Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

Faculty Directory

Jason Blough

Jason R. Blough

  • Interim Chair and Distinguished Professor, Mechanical Engineering—Engineering Mechanics
  • Clean Snowmobile Team Faculty Advisor

Areas of Expertise

  • Vibrations
  • Unique Instrumentation/Data Acquisition
  • Digital Signal Processing
  • Noise Control

Research Interests

  • Dynamic Measurement Problems
  • Developing new digital signal processing algorithms to understand NVH type problems
  • Ways to improve the NVH characteristics of virtually any machine
Parisa Pour Shahid Saeed Abadi

Parisa Pour Shahid Saeed Abadi

  • Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering—Engineering Mechanics
  • Affiliated Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering
  • Affiliated Assistant Professor, Materials Science and Engineering

Links of Interest

Research Interests

  • Nanomaterials
  • Stem cell and tissue engineering
  • Nano-biomaterials
  • Mechanical characterization of advanced materials
  • Sensors and actuators in medical device
  • Finite element analysis (FEA)
Jeffrey Allen

Jeffrey S. Allen

  • John F. and Joan M. Calder Endowed Professor in Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
  • Associate Chair and Director of Undergraduate Studies, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

Links of Interest

Areas of Expertise

  • Capillary Flow
  • Interfacial Transport Phenomena
  • Fuel Cells
  • Phase-Change Heat Transfer
  • Microgravity Fluid Physics

Research Interests

  • Stability of evaporating and condensing liquid films
  • Capillary-Scale Gas-Liquid Flow
  • Near-Field Optical Diagnostics
  • Thermal and Mass Transport in Porous Media and Fuel Cells
  • Low-gravity fluid dynamics
  • Weak Atmospheric Shock Waves
Jung Yun Bae

Jung Yun Bae

  • Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
  • Assistant Professor, Applied Computing

Research Interests

  • Robotics, Multi-robot systems
  • Coordination of Heterogeneous Robot Systems
  • Vehicle Routing Problems
  • Multi-robot System Control and Optimization
  • Autonomous Navigation
  • Unmanned Vehicles
  • Operational Research for Autonomous Vehicles
Ezra Bar-Ziv

Ezra Bar-Ziv

  • Professor, Mechanical Engineering—Engineering Mechanics

Areas of Expertise

  • Clean Coal Combustion
  • Fuel Switching in Coal Power Plants
  • Torrefaction and pyrolysis of Biomass

Research Interests

  • Emissions from Coal Power Plants
  • Simulation of Operation of Coal Power Plants
  • Torrefied-biomass (biocoal) as a Renewable Clean Replacement of Coal
  • Kinetics of Torrefaction and Pyrolysis of Biomass
Sajjad Bigham

Sajjad Bigham

  • Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
  • Lou and Herbert Wacker Professorship in Mechanical Engineering

Links of Interest

Areas of Expertise

  • Heat Transfer and Thermal Management
  • Multiphase Flows and Phase-change Phenomena
  • Energy Systems
  • Micro- and Nano-fabrication Techniques

Research Interests

  • Microscale Heat Transfer
  • Microscale Physics of Boiling and Condensation Heat Transfer
  • Interfacial Transport Phenomena at Extreme Temperatures and Pressures
  • Multiphase Systems under Harsh Operating Conditions
  • HVAC&R Systems
  • Desalination Systems
  • Micro- and Nano-engineered Materials
  • Energy Conversion and Storage Devices
Chunpei Cai

Chunpei Cai

  • Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

Links of Interest

Areas of Expertise

  • Fluid dynamics
  • Aerospace and space engineering
  • Computational fluid dynamics

Research Interests

  • Rarefied and non-equilibrium gas dynamics
  • Plasma simulations
  • Electric propulsion
  • Computational fluid dynamics
Bo Chen

Bo Chen

  • Professor, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
  • Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Links of Interest

Areas of Expertise

  • Mechatronics and embedded systems
  • Agent Technology
  • Monitoring and control networks
  • Hybrid electric vehicles
  • Smart grid

Research Interests

  • Modeling and control of hybrid electric vehicles
  • EV-smart grid integration
  • Distributed monitoring and control
  • Battery control for HEV and energy storage systems
  • IC engine management systems
  • Sensor information fusion
Chang Choi

Chang Kyoung Choi

  • Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering—Engineering Mechanics
  • Affiliated Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering
  • Director, Multi-Scale Technologies Institute (MuSTI)

Links of Interest

Areas of Expertise

  • Microscopic Imaging Techniques
  • Micro-/nano-fabrications
  • Cellular Sensing & Single Protein Tracking

Research Interests

  • Opto-electric Cellular Sensing
  • Microfluidics and Microscale Heat Transfer
  • Droplet Impingement on Patterned Metal Surfaces
  • Evaporation of Thin Films and Droplets
  • Multiscale Interface Phenomena
  • Neutron imaging
  • Fluid Flow-induced Shear Effect on Chondrons; Regeneration of pericellular matrix from chondrocytes using microencapsulation;
Ana Dyreson

Ana Dyreson

  • Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

Links of Interest

Areas of Expertise

  • Solar photovoltaic and thermal power plants
  • Electricity grid operational modeling
  • Energy-water nexus

Research Interests

  • Grid integration under high penetrations of wind and solar energy
  • Drought and heat impacts on power systems
  • Thermal power plant modeling
  • Hybrid power plant value propositions
  • Electricity load modeling
William Endres

William J. Endres

  • Richard and Elizabeth Henes Professor (Mechanical Engineering)
  • Senior Capstone Design Program Director
  • Manufacturing/Industrial (MI) Area Director

Links of Interest

Areas of Expertise

  • Machining Dynamics
  • Cutting Mechanics
  • Manufacturing Processes
Susanta Ghosh

Susanta Ghosh

  • Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
  • Faculty member of Center for Data Sciences at the Institute of Computing and Cybersystems (ICC)
  • Faculty member of the Center for Applied Mathematics and Statistics

Links of Interest

Susanta Ghosh's Lab Webpage

Postdoctoral Research Experience

  • Duke University, Durham
  • University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
  • Technical University of Catalunya, Barcelona

Research Expertise

  • Bayesian Machine Learning and Uncertainty Quantification
  • Scientific Machine Learning
  • Computational Solid Mechanics
  • Materials Modeling
  • Biomedical Imaging and Inverse Problems
Kartik Iyer

Kartik Iyer

  • Assistant Professor, Physics
  • Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

Links of Interest

Research Interests

  •  Atmospheric Physics
  • Turbulence
  • Thermal convection
  • Numerical simulations
  • Supercomputing
L. King

L. Brad King

  • Richard and Elizabeth Henes Endowed Professor (Space Systems), Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
  • Director, Space Systems Research Group
  • Faculty Advisor, Aerospace Enterprise

Areas of Expertise

  • Space Propulsion
  • Plasma Physics
  • Optical Fluid Diagnostics

Research Interests

  • Design of in-situ electrostatic probes
  • Ion-energy analysis and time-of-flight mass spectrometry
  • Doppler laser cooling of trapped ions
  • Optical flow diagnostics
  • Antimatter confinement
Seong-Young Lee

Seong-Young Lee

  • Professor, Mechanical Engineering—Engineering Mechanics
  • Energy Thermo-Fluids (ETF) Area Director

Links of Interest

Areas of Expertise

  • Spray Combustion
  • Fuel Chemistry
  • Soot Emissions
  • Laser-Based Combustion Diagnostics
  • Internal Combustion Engines
  • Gas Turbine Engine

Research Interests

  • Laminar and Turbulent Combustion engines
  • Soot Formation and Spray Combustion
  • Bio/Alternative Renewable Energy and Clean Fuels in Low Temperature Combustion
  • New Emerging Laser-Based Technique Development
  • Nonequilibrium Plasma-Assisted Combustion
  • Surrogate Fuel Chemical Reaction Models and CFD Modeling of Reacting Flow Systems
  • Combustion Dynamics of Instability, Stabilization, and Propagation in Gas Turbine Engine
Vijaya V. N. Sriram Malladi

Vijaya V. N. Sriram Malladi

  • Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

Links of Interest

Areas of Expertise

  • Vibrations; Modal Testing
  • Anechoic Traveling Waves
  • Digital Signal Processing
  • Data-Analytics
  • Smart Materials 

Research Interests

  • Adaptive Systems and Meta-structures
  • Internet-of-Vibrations
  • Environmental Testing
  • Human-structure Interaction
  • Piezoceramics and SMAs
  • Wave Propagation
  • Structural Health Monitoring
  • Bio-inspired Dynamics
Hassan Masoud

Hassan Masoud

  • Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering—Engineering Mechanics
  • Affiliated Assistant Professor, Mathematical Sciences

Links of Interest

Areas of Expertise

  • Fluid Mechanics
  • Transport Phenomena
  • Applied Mathematics
  • Scientific Computing

Research Interests

  • Interfacial and Multiphase Flows
  • Fluid-Structure Interaction
  • Mechanics of Soft Matter
  • Biological and Bio-Inspired Fluid Mechanics
  • Flow Through Porous Media
  • Micro and Nano Fluidics
Scott Miers

Scott A Miers

  • Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering—Engineering Mechanics
  • SAE Faculty Advisor

Links of Interest

Areas of Expertise

  • Alternative and renewable transportation fuels
  • Internal combustion engine efficiency
  • Performance and emissions
  • Wireless data acquisition techniques
  • Combustion visualization

Research Interests

  • Internal combustion engine efficiency, emissions, and performance
  • Alternative and renewable fuels: investigating how the unique chemical compositions affect both engine and vehicle operation
  • IC engine data acquisition techniques such as piston-mounted wireless microwave telemetry and minimally invasive combustion visualization
  • Alternative and renewable transportation fuels
  • In-Use Emissions
Ibrahim Miskioglu

Ibrahim Miskioglu

  • Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
  • Faculty Advisor, BoardSport Technologies Enterprise
  • Solid Mechanics (SM) Area Director and Faculty Advisor, SEM

Links of Interest

Areas of Expertise

  • Engineering Mechanics
  • Experimental Stress Analysis
  • Composite Materials

Research Interests

  • Use of severe plastic deformation to alter properties of materials
  • Failure studies of random fiber composites with applications to structural problems
  • Failure of sandwich panels with applications to structural problems
  • Nanoscale properties of interphase in polymer matrix composites
  • Photomechanics integrated with digital image processing for thermomechanical stress analysis
Jeffrey Naber

Jeffrey D. Naber

  • Richard and Elizabeth Henes Endowed Professor (Energy Systems), Mechanical Engineering—Engineering Mechanics
  • Director, Advanced Power Systems Research Center
  • Pi Tau Sigma Faculty Advisor

Areas of Expertise

  • Internal Combustion Engines
  • Hydrogen and Biofuels
  • After-Treatment

Research Interests

  • Combustion processes and combustion control of hydrogen and hydrogen dual fueled engines
  • Biofuels including ethanol with production from forest products and application in advanced combustion engines
  • Gasoline IC engine research and the development of physical based correlations and models
  • Development of combustion measurement techniques for diesel, gasoline, and HCCI and PPCI engines
Amitabh Narain

Amitabh Narain

  • Professor, Mechanical Engineering—Engineering Mechanics
Gregory Odegard

Gregory M. Odegard

  • John O. Hallquist Endowed Chair in Computational Mechanics, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
  • Director of Research
  • Affiliated Professor, Materials Science and Engineering and ASME Faculty Advisor

Links of Interest

Areas of Expertise

  • Mechanics of Materials
  • Materials Science

Research Interests

  • Computational Mechanics
  • Computational Materials Science
  • Computational Chemistry
Gordon Parker

Gordon G. Parker

  • John and Cathi Drake Endowed Chair in Mechanical Engineering

Links of Interest

Areas of Expertise

  • Nonlinear Controls
  • Mechatronics
  • Microgrids

Research Interests

  • Control system design
  • Methods for correlating nonlinear dynamic models to experimental data
  • Nonlinear control
  • System simulation
  • Nonlinear system parameter identification and optimization
Fernando Ponta

Fernando Ponta

  • Richard and Elizabeth Henes Professor (Wind Energy), Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

Areas of Expertise

  • Theoretical and Computational Fluid Mechanics
  • Vortex Dynamics
  • Fluid-Structure Interaction
  • Wind-Turbine Aerodynamics
  • Renewable-Energy Sources
  • Energy Systems

Research Interests

  • Theoretical and Computational Fluid Mechanics
  • Vortex Dynamics
  • Fluid-Structure Interaction
  • Wind-Turbine Aerodynamics
  • Renewable-Energy Sources
  • Energy Systems
William Predebon

William W. Predebon

  • Professor (Retired July 2022), Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

Links of Interest

Areas of Expertise

  • Ceramics
  • Impact Phenomena
  • Wave Propagation
  • Computer Simulation of Explosive - Metal Systems

Research Interests

  • Mechanical behavior
  • Characterization and processing of ceramics
  • Shock deformation including microstructural effects and dynamic fracture of metals and ceramics
  • Impact phenomena
  • Computer simulation of wave phenomena
  • Explosive-metal interaction and fragmentation
Youngchul Ra

Youngchul Ra

  • Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering—Engineering Mechanics

Areas of Expertise

  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Combustion/Chemical kinetics
  • Internal Combustion Engine

Specialties

  • Advanced Combustion Modeling: Gasoline Compression Ignition (GCI), Reactive Controlled Compression Ignition (RCCI),High Pressure Torch Jet Combustion (HPTJC), Ignition, Flame propagation
  • Engine CFD: Full Conjugate Multi-domain code, Engine combustion application, Code development
  • Chemical kinetics: Multi-component fuel chemistry, Surface chemistry, Soot, Emissions.
  • Alternative Fuel Research: Biofuel, Additives, Spray modeling, Fuel assessment and design
  • High Performance Computing Technology: Parallel computing, Solver algorithm, Optimization
Darrell Robinette

Darrell L. Robinette

  • Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
  • SAE-GM Autodrive Challenge II Co-adviser

Areas of Expertise

  • Electrification of Mobility Systems
  • Connected and Automated Vehicles
  • Automatic Transmissions
  • Torque Converter and Clutch Dynamics

Research Interests

  • Powertrain and propulsion system electrification
  • Connected and Automated Vehicle optimal control for energy
  • Multi-speed transmission powerflow synthesis
  • Drivetrain dynamics and NVH
  • Torque converters and clutch systems
Trisha Sain

Trisha Sain

  • Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

Links of Interest

Research Interests

  • Multiscale, multiphysics modeling of aging in polymers & polymer composites
  • Degradation of metallic implants in physiological environment
  • Fracture, damage and impact behavior on materials
  • Analysis, design and testing of novel multifunctional lightweight polymer composite materials
Kazuya Tajiri

Kazuya Tajiri

  • Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering—Engineering Mechanics
  • SAE Aero Faculty Advisor

Links of Interest

Areas of Expertise

  • Ex-situ and in-situ characterization of transport properties through porous media
  • Proton exchange membrane fuel cell in-situ diagnostics and modeling
  • Fuel cell systems modeling and analysis
  • Primary / secondary metal-air battery diagnostics and modeling
  • Gas-liquid two-phase flows in microchannels
  • Shock wave compression in microchannels

Research Interests

  • Transport phenomena in multiscale/multiphase systems
  • Thermo-fluid system diagnostics, modeling, and optimization
  • Polymer electrolyte fuel cells for automotive application
  • Renewable energy
  • Combustion dynamics modeling
Paul van Susante

Paul van Susante

  • Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering—Engineering Mechanics
  • Affiliated Assistant Professor, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering
  • Mining Innovation Enterprise (MINE) Faculty Advisor

Teaching Interests

  • Engineering Design Process
  • Mechanics of Materials
  • System Engineering
  • Mechanical Engineering Practice
  • Finite Element Analysis
  • Intro to Aerospace Engineering
  • Space System Engineering
  • Space Resource Utilization
  • Senior Design Capstone / Enterprise Project
  • Product Realization

Areas of Expertise

  • Solid Mechanics
  • Structural Design
  • Finite Element Analysis
  • Engineering Design Process
  • System Engineering
  • Interdisciplinary Engineering (Aerospace, Civil, Electrical, Mechanical, Mining, Architecture)
  • Extreme Environment Design
  • Civil and Mining Engineering
  • Education
  • Optimization and Modeling

Research Interests

  • Extreme Environment Technologies (Space, Underwater, Mining, Arctic, etc.)
  • Excavation and Mining Technology
  • Planetary Science and Exploration
  • In-Situ Resource Utilization
  • Space Mining and Construction
  • Design Optimization
  • Robotics and Automation
  • System Engineering and Integration
Zequn Wang

Zequn Wang

  • Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

Links of Interest

Areas of Expertise

  • Design under uncertainty
  • Uncertainty quantification
  • Model calibration and validation
  • Metamodeling

Research Interests

  • Design for reliability and system resilience
  • Prognostics and health management
  • Design of engineered material systems
  • Uncertainty management
Wayne Weaver

Wayne W. Weaver

  • Professor, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
  • Associate Chair and Director of Graduate Studies, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
  • Affiliated Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Links of Interest

Areas of Interest

  • Power electronics systems
  • Microgrids
  • Non-linear and game theoretic controls
  • Distributed energy resources
  • Electric drives and machinery
Yongchao Yang

Yongchao Yang

  • Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

Links of Interest

Postdoc/scientist Position Available

Research Interests

  • Structural dynamics
  • System identification
  • Structural health monitoring
  • Non-destructive evaluation
  • High-resolution sensing/imaging
  • Machine learning
  • Computer vision
Song-Lin (Jason) Yang

Song-Lin (Jason) Yang

  • Professor, Mechanical Engineering—Engineering Mechanics

Links of Interest

Areas of Expertise

  • Applied Computational Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer
  • Engine Flow Simulation
  • DPF and DOC Modeling and Simulation
  • Computational Aerodynamics

Research Interests

  • Computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
  • Modeling and numerical simulation of diesel particulate trap (DPF) performance during loading and regeneration
  • Diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) converter code development
  • Lattice Boltzmann Method for Porous/Disordered Media