School of Engineering
Showing 1-50 of 138 Results
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Ross Alexander
Masters Student in Aeronautics and Astronautics, admitted Autumn 2019
BioRoss earned his Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M University in 2019. In his four years at Texas A&M, Ross developed a strong technical background through his work in trajectory modeling & simulation and propulsion system design on the Texas A&M University Sounding Rocketry Team and also through three internships at aerospace research & development (R&D) companies. Ross built his teaching experience by serving as a teaching assistant for several undergraduate mathematics and numerical simulation courses. Ross is now a second-year graduate student at Stanford University pursuing a Ph.D. in Aeronautics & Astronautics (M.S. 2021; Ph.D. 2024) and is also the recipient of a Stanford Graduate Fellowship (SGF) in Science & Engineering. As a researcher in the Stanford Intelligent Systems Lab (SISL), Ross works on developing principled methods for algorithmic decision making under uncertainty utilizing approaches involving machine learning and artificial intelligence. Ross’s research has led to collaborations across the globe on topics spanning multidisciplinary design optimization, autonomous driving, and COVID-19. Ross continues to build his teaching career as a course assistant for graduate-level computer science courses and as an Artificial Intelligence course instructor for the Stanford Pre-Collegiate Studies Institute.
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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 multifunctional energy storage composites for transportation vehicles as well as safety-critical assets and medical devices. His specialties include embedded sensors and stretchable sensor networks with 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: Multifunctional energy storage composites, 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
BioI am a PhD candidate in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University. My research interests include aircraft conceptual design, multi-disciplinary design optimization, multi-fidelity optimization and the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to develop of new strategies for vehicular optimization. These modes of transportation include commercial transport aircraft, supersonic aircraft, and urban on-demand electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles.
In addition to these endeavors, I dedicate time towards addressing socio-economic issues, particularly within academia. Presently, I work on developing STEM curriculum for underrepresented minorities as well as drafting new, synergistic approaches to introducing technology into society. I serve as the president of the Black Engineering Graduate Student Association, a student run organization whose mission is to build a sense of community among and facilitate the professional development and academic success of the black engineering community.
I graduated Summa Cum Laude from Howard University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering. In undergrad, my involvement in extracurricular activities nurtured an ability to share information and contribute to decision-making. Outside coursework, I participated in global collaborative competitions geared towards proposing innovative solutions for future transportation. I also led humanitarian missions to Kenya, El Salvador and Haiti with Engineers Without Borders, a non-profit organization that partners with developing communities worldwide to improve their quality of life. These partnerships involved the implementation of sustainable engineering projects such as power, communal infrastructure and access to drinking water.
I am a member of Tau Beta Pi, the Engineering Honor Society; the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME); the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), and the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE).
Following graduate school, I plan to pursue a career in industry focused on research and development of revolutionary air and spacecraft technology. My future aspirations also include teaching and inspiring minority students in STEM. -
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
Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics
BioSimone D’Amico is Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University. He 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). From 2014 to 2020, he was Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University. He is the 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 200 scientific publications and 3000 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, NSF, AFRL, AFOSR, KACST, and Industry. He is Chairman of the NASA's Starshade Science and Technology Working Group (TSWG). He is member of the advisory board of space startup companies and VC edge funds. He is member of the Space-Flight Mechanics Technical Committee of the AAS, Associate Fellow of AIAA, Associate Editor of the AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics and the IEEE Transactions of Aerospace and Electronic Systems. He is Fellow of the NAE’s US FOE Symposium. Dr. D’Amico was recipient of the Leonardo 500 Award by the Leonardo Da Vinci Society and ISSNAF (2019), the Stanford’s Introductory Seminar Excellence Award (2019 and 2020), 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 projection-based model order reduction as well as other forms of physics-based machine learning for time-critical applications such as design, active control, and digital twins.
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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.
