Case Summary:

“[The client] has advanced us one step closer to improving the speed and ease of developing mechanical parts via his study on using finite element methods to model arbitrary boundaries. This study is of particular benefit to the automotive industry. [The client] is thus helping to advance production in a crucial U.S. industry. His research is, therefore, necessary to the national economy.”

“The finite element method is applied by industry to find solutions to issues in engineering analyses, as it is an effective means to model boundaries for contact-impact and crack propagation. It is therefore of great benefit to the manufacture of mechanical products, like vehicles, airplanes, and industrial machines. [The client] has demonstrated an important application of the finite element method through research that centered on improving the efficiency and operation of manufacturing, which is of immense benefit to the industry and the global economy.”

These statements were issued by experts in civil engineering for one of our National Interest Waiver clients from Iran. He was a senior truck tire mechanics engineer working in computational solid mechanics at the time of his application. He had hired our help to file his NIW petition for which we collected the following information:

• As an expert in the field, he wanted to continue enhancing and developing simulation methods and intelligent agents using his expertise in machine learning, data analysis, and artificial intelligence in order to improve the quality of mechanical prediction models and decrease the resources required to design products via a reduction of development loops.
• His research advancing his proposed endeavor was of great importance because it is improving the efficiency of manufacturing mechanical products.
• He is a leader in research on the finite element method, and he has developed numerous algorithms that have solved long-standing challenges in finite element method modeling. He has introduced simple and robust algorithms that leverage the power of the finite element method to accurately and efficiently model arbitrary boundaries for contact-impact and crack propagation problems.
• His innovative research is thus a major boon to the global manufacturing industry. Thus his proposed endeavor also has broad implications for the United States. He has been conducting work that has resulted in significant improvements to the durability, reliability, and safety of tires. Hence, the development of a novel polygonal-finite element method for modeling large deformation problems supports this vital sector of the U.S. industry.
• This has led to him being regularly invited to conduct peer reviews for authoritative journals in the field where he has completed at least 17 reviews already.
• His research has resulted in 19 peer-reviewed journal articles (2 of them first-authored) and 3 peer-reviewed conference papers (1 of them first-authored), all of which have been cited a total of 492 times according to Google Scholar, thereby demonstrating that these publications are widely recognized and relied upon in the field of computational solid mechanics.

Thus, the significance of his research in his field is corroborated by the evidence of peer interest in his research. At the same time, he has pursued research directly related to his proposed endeavor for approximately 15 years.

All of these factors weighed in favor of our client and won him the approval without an RFE in just 3 months. We are glad to have worked with him and we wish him all the best in his future endeavors.