School of Engineering
Showing 1-100 of 148 Results
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Ross Alexander
Ph.D. Student in Aeronautics and Astronautics, admitted Winter 2021
Masters Student in Aeronautics and Astronautics, admitted Autumn 2019BioRoss B. Alexander is a first-year graduate student at Stanford University pursuing a Master of Science in Aeronautics & Astronautics (M.S. 2021; Ph.D. 2024) and is also the recipient of a Stanford Graduate Fellowship (SGF) in Science & Engineering. Ross' future graduate research is focused on estimation and control of stochastic systems, optimization, statistical machine learning, decision-making systems, autonomy, and reinforcement learning (RL). Ross earned his Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M University in May 2019. While at Texas A&M, Ross gained significant experience as a teaching assistant for several mathematics and aerospace courses over five semesters. Along with this, Ross acquired not only unique aerospace technical knowledge as a member of the Texas A&M University Sounding Rocketry Team for four years, but also valuable industry and research & development (R&D) experience through three summer internships at two different aerospace simulation R&D companies.
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Juan Alonso
Vance D. and Arlene C. Coffman Professor
On Partial Leave from 10/01/2020 To 06/30/2021BioProf. Alonso is the founder and director of the Aerospace Design Laboratory (ADL) where he specializes in the development of high-fidelity computational design methodologies to enable the creation of realizable and efficient aerospace systems. Prof. Alonso’s research involves a large number of different manned and unmanned applications including transonic, supersonic, and hypersonic aircraft, helicopters, turbomachinery, and launch and re-entry vehicles. He is the author of over 200 technical publications on the topics of computational aircraft and spacecraft design, multi-disciplinary optimization, fundamental numerical methods, and high-performance parallel computing. Prof. Alonso is keenly interested in the development of an advanced curriculum for the training of future engineers and scientists and has participated actively in course-development activities in both the Aeronautics & Astronautics Department (particularly in the development of coursework for aircraft design, sustainable aviation, and UAS design and operation) and for the Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering (ICME) at Stanford University. He was a member of the team that currently holds the world speed record for human powered vehicles over water. A student team led by Prof. Alonso also holds the altitude record for an unmanned electric vehicle under 5 lbs of mass.
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Juan Blanch
Sr Research Engineer
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research focuses on the design of navigation integrity algorithms for safety critical applications (like air navigation and autonomous driving). I am interested in both the design of practical algorithms that provide the required safety margins, and in the theoretical limits on the performance of the integrity monitoring algorithms.
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Brian Cantwell
Edward C. Wells Professor in the School of Engineering and Professor of Mechanical Engineering
BioProfessor Cantwell's research interests are in the area of turbulent flow. Recent work has centered in three areas: the direct numerical simulation of turbulent shear flows, theoretical studies of the fine-scale structure of turbulence, and experimental measurements of turbulent structure in flames. Experimental studies include the development of particle-tracking methods for measuring velocity fields in unsteady flames and variable density jets. Research in turbulence simulation includes the development of spectral methods for simulating vortex rings, the development of topological methods for interpreting complex fields of data, and simulations of high Reynolds number compressible and incompressible wakes. Theoretical studies include predictions of the asymptotic behavior of drifting vortex pairs and vortex rings and use of group theoretical methods to study the nonlinear dynamics of turbulent fine-scale motions. Current projects include studies of fast-burning fuels for hybrid propulsion and decomposition of nitrous oxide for space propulsion.
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Fu-Kuo Chang
Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics
BioProfessor Chang's primary research interest is in the areas of multi-functional materials and intelligent structures with particular emphases on structural health monitoring, intelligent self-sensing diagnostics, and integrated health management for space and aircraft structures as well safety-critical assets and medical devices. His specialties include sensors and sensor network development, built-in self-diagnostics, integrated diagnostics and prognostics, damage tolerance and failure analysis for composite materials, and advanced multi-physics computational methods for multi-functional structures. Most of his work involves system integration and multi-disciplinary engineering in structural mechanics, electrical engineering, signal processing, and multi-scale fabrication of materials. His recent research topics include: Integrated health management for aircraft structures, bio-inspired intelligent sensory materials for fly-by-feel autonomous vehicles, active sensing diagnostics for composite structures, self-diagnostics for high-temperature materials, etc.
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Richard Christensen
Professor (Research) of Aeronautics and Astronautics and of Mechanical Engineering, Emeritus
BioProfessor Christensen's research is concerned with the mechanics of materials. The behavior of polymers and polymeric fiber composites are areas of specialization. Of particular interest is the field of micro-mechanics that focuses on materials' functionality at intermediate-length scales between atomic and the usual macro scale. Applicable techniques involve the methods of homogenization for all types of composite materials. The intended outcomes of his research are useful means of characterizing the yielding, damage accumulation, and failure behavior of modern materials. A related website has been developed to provide critical evaluations for the mathematical failure criteria used with the various classes of engineering materials. Most of these materials types are employed in aerospace structures and products.
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Matthew Clarke
Ph.D. Student in Aeronautics and Astronautics, admitted Spring 2017
BioMatthew Clarke is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He is a Tau Beta Pi Fellow and holds an M.S. in AA from Stanford and B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Howard University. His research focuses on aircraft design with an emphasis on the analysis and optimization of vehicles for regional and urban air mobility. His work also encompasses system modeling of novel battery technologies for electric propulsion applications. Outside of his doctoral work, Matthew dedicates his time to addressing issues surrounding underrepresented minority matriculation and retention in STEM fields, serving as both graduate student recruiter for the School of Engineering and a mentor through the Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education. Matthew is a former president of the Black Engineering Graduate Student Association, and a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME); the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), and the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE).
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Sigrid Close
Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and, by courtesy, of Electrical Engineering
BioProf. Close's research involves space weather detection and modeling for improved spacecraft designs, and advanced signal processing and electromagnetic wave interactions with plasma for ground-to-satellite communication systems. These topics fall under the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) umbrella that include environmental remote sensing using satellite systems and ground-based radar. Her current efforts are the MEDUSSA (Meteoroid, Energetics, and Debris Understanding for Space Situational Awareness) program, which uses dust accelerators to understand the effects of hypervelocity particle impacts on spacecraft along with Particle-In-Cell simulations, and using ground-based radars to characterize the space debris and meteoroid population remotely. She also has active programs in hypersonic plasmas associated with re-entry vehicles.
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Simone D'Amico
Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics
BioSimone D’Amico received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from Politecnico di Milano (2003) and the Ph.D. degree from Delft University of Technology (2010). From 2003 to 2014, he was research scientist and team leader at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). There, he gave key contributions to the design, development, and operations of spacecraft formation-flying and rendezvous missions such as GRACE (United States/Germany), TanDEM-X (Germany), PRISMA (Sweden/Germany/France), and PROBA-3 (ESA). Since 2014, he has been Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University, Founding director of the Space Rendezvous Laboratory (SLAB), and Satellite Advisor of the Student Space Initiative (SSSI), Stanford’s largest undergraduate organization. He has over 150 scientific publications and 2000 google scholar’s citations, including conference proceedings, peer-reviewed journal articles, and book chapters. D'Amico's research aims at enabling future miniature distributed space systems for unprecedented science and exploration. His efforts lie at the intersection of advanced astrodynamics, GN&C, and space system engineering to meet the tight requirements posed by these novel space architectures. The most recent mission concepts developed by Dr. D'Amico are a miniaturized distributed occulter/telescope (mDOT) system for direct imaging of exozodiacal dust and exoplanets and the Autonomous Nanosatellite Swarming (ANS) mission for characterization of small celestial bodies. D’Amico’s research is supported by NASA, AFRL, AFOSR, KACST, and Industry. He is member of the advisory board of startup companies such as Capella Space Corp and Infinite Orbits. He is member of the Space-Flight Mechanics Technical Committee of the AAS, Associate Fellow of AIAA, and Associate Editor of the Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics. Dr. D’Amico was recipient of the Leonardo 500 Award by the Leonardo da Vinci Society and the Italian Scientists and Scholars of North America Foundation, ISSNAF (2019), the Stanford’s Introductory Seminar Excellence Award (2019), the FAI/NAA‘s Group Diploma of Honor (2018), the Exemplary System Engineering Doctoral Dissertation Award by the International Honor Society for Systems Engineering OAA (2016), the DLR’s Sabbatical/Forschungssemester in honor of scientific achievements (2012), the DLR’s Wissenschaft Preis in honor of scientific achievements (2006), and the NASA’s Group Achievement Award for the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, GRACE (2004).
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Daniel DeBra
Edward C. Wells Professor of Engineering, Emeritus
BioProfessor DeBra collaborates with Stanford physicists on three projects: Gravity Probe-B (GP-B), Space Test of the Equivalence Principle (STEP), and the vibration isolation of a gravity-wave antenna (LIGO). These involve satellite control of attitude and translation and the development of instruments of extraordinary precision and accuracy. In GP-B gyroscopes were successfully orbited in 2004. They have been compared to stars to an accuracy approaching a nanoradian. In STEP the orbital performance promises improvements of a million in testing the equivalence of inertial and gravitational mass. (It is currently in a hiatus of funding.) Professor DeBra's interests in precision engineering extend to manufacturing where his students' work developing "quiet hydraulics" in the 1990s has more recently been applied to the vibration isolation of the optical systems of LIGO.
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Charbel Farhat
Vivian Church Hoff Professor of Aircraft Structures, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Army High Performance Computing Research Center
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsCharbel Farhat and his Research Group (FRG) develop mathematical models, advanced computational algorithms, and high-performance software for the design and analysis of complex systems in aerospace, marine, mechanical, and naval engineering. They contribute major advances to Simulation-Based Engineering Science. Current engineering foci in research are on the nonlinear aeroelasticity and flight dynamics of Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) with flexible flapping wings and N+3 aircraft with High Aspect Ratio (HAR) wings, layout optimization and additive manufacturing of wing structures, supersonic inflatable aerodynamic decelerators for Mars landing, and the reliable automated carrier landing via model predictive control. Current theoretical and computational emphases in research are on high-performance, multi-scale modeling for the high-fidelity analysis of multi-physics problems, high-order embedded boundary methods, uncertainty quantification, probabilistic machine learning, and efficient model-order reduction for time-critical applications such as design and active control.
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Grace X. Gao
Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and, by courtesy, of Electrical Engineering
BioGrace Xingxin Gao is an assistant professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University. She leads the Navigation and Autonomous Vehicles Laboratory (NAV Lab). Before joining Stanford University, she was faculty at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She obtained her Ph.D. degree at Stanford University. Her research is on robust and secure perception, localization and navigation with applications to manned and unmanned aerial vehicles, autonomous driving cars, robotics and internet of things.
Prof. Gao has won a number of awards, including the NSF CAREER Award, the Institute of Navigation Early Achievement Award and the RTCA William E. Jackson Award. She received the Distinguished Promotion Award from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has won Best Paper/Presentation of the Session Awards 14 times at ION GNSS+ conferences. She received the Dean's Award for Excellence in Research from the College of Engineering, University of Illinois. For her teaching, Prof. Gao has been on the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students at University of Illinois multiple times. She won the College of Engineering Everitt Award for Teaching Excellence, the Engineering Council Award for Excellence in Advising, and AIAA Illinois Chapter’s Teacher of the Year. -
Kazuma Gunning
Ph.D. Student in Aeronautics and Astronautics, admitted Autumn 2015
BioKaz Gunning is a Ph.D. candidate in the GPS Research Laboratory working under the guidance of Professor Per Enge and Dr. Todd Walter in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University. Prior to joining the lab in fall 2015 as a Ph.D. candidate, Kaz worked for Booz Allen Hamilton on the GPS Systems Engineering and Integration group doing Modeling and Simulation of the next generation GPS Control Segment and software-defined receiver work looking at the GPS III waveform. He also has a B.S. and an M.S. from Stanford University in Aeronautics and Astronautics.
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Kentaro Hara
Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics
BioKen Hara is an Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University. He received a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering and a Graduate Certificate in Plasma Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan, and B.S. and M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the University of Tokyo. He was a Visiting Research Physicist at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory as a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellow. Prior to joining Stanford, he spent three years as a faculty member in Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University. Professor Hara’s research interests include electric propulsion, low temperature plasmas, plasma physics (plasma-wall interactions, plasma-wave interactions), and computational fluid and plasma dynamics. He is a recipient of the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society Graduate Scholarship Award, the Air Force Young Investigator Program Award, and the Department of Energy Early Career Award.
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Antony Jameson
Professor (Research) of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Emeritus
BioProfessor Jameson's research focuses on the numerical solution of partial differential equations with applications to subsonic, transonic, and supersonic flow past complex configurations, as well as aerodynamic shape optimization.
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Mykel Kochenderfer
Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and, by courtesy, of Computer Science
BioMykel Kochenderfer is Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University. Prior to joining the faculty, he was at MIT Lincoln Laboratory where he worked on airspace modeling and aircraft collision avoidance, with his early work leading to the establishment of the ACAS X program. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh and B.S. and M.S. degrees in computer science from Stanford University. Prof. Kochenderfer is the director of the Stanford Intelligent Systems Laboratory (SISL), conducting research on advanced algorithms and analytical methods for the design of robust decision making systems. Of particular interest are systems for air traffic control, unmanned aircraft, and other aerospace applications where decisions must be made in uncertain, dynamic environments while maintaining safety and efficiency. Research at SISL focuses on efficient computational methods for deriving optimal decision strategies from high-dimensional, probabilistic problem representations. He is the author of "Decision Making under Uncertainty: Theory and Application" and "Algorithms for Optimization", both from MIT Press. He is a third generation pilot.
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Ilan Kroo
Thomas V. Jones Professor in the School of Engineering
BioProfessor Kroo's research involves work in three general areas: multidisciplinary optimization and aircraft synthesis, unconventional aircraft, and low-speed aerodynamics. Current research in the field of aircraft synthesis, sponsored by NASA and industry, includes the development of a new computational architecture for aircraft design, and its integration with numerical optimization. Studies of unconventional configurations employ rapid turnaround analysis methods in the design of efficient subsonic and supersonic commercial aircraft. Recent research has included investigation of configurations such as joined wings, oblique wings, and tailless aircraft. Nonlinear low-speed aerodynamics studies have focused on vortex wake roll-up, refined computation of induced drag, the design of wing tips, and the aerodynamics of maneuvering aircraft.
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Nicolas Lee
Research Engineer
BioNicolas Lee is currently a Research Engineer in Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University, working primarily on asteroid resource characterization and CubeSat technologies. Previously, Nicolas was a Ph.D. student at Stanford studying meteoroid impact effects on spacecraft, and a W. M. Keck Institute for Space Studies postdoctoral scholar in aerospace at Caltech, researching technologies for robotically assembled space telecopes, membrane structures for space solar power applications, and small satellite high voltage electronics.
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Sanjiva Lele
Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and of Mechanical Engineering
BioProfessor Lele's research combines numerical simulations with modeling to study fundamental unsteady flow phemonema, turbulence, flow instabilities, and flow-generated sound. Recent projects include shock-turbulent boundary layer interactions, supersonic jet noise, wind turbine aeroacoustics, wind farm modeling, aircraft contrails, multi-material mixing and multi-phase flows involving cavitation. He is also interested in developing high-fidelity computational methods for engineering applications.
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Amir Nasrollahi
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Aeronautics and Astronautics
BioAmir Nasrollahi is a postdoctoral fellow at the Structures and Composites Laboratory (SACL) in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics of Stanford University. He earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Pittsburgh in 2018, where he served as a postdoctoral associate from Jan. to Sept. 2019.
Amir Nasrollahi’s research interests are Li-ion Batteries, Multifunctional Materials, smart materials and structures, Nondestructive Evaluation, Structural Health Monitoring, sensor networks, stress wave propagation, metamaterials, computational acoustics, and vibration and acoustics.
