Lab Members

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:

Dr. Hamidreza Najafi

Associate Professor

Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering

Florida Institute of Technology

150 W. University Blvd. Melbourne, FL 32901-6988

F.W. Olin Engineering Complex, Office 211

Email: hnajafi@fit.edu Phone: (321) 674-8408

 


Dr. Hamidreza Najafi is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Florida Institute of Technology. He conducts research and teaches courses in the areas of thermal sciences. His research works have been focused on designing and optimization of thermal/energy systems, renewable energy systems, energy efficiency and inverse heat condcution problems. Dr. Najafi is serving as Florida Tech ASHRAE Students Branch Advisor, Students Activities Chair for ASHRAE Space Coast Section and member of ASME Advanced Energy Systems and Computational Heat Transfer Committees. Prior joining Florida Tech, Dr. Najafi worked as a lead engineer in Alabama Industrial Assessment Center (funded by U. S. Department of Energy), where he was focused on improving efficiency in industrial energy systems and conducted assessments for more than fifty manufacturing companies located in AL, GA and MS.

COURSES TAUGHT:

Graduate:

  • MEE 5220 - Convection Heat Transfer
  • MEE 5177- Energy Conversion
  • MEE 5240 - Solar Energy Analysis

Undergraduate:

  • MEE 4071 - Thermal Systems Design
  • MEE 4171 - Principles of Heat Transfer
  • MEE 4177- Energy Conversion
  • MEE 4175 - HVAC
  • MEE 3192 - Engineering Thermodynamics 2
  • MEE 4074 - Heat Transfer Laboratory

 

Doctoral Students:

 

Mariana Migliori

Mariana received her bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2018 and MS degree in 2021 from Florida Institute of Technology. She is currently a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering with specialization in Thermal Fluid Sciences. Her research interest includes: optimization of energy efficiency in buildings, building automation, energy efficient measures in K-12 schools, energy forecasting using intelligent algorithms, and heat transfer.

 

 

Modess Seyednezhad

Modess received her B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering in 2010 from Babol Noshirvani University of Technology (BUT) and M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering in 2013 from National University of Malaysia (UKM). Her research Interests include Heat Transfer, Thermodynamics, thermal System Design, Thermoelectric Cooling/heating systems, HVAC, Solar-water desalination and Optimization.

 

Puyi YangPuyi Yang

 Puyi received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 2011 from North China Electric Power University (NCEPU) and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 2015 from Kunming University of Science and Technology (KUST). Before he enrolled in the Ph.D. program in Mechanical Engineering at Florida Tech, he was an engineer in a thermal power plant. His research interests include experimental and computational fluid dynamics, wind farm layout optimization, direct-contact heat transfer and combustion modeling.
 

 

Masters Students:

Dominic Allard 

Dominic received his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2020 from Florida Institute of Technology. He is currently a Masters student (FastTrack) with a focus on thermal-fluid sciences. His research interest includes computational heat transfer and particularly thermal management for hypersonic and space vehicles.

 

 

 

Benjamin Kubwimana

Florida Tech FastTrack (Bachelor and Masters degree) student in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on thermal-fluid sciences. His research interests include application of machine learning in building energy analysis and optimization of net-zero energy building systems.

 

 

 

Nivedha Karigiri Madhusudhan

Nivedha received her Bachelor's Degree in Aerospace Engineering in 2019 from Hindustan University, India. She is currently pursuing my Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering with specialization in Thermal Fluid Sciences. Her research interests include Heat Transfer and developing approaches for Thermal Control Systems for space vehicles

 

 

Undergraduate Students: 

Lindsey KahnLindsey Kahn

Lindsey is currently pursuing her bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering at Florida Institute of Technology. Her research interests include energy efficiency, thermodynamics, thermal system design, and HVAC.   

 

 

 

 

ALUMNI

Post Docs and Ph.D. Students:

Obinna Uyanna- Ph.D. (May 2021)-Currently Engineer at Frontier Energy, Inc. [Dissertation: Inverse Approaches for Near-Real Time Estimation of Surface Heat Flux in Thermal Protection Systems for Space Vehicles ]

David Sykes - Ph.D. (May 2018) - Currently Thermal Controls Technology Group Lead at Mainstream Engineering Corporation. [Dissertation: Effect of Cavitation Regimes on Stepped Diesel Injectors ]

Shahin Shafiee - Postdoc (July 2017-May 2018) - Currently Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Prairie view A&M University

MSc Students:

Mariana Migliori-M.Sc. (May 2021)-Currently PhD student in Mechanical Engineering [Thesis: Modeling and Energy Simulation of a Zero Energy Building: A Case Study for Florida]

Jian Zhang - M.Sc. (Aug 2020) - Currently PhD student in Aerospace Engineering. [Thesis: Application of Neural Networks for Solving One Dimensional Inverse Heat Conduction Problems with Surface Ablation]

Ganesh Doiphode - M.Sc. (May 2019) -Currently Mechanical Engineer at SETTY and Associates . [Thesis: Energy, Exergy and Economic Analysis of a Micro-CCHP System]

David Rochelle - M.Sc. (Dec 2018) - Currently Fluids/Propulsion Engineer at Perspecta [Thesis: An Experiment to Study the Gaseous Emissions of a Gas Turbine Operated with Biodiesel as Fuel]

Owen Betharte - M.Sc. (May 2018) - Currently Design Engineer at Winchester Interconnect [Thesis: Towards Net Zero Energy Buildings: A Parametric Study on Building Energy Performance for Different US Climate Zones]

Anuj Pant - MS.c. (May 2018) - Currently Avionics/Electrical Engineering at Piper Aircraft.

Sourbah Dhole - M.Sc. (May 2018) - Currently at Linkez Technologies Private Limited.

Dhruv Sangal - M.Sc. (Dec 2017) - Currently Solar Engineer at WAPCOS Limited official [Thesis: Towards Green Building: Energy Efficient Roof System for Buildings]

Bhuvaneswari Rajendra - M.Sc. (Dec 2017) - Currently Mechanical Engineer at Integra LifeSciences [Thesis: A Real-Time Solution Strategy for Estimation of Aerothermal Heating for Reentry Vehicles]

Akshay Bhargava - M.Sc. (March 2017) - Currently Mechanical Engineer at TRC Worldwide Engineering, MEP, Inc.

BSc Students:

Angelique Catcha Picard (2021), Joseph Luya (2020), Daniel Hocheimy (2020), Bhaskar Aggarwal (2019), Tejas Thakur (2018-2019).