Michigan Tech Expands Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty with Eight New Hires

New appointments strengthen research and teaching in support of the University’s new Aerospace Engineering degree and growing enrollment.

Michigan Technological University’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) is expanding its faculty in response to strong growth in student enrollment, increasing national demand for expertise in key engineering fields, and the launch of our BSAE degree program. We’ve added eight new faculty members to join our flight crew for the 2025-26 academic year, strengthening our research and teaching capacity.


Top Row: Roland Platz (left), Aslihan Vuruskan (center), Kevin Howard (right); Middle Row: Ze Feng (Ted) Gan; Bottom Row: Tania Demonte Gonzalez (left), Geordan Gutow (center), Andrew Oliva (right). Not Pictured: Madelyn (Hoying) MacRobbie.

Tania Demonte Gonzalez, Assistant Teaching Professor – Ph.D., Michigan Tech. Dynamic systems modeling and control. Senior Personnel on DOE-funded Marine Energy project; published in Energies on nonlinear predictive control of wave energy converters.

Ze Feng (Ted) Gan, Assistant Professor – Ph.D., Penn State. Rotorcraft aeroacoustics and electrified aerospace propulsion. Authored “Challenges and Opportunities for Low Noise Electric Aircraft” in the International Journal of Aeroacoustics.

Geordan Gutow, Assistant Professor – Ph.D., Georgia Tech. Robotics, dynamics, applied mathematics, and AI. Former Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Fellow at Carnegie Mellon. Leads eight funded projects, including Air Force– and NSF-supported initiatives in space operations and multi-agent planning.

Kevin Howard, Assistant Professor – Ph.D., University of Minnesota. Former CFD technical expert and supervisor at Ford Motor Company, specializing in aerodynamics for consumer vehicles and NASCAR racecars.

Madelyn (Hoying) MacRobbie, Assistant Professor – Ph.D. expected August 2025, MIT/Harvard Medical School. Aerospace physiology and in-space medical systems. 2023 Emerging Space Leader awardee; her research includes studying physiological adaptation to altered gravity. (Starting January 2026.)

Andrew Oliva, Assistant Professor – Ph.D., University of Notre Dame. Aerothermodynamics and hypersonic flow. Published in Physics of Fluids. Will spearhead MAE’s hypersonics program in support of the new aerospace degree.

Roland Platz, Assistant Professor – Former Associate Professor at Deggendorf Institute of Technology (Germany). Structural dynamics, smart structures, and uncertainty quantification; led a major EU-funded collaborative research center with TU Darmstadt.

Aslihan Vuruskan, Assistant Teaching Professor – Ph.D., Missouri S&T. Aerodynamics and CFD. Amelia Earhart Fellowship recipient; published optimization work in the Journal of Aircraft.

With these faculty joining in the 2025–26 academic year, Michigan Tech MAE is building robust capacity in aerospace and mechanical engineering research and education aligned with national priorities.

The Future is Now: A New Era for the MAE Department

We are pleased to report on the significant momentum and growth within our department. The launch of our new Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering program has been a resounding success, driving a record number of first-year student enrollments.

Enrollment Growth and Strategic Expansion

This fall, our department saw a total of 400 student deposits, a remarkable increase from our typical 315. The new aerospace engineering program enrolled 59 students, while our mechanical engineering program maintained a robust class of 341 students. This data defies conventional expectations that the introduction of a new program might cannibalize enrollment from an established one. Instead, it demonstrates strong, synergistic growth across both disciplines. Our department now accounts for an impressive 24% of all deposits across the university, positioning us as a key driver of institutional growth. To support this significant expansion, we are also welcoming eight new faculty members this year to bolster both our new and existing programs.

Investing in World-Class Infrastructure

To accommodate this expansion and ensure our students and faculty have access to cutting-edge resources, we are in the midst of a major infrastructure overhaul. Renovations — spanning four floors of the department’s buildings — are on schedule to be completed by the end of the year. This project includes the development of new, specialized laboratories for wind tunnels, turbines, and rocket engines, along with modernized lecture halls and a dedicated student collaboration space designed to foster interdisciplinary work and innovation.

This strategic investment in our facilities, combined with our strong enrollment trends, underscores our commitment to excellence in both education and research. We are confident that these enhancements will further strengthen our position as a leader in mechanical and aerospace engineering, preparing the next generation of industry and academic leaders.

Students conduct testing in the Dusty Thermal Vacuum Chamber (DTVAC).
Students at Michigan Tech use the Lunar simulant sandbox for traction and excavation testing.

New Faculty Spotlight: Q&A with Fei Long

Faculty Q&A: Meet Fei Long, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Michigan Tech

Fei Long Portrait
Fei Long

Assistant Teaching Professor Fei Long joined the MAE Department in 2013, first as a post-doctoral research associate for one year, and then as an instructor and faculty member. His areas of research expertise include nanomaterials and scanning probe microscopy, sustainable manufacturing, Machine Learning, and waste characterization and recycling. 

What drew you to Michigan Tech?

FL: My journey here has been somewhat unique, but I feel fortunate to be at Michigan Tech. After my Ph.D., I worked as an application scientist at Bruker, a scientific instrument company. While I gained valuable experience, the travel-intensive nature of the job led me to seek a return to academia. 

It was a bit of serendipity that Professor Reza Shahbazian-Yassar posted a postdoc opening at Michigan Tech in a Bruker user forum. I reached out, we had a great conversation, and I began my postdoc in what is now the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE). Following my postdoc, I continued teaching in MAE while growing my research and publications, and in fall 2024, I was thrilled to join the department as a tenure-track assistant professor. Beyond the professional opportunities, both my wife and I appreciate the friendly and supportive people at Michigan Tech, and the peace and natural beauty of Houghton. Coming from a huge city like Shanghai (with its 24.8 million people!), we’ve truly embraced the Yooper lifestyle.

New Faculty Spotlight: Q&A with Chloe He

Faculty Q&A: Meet Chloe He, assistant teaching professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Michigan Tech

Chloe He portrait
Chloe He

Dr. Chloe He was a lecturer in the MAE department at Michigan Tech in Spring 2024, and is now an assistant teaching professor started in Fall 2024. She holds a BA in Environmental and Energy Engineering from Beijing University of Technology, a MS in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from New Mexico State University and PhD in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Michigan Technological University. Dr. He is specialized in heat transfer, with a particular focus on leveraging chemical surface treatment techniques to enhance thermal performance in experimental settings.

What drew you to Michigan Tech?
CH: I first came to Michigan Tech as a PhD student. What really drew me in was a combination of academic opportunity and personal passion. When I was a master’s student at New Mexico State, my advisor, Dr. Chunpei Cai, accepted a job at Michigan Tech and invited me to continue my studies under his guidance. I did some research into Michigan Tech and was impressed by the research facilities and academic environment. The bonus? I love snowboarding, and Michigan Tech offered me both professional growth and access to great winter sports.

Atmospheric Scientist Shawn Brueshaber Studies Other Planets to Better Understand Our Own

Shawn Brueshaber
Shawn Brueshaber

On Jupiter, polar cyclones shaped like sawblades and spirals swirl and lightning flashes above a deep and essentially bottomless atmosphere. Meanwhile, about 500 million miles away in Houghton, Michigan, six inches of lake effect snow falls with barely a predicting blip on the radar. Shawn Brueshaber wants to learn more about both of these intriguing phenomena, and if they have more in common than we think. 

One wouldn’t expect to find a planetary atmospheric scientist in an engineering department, but Brueshaber holds a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering and earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering. He draws on his engineering background every day. 

From a mechanical and aerospace engineering perspective, it’s all fluid mechanics, says Brueshaber. “The only difference is we’re not playing around in, say, a jet turbine. We’re studying fluid mechanics on a rotating spherical body over a very large scale—in the thousands and thousands of kilometers.”

Michigan Technological University Spring 2025 MAE Senior Recognition Banquet & Order of the Engineer Ceremony

Keynote Speaker

Dr. Brandon Dilworth is the Group Leader of the Mechanical Engineering Group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, a federally funded research and development center within the Department of Defense. Brandon is a graduate of Michigan Tech, completing a Master’s in ME in 2006, and a PhD in ME in 2009, with Dr. Jason Blough serving as the advisor for both degrees. Brandon has served as a member of the Executive Board for the Society of Experimental Mechanics, and is a current member of the External Advisory Board for Michigan Tech’s Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department. He also completed the Program for Leadership Development with Harvard Business School’s Executive Leadership Program in 2021. Outside of the professional environment, Brandon is the father of two children, Lucy (14) and Jack (11), and attempts to utilize as much “free time” as possible to explore hobbies that blend outdoor activities with spending quality time with his children.

New Faculty Spotlight: Wei Wei

Wei Wei
Wei Wei

Wei Wei joined the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering as an associate professor in Fall 2024. She earned her PhD in Materials Science and Engineering at Michigan Tech. Prior to joining the MAE faculty, she was an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Wichita State University.

What drew you to Michigan Tech?

WW: I spent five years at Michigan Tech for my PhD—the first five years after moving to the U.S. During that time, I made some of the best friends of my life and really felt at home here. Ever since, I knew I wanted to make my way back. Plus, Michigan Tech has the right facilities for my research, making it the perfect place to be.

Sharma’s MADLab Provides Unique Opportunities for Engineering Researchers

In the MADLab at Michigan Tech, 3D printers hum as troll figurines with long tresses smile down from shelves, drone wings sprouting synthetic hair whisper through revolutions, small balloonlike inflatables are tested for their surprising strength, and a jar of grape jelly sits on a shelf—proof of the cost-effective research happening here. (We’ll explain in a minute.)

Dr. Bhisham Sharma
Bhisham Sharma

The lab founder is Bhisham Sharma, whose research addresses the intersection of structural mechanics, dynamics, and acoustics. Sharma joined Michigan Tech’s department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering as an associate professor in August 2023. Prior to joining Tech, he was an assistant professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Wichita State University, 2016. He brought the lab and several student researchers with him when he came to MTU.

The MADLab aims to understand the fundamental mechanics of advanced structured material systems and leverage this understanding to create new technologies for aerospace and mechanical applications. It also seeks to have a transformative impact on global society through accessible and inclusive scientific research and education.

The MADLab at Michigan Tech includes two NSF Graduate Research Fellows; a NASA Jumpstart Fellow; and undergraduate, graduate, and postdoc researchers—all working in a facility that may live up to its name.

That’s because Sharma’s lab reflects his educational philosophy. Here are a few of his favorite lessons:

Inspiration is everywhere

Aerogels are a class of synthetic materials that are produced by extracting the liquid component of a gel and replacing it with gas, resulting in an extremely lightweight material which can be up to 99.98% air by volume. Though aerogels have found applications in thermal blankets and as energy absorbers, their uses have been limited due to their fragility and lack of control over their macrostructure.

Aerogels also look a lot like freeze-dried cat treats.

Feeding a hungry cat in the Sharma household was the unlikely inspiration for a new project: using additive manufacturing to create stronger, more consistent aerogels. The MADLab’s aerogel research has led to new products and new manufacturing technologies. “That’s the beauty of being at a university—you can experiment first with an end goal of finding a useful solution,” says Sharma.


To attract the best students, be unique

Sharma believes it’s easier to attract, retain, and motivate students with unique projects, and the MADLab student team speaks to that philosophy.

PhD candidate Will Johnston first learned about 3D printing as a sophomore at Wichita State. Johnston began working with Dr. Sharma as an undergraduate researcher, experimenting with new methods of creating long, hair-like fibers using 3D printers. Johnston and Sharma looked to nature for potential applications for these fibers. They landed on owls, which are nearly silent when they fly due to the unique structure of their feathers. 

Johnston, now at Michigan Tech, is PI on the AeroFeathers project, which uses 3D printing to fabricate biomimetic blades. These blades could be used to make drones, fans, HVAC systems, and industrial settings quieter. The MADLab student team was awarded $80,000 from the NASA University Student Research Challenge (USRC). They’ll use the award for fabrication, testing, and data analysis of AeroFeathers while embarking in a public crowdfunding campaign. AeroFeathers also won an honorable mention in the aerospace and defense category of the 2023 SAE Create the Future Design contest.

three 3D printed drone blades, with different hairlike textures on each edge.
Inspired by owl feathers, hairlike edges make AeroFeathers blades quieter.

Don’t artificially constrain your research interests

The MADLab’s research is broad-ranging for a reason. They’re doing additive manufacturing with synthetics, ceramics, and aerogels. Creating TenseFlatables, stronger versions of lightweight inflatable devices often used in the aerospace industry. Using a mathematical concept discovered around 190 BCE to design a new class of phononic structures. And much more. By embracing the discovery mindset inherent at universities, and the interests of his students, Sharma’s MADLab is producing groundbreaking results in a wide variety of fields. 

The lab sidesteps budgetary constraints by finding low-cost solutions whenever possible. 

“Low costs mean you can experiment a lot more,” says Sharma. “If you break something, it’s no big deal.” For example, finding a way to 3D print with ceramics could be a boon to the aerospace industry. But traditional 3D printers use solid plastic, and ceramics begin as a hot liquid and dry to a solid. So when the MADLab was challenged to convert a typical printer into a low-cost direct ink writing printer that prints with liquids, they needed a cheaper way to prove the concept. Printing grape jelly onto a piece of bread was a cheap (and delicious) first-round solution. 

Play Jelly Printing at Michigan Tech video
Preview image for Jelly Printing at Michigan Tech video

Jelly Printing at Michigan Tech

3D printing with jelly is a cost-efficient way to test 3D printing liquids.

These projects and others in Sharma’s MADLab reflect his educational philosophy: the joy of university work comes from helping top-tier student talent grow their skills while having the autonomy to pursue broad fields of research as new ideas and technologies come along.


About the College of Engineering

Michigan Tech’s College of Engineering offers more than 15 bachelor of science degrees in biomedical engineering, chemical engineering, civil, environmental and geospatial engineering, electrical and computer engineering, engineering fundamentals, geological and mining engineering and sciences, manufacturing and mechanical engineering and technology, materials science and engineering, and mechanical and aerospace engineering. 

Our engineering graduate degree options include master’s and PhD programs, along with robust online certificate programs for busy professionals. Follow Michigan Tech Engineering on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter for the latest happenings.

Michigan Technological University Fall 2024 MAE Senior Recognition Banquet & Order of the Engineer Ceremony

Keynote Speaker

Eric Little is a professor of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and a lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus. He also works as a patent agent at Schwegman Lundberg and Woessner, a law firm based in Minneapolis, and as an engineering and business consultant for several startup companies. With over 20 years of experience in engineering and entrepreneurship, Eric has expertise in the research, development, and commercialization of innovative products and technologies across a range of industries, including automotive, acoustics, mechanical testing/control, and medical devices. His background includes serving as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Earl Bakken Medical Devices Center and co-founding two medical device start-ups focused on cardiac care. Eric has authored several peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers, and he is a passionate advocate for STEM education. Eric earned a bachelor’s degree in business, along with bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics from Michigan Tech. He also holds a law degree with a focus on Intellectual Property from William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota. An enthusiastic advocate of Michigan Tech, Eric is equally dedicated to supporting Upper Peninsula establishments such as the Downtowner, KBC, and Nuitini’s.

Jung Yun Bae, collaborators develop smart agriculture for small farms

Jung Yun Bae leads a team of investigators funded by a $423,300 Farm Innovation Grant from the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD). The grants are designed to develop and support innovative solutions to real, immediate, and future farm challenges facing Michigan’s food and agricultural industry. Bae and team members are working on the project with The Lucky Clover Farm in Gaylord, MI.

Dr. Jung Yun Bae.

The two-year project, titled “Improving Climate Resiliency and Economic Return of Michigan’s Labor-Intensive Produce Using Low-Cost, Modular Robotic Fleets”, seeks to develop an automated floriculture harvesting system to support small farms. As stated in the team’s proposal, “The project aims to develop a robotic platform by integrating advanced technologies, including mechanical design, artificial intelligence, modern control algorithms, and autonomous navigation, to address the labor shortage and offer cost-effective solutions to farmers.”