I.S.E.T.S.Innovations in Sustainable Energy and Thermal Systems Lab

Lab Members

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:

Dr. Hamidreza Najafi

Assistant 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

Hamidreza Najafi is an Assistant 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.

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 Yang

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.

Joseph Luya

Joseph received his Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering with a double minor in Sustainability and Entrepreneurship May 2020 at Florida Institute of Technology. Joseph is expected to receive his Master's Degree Summer of 2021 and will pursue a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on Thermal Fluid Sciences beginning Fall of 2021. His research interests include design and optimization of thermal systems as well as emerging technologies in the renewable energy industry.

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 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.   

Angelique Catcha Picard

Angelique received her B.S in mechanical engineering from Florida Institute of Technology in 2021. Her research interests include renewable energy systems, particularly wind and hydrokinetic energy conversion systems, electromechanical energy storage technologies, and smart grid.

ALUMNI

Post Docs and Ph.D. Students:

Obinna Uyanna- Ph.D. (May 2021)-[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:

Daniel Hocheimy (2020), Bhaskar Aggarwal (2019), Tejas Thakur (2018-2019).