School of Engineering
Showing 1-50 of 85 Results
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Juan J. Alonso
Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics
BioProf. 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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Surendra Beniwal
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Aeronautics and Astronautics
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsNondestructive Evaluation, Structural Health Monitoring, Micromechanics
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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
Stanford Stdnt Employee-Summer, Vice Provost for Graduate EducationBioI 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 an Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University, California, USA. He is founder and director of the Stanford's Space Rendezvous Lab (SLAB). He is a Terman Faculty Fellow of the School of Engineering. He holds a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the Technical University of Delft (The Netherlands) and received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Politecnico di Milano (Italy). He has been working as researcher at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) from 2003 to 2013 in the fields of space flight dynamics, autonomous satellite navigation and control, spacecraft formation-flying, and on-orbit servicing.
Dr. D’Amico gave key contributions to the design, development, and operations of spacecraft formation-flying and rendezvous missions such as GRACE, TanDEM-X, and PRISMA for which he received several awards. He developed the Spaceborne Autonomous Formation Flying Experiment (SAFE), the Advanced Rendezvous demonstration using GPS and Optical Navigation (ARGON) on PRISMA and the TanDEM-X Autonomous Formation Flying (TAFF) system. More recently he has been working on the design of the GPS-based navigation system for the DEOS and PROBA-3 formation-flying missions. He acted as PI of the Autonomous Vision Approach-Navigation and Target Identification (AVANTI) experiment on-board the FireBIRD mission.
Dr. D'Amico's current research aims at enabling future distributed space systems for unprecedented science and exploration. These include spacecraft formation-flying, rendezvous and docking, swarms and fractionated spacecraft. His efforts lie at the intersection of advanced astrodynamics, GN&C, and space system engineering to fulfill the tight requirements posed by these novel space architectures. The most recent mission concept developed by Dr. D'Amico is a miniaturized distributed occulter/telescope (mDOT) system for direct imaging of exozodiacal dust and exoplanets. Dr. D'Amico is spearheading a gravitational space science and exploration program at Stanford based on multiple drag-free micro-satellites.
He has over 100 scientific publications including conference proceedings, peer-reviewed journal articles, and book chapters. He is peer reviewer for various AIAA and IEEE journals. He has been nominated in 2008, 2011, 2012, and 2013 as Excellent Reviewer for the AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics. He has been Programme Committee Member (2008), Co-Chair (2011), and Chair (2013) of the International Symposium on Spacecraft Formation Flying Missions and Technologies. He is Programme Committee Member of the International Workshop on Satellite Constellations and Formation Flying since 2013. He is Associate Editor of the AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics and the Journal of Space Science and Engineering. He is Associate Member of the Omega Alpha Association for Systems Engineering. -
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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Louis Dressel
Ph.D. Student in Aeronautics and Astronautics, admitted Autumn 2014
BioLouis Dressel is a Ph.D. candidate in the Aeronautics and Astronautics department at Stanford University. He works with the Stanford Intelligent Systems Lab to develop control schemes for active sensing tasks. He also works with the GPS Lab on a UAV that hunts GPS jammers.
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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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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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G. Scott Hubbard
Adjunct Professor, Aeronautics and Astronautics
BioProfessor Hubbard's research interests include the study of both human and robotic exploration of space with a particular focus on technology and missions for planetary exploration, especially Mars. Prof. Hubbard is also an expert on the emerging entrepreneurial space industry and is the Director Emeritus of the Stanford Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation (COE CST). As part of his ongoing engagement with robotic Mars missions, Prof. Hubbard serves as a member of National Academy of Science review groups and as a frequent consultant to NASA projects. Current research topics include novel hybrid propulsion for applications such as a Mars Ascent Vehicle and studying minimum cost human exploration architectures. Prof. Hubbard's commercial space research interests examine policies to enable, facilitate and promote such ventures. As the former Director of NASA's Ames Research Center, he maintains an active connection to the space exploration community. Hubbard is also the Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed journal New Space.
Brief Biography: Professor Hubbard has been engaged in space-related research as well as program, project, and executive management for more than 40 years including 20 years with NASA, culminating as Director of NASA’s Ames Research Center. He currently Chairs the SpaceX Commercial Crew Safety Advisory Panel. Hubbard served as NASA’s first Mars program director and successfully restructured the entire Mars program in the wake of mission failures. His book entitled, “Exploring Mars: Chronicles from a Decade of Discovery”, describes his work on NASA’s Mars Program. Professor Hubbard previously served as the sole NASA representative on the Columbia Accident Investigation Board and directed the impact testing that established the definitive physical cause of the accident. Hubbard was the founder of NASA’s Astrobiology Institute; conceived the Mars Pathfinder mission with its airbag landing and was the manager for NASA’s highly successful Lunar Prospector Mission. Prior to joining NASA, Professor Hubbard was a staff scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and directed a high-tech start-up company. He has received many honors including NASA’s highest award, the Distinguished Service Medal. A brief video of Hubbard's career may be viewed at https://vimeo.com/172038243 . -
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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Saleh Kargarrazi
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Aeronautics and Astronautics
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWide bandgap Technologies for Sensors and Electronics
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Mykel John Kochenderfer
Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and, by courtesy, of Computer Science
BioMykel Kochenderfer is Assistant 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" 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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Sanjay Lall
Professor of Electrical Engineering and of Aeronautics and Astronautics
BioSanjay Lall is Professor of Electrical Engineering in the Information Systems Laboratory and Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University. He received a B.A. degree in Mathematics with first-class honors in 1990 and a Ph.D. degree in Engineering in 1995, both from the University of Cambridge, England. His research group focuses on algorithms for control, optimization, and machine learning. Before joining Stanford he was a Research Fellow at the California Institute of Technology in the Department of Control and Dynamical Systems, and prior to that he was a NATO Research Fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems. He was also a visiting scholar at Lund Institute of Technology in the Department of Automatic Control. He has significant industrial experience applying advanced algorithms to problems including satellite systems, advanced audio systems, Formula 1 racing, the America's cup, cloud services monitoring, and integrated circuit diagnostic systems, in addition to several startup companies. Professor Lall has served as Associate Editor for the journal Automatica, on the steering and program committees of several international conferences, and as a reviewer for the National Science Foundation, DARPA, and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. He is the author of over 130 peer-refereed publications.
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Nicolas Lee
Engineering Res Assoc, Aeronautics and Astronautics
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.
