Conference on Computational Science and Engineering, USA, 2025
  5. Invited talk + Poster presentation + Symposium organizer - SIAM Conference on Mathematics of Data Science, USA, 2024
  6. Invited talk + Poster presentation - SciML Workshop on Scientific Machine Learning, USA, 2024
  7. Invited talk + Symposium organizer - 17th U. S. National Congress on Computational Mechanics, USA, 2023
  8. Invited talk - Seminar at Department of Mathematics - Kansas State University, USA, 2023
  9. Invited talks + Poster presentation + Symposium organizer - SIAM Texas-Louisiana Section, USA, 2022
  10. Invited talk - SIAM Conference on Mathematics of Data Science, USA, 2022
  11. Invited talk - Thematic Conference on Uncertainty Quantification for Machine Learning Integrated Physics Modeling, USA, 2022
  12. Invited talk - SIAM Conference on Uncertainty Quantification, USA, 2022
Teaching Experience
The University of Texas at Austin
Aug 2021 - Present
Teaching assistant
Austin, TX, USA
Courses: Engineering Computation (COE311K), Software Design and Engineering (COE332), Software Design For Responsible Intelligent Systems (COE379L), Analytical Methods I & II (ASE380P1, ASE380P2), Introduction to Machine Learning (EM397)
  • Delivered tutorials and mentored students about course-related materials including lecture notes, homework, and projects
  • Prepared and evaluated homework problems, exam problems, and project topics
Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology
Jun 2017 - Nov 2020
Teaching assistant
Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
Course: Steel Structures Theory and Design
Mentoring Experience
  1. William Cole Nockolds, The University of Texas at Austin, Spring Semester 2023 - A model-constrained tangent learning approach for dynamics systems on latent space, pursued PhD in the same group from Sep 2024
  2. Wesley Lao, The University of Texas at Austin, Fall Semester 2022 - Graph neural network model-constrained tangent learning approach for discontinuous wave propagation PDEs using JAX-Fluid package, pursued PhD in the same group from Sep 2023
  3. Nghia Nim, New York University, Summer Semester 2022 - Model-constrained machine learning approach to solving PDEs, Software Engineer at Bloomberg
  4. Hieu Tran, DePauw University, Summer and Fall Semesters 2022 - A convolution neural network model-constrained tangent learning approach for dynamics systems, pursued PhD in Purdue University
Referees
Prof. Tan Bui-Thanh
Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics Department, University of Texas at Austin
tanbui@ices.utexas.edu
Dr. Anusha Sekar
Computation Reservoir Geophysics R&D, Chevron Cooperation
anusha.sekar@chevron.com
Prof. Cuong Ngo-Huu
Civil Engineering Department, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology
cuongngohuu@hcmut.edu
Dr. Eng. Takuya Murakami
Steel Research Laboratory, JFE Steel Corporation
tak-murakami@jfe-steel.co.jp