Kevin B. Howard

Biography

Kevin came to MTU in August of 2025 after nearly 11 years at Ford Motor Company.  At Ford, Kevin was a vehicle program aerodynamicist for two years prior to becoming the aerodynamics technical expert for CFD and experimental methods.  During his tenure as the aero technical expert at Ford, he was able to lead the migration of the team from an commercial CFD code over to an open sourced based code, develop and streamline computational processes (including CAD model build) for aerodynamics and aero-acoustics, teach new aero team members and company courses and introduce new experimental fluid measurement techniques.

While at Ford as the aerodynamics technical expert, Kevin also led the technical aspects of bringing Ford's Rolling Road Wind Tunnel (RRWT) online (first test in December of 2020), including working out the complex integration and data flow from multiple supplier systems from the balance to wind tunnel control to the user interface and integration of flow measurement systems.

On the research side, Kevin has served as the industry PI on projects with several other universities and government entities, including University of Colorado Boulder, University of Michigan, MIT, Texas A&M, Purdue and NOAA, to name a few.

The path that led Kevin to Ford and now MTU included many unique opportunities.  Kevin grew up in the Midwest where he was raised on the family farm.  The farming lifestyle created a great foundation on which Kevin built his engineering knowledge, ensuring that being hands-on and focusing on and completing the tasks at hand are critical. 

Kevin always wanted to design cars, however, upon realizing he did not have the required artistic skills to be an automotive design, he found aerospace engineering and decided to pursue designing cars from an airflow perspective.  After receiving a BS in aerospace engineering from Iowa State University in 2009, Kevin continued with the automotive theme by receiving a MS in automotive engineering from Clemson University in 2011.

During his time at Clemson, he worked for a start-up as an aerodynamicist at BMI Corporation working on tractor trailer (over-the-road vehicles) drag reduction as well at Penske Racing as a design engineer intern.

Kevin's PhD research at University of Minnesota gave him the opportunity to build on his aero knowledge and extend it to atmospheric flows and experimental measurement techniques - both in the wind tunnel as well as in-situ / real-world measurements in the atmospheric boundary layer.

As shown above, Kevin has a diverse background, touching many different topics which points to his diverse research interests, yet all research topics are tied to aerodynamics and fluid flows.  Kevin is also a private pilot with instrument rating.

Most of all, Kevin is excited to bring his expertise to the MTU students and community and diverse industry problems!  If you have a problem related to fluids that fall in line with Kevin's research areas, or you are a student interested in these fields, please feel free to reach out!