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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 conduction problems.

Dr. Najafi is serving as the Chair of the ASME Renewable Energy and Energy Conversion (REEC) Technical Committee, 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- PhD Candidate

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:

Andrea Martinez Mundarain – Andrea received her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Universidad de Oriente (UDO) in Venezuela. She is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Florida Institute of Technology with specialization in Thermal Fluid Sciences. Her research interest includes using machine learning algorithms for solving inverse heat conduction problems.

 

 

Syed Arafun Nabi - Arafun received his Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology(BUET). He is currently pursuing a Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Florida Institute of Technology with a specialization in Thermal Fluid Sciences. His research interest includes heat transfer particularly in extreme applications such as thermal protection systems of space vehicles. 

 

 

Undergraduate Students:

 

 

Alex Larrivee - Alex is pursuing his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering with a strong passion for heat transfer. He has designed an additively manufactured heat exchanger and radiant panels for the Sierra Space LIFE habitat and is driven to push advancements in efficiency of space heat transfer components. His research focuses on Triply Periodic Minimal Surfaces (TPMS) which is an additively manufactured geometry that significantly increases performance of heat exchangers. In his free time he enjoys running on the Florida Tech cross country and track team and participating in ultra endurance events. 

 

 

 

Alexis Linder- Lexi is pursuing her bachelors in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in Robotics whilst interning at Lockheed Martin Space supporting Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning research & development. She is also the project manager of a senior design team supporting the development of a combined active thermal protection system. At Florida Tech, her research interests include: AI/ML for real-time prediction of heat distribution over hypersonic vehicles & design improvement of thermal protection systems on spacecraft. 

 

ALUMNI

Ph.D. Students:

Puyi YangPuyi Yang - Ph.D. (Dec 2021)- Currently D&R Engineer, CHN Energy United Power Technology Company 

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

 

 
 
 

Modess Seyednezhad - Ph.D. (Dec 2021) - Currently Senior Thermal Engineer at Blueshift Materials (Massachusetts)

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

 

 

Obinna Uyanna- Ph.D. (May 2021)-Currently Senior Hardware Engineer at Dell Technologies (Texas)

[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 (Florida). [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:

 

Felix Gabriel  (Jan 2023-Aug 2023)-Currently Laboratory Manager, Florida Institute of Technology

 

 

 

 

Nivedha Karigiri Madhusudhan - M.Sc. (Dec 2022)- Currently Engineer at HEKA Aero (Florida)

Thesis: Thermal Design and Energy Analysis of a Greenhouse in Microgravity Conditions

 

 

 

 Alex Callinan -M.Sc. (Dec 2022)- Currently Engineer at Oak Ridge National Lab (Tennessee)

   Thesis: A Data Driven Approach for Energy Assessment of Industrial Facilities

 

  

 

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

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 Thermal Engineer at NVIDIA (California)

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 (Virginia)

[Thesis: Energy, Exergy and Economic Analysis of a Micro-CCHP System]

 

 

David Rochelle - M.Sc. (Dec 2018) - Currently Aerospace Engineer (Liquid Propulsion), at NASA (Florida)

[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 (Florida)

[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 Senior System Engineer at Joby Aviation (California)

 

 

 

Sourabh Dhole - M.Sc. (May 2018) - Currently Business Solution Specialist at Linkez Technologies Private Limited (India)

 

 

 

Dhruv Sangal - M.Sc. (Dec 2017) - Currently Solar Engineer at WAPCOS Limited official (India)

[Thesis: Towards Green Building: Energy Efficient Roof System for Buildings]

 

 

Bhuvaneswari Rajendra-  M.Sc. (Dec 2017) - Currently Manufacturing and Validation Engineer at West Pharmaceutical Services (Arizona)

[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 

 

Lindsey Kahn - B.Sc.  Student- Currently Associate Engineer Manufacturing, Northrop Grumman (Florida)

 

 

 

 

Angelique Catcha Picard - B.Sc. 2021-Currently Graduate Research Assistant (Canada)

 

 

 

 

Joseph Luya - B.Sc. 2020- Currently Electro Mechanical Engineer at Lockheed Martin (Florida)

 

 

Daniel Hocheimy - B.Sc. 2020- Currently Graduate Assistant at Florida Tech (Florida)

 

 

 

Bhaskar Aggarwal - B.Sc. 2019-Currently Senior Quality Engineer at Motherson Group

 

 

 

Tejas Thakur - B.Sc. 2019 -Currently Product Analyst at Yocket (India)

 

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