Tag: Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

I am Zhihao, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics. In Fall 2016, I decided to come to Michigan Tech as a master’s student but transferred to a Ph.D. student after my first semester. At the same time, I joined Dr. Seong-Young Lee’s group for spray and combustion studies during the past four years. I am also a Research Assistant of Combustion Science Exploration Lab (CSEL) Group especially in Alternative Energy Research Building (AERB). My research mainly focuses on Laser-Based combustion diagnostics, Spray-wall interactions, and Alternative fuel combustion characteristics. I have enjoyed my Ph.D. life at MTU and I hope I can continue my academic life after my graduation.

At last, I would like to thank the Graduate school for awarding me with the Doctoral finishing fellowship. Also, I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Seong-Young Lee, for supporting me during the past four years.

I have joined Dr. Choi’s research group in Fall 2015 to pursue my PhD studies in Mechanical engineering. In my Ph.D. studies, I have worked on the development of an automated surface plasmon resonance imaging system to visualize dropwise condensation. Our developed microscope can measure the evolution of water film with the thickness as low as 1 Å at 10,000 frames per second. We have shown experimentally the existent of a monolayer thin film between distinct droplets during dropwise condensation for the first time. Our next step would be to understand the effect of this thin film in droplets (nuclei) growth and heat transfer from the surface. I would like to thank the Graduate School for financial support during the last stage of my research.

Mingyang Li
Mechanical Engineering- Engineering Mechanics

I am a Ph.D. candidate studying design for reliability in the Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics. In Fall 2014, I came to Michigan Tech as a master student in Material Science and Engineering department, and Dr. Yu Wang was my advisor for the research regarding ferroelectric materials. I joined MEEM to pursue Ph.D. after finishing my master degree in 2016. Fortunately, I decided to work with Dr. Zequn Wang, and our research interests are mainly focused on reliability analysis, uncertainty quantification, and machine learning techniques. During the past three years, we have done lots of work for improving the efficiency and accuracy of reliability analysis, and deep learning methods have been integrated for dealing with the curse of dimensionality.

I am extremely grateful to the Graduate School for the award of Doctoral Finishing Fellowship, which ensures that I can fully devoted myself to my dissertation and complete my degree within next semester. I would like to thank the guidance from my master and Ph.D. advisors. I cannot achieve my goals without the massive support from them.

Sarah Jalal
Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

I started my PhD in the Mechanical Engineering department in Fall 2015 with Dr. Fernando Ponta. My research focuses on the study of the aeroelastic behavior of variable speed stall controlled wind turbines to improve the overall efficiency of the next generation of such utility-scale machines.

I would like to thank the Graduate School for awarding me the Finishing Fellowship for the Spring 2020 semester. This fellowship will help me to focus on the final stage of my PhD to write my dissertation and complete publication manuscripts in a timely manner. I am grateful for all the support provided to me.

Mohammed Desouky
Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

I earned my bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from Military Technical College in 2005 and my MSc in aerospace engineering from Cairo University in 2012. I started at MTU in Spring 2017. My research is on spacecraft attitude determination, dynamics and control. Specifically, I am developing control schemes that enable the spacecraft to carry out attitude maneuver in less time with less power consumption.

I would like to express my gratitude to my entire family for supporting me.  With Special thanks to my father, Abdelrahman, my wife, Eman and my son, Zeyad. I am grateful to the Graduate School for granting me the Finishing Fellowship for Fall 2019. I would also like to thank my advisors Dr. Abdelkhalik and Dr. Gauchia for their academic advice and their constant support and encouragement.

It has been great time at Michigan Tech and I am proud to be a part of it.

Behdad Afkhami
MEEM

My good memories from Michigan Tech started from a chilly summer night of August 05, 2014 when my flight landed in Houghton! Later at the end of my first semester (Fall 2014) I joined Dr. Scott Miers’ research team and since then I have been involved in several engine-related researches. Working on my PhD research topic became serious in summer 2015 with focusing on developing a turbulent flame speed model for spark ignition (SI) engines. The novelty of the project was on incorporating the effect of flame stretch into the flame speed; the parameter that can affect the flame speed significantly or result in flame extinction and high unburned hydrocarbon emission especially right after ignition in SI engines. To visualize the flame, its propagation and the flame stretch in a SI engine, an optically accessible-engine was utilized and tested in Advanced Power Systems Research Center (APSRC). I want to take this opportunity to also thank Dr. Jeffery Naber, the director of APSRC for all his helps and contributions to the project.

During my graduate studies I was fortunate enough to serve as a Teaching Assistant since Spring 2015, getting promoted to the Lead Teaching Assistant in Fall 2016, and selected to receive the Distinguished Doctoral Teaching Fellowship in Spring 2019 as the instructor of Mechanical Engineering Practice 2 (MEP2) course in the ME department.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Graduate School at Michigan Tech for this financial support. This gave me an opportunity to focus on my dissertation and put all my efforts toward completion of my PhD degree. And, last but not the least, I want to thank snow and Mont Ripley which helped me to stay powered during the Houghton long winters :).

Kai Zhang
MEEM

Mr. Kai Zhang received his BS degree in Mechanical Engineering at Beijing Institute of Technology, and MS degree at University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in MEEM department under the supervision of Dr. Chunpei Cai. His research focuses on plasma simulations, and theoretical and/or numerical analysis of rarified gas flows. After the completion of his Ph.D. degree, he would return to China to teach and continue his research as a university faculty in Hunan. He wishes to bring the education experience at MTU to his future students and strive for academic excellence.

Xin He
Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

It is never easy to approach to the finishing of a Ph.D. study since one could always explore a little more. I am extremely honored to be awarded the finishing scholarship, nevertheless, the study will never end. After obtaining M.S. in New Mexico State University, I joined Michigan Tech in Spring 2016 with my research interests in computational fluid dynamics. My research topic did not take long to be specified into high-speed boundary layer flow and its stability analysis. I appreciate the opportunity that Dr. Chunpei Cai granted for joining his research group. Tech has great resources to support one on both researching and surviving in the extreme weather. Gradually, snowboarding has become my primary after-work activity throughout the year since the winter session lasts so long. Tech is always my family, being here feels like home.

Xian Li
Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

In August 2015, I had my first time to take an airplane trip and to travel aboard, and the destination was Michigan Tech in Houghton. Since then, I have joined Dr. Ye Sun’s research group and began my exciting Ph.D. study here. I earned my Bachelor’s Degree (from Tianjin University, China) and Master’s Degree (from Chongqing University, China) in Biomedical Engineering in China. Currently, my research focuses on the Internet of Things and Energy Harvesting, and my dissertation is mainly about developing a hybrid-powered wireless wearable system for biopotential monitoring.

I would like to give my sincere thanks to Graduate School for providing me with this finishing fellowship. Thanks to this financial support, I will be able to concentrate my efforts on completing the dissertation and to expect to graduate this semester. I really appreciate for learning the techniques and skills I needed for my future career, and I feel very proud of being a Ph.D. Candidate in Michigan Tech. I am also very thankful to my advisor and department of MEEM for their big support.

Niranjan Miganakallu
Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

I am a PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering at MTU. I arrived in the US in the Fall of 2014 to pursue my PhD at Michigan Tech after 6 years in industry and academia in India. I started working under the guidance of Dr. Jeff Naber with research in injector studies to study the combustion and emission performance on Gasoline engines.

My research primarily focuses on the impact of water injection in gasoline engines in terms of improving the performance and reducing the NO_x emissions. Studies are conducted on a single cylinder engine test bench at the Mechanical Engineering building at MTU to observe the combustion and emission characteristics of gasoline combustion with water injection. My research also includes studies on gasoline sprays to study the spray characteristics using conventional and alternative fuels. These studies are conducted at a state-of-the-art Alternative Energy Research Building (AERB) combustion lab in Hancock. Optical diagnostics including imaging from high-speed camera are used to observe the sprays emanating out of high-pressure injectors inside a spray vessel at varied operating conditions. This research helps in improving the fundamental understanding of the combustion process and combustion control for gasoline combustion and its impact on the environment.

Apart from research, I have been involved with the Graduate Student Government (GSG) at Michigan Tech since 2016 in various capacities as department representative, treasurer, student liaison for several committees with regular interactions with the administration. I have also had the opportunity of serving as a member of the search committee of Dean of College of Engineering at Michigan Tech representing the graduate student body.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Michigan Tech Graduate School for awarding me the Finishing Fellowship for the Spring 2019 semester. This fellowship helps me in focusing exclusively on finishing the experiments and publishing in journals to complete my dissertation in a timely manner.