People
Principal Investigator
Dr. Sean Symon
I am currently a lecturer (Assistant Professor) at the University of Southampton. For undergrad, I went to the University of Maryland College Park and graduated with a BS in Aerospace Engineering and a BA in French Language and Literature. I went to Caltech for an MS in Aeronautics and then spent a year in Paris at Ecole Polytechnique working towards a Masters in Fluid Mechanics. I returned to Caltech for my Ph.D. in Aeronautics with Beverley McKeon and then switched hemisphere for my post-doc at the University of Melbourne with Simon Illingworth and Ivan Marusic. I joined Southampton in September 2020.
Post-docs
Dr. Samaresh Midya
PhD Students
Craig Thompson
Co-supervisor: Prof. Bharath Ganapathisubramani
Craig completed his MEng in AeroAstro at the University of Southampton. He is investigating the dynamic response and flow fields of rigid and flexible wings subjected to high intensity turbulence. Alongside this research Craig is implementing a state observer method to assimilate the flow around a stalled airfoil at a range of Reynolds numbers and turbulent conditions.
Email: ct4g16@soton.ac.uk
Thomas Burton
Co-supervisor: Dr. Davide Lasagna
Thomas attained his MEng in Aeronautics and Astronautics with a specialisation in Aerodynamics at the University of Southampton. His current research is focused on developing efficient variational methods to find invariant solutions for wall-bounded turbulence using Resolvent-based low-order models. In addition, he holds an NPPL for microlight aircraft, and is an amatuer runner/triathlete.
Uttam Cadambi Padmanaban
Co-supervisor: Prof. Bharath Ganapathisubramani
Uttam completed his MSc in Aerospace Engineering with a specialization in Aerodynamics and Wind Energy from TU Delft. He is currently investigating the variational method of performing data assimilation for 3D turbulent flows with flow separation.
In his free time, he likes watching cricket, football and tennis and supports the Premier League club, Liverpool F. C.
Email: ucp1n22@soton.ac.uk
Martina Formichetti
Co-supervisor: Prof. Bharath Ganapathisubramani
Martina graduated from the University of Glasgow with a BEng in Aeronautical Engineering and from KTH The Royal Institute of Technology with an MSc in Fluid Mechanics. She is currently studying a novel way to model the effect of heterogeneously rough surfaces on turbulent boundary layers via experimental techniques and data assimilation.
Email: martina.formichetti@soton.ac.uk
Christian Toma
Co-supervisor: Prof. Bharath Ganapathisubramani
Christian completed his MEng in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Southampton with a specialisation in aerodynamics. Currently, he is investigating the application of physics-informed neural networks to experimental fluids and network generalisation techniques.
Before returning to Southampton, Christian founded a startup developing machine learning models for real-time optimisation of offshore wind farm control systems.
Email: christian.toma@soton.ac.uk
MSc Students
Luka Cepic
Zhaoqi (Tony) He
Alumni
MSc Students
Owain Brinkworth - MSc Race Car Aerodynamics: Using data assimilation to extrapolate mean flow over a double element rear wing - currently at Aston Martin F1
Levon Oganesyan - MSc Aerodynamics and Computation: Aerodynamics of multi-element wings on race cars using CFD and sparse wind tunnel data
Youming Meng - MSc Race Car Aerodynamics: Shallow neural networks for reconstructing the flow around aerofoils at various angles of attack
Tyler Buchanan - MSc Race Car Aerodynamics: Towards characterising the aerodynamics of race cars from sparse wind tunnel data - currently a PhD Student at TUDelft
Summer Interns
Joshua Rawden* - MEng student - Physics-informed neural networks for predicting mean velocity and temperature fields
Yi Teng Teo* - MEng student - Reduced-order modelling of urban air pollution flows
*Co-supervised with Dr. Christina Vanderwel
PGCert
Dimitar Geshev