People

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, the Director of ISETS and Director of the Heat Transfer Lab.  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 the Chair of the ASME Renewable Energy and Energy Conversion (REEC) Technical Committe, Vice-Chair of ASHRAE Task Group on Extraterrestrial and Deep Space Environmental Control Systems (ASHRAE TG 9.SPACE) and member of ASME Computational Heat Transfer (K-20) Committee. He is serving as the Florida Tech ASHRAE Students Branch Advisor, and Students Activities Chair for ASHRAE Space Coast Section. 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.

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.

  

 

Masters Students:

 

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

 

 

 Alex Callinan

  Alex receieved his Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Florida Institute of Technology in 2020. His current          research is focused on industrial energy efficiency, developing models and methods for energy analysis in industrial                        facilities. 

 

 

 

ALUMNI

Ph.D. Students:

Puyi Yang - Ph.D. (Dec 2021)-

[Dissertation: Application of Ensemble Methods for Solving Offshore Wind Farm Layout Optimization Problems]

 

Modess Seyednezhad - Ph.D. (Dec 2021)

[Dissertation: Thermoelectric-Based Cooling Systems for Building Application: A Sustainable Solution]

 

 

 

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 ]

 

 

Post Doctoral Associates:

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

MSc Students:

 

Dominic Allard -M.Sc. (Dec 2021)- Currently Associate Professional Staff I, at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab.

Thesis: A Comparative Study on the Application of Intelligent Algorithms as the Solution of Inverse Heat Conduction Problems

 

 

Benjamin Kubwimana -M.Sc. (Dec 2021)-Currently Hardware Engineer at Meta

Thesis:  A Machine Learning-Based Approach to Predict and Optimize the Performance of Zero Energy Building (ZEB): A Case Study for Florida

  

 

 

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 Aerospace Engineer (Liquid Propulsion), at NASA [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 System Engineer at Eviation Aircraft

 

 

 

Sourabh Dhole - M.Sc. (May 2018) - Currently Business Solution Specialist 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:

 

Lindsey Kahn - B.Sc.  Student

 

 

 

 

Angelique Catcha Picard - B.Sc. 2021

 

 

 

 

Joseph Luya - B.Sc. 2020

 

 

Daniel Hocheimy - B.Sc. 2020

 

 

 

Bhaskar Aggarwal - B.Sc. 2019

 

 

 

Tejas Thakur - B.Sc. 2019