Computational & Theoretical Multiphysics Laboratory

Akshay Anand is a PhD candiadate in Mechanical Engineering at Florida State University. He received his master's degree in Aeronautics and Space with a major in Turbulence, offered jointly by Ecole Centrale de Lille and ENSMA, France. Akshay has worked at Georgia Tech (Lorraine, France) and the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) for a year. He performed high-fidelity simulations for supersonic airliners and market demand estimations for Urban Air Vehicles. His current research focuses on quantifying the effects of facial features on peripheral leakage from human faces. Other research interests include reduced-order modeling (ROM), computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and enabling computer vision and FSI to solve complex engineering problems. You can find out more about his research and previous works at a-anand.com.

Akriti was a PhD candidate at FCAAP in the Mechanical Engineering department at Florida State University working with Drs Rajan Kumar and Kourosh Shoele. She received her undergraduate degree in Aerospace Engineering and master’s degree in Space Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, India with a specialization in High-Speed Aerodynamics . Her master’s thesis was carried out in the Experimental Aerodynamics Division of National Aerospace laboratories, Bangalore, India on the control of Exhaust –freestream interaction on a boat-tailed missile afterbody in the transonic and low supersonic regime. Her undergraduate thesis was based on flutter analysis of a wing at a cruise Mach number of 0.88. Post her masters, she worked as an Aerodynamics engineer at General Electric, Aviation, India on several projects based on design of various components of turbofan engines for commercial and power generation applications using RANS and LES. She also worked in the Aeroacoustics group on the noise-decomposition of the turbofan engines in the aeroacoustics group at GE Aviation. Her current research focuses on the effect of shock/boundary –layer interactions on the aero-thermo-structural coupling of compliant panels in high-speed flows using a wide range of experimental investigation techniques such as Shadowgraph, Surface Oil-flow, PIV, PSP, DIC among others. Her research interests include experimental and computational fluid mechanics of high/low speed flows, shock/boundary-layer interactions, turbomachinery aerodynamics, fluid -structure interaction.

Brian Van Stratum was a graduate student at Florida State University pursuing a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering. Brian joined the CTM Lab in 2020 to study the interaction of flexible cables with frictional and fluid environments. Brian has four years of experience in forensic engineering. In 2012-2017, he engaged in community development engineering research at Tribhuvan University in Nepal. Brian earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 2002 from Florida State University. Brian’s research interests are dynamics, controls, and robotics.

Shirin Provat was a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Mathematics at Florida State University. She was currently working on pattern accelerated electroconvection under the supervision of Dr. Mark Sussman and Dr. Kourosh Shoele. Her research focuses on finding optimal conditions for enhancing electroconvection. Her research interests include Numerical optimization, Optimal Control, and Computational Fluid Dynamics. Her hobbies are gardening and painting.

Tomas Solano received a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering at Florida State University. Previously, we graduated from Florida State University with a BS in Mechanical Engineering in 2016. His PhD research was about theoretical and numerical thermal fluids studies. Researching fluid-thermal-structure interactions and its application to thermal management and renewable energy generation. His interests include computational fluid dynamics (CFD), reduced order modeling (ROM), and optimization, with specific applications to energy.

Tso-Kang Wang received a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering at Florida State University under the guidance of Dr. Kourosh Shoele. His research interest was about controlling the complicated interaction between flow and structures. Active research topics include controlling the fluttering of an airfoil under the influence of an active flap actuator, flow-informed vibration based health monitoring technique, novel modal analysis methods for transient response or deforming bodies, and the peripheral leakage of the mask. The sophisticated beauty of Nature has been driving him to always dive deeper into learning and thinking, and his goal is to use what he has learnt to help this world become a better place. He also enjoys reading, playing basketball, and playing video games when he is not hitting the keyboard.

Oluwafemi received his PhD degree in mechanical engineering from Florida A & M University. He had his B.Tech in Metallurgical and Materials engineering in The federal university of technology, Akure, Nigeria during which he was an exchange student in his senior year at FAMU-FSU College of engineering. His research interest was Fluid structure interaction of flexible structure for piezoelectric energy harvesting and the wind-induced reconfiguration of trees during hurricanes.

Patrick Eastham received his B.S. in Applied and Computational Mathematics from Florida State in 2015. He is currently at PhD student in the Biomathematics program at FSU. He was a research assistant for Dr. Shoele in 2017 and has since continued that line of research while being funded as a NSF GRFP Fellow. He has worked on the effect of variable-viscosity mechanisms on the swimming and feeding efficiency of microorganisms with applications towards artificial microswimmers, and more generally is interested in problems in biofluidmechanics.

Shivanshu Kumar is a graduate student at Florida State University studying Mechanical Engineering. He received his Master's Degree in Thermal Engineering from the Gautam Buddha University, India. Presently, he is researching fish locomotion with the goal of improving the propulsion efficiency of a structurally-enhanced fin by using reinforcement learning. Research interests include CFD, FSI, Turbulence modeling, Thermal Flow Analysis, and Aerodynamic Shape Optimization.

Karsten Mikal Kopperstad received his Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Stavanger in Stavanger, Norway. Prior to this he served in the Norwegian Royal Navy as a fulfillment of his Norwegian citizenship duties . Karsten is now currently pursuing a Master's degree in mechanical engineering at FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, under the guidance of Dr. Koroush Shoele and Dr. Rajan Kumar. Karsten is working as a graduate research assistant at the Florida Center for advanced Areo Propulsion facility located in Tallahassee, Florida. His research interest includes experimental and computational fluid mechanics, fluid structure interaction, and renewable energy. During his pursuit for his master’s, Karsten is conducting research of the aerodynamic properties found in the wake regime behind a floating wind turbine.

Gokhan Ozkan received his BS degrees in Teacher Training in Electrical Field and Energy System Engineering from Marmara University and Erciyes University, Turkey in 2006 and 2014, and his MS in Energy System Engineering from Erciyes University, Turkey in 2016. He was a lecturer at Bozok University, Turkey. He is currently a PhD candidate in Electrical and Computer Engineering at FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, and is working as a graduate research assistant at the Center for Advanced Power Systems. His research interests include control of renewable energy, especially wind energy, electricity generation, distribution, and transmission. His Areas of experties are Renewable energy, Controls, Wind energy systems.

Jake Burns was an undergraduate student at Florida State University pursuing a dual bachelor's/ master's degree in mechanical engineering. Jake is currently working on creating and modeling reinforcement learning algorithms to actively control piezoelectric beams under certain flow conditions. His research interests include CFD, FSI, and experimental methods. In his free time he enjoys playing video games, cooking, and reading.

Yanni Giannareas was pursuing his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering at Florida State University since Spring 2018. His research concentrates on the hydrodynamics and hydroacoustics of fish schools, and how do they correlate to their ability to avoid predators. More specifically, with the use of 2D boundary element method solvers and fish-like locomotion algorithms, he is trying to quantify metrics such as scattered pressure and vorticity to evaluate the performance of a large range of fish school configurations. He enjoys working out, watching sports such as soccer or racing, and playing video games.