research

Peer-reviewed research spanning sports technology, computational methods, nanophotonics, and applied data analysis. Google Scholar.

Paper of the Year. The International Sports Engineering Association and Springer recognized Automatic event detection in football using tracking data with the 2022 Sports Engineering Best Paper Award.

Peer-reviewed papers

1. Measuring skill via player dynamics in football dribbling. Scientific Reports, 2023.

   A physics-based model describes one-on-one dribbling from player trajectories, extracting attacker aggressiveness, defender hesitance, and top speed. These parameters provide interpretable measures of dribbling skill and suggest how training, scouting, and strategy could improve performance.

2. Optical response of metallic nanostructures using quantum hydrodynamic theory and a hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin method. Journal of Computational Physics, 2023.

   This work couples Maxwell’s equations with quantum hydrodynamic theory in a hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin solver. The method handles nonlinearities and the multiple scales of subnanometer metallic structures, enabling simulations of quantum effects, including electron spill-out and tunneling-related behavior.

3. How the COVID-19 pandemic hit crime in Barcelona: Analysis of variation in crime trends. European Journal of Criminology, 2023.

   Seasonal ARIMA models forecast crime in Barcelona from March 2020 to March 2021 using pre-pandemic daily records. Property and most violent crimes fell sharply during lockdown and then recovered, while domestic violence followed a notably different pattern.

4. Subwavelength THz resonance imaging (STRING) for molecular fingerprinting. Nano Letters, 2022.

   STRING combines single coaxial ring resonators with near-field terahertz spectroscopy to amplify weak molecular signatures. It distinguishes lactose and maltose isomers with sensitivity up to ten orders of magnitude higher than conventional far-field measurements.

5. A room-temperature polarization-sensitive CMOS terahertz camera based on quantum-dot-enhanced terahertz-to-visible photon upconversion. Nature Nanotechnology, 2022.

   Quantum-dot-enhanced terahertz-to-visible upconversion enables a fast, broadband CMOS camera that operates at room temperature. A related coaxial nanoaperture device also measures both terahertz field strength and polarization, with detection of pulses as low as 10 kV cm⁻¹.

6. Automatic event detection in football using tracking data. Sports Engineering, 2022.

   A deterministic, decision-tree-based system infers possession and applies football rules to player and ball tracking data to detect passes, shots, set pieces, and other events. Across tournaments and providers, it achieved detection rates above 90% for most event categories while adding useful spatial context.

7. A nested hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin method for computing second-harmonic generation in three-dimensional metallic nanostructures. Journal of Computational Physics, 2021.

   A second static-condensation step makes the hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin system substantially smaller and more efficient. The method simulates second-harmonic generation in a three-dimensional periodic nanogap and shows that resonances at both the fundamental and doubled frequencies are key to strong nonlinear response.

8. Impact of surface roughness in nanogap plasmonic systems. ACS Photonics, 2020.

   Simulations examine how fabrication roughness affects mid-infrared resonances in coaxial nanoapertures. Roughness shifts peaks unpredictably, but nonlocal effects remain observable; measuring ensembles of structures can average out imperfections and recover the ideal optical response.

9. Terahertz and infrared nonlocality and field saturation in extreme-scale nanoslits. Optics Express, 2020.

   An HDG solver with a hydrodynamic electron model studies plasmonic nanoslits across terahertz, near-infrared, and mid-infrared regimes. Terahertz field enhancement saturates as gaps shrink, while in the infrared nonlocality increases transmission and reduces enhancement.

10. Modeling and observation of mid-infrared nonlocality in effective epsilon-near-zero ultranarrow coaxial apertures. Nature Communications, 2019.

    This combined experimental and computational study investigates ultranarrow coaxial apertures whose effective permittivity approaches zero. It connects blue-shifted mid-infrared resonances with nonlocal electron response and shows how nanometer-scale geometry controls the optical behavior.

11. A multiscale continuous Galerkin method for stochastic simulation and robust design of photonic crystals. Journal of Computational Physics: X, 2019.

    The multiscale continuous Galerkin method combines reference-domain mappings, reduced-basis local solves, gradient calculations, and variance reduction. Together these components accelerate uncertainty-aware simulation and robust optimization of photonic-crystal devices such as splitters and bends.

12. High-contrast infrared absorption spectroscopy via mass-produced coaxial zero-mode resonators with sub-10 nm gaps. Nano Letters, 2018.

    Wafer-scale coaxial nanoapertures with sub-10 nm gaps act as zero-mode resonators that concentrate infrared light into molecular-scale regions. A 7 nm-gap device coated with silk protein produced strongly enhanced absorption, demonstrating a practical platform for surface-enhanced infrared spectroscopy.

13. Computing parametrized solutions for plasmonic nanogap structures. Journal of Computational Physics, 2018.

    A reduced-order modeling framework delivers rapid electromagnetic predictions across geometry and material variations in plasmonic nanogaps. It combines HDG discretization, a reference-domain formulation, proper orthogonal decomposition, and empirical interpolation to study sensitivity and optimize three-dimensional designs.

14. A hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin method for computing nonlocal electromagnetic effects in three-dimensional metallic nanostructures. Journal of Computational Physics, 2018.

    This paper develops an HDG method for Maxwell’s equations coupled to a hydrodynamic model of conduction-band electrons, capturing nonlocal plasmonic effects. A superconvergent postprocessing scheme is validated on two- and three-dimensional structures and reveals important differences from local-response models at the nanoscale.

15. An empirical interpolation and model-variance reduction method for computing statistical outputs of parametrized stochastic partial differential equations. SIAM/ASA Journal on Uncertainty Quantification, 2016.

    Empirical interpolation separates parametric and stochastic influences in reduced-basis approximations, while multilevel variance reduction lowers the cost of Monte Carlo estimates. The paper also develops error estimates, adaptive choices of basis and sample sizes, and gradient estimates for stochastic optimization.

16. A model and variance reduction method for computing statistical outputs of stochastic elliptic partial differential equations. Journal of Computational Physics, 2015.

    A reduced-basis HDG formulation provides fast approximations of parameterized elliptic PDEs, and a multilevel control-variate strategy uses them to accelerate high-fidelity Monte Carlo estimates. The method includes a posteriori error bounds and an algorithm for selecting model sizes and sample counts for a target tolerance.