José Alejandro Posada-Montoya, Ph.D.
(+57 304) 228-1345, jposadam@gmail.com, http://www.linkedin.com/in/alejandroposadamontoya
Experience
Professor, January 2015 to present
Pascual Bravo University, Medellín, Colombia
· Lead the environmental research group (64 professors and 15 students) to be in the top rank of research groups by MinCiencias in Colombia.
· Designed, built and flew the first all-electric ultralight manned aircraft in Colombia and the second one in Latin America. This aircraft has two 10 kW brushless DC electric motors, two lithium-ion batteries, and 6061T6 aluminum, styrofoam, fiberglass, carbon fiber, epoxy, and dacron fabric structure. It can carry a person for around 30 minutes at a velocity of 40 knots.
· Performed FE and CFD simulations of the designed all-electric aircraft.
· Built two 58V 4.5kWh lithium-ion batteries from 620 18650 lithium-ion cells by spot welding.
· Studied the charging and discharging of lithium-ion batteries under different conditions of energy demand.
· Performed a database of 50 characteristics of more than 87 electric aircraft to get mathematical correlations of empty, motor and battery weight, MTOW, and endurance for the design of new aircraft.
· Developed a methodology for the preliminary design of all-electric aircraft.
· Increased the efficiency of a gravitational water vortex turbine by optimizing the basin, inlet channel, and turbine using CFD and the surface response methodology
· Designed, built and tested an electric vehicle in guadua with a solar panel, a battery, and a 19-kW electric motor.
· Programmed a Matlab code to determine the endurance and range of an electric vehicle.
· Determined and used the driving cycle for buses in Medellín, in order to evaluate a 10-ton natural gas bus prior to and after converting it to all-electric.
· Obtained more than 894,000 USD in research funds from MinCiencias and IUPB.
· Wrote the proposal, obtained the research funds, and designed a high-performance computing cluster for CFD and FE simulations. This cluster is going to have 7 servers with 896 cores, 1792 GB RAM, 6720 GB hard disk space, 3 Tesla T4 16GB graphic cards, and a Mellanox EDR 100 Gbps network.
· Taught mechanics of fluids and research methods for mechanical engineering students.
· Advised a MSc student and 21 undergrad students.
· Published several papers in influenza, mineralogy, all-electric aircraft, and gravitational vortex turbines with more than 400 citations.
· Presented various conferences in Malaysia, USA, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and Colombia in recognized academic organizations such as AIAA, IEEE, ESA, CNES, ONERA, and Royal Aeronautical Society.
· Got funding support for one grad student and three undergrad students.
Aerospace consultant, February 2022 to present
· Designed operational procedures for the Embraer 145 when an engine becomes inoperative during take-off, approach and landing at high elevation airports (SEQM and SKPS). Based on the ICAO “Procedures for Air Navigations Services: Aircraft Operations, Volume II, Construction of Visual and Instrument Flight Procedures”.
· Evaluated the maximum take-off and maximum landing weight performance charts for obstacle clearance, climb, brake energy, and field length of the Embraer 145 when operating with a single engine using the AFM.
Entrepreneur, January 2012 to 2015
Viaja Verde, Medellín, Colombia
· Converted two motorbikes and more than 20 bicycles to electricity.
· Won USD 5000 in an entrepreneur competition funded by the Municipality of Medellín, Colombia.
Post-Doctoral Fellow and Visiting Professor, July 2008 to June 2013
West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA.
Research fellow under the supervision of Dr. Ismail Celik:
· Simulated the flow, combustion, and temperature characteristics in a 650 MW pulverized coal boiler using Computational Fluid Dynamics, Fluent.
· Studied the dispersion of cough-generated bioaerosols in a NIOSH environmental chamber using Lagrangian and Eulerian methodologies.
· Determined the best locations for the placement of bioaerosol samplers during a study of influenza transmission in WVU Urgent Care Clinic.
· Assessed numerically and experimentally the residence time of cough generated droplets in the WVU Ruby Memorial hospital children’s waiting room.
· Wrote a Matlab code for image processing of droplets evaporating and condensing under different environmental conditions.
· Developed a model to predict the viability of airborne viruses such as influenza and SARS-CoV-2.
· Mentored two international grad students to get their MSc thesis.
· Taught thermodynamics, and conduction heat transfer for 16 grad and 40 undergrad students.
· Served as a pilot in the WVU full-motion flight simulator for a NASA project aimed at determining the effect of failures of control surfaces and their detection by an artificial intelligence code.
Aerospace Consultant, April-July 2009
Aeroprof, Bogotá, Colombia.
· Performed a literature review of aerospace composite materials and processes to reinforce the floor of Casa 212 aircraft for the Colombian Air Force.
Associate Professor, July 2007 – July 2008
Pontifical Bolivarian University, Medellín, Colombia.
· Coordinator of the Aerospace Research Group.
· Established the requirements and selected a company to manufacture 25 training aircraft for the Colombian Air Force.
· Principal investigator in the design and construction of a tactical missile for the Colombian Air Force.
· Fluids advisor in the characterization of mechanical heart valves using a wind tunnel.
Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant, August 2004 – May 2007
West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA.
Research assistant under the supervision of Dr. John Loth:
· Won a scholarship to study a PhD in Aerospace Engineering at WVU.
· Decreased by around 5% the induced drag by Boundary Layer Control – BLC on aircraft.
· Built and tested a low-speed ejector for Circulation Control air injection and Boundary Layer Control.
· Investigated different air ejectors to determine the effects on volume/mass flows, pressures, and velocities.
· Designed and built a single-axis force measurement balance for use with UAV model experiments.
· Taught mechanics of materials, and thermal and fluids lab for more than 80 undergrad students.
Assistant Professor, October 2003 – July 2004
Pontifical Bolivarian University, Medellín, Colombia.
· Coordinator of the Master of Engineering Program in Aeronautical Engineering.
· Coordinator of the Aerospace Research Group.
· Taught introduction to aerodynamics, incompressible aerodynamics, aerodynamics and fluids lab, introduction to aeronautics, aircraft performance, and aerodynamics for more than 30 grad and 120 undergrad students.
Education
Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering, May 13, 2007
West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA, GPA: 3.92/4.0
Dissertation: Numerical Study of Wingtip Shed Vorticity Reduction by Wing Boundary Layer Control
M.Sc. in Aeronautical Engineering, June 24, 2004
Pontifical Bolivarian University, Medellín, Colombia, GPA: 3.6/4.0
Thesis: Study to Determine the Best Aircraft for the Colombian Airways
Studied the supply and demand of travel in Colombia. As well as the performance of different regional jets, single-aisle jets, and turboprop aircraft to satisfy part of the demand economically and efficiently. Perform the cost structure of a low-cost airline.
Perform performance evaluation of different aircraft.
B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, December 14, 2001
National University of Colombia, Medellín, Colombia, GPA: 3.0/4.0
Thesis: Implementation of a Composite Workshop for DC-8, Boeing 727 and 767 aircraft at Tampa Airlines
Studied the different materials and processes used to repair composite structures of the aircraft in Tampa Airlines using the SRM. Proposed a composite workshop with the tools and materials required for the task. Evaluated the maintenance records to determine the workload and economic feasibility of the workshop.
Commercial Pilot, December 1996
Halcones aviation school, Medellín, Colombia
Skills
Languages: Spanish: Native speaker. English: Fluent. French: Beginner.
Computer: Catia, Profili, Advanced Aircraft Analysis, D-Six, Pro-Engineer, Visual Basic, Fortran, Assembler, AutoCAD, Solidworks, Ansys, Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Outlook, Money, Project, Windows and Linux.
CFD skills: Fluent, MatLab, Gambit, Tecplot, Parallel processing, structured and unstructured meshes, flow control, drag reduction, droplet dynamics, environmental effects and scalar simulations.
Other: Electrical, electronics, programming, machining, composite materials, proposal and technical publications writing, present at conferences, obtain research funds, lead groups, mentor, teach, project manager, aeronautical operations and maintenance, PC assembly.