Future Leaders in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering: Celebrating Diversity and Innovation
This nationwide online seminar series highlights research contributions by graduate students and postdocs from groups that are underrepresented among Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace Engineering faculties.
In addition to providing exposure and mentorship opportunities to the speakers, the seminar series will create a network among underrepresented students and faculty allies in MAE departments across the country.
Please scroll down to learn how to participate, see the schedule, and nominate or self-nominate speakers.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
The link for the online seminars for Spring 2022 will be held on zoom: https://tinyurl.com/MAEFutureLeaders2022 (meeting ID: 949 3078 1756, passcode: 312814)
The intended audience for this seminar includes high school students, university students, faculty, industry professionals -- anyone interested in the exciting work being done in the fields of mechanical and aerospace engineering. The seminars will be held twice per month.
We encourage nominations and self-nominations of senior grad students and postdocs at the link below (under "Seeking Speakers"). Speakers will be selected by a steering committee on a rolling basis. During each hour-long seminar, two speakers will each give 20-minute research presentations. When permission is granted by the speakers, the seminars will be recorded and linked below.
To receive announcements about this seminar series, subscribe to the mailing list here, then confirm your subscription by following the instructions in the email you receive. If you do not receive and respond to the confirmation email, you will not be subscribed -- please check your spam folder if you do not immediately see the confirmation email. Please advertise the seminar with #MAEFutureLeaders.
UPCOMING SEMINARS
(See past seminars at the bottom of this page)
Watch the seminar here: https://tinyurl.com/MAEFutureLeaders2022 (meeting ID: 949 3078 1756, passcode: 312814)
Speaker 1: Akhila Mallavarapu, Postdoctoral Researcher at University of Pennsylvania, "Expanding the Nanomanufacturability Design Space through Scalable Metal Assisted Chemical Etch" (Postdoc Advisor: Cherie R Kagan, PhD Advisor: S.V. Sreenivasan)
Speaker 2: Andrew Chavarin, Principal Engineer at Northrop Grumman, work done as a Ph.D. student and Postdoctoral Researcher at University of Southern California, "Model based design of porous and patterned surfaces for passive turbulence control" (Ph.D./Postdoc Advisor: Mitul Luhar)
Faculty mentors: Andrew Alleyne (University of Minnesota) and Robert Zenit (Brown University)
Host: Andrew Alleyne (Dean, College of Science and Engineering, University of Minnesota)
SEEKING SPEAKERS
We are seeking two speakers for each seminar. Each speaker will prepare a 20-minute research presentation, after which there will be 5 minutes of Q&A. Immediately after the seminar, the speakers will participate in a mentoring session with faculty from other institutions. Organizers will reach out to arrange a seminar date and obtain the talk title and abstract for selected speakers.
The nomination form includes:
The nominee's (and nominator's, if applicable) last name, first name, institutional email address, institution, department, title/position, and (if the nominator is the not the nominee's advisor) the name and email address of the nominee's advisor
Year of the nominee's expected or actual Ph.D. completion
URL for the nominee's LinkedIn profile page
The nominee's MAE area of specialty (e.g. energy, computational fluid dynamics, robotics, flight mechanics)
A short paragraph about the nominee's research/innovation in the fields of Mechanical and/or Aerospace Engineering (text only, maximum 1,000 characters including punctuation and spaces)
A short paragraph about the nominee's contributions to diversity (text only, maximum 1,000 characters including punctuation and spaces)
Optional: selection of preferred month(s) of the presentation
Click here to nominate yourself or someone else as a Speaker for Spring 2022
SEEKING FACULTY MENTORS
We are seeking several faculty mentors for each seminar. The responsibilities of a faculty mentor are to:
Advertise the seminar within their field, both nationally and internationally
Introduce a speaker at the seminar, and be prepared with questions if necessary
After the seminar, participate in a mentoring session with the speakers
Be available for follow-up mentoring with the speakers
The volunteer form requires the faculty mentor's last name, first name, institutional email address, institution, department, title/position, MAE area of specialty
ORGANIZERS
The seminar organizers for 2022 are: Samuel Graham (Georgia Tech), Allison Okamura (Stanford), Howard Stone (Princeton), Tequila Harris (Georgia Tech), Andrew Alleyne (University of Minnesota), and David Go (University of Notre Dame). Questions? Email any one of us!
Planning Committee (current and past): Andrew Alleyne (University of llinois), Jeremy Brown (Johns Hopkins), Cullen Buie (MIT), John Dabiri (Caltech), Horacio Espinosa (Northwestern), Charbel Farhat (Stanford), Dennice Gayme (Johns Hopkins), Asegun Henry (MIT), Fred Higgs III (Rice), Roderick Jackson (National Renewable Energy Laboratory - NREL), Grace O'Connell (UC Berkeley), Kimani Toussaint (Brown), Mitchell Walker (Georgia Tech), Evelyn Wang (MIT), Roberto Zenit (Brown)
We also encourage participation of additional faculty mentors to help advertise, recruit, and mentor for the program -- see "Seeking Faculty Mentors" above to volunteer.
PAST SEMINARS
Speaker 1: Ryan Rosario, Ph.D. student at University of Michigan, "Cartilage thickness mismatches in patellar osteochondral transplants can lead to chondrocyte death" (PhD Advisor: Ellen Arruda)
Speaker 2: Sydrak Abdi, Ph.D. student at University of Maryland, "Human-Robot Swarm Interaction: Safe Operation of a Cobot Swarm" (PhD Advisor: Derek Paley)
Faculty mentors: Aimy Wissa (Princeton University), Allison Okamura (Stanford University)
Host: Howard Stone (Chair, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University)
Speaker 1: Christian Santoni, Postdoctoral Associate at Stony Brook University, "Physics-based simulation of turbines for control co-design of wind farms: mesoscale to microscale modeling" (Postdoc Advisor: Ali Khosronejad, PhD Advisor: Stefano Leonardi) Download the recording here
Speaker 2: Paula do Vale Pereira, Ph.D. student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "Thermomechanical experiments and model validation of probes for the future exploration of Ocean Worlds" (PhD Advisor: Kerri Cahoy)
Faculty Mentors: Mitchell Walker (Georgia Institute of Technology), Garrett Barter (National Renewable Energy Laboratory - NREL) Download the recording here
Host: David Go (Chair, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Notre Dame)
Speaker 1: Theresa Oehmke, Postdoctoral Fellow at University of New Hampshire, "Visualizations of a Jet in Crossflow for a Turbulent Atmospheric Boundary Layer" (Postdoc Advisors: Chris White and Tracy Mandel, PhD Advisor: Evan Variano, Nominator: Nimish Pujara) Download the recording here
Speaker 2: Kendyl Waddell, Ph.D. student at University of Maryland, "Observations of Cool Pool Diffusion Flames" (PhD Advisor: Peter Sunderland) Download the recording here
Faculty Mentors: Dennice Gayme (Johns Hopkins University), Michael Mueller (Princeton University)
Host: Howard Stone (Chair, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University)
Speaker 1: Christopher Cameron, Ph.D. student at Stanford University, "Performance Optimization of MEMS Gyroscopes and Their Future Applications" (PhD Advisor: Thomas Kenny) Download the recording here
Speaker 2: Surabhi Singh, Visiting Assistant Professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, "Time-Dependent Modal Analysis and Control of Supersonic Open Cavity Flows" (PhD Advisor: Lawrence Ukeiley) Download the recording here
Faculty Mentors: C. Fred Higgs III (Rice University) and Horacio Espinosa (Northwestern University)
Host: Tequila Harris (Professor, George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Tech)
Speaker 1: Ronald Agyei, Postdoc at Johns Hopkins University, "Towards the Rapid Qualification of Advanced Composites via Synchrotron Based In-situ Analysis and Machine-Learning Based Damage Prediction" (PhD Advisor: Michael Sangid, Postdoc Advisor: Todd Hufnagel) Download the recording here
Speaker 2: Christina Harvey, Ph.D. student at University of Michigan, "The Evolution of Pitch Stability in Bird Flight" (PhD Advisor: Daniel Inman) Download the recording here
Faculty Mentors: Tequila Harris (Georgia Tech) and David Go (University of Notre Dame)
Host: Allison Okamura (Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University)
Wednesday, May 5, 2021 (11 am-noon Pacific Time / 2-3 pm Eastern Time)
Speaker 1: Opeoluwa Wonuola Olawale, Ph.D. student at Colorado School of Mines, "Who Would Most Likely Interact with Demand Flexibility at Home? – Sociodemographic Predictors from the American Time Use Survey" (Advisors: Benjamin Gilbert and Janet Reyna)
Speaker 2: Aurora López Rubio, Ph.D. student at Illinois Institute of Technology, "Global study of ionosphere using data assimilation algorithm" (Advisor: Seebany Datta-Barua)
Faculty Mentors: Hyun Kim (The University of Alabama), Shannon Yee (Georgia Tech), Krish Sharman (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Geno Pawlak (University of California San Diego)
Host: Tequila Harris (Georgia Tech)
Wednesday, Apr. 21, 2021 (11 am-noon Pacific Time / 2-3 pm Eastern Time)
Speaker 1: Irine Neche Chenwi, Ph.D. student at University of Rhode Island, "Peel Behavior of Polyurethane/Monel 400 Interface Under Load in Seawater" (Advisor: Arun Shukla) Download the recording here
Speaker 2: Oluwaseun Ogunmodede, Ph.D. student at Colorado School of Mines, "Underground Production Scheduling with Ventilation and Refrigeration Considerations" (Advisor: Alexandra Newman, Co-advisor: Gregory Bogin) Download the recording here
Faculty Mentors: Pavana Prabhakar (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Kevin Turner (University of Pennsylvania), Mario Medina (University of Kansas), Greg Shaver (Purdue University)
Host: Allison Okamura (Stanford University)
Wednesday, Apr. 7, 2021 (11 am-noon Pacific Time / 2-3 pm Eastern Time)
Speaker 1: Ophelia Bolmin, Ph.D. student at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, "Dynamics of ultrafast motion in biological and bio-inspired systems" (Advisor: Aimy Wissa, Co-advisor: Marianne Alleyne) Download the recording here
Speaker 2: Raudel Avila, Ph.D. student at Northwestern University, "Modeling programmable drug delivery in bioelectronics with electrochemical actuation" (Advisor: Yonggang Huang) Download the recording here
Faculty Mentors: Megan Leftwich (George Washington University), Rajat Mittal (Johns Hopkins University), Kevin McHugh (Rice University), Kyriaki Kalaitzidou (Georgia Tech)
Host: Jeremy Brown, Johns Hopkins University
Wednesday, Mar. 24, 2021 (11 am-noon Pacific Time / 2-3 pm Eastern Time)
Speaker 1: Quentin Sanders, Postdoctoral Fellow at North Carolina State, "Hand Rehabilitation after Stroke: Understanding and Optimizing the Usage of Wearable Robotic Technologies" (Advisors: Derek Kamper (postdoc), David Reinkensmeyer (PhD)) Download the recording here
Speaker 2: Joshua Hooks, Postdoctoral Fellow at Johns Hopkins University, "Ex-vivo and in-vitro platforms to regulate lymphatic function via microenvironment signaling cues" (Advisors: Jennifer Elisseeff (postdoc), Brandon Dixon (PhD)) Download the recording here
Faculty Mentors: James Finley (University of Southern California), Meghan Huber (UMass Amherst), Horacio Espinosa (Northwestern University), Moumita Das (Rochester Institute of Technology)
Host: Dennice Gayme (Johns Hopkins University)
Wednesday, Mar. 10, 2021 (11 am-noon Pacific Time / 2-3 pm Eastern Time)
Speaker 1: Darius Carter, Ph.D. candidate at University of Virginia, "Near-Boundary Flow Phenomena in Unmanned Aerial/Underwater Vehicles" (Advisor: Daniel Quinn) Download the recording here
Speaker 2: A. Michael West, Jr., Ph.D. student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "Mechanical Impedance: A Key Component in Both Human Motor Action and Motor Perception" (Advisor: Neville Hogan) Download the recording here
Faculty Mentors: Beverley McKeon (Caltech), Neelesh Patankar (Northwestern University), Gregory Sawicki (GaTech), Seyi Balogun (Northwestern University)
Host: Horacio Espinosa (Northwestern University)
Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2021
Speaker 1: David Brown, Postdoctoral Fellow at University of California, Los Angeles, "Frontiers in thermal engineering: Low-dimensions and extreme conditions" (Advisors: Timothy S. Fisher (Postdoc), Satish Kumar and Baratunde A. Cola (PhD)) Download the recording here
Speaker 2: Taylor Njaka, Postdoctoral Associate at Virginia Tech, "Design and Experimental Validation of a Novel High-Speed Omnidirectional Underwater Propulsion Mechanism" (Advisors: Stefano Brizzolara and Pinhas Ben-Tzvi) Download the recording here
Faculty Mentors: David Go (University of Notre Dame), Tyler Van Buren (University of Delaware), Michael Mueller (Princeton University), Petros Koumoutsakos (Harvard University), John Dabiri (CalTech)
Host: Howard Stone (Princeton University)
Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021
Speaker 1: Cedric Williams, Ph.D. student at University of Notre Dame, "Continuum Modeling Predictions of Negative Specific Heat in Phase Transition of Energetic Materials" (Advisor: Karel Matouš) Download the recording here
Speaker 2: Cody Gonzalez, Ph.D. student at Pennsylvania State University, "Analytical Modeling of a Segmented Bimorph Lithium Ion Battery Actuator" (Advisors: Mary Frecker and Christopher Rahn) Download the recording here
Faculty Mentors: Ognjen Ilic (University of Minnesota), Pradeep Sharma (University of Houston), Jian Cao (Northwestern University), Alison B. Flatau (University of Maryland)
Host: Jian Cao (Northwestern University)
Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021
Speaker 1: Mauro Rodriguez, Postdoctoral Scholar at Caltech, "An Eulerian Multiphase Framework for Fluid-structure Problems Involving Cavitation Bubble Dynamics" (Advisor: Tim Colonius) Download the recording here
Speaker 2: James Carpenter, Ph.D. Student at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, "Proximity Effects During Dropwise Condensation on Superhydrophobic Surfaces" (Advisor: Nenad Miljkovic) Download the recording here
Faculty Mentors: Ann Karagozian (UCLA), Roberto Zenit (Brown University), Roderick Jackson (National Renewable Energy Laboratory - NREL), Dennice Gayme (Johns Hopkins University), Samuel Graham (Georgia Tech)
Host: Roberto Zenit (Brown University)
Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2020
Speaker 1: Tahiya Salam, Ph.D. student at University of Pennsylvania, "Robotic Mapping Using Machine Learning and Dynamical Systems" (Advisor: Ani Hsieh)
Speaker 2: Edem Tetteh, Postdoc at University of Virginia, "Ice Adhesion on Various Surfaces & Flow Conditions" (Advisor: Eric Loth)
Faculty Mentors: Kristi Morgansen (University of Washington), Roderick Jackson (NREL), Allison Okamura (Stanford University), Eckhard Groll (Purdue University), Gareth McKinley (MIT)
Host: Grace O'Connell (UC Berkeley)
Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2020
Speaker 1: Matthew Clarke, Ph.D. student at Stanford University, "Prediction of the Operational Envelope of Electric Aircraft Through Robust Battery Cycle-Life Modeling" (Advisor: Juan Alonso) Download the recording here
Speaker 2: Jeremy Epps, Ph.D. student at Georgia Institute of Technology, "An Analysis of Wake Interactions of a Novel Aerial Modular Robotic System" (Advisor: Eric Feron; Introduced by: Mitchell Walker) Download the recording here
Faculty Mentors: Dimitri Mavris (Georgia Tech), Timothy Fisher (UC Los Angeles), Eric Loth (University of Virginia), Kenny Breuer (Brown University), KT Ramesh (Johns Hopkins University), Paulo Arratia (University of Pennsylvania)
Host: Allison Okamura (Stanford University)
Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020
Speaker 1: Sofia Arevalo, PhD student at University of California Berkeley, "Nanoindentation of Orthopedic Polymers: Mechanical Properties at the Macro-, Micro- and Nano-length Scales" (Advisor: Lisa Pruitt)
Speaker 2: Nosakhare Edoimioya, PhD student at University of Michigan, "Data-Driven Control for High-Throughput Additive Manufacturing" (Advisor: Chinedum Okwudire)
Faculty Mentors: Jeremy Brown (Johns Hopkins University), Andrew Alleyne (University of Illinois), Ellen Arruda (University of Michigan)
Host: Howard Stone (Princeton University)