howard a. stone, chair - princeton university · 2019-12-19 · interactions, electric propulsion,...

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Howard A. Stone, Chair

Princeton’s Department of Mechanicaland Aerospace Engineering (MAE)

has played a leading role in propulsion,combustion, aerospace dynamics, and fluid dynamics over the past half century,with expansion in recent decades into dynamics and control, applied physics, and materials science.

Our multi-disciplinary focus and attention to both engineering fundamentals andgroundbreaking research helps us traingraduate and undergraduate students

for future leadership in areas of rapidlyevolving technologies.

As a result, the people of MAE are providingengineering solutions to address the world’schallenges in the areas of food production,biotechnology, energy production, efficiencyand management, sustainability, transportation,communication, and health, safety and security.

Together, we take on future challenges, today.

MAE is:Applied Physics • Dynamics and Controls • Fluid Mechanics • Materials SciencePropulsion & Energy Sciences

Challenges:Space Exploration • Satellite Technology • Pollution and Alternative Fuels • EnergyUsage • Battery Technology • Novel Optical Systems • Propulsion Systems • Mechanicsof Fluids and Solids • Stability and Control of Vehicles • Aircraft Performance Instrumentation

Cross-disciplinary Collaboration:Astronautics • Bio-Inspired Design • Bioengineering • Medical Applications Combustion and Energy Conversion • Computational Engineering • Environmental and Energy Technologies • Laser-Matter Interactions • Security • Vehicle Sciences and Applications

Distinctive Characteristics of the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering (MAE):

MAEBY THENUMBERS

392INDIVIDUALS

179101Graduate Students

66

23+1Full-time Faculty & Dean 5

152

The department concentrates its research activities in five broadly defined areas with many faculty involved with two or more areas. The five areas are:Applied PhysicsDynamics & Controls Fluid Mechanics Propulsion & Energy SciencesMaterials Science

Administrative & Technical Staff

Visiting & Professional Researchers

Visiting Faculty/Lecturers

Research & Active Emeritus Faculty

Undergraduate & Exchange Students

About the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University

2 FROM THE CHAIR: A FLYING START TOWARD 2020

4 YEAR IN REVIEW

8 IN PROFILE: STUDENTS OF MAE

16 MEET THE PEOPLE OF MAE: FACULTY AND LEADERSHIP

FACULTY AWARDS, HONORS & RECOGNITION

FACULTY COMMITTEES

PERSONNEL, OPERATING EXPENDITURES, SPONSORED RESEARCH, RESEARCH EXPENDITURES

19 SEMINAR SERIES

20 UNDERGRADUATES: ENROLLMENT, SENIOR INDEPENDENT WORK

22 GRADUATES: DEGREES, FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS, PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, ENROLLMENT

MAE Report 2018 • Page 1

• MAE Report 2018 MAE Report 2018 •

WPRINCETON MAE 2017-18 YEAR IN REVIEW:

A Flying Start Toward 2020

Welcome to the newest edition of MAE’s annual report. While we celebratethe accomplishments of the people in the Department of Mechanicaland Aerospace Engineering (MAE) each year, this edition goes a stepfurther. We hope that by perusing these pages, you will see how we aremeeting the challenges faced in our field to develop a better, safer, andmore productive world. The following is a quick overview of who weare, what we do, and what is new in our corner of the world.

By Howard A. Stone, MAE Chair and Donald R. Dixon ’69 and Elizabeth W. Dixon Professor

WHAT’S NEWIn addition to the MAE news, events, andpublished research papers this year, we alsogot a flying start, so to speak, on two expandedareas of focus in robotics and propulsion.

Our new Assistant Professor Ani Majumdaris commanding the new IRoM Lab (Intelligent Robot Motion Lab) that willloop into the SEAS robotics initiative. Thelab’s mission is to develop ways to controlhighly agile robotic systems such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), leggedrobots, and robotic manipulators so thatsafety and performance are guaranteed invery complex real-world operating environments. (More details here:https://irom-lab.princeton.edu/ )

On the propulsion front, recently tenuredAssociate Professors Marcus Hultmark andMichael Mueller are delving deeper intohigh speed flows, reacting flows and othertopics important in an MAE setting.

Marcus’s Fundamental and Applied Studiesin Turbulence (FAST) lab focuses on themany aspects of fluid mechanics and howthey affect the world we live in. Subjectsrange from drag reduction to boundary layers to wind turbines. (Learn more here:http://fluids.princeton.edu/ )

Michael’s Computational Turbulent ReactingFlow Laboratory (CTRFL) is developingand using high-fidelity computational toolsto gain a fundamental understanding ofturbulence and develop first-principles-based models for turbulent (and laminar)reacting (and non-reacting) flows. Engineering applications of interest to theresearch group include gas turbines and reciprocating engines. (Expanded info here:https://ctrfl.princeton.edu/ )

We hope you will read on to learn moreabout what MAE faculty, students and researchers accomplished in 2017-18 andhow we are gearing up for a flying start aswe head toward 2020! ©

WHO WE AREAs a department under the auspices ofPrinceton University’s School of Engineeringand Applied Science (SEAS), we had 24faculty members and one lecturer, 101 graduate students, and 179 undergraduatesin the 2017-18 academic year. Together, webuild on a long history of academic successand societal impact. For example, five regular or emeriti faculty (Carter, Law,Miles, Smits, and myself) are members of the NAE and/or the NAS. Our graduatestudents go on to teach and/or conduct impactful research at Princeton and otherexemplary institutions. Our undergraduatespursue advanced degrees or enter the workingworld to contribute new ideas and energy.In the following pages, you can read moredetails about what the people of MAE haveachieved over the last year.

WHAT WE DOMAE is unique in that it represents a varietyof disciplines recognized at most universitiesin separate departments. We support two of Princeton’s five ABET-accredited undergraduate degree programs in SEAS.

Our active, world-leading research programsrange from uncovering basic principles totesting innovative theories in and beyondthe traditional MAE realm of topics. For example, our faculty are active in:

n Robotics and dynamical systemsn Materials sciences, including problems from engineering materials to biomechanics

n Propulsion and combustionn Fluid mechanics, including studies of turbulence, environmental flows, and complex fluids

n Several areas of applied physics, including fundamental studies of laser-material interactions, electric propulsion, and fusion energy

MAE faculty collaborate broadly with colleagues across campus and around theworld and maintain a vibrant seminar series and intellectual community including postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduates. Read more about thesehighlights in the Year in Review section.

Researchers led by Professor Howard Stone analyzed the use of water-based foam in hydraulic fracturing. The team,from left, included Stone and post-doctoral researchers Bhargav Rallabandi, Ching-Yao Lai, and Antonio Perazzo.

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

• MAE Report 2018 MAE Report 2018 • Page 5

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IEWEach year, many stories about student andfaculty achievements grace the pages of ourwebsite. Here is a quick summary of thebiggest highlights in one easy-to-read place. To read more details about the stories below,please visit the MAE news pages athttps://mae.princeton.edu/about-mae/news.

July 2017Team to use VR to help withreal-world arms controlAlexander Glaser, AssociateProfessor of Mechanical andAerospace Engineering andInternational Affairs andCo-Director, Program inScience and Global Security(SGS), is on a team awardeda $414,000 grant from theCarnegie Corporation ofNew York and theMacArthur Foundation.Glaser is collaborating with New York City-basedGames for Change to develop a full-motion virtualreality (VR) to design andsimulate new, cohesivearms-control treaty verification approaches toreduce and secure nuclearweapons and materials.

September 2017MAE Research Day WinnersClay Byers took first place at MAE Research Day for his talk, entitled, “Multi-Component VelocityMeasurements in a WallBounded Turbulent FlowUtilizing a Novel Sensor.”Ting-Hsuan Chen wasnamed runner up for her talkcalled “Ultrafast z-scanningfor High-efficiency LaserMaterial Processing.”

October 2017Ju: Distinguished lecture at Penn StateYiguang Ju, Robert PorterPatterson Professor of Mechanical and AerospaceEngineering, presented a 2017 Air Products Distinguished Lecture atPenn State's University ParkCampus on the topic of “Dynamics of Cool Flamesand its Impact on TurbulentCombustion and Modeling.”

October 2017Choueiri: “Fooled by Audio”keynote addressProfessor Edgar Choueiri’skeynote address at theAudio Engineering SocietyNew York 2017 Conventiondelved into multiple dimensions of Virtual andAugmented Reality, SpatialAudio, and sound synthesis.He examined the majorquestions regarding the future of spatial audio andperception, including recentbreakthroughs that make reproducing or synthesizing

sound even closer to beingindistinguishable from reality.Choueiri is Director ofPrinceton University’s Program in EngineeringPhysics and Director of Princeton’s Electric Propulsion and Plasma Dynamics Laboratory (EPPDyL).

October 2017Stone: Indira Foundation Distinguished Lecture at theIndia Institute of TechnologyBombayHoward A. Stone, MAEChair and Donald R. Dixon’69 and Elizabeth W. DixonProfessor, presented, “Beautyand Surprises in Fluid Mechanics: Nature, Research,”at the India Institute ofTechnology Bombay. Hetalked about the ways thatmechanics and fluid dynamicsyield insights into a wide variety of “multiphase”problems. Examples includedfluid motions generated byliving organisms, flows influenced by surface microtextures, various examplesinvolving bacteria, biofilmsand flows, bubbly flows that yield insights into unappreciated single-phaseflow complexity in simplegeometries, and finally theuse of a physicochemicalphenomenon, “diffusio-phoresis,” that suggest newapproaches to membranelessfiltration of particulate solutions.

November 2017Smits: MIT lecture on bio-propulsorsMAE Eugene Higgis Professor Alexander Smitsgave the Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyRobert Bruce Wallace Lecture on “Fast and efficientunderwater propulsion inspired by biology.” He discussed the underlyingphysics, superior performance,and natural limits of fluid-structure interaction of bio-propulsors, as well as how further performanceimprovements will requireadaptive flexibility and optimized planforms.

November 2017Researchers win 2017 Edison Patent Awards MAE researchers CraigArnold, Alexandre Mermillod-Blondin, EuanMcLeod, and MAE alumnus Christian Theriaultof TAG Optics, received theResearch & Development

Council of New Jersey’sEdison Patent Award fortheir “Tunable AcousticGradient Index of RefractionLens and System.” Thepatent represents the firsttime that sound has beenused to make a controllablelens for imaging and materialsprocessing applications; thesystem also scans over acomplete range of focallengths in only microseconds,much faster than the othervariable focal devices on themarket.

December 2017Kosmrlj receives NSF CAREER Award Assistant Professor AndrejKosmrlj received a NationalScience Foundation (NSF)Faculty Early CAREER Development Program Awardto research statistical mechanicsof slender structures, whichstand at the intersection of continuum mechanics,statistical mechanics, and biology.

December 2017Time capsules for climatechange: Socolow’s freshmanclass thinks about the futureStudents in Professor Emeritus Robert Socolow’sfreshman seminar preparedessays and personal reflectionsabout using emerging scienceto think quantitatively aboutthe impacts of climate changeand possible strategies for mitigation. The time capsulescontaining their work will be stored at Mudd Library untilthey are opened at the students’ 10th, 25th and 50th reunions. Socolow, a leading researcher in technologicaland policy responses to climate change, says he thinks ofthe capsules as destiny studies: “The 50-year time frame,”he notes, “is the length of these students’ careers. There are a huge range of possible outcomes.”


September 2017Law presents Shanghai school lecture, wins Beijing Great Wall Friendship AwardChung (Ed) Law, Robert H. Goddard Professor, spoke on “In Pursuit of Intellectual Excellence” at the Soong ChingLing School forum in Shanghai. Law, Director of the Centerfor Combustion Research at Tsinghua University, traced the impact combustion has had on human beings from the dawn of civilization and explained, with simplified illustrations, how the phenomenon works, so that the students could easily sensethe “intellectual beauty and excitement of combustion,” theschool reported.

The Beijing Great Wall Friendship Award was presented by Acting Mayor Chen Jining on behalf of the People’s Government of Beijing Municipality during a special ceremony in Beijing.

December 2017Revealing latte layering secretsDouble-diffusive convectionis the key to pouring a nicelylayered café latte, says NanXue, lead author of a paperin Nature Communicationsand a graduate student inProfessor Howard Stone’slab. Xue boosted the camera’stracking power with tracerparticles that scattered lightfrom a green laser beam to help track a faux-latte’sinternal dynamics. Double-diffusive convection occurswhen denser, cooler liquidssink, and lighter, hotter liquids rise until the regionreaches equilibrium and thefluids flow into horizontallayers instead. Understandingthe process holds commercialpromise for improving howto flow liquids into differentstrata and potentially reducecosts and complexity in arange of applications, such asin food science and improvingpersonal care products.

Department of MolecularBiology. Students learnedwhere chocolate comes from,what makes a chocolate barsmooth and creamy, andabout how hydrophobic(water repelling) and amphiphilic (in parts waterrepelling and attracting)materials combine to make a tasty treat.

January 2018Deike's aerosol research highlightedAssistant Professor Luc Deike,who studies interactions between the air and seawaterand the dynamics of breakingwaves, published new research detailing the intense velocity of aerosolscast upward as bubbles on a liquid’s surface burst.Knowing the speed andheight of aerosols applies tonumerous areas of scientificand economic interest, including more accurate climate modeling or creatinga perfect glass of champagne.The paper, entitled, “Dynamics of jets producedby bursting bubbles,” waspublished online in PhysicalReview Fluids athttps://journals.aps.org/prfluids/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.3.013603.

February 2018Law and Ju elected fellows of The Combustion InstituteChung K. Law was named a fellow for his “brilliant research achievements in all the fundamentals of combustion for applicationsin propulsion, energy andenvironmental issues.”Yiguang Ju was named

a fellow for “innovative fundamental research inlaminar flame dynamics,flame chemistry, and plasmaassisted combustion.”

physics and in robotics andintelligent systems. His dissertation focuses on thedevelopment and applicationof high-power sources of coherent ultrafast radiation.One example is high-intensityX-ray bursts bright enoughto capture the structure of anisolated protein and infraredpulses that “for a few millionths of a billionth of a second deliver thepower of a million nuclearplants onto an area smallerthan the cross section of a human hair.”

March 2018Feliciano ’94 receivesJerry I. Porras Latino Leadership Award

particularly in marshalingaction for hurricane relief in his native Puerto Rico.Read more here:https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/alumni/featured-events/award-events/latino-leadership

May 2018Princeton Racing Electric on a Roll at Formula HybridThe Princeton Racing Electric team took secondplace in the electric-only category at the Formula Hybrid competition in latespring. The 250 kg vehiclehas two Parker GVM142 36kW drive motors that operateat 6,000 RPM, and featuresindependent rear wheel drivemotors. The accumulatorhigh-voltage tractive batteryuses Energus cells. See moreat https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1720312461370545&t=1

continued on page 25

December 2017Teaching kids science through chocolateChocolate was the sweetsubject of the ninth-annualscience workshop for kidstaught by Howard Stone,MAE Chair, and BonnieBassler, chair of the

February 2018Former NASA administratorand astronaut highlights space achievementsMajor General and formerNASA administratorCharles Frank Bolden Jr.(USMC-ret.) gave the annual G. S. BeckwithGilbert ’63 Lecture on “Humanity’s Exploration”about NASA’s achievements.These included the unprecedented landing on Mars with the rover Curiosity, launch of a spacecraft to Jupiter, andcontinued progress towardthe launch of the JamesWebb Space Telescope. Hetraveled into orbit four timesaboard the Space Shuttle between 1986 and 1994,commanding two of the missions and piloting two others.

March 2018Doctoral student awardedPorter Ogden Jacobus FellowshipDoctoral student MatthewEdwards, one of four JacobusFellows named, holds aB.S.E. from Princeton andcertificates in engineering

José E. Feliciano, who earnedhis B.S. in MAE, was honored with the StanfordUniversity Hispanic BusinessStudent Association’s JerryI. Porras Latino LeadershipAward. Feliciano, who received an MBA fromStanford in 1999, is cofounder and managingpartner of Clearlake CapitalGroup. Efforts that earnedhis nomination included his help with creating theStanford Latino Alumni Association and his community service efforts,

For Bec Gray, house-hunting honeybees hold a key to understanding how multi-agent systemscan assess a situation, communicate findingsthroughout the group, and generate collectivedecision-making power without a central leader.

“One of the great things about the form of collective decision- making we study is that while some level of intelligence is required, the individual agents can be fairlysimple. It is through a sophisticated combination of simpleinteractions that we see the rich complexity in behavior,”explains Gray. “This is advantageous because it means the robots we may someday create for these systems can be low cost and easily replaced.”

One example is search and rescue robots sent out to findsurvivors or collect information after a natural disaster. Theyhave to make decisions about where to search based on the

Bec Gray:

Curiosity, Honeybees, andMathematical ModelsDEGREE: PHD

SPECIALTY: DYNAMICS AND CONTROLS

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information they observe directly, such aschanges in weather conditions or survivorswho may be injured, or information theylearn from other robots in the group. Robotic vehicles that perform environmentalmonitoring in the ocean, on land, or in theair have to decide how best to distributethemselves to take measurements and collect samples.

Similarly, a hive’s survival relies on the honeybees’ ability to use decentralizedstrategies to communicate, compute, andevaluate multiple pieces of information tomake successful decisions as a group. Whena hive becomes too small for the swarm,they send out scouts to look for a new site.An ideal home has several key features: it is high off the ground, has a small entrancehole, and has enough room to store food. A scout returns to the home hive and usesvarious movements (called the “waggle”dance) to communicate to the other beeswhat she has found. Those bees that are recruited will visit and make their own assessment. When the number of scouts accumulates over time at one of the potentialsites, that site is chosen as the new hive.

Taking cues from the honeybees’ approach,Gray studies a nonlinear mathematicalmodel of the decision-making dynamics thatdepends on a small number of parameters,representative of the environment and thenetwork structure. Many natural systems,like the honeybees, can be studied by considering the evolution of equilibria in the system with respect to the various systemparameters. Gray looks at the effect of thesedifferent parameters—such as the value ofthe options the bees are choosing betweenor the number of bees involved—and howthey affect the decision-making process andultimately the group’s performance.

“My role is to think about this natural processfrom a control engineering perspective—what is coming into the system, what isgoing out of the system, and what happensin the middle to make the process work,”Gray says. “The end goal is to both leverage

key features from the natural decision-makingprocesses that can be applied to robotic decision-making, and also to develop hypotheses that consider factors that previous population-level models have not been able to.”

Gray expanded her engineering focus as an undergraduate at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand,where she worked on a control and dynamicsproject to develop a glycemic model for people with diabetes.

“I had never thought about approaching biological problems from an engineeringperspective before. But, suddenly my eyeswere opened to many applications of mechanical engineering that I had neverconsidered. I found it fascinating that engineering methods could be used to develop a greater understanding of non-engineering subjects,” she explains.

Gray was one of the graduate students whopresented real-life engineering challenges to a fourth-grade class from Harlem PrepElementary School. She tapped into her life-long curiosity about engineering to inspireyoung students to pursue careers in science.

“I want them to think about what intereststhem, and then how engineering is involvedor can be involved,” she says. “Engineeringgives us the opportunity to use our skillsand creativity to help people in many vastlydifferent ways.” ©

Bec is inspired by the remarkable collective behavior of animal groups, and she is driven by theopportunity to use mathematical models to explorethe mechanisms that help explain observations of behavior. She is doing so well at combining her creativity with her technical expertise to translatethe mechanisms into design, all the while keepingher focus on solving problems that benefit society.

—Naomi Leonard, PhD, Edwin S. Wisley Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

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MAE Report 2018 • Page 11Page 10 • MAE Report 2018

“How many people do we come acrossthroughout our lives that have an opportunity,but no one ever gave them a real chance?Those stories always stood out to me,” saysByers, who has been a math tutor, remedialalgebra teacher, and an undergraduate engineering instructor.

“Anyone can grow up with challenging circumstances and still thrive. It is easy tosit there and judge them, but if they areasking for help, why not reach out a handand give what you can. I will never forgetthe look on my neighbor’s face when shepassed the GED exam after months ofstudying together, or the excitement of a high school student I tutored when hisgrades improved enough to earn an athleticscholarship,” he says.

In high school, Byers knew he had a knackfor science and math and a talent for figuringout how things work. What he didn’t havewas a way to pay for an engineering degree.No one in his family had gone to collegeand his parents couldn’t afford to send him.Inspired by his grandfather’s adventures asa bush pilot in 1940s Alaska, Byers decidedthat joining the U.S. Air Force was his bestopportunity to earn a college degree, pursueengineering, and serve his country alongthe way.

After graduating from Washington StateUniversity, he and his wife moved to California, where he served for four years at Vandenberg Air Force Base. There heoversaw the western range launch facilities,making sure that the radar, safety, and

Clay Byers:

Creating and SeizingOpportunityDEGREE: PHD SPECIALTY: FLUID MECHANICS

communications equipment was updatedand maintained for launches. As his servicecame to an end, he decided grad school atPrinceton was the right path, particularlyworking in Professor Marcus Hultmark’sFluids Laboratory.

In fall 2017, Byers was awarded first placeat the MAE Research Day for his project on“Multi-Component Velocity Measurementsin a Wall Bounded Turbulent Flow Utilizinga Novel Sensor.” In the experiment, Byersand his colleagues wanted to measure thetemperature in a wall-bound turbulent flowusing a sensor called a Nano-Scale ThermalAnemometry Probe (NSTAP). They expected to measure a higher temperature atthe wall that would decrease as you movedfurther away. But, it was exactly the opposite. “We turned the heat off and did the samemeasurement,” he explains. “What wefound was that our temperature sensor wasreally sensing velocity. As the water passedover the sensor, it bent the wire andchanged the signal.”

After a literature search, he and his colleaguesdiscovered it was the first time a probe ofthat shape and geometry had been used formeasuring velocity. They applied for apatent and developed a start-up companycalled Tendo Technologies. The sensor canbe used to accurately measure very slowflow rates for medical supplies, such as aninfusion or injection.

“My job is to take complex equations andmake them simpler,” adds Byers, who is developing mathematical methodologies

to better understand turbulent equations of motion. “The idea isn’t that we are goingto solve all of the problems, but rather howcan we understand the problems from thosegoverning ideas and parameters.”

In addition to his research, Byers is part of the W.E.B. DuBois Scholars Institute,where he developed and taught an intro toengineering course for high school studentswho came from families or communitieswith historical barriers to opportunity andachievement. He also helps at Princeton’sMcGraw Tutoring Program.

Of all his accomplishments, Byers is mostproud of being honored with a teachingaward from the Engineering Student Council.

“I felt so gratified that the students thoughtmy efforts helped them in a course that isnot always so understandable,” he says,adding that he plans to continue with bothresearch and teaching after graduation. “I’ll jump at any opportunity to inspireyoung students. It has always been whatkeeps me motivated.” ©

They say luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.For Clay Byers, it takes one additional factor to achieve a dream.

Clay is self-motivated, driven, and organized, whichallows him to effectively conduct interesting research.He always has a plan for his research, which allowshim to focus on the tasks ahead. Yet, Clay can stilladapt if that plan fails or if he finds unexpected opportunities along the way. Most students tend to either enjoy mathematical or experimental research, but Clay enjoys both and it adds a uniqueflavor to his research.

— Marcus Hultmark, Associate Professor, Fluids Mechanicsand Biomechanics and Biomaterials

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• MAE Report 2018

“The more you learn about planes, the more you realize it is incredible they everleave the ground for the sheer number ofthings that have to go right every flight,”says Rousso. “I am fascinated by the conceptof taking heavier-than-air components andputting them together to generate efficientand safe transport.”

He’s loved planes from his earliest years: his parents discovered early that theiryoung son would settle down quickly if theyrode 10 minutes to the beach and watchedplanes taking off and landing at nearby LosAngeles International Airport (LAX).

By high school, he decided he wanted topursue some form of engineering or be a skier. Then, he chose to do both. During a gap year between high school and collegehe became a licensed ski instructor in NewZealand before entering Johns HopkinsUniversity to major in mechanical engineering.Guiding whitewater kayaking for freshmanpre-orientation trips sparked his love forteaching, which led to assisting studentswith Computer Aided Design at JohnsHopkins and later with fluids experimentsat Princeton laboratories.

An undergraduate jet propulsion classsparked his interest in thermodynamics.“You have to mix chemistry and physics intothese complicated designs,” he says. “I lovelearning about combustion and propulsion

as it explores the application of some verybasic principles of heat transfer and massflow and uses it to power some of thelargest man-made objects ever built.”

For Rousso, applying knowledge to practicaldesign experiences has been the most rewarding. He was on a Johns Hopkins teamthat designed and built an off-road vehiclefrom scratch to compete at the annual BajaSAE Intercollegiate Design competition.

But it was the desire to pursue his interestin design and flight a step further into spacetravel that led to where he is today. As partof the Advanced Combustion and PropulsionLab, Rousso is trying to push the envelopein terms of what is possible in energy management, propulsion, and combustionsystems to improve the ways people travelon Earth and explore beyond, starting with basic science research.

“You have to understand the fundamentalchemistry and physics behind how somethingworks before you can even think about applying that knowledge in an engine,” hesays. “My hope is that what we learn will be used in the future to design an enginethat reduces carbon and other pollutantemissions, as well as improves efficiencyand power-to-weight ratios.”

As with any technology, he says, engineersfirst develop it the quick and dirty way.

Now that we have been burning fuel withcombustion for half a century, he says thechallenge is to innovate and create newtechnology to make it safe, efficient, and environmentally friendly for everyone.

In the lab, Rousso studies plasma-assistedcombustion, a relatively new technologythat he believes will someday improve engineefficiency, enhance fuel lean combustion, andreduce emissions. In particular, he is exploringthe chemical kinetics and reaction pathwaysin plasma-assisted combustion experimentsof liquid fuel surrogates such as n-heptane.This will help develop models that can accurately predict these plasma-fuel interactions.

Non-equilibrium plasma, he notes, is difficultto generate under real engine conditions:“An alternative may be to study the longlifetime active species these plasmas generate,such as ozone. Ozone addition is anotherpromising method to enhance low temperature combustion.”

Outside of Princeton, he has researchedozone-assisted, low-temperature oxidationat the Sandia National Laboratory and conducted experiments at the AdvancedLight Source synchrotron at LawrenceBerkeley National Laboratory.

After his PhD, Rousso hopes to work in the space or defense sectors to developtechnologies for safer air and space travel.His dream is to design part of an enginethat helps astronauts go to Mars or beyond.

Until then, he will keep enjoying air travel,taking a seat over the wing as often as he can. ©

Aric Rousso:

Prepare for TakeoffDEGREE: PHD SPECIALTY: THERMODYNAMICS

Aric Rousso’s favorite airplane seat is by the window overlooking thewing, but it’s not for the bird’s eye view. It’s to watch the intricate interplay between the engines and the flaps — the physics of thrustand drag — that makes mechanical flight possible.

Aric has a strong passion in research.He is always highly motivated and willing to tackle challenging projects.Moreover, he is a wonderful team member and an exceptional mentor to junior students.

— Yiguang Ju, PhD, Robert PorterPatterson Professor and Director of the

Program in Sustainable Energy

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• MAE Report 2018

Adelle Ingrid Dimitui:

The Art of Code and EngineeringDEGREE: B.S.E MECHANICAL AND AEROSPACE ENGINEERING

SPECIALTY: DEVELOPING ENGINEERING ANALYSIS SOFTWARE

Growing up in the Philippines and Myanmarin Southeast Asia, Dimitui was strongly influenced by her father, who worked for a pharmaceutical company, and her stay-at-home mother. Both inspired her to pursue a Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering degree from Princeton.

“While I learned the value of hard work,graciousness, and education from my father, I credit my mother for helping me learn the value of good conversation and self-esteem,” she says.

In high school, Dimitui attended a lectureby a Filipina social entrepreneur who led anorganization that built and distributed solarflashlights to low income communities. Thatsparked Dimitui’s passion to take her creative writing, drawing, and graphicdesign interests and dive headlong intotechnology programming with a purpose.

“This fulfills everything I want to do: having a positive social impact while fulfilling my insatiable need to learn.I would not be abandoning art, because really technology is art,” she says. “There isart everywhere you look — it is an idea thatgrows from something that is intangible andmade into something that is tangible.”

Following her freshman year at Princeton,she was accepted into the summertime iXperience coding program in Cape Town,South Africa. There, she learned front-endweb development, Javascript andHTML/CSS languages, and the AngularJSand jQuery frameworks for Javascript.

Her coding skills have played an importantrole in her MAE summer research with Professor Yiguang Ju’s Advanced Combustionand Propulsion Lab,where Dimitui wrote andedited MATLAB codethat automates some of thegraduate students’ researchprocesses, thereby reducingtheir time spent on data processing. Dimitui hashelped improve code that quantifies consumptionand production duringvarious chemical reactions,as well as code that performs image analysison pictures of flames to produce turbulent combustion statisticaldata, such as flameperimeters and local radii of curvature.

For Adelle Dimitui, combining creativity with engineering while pursuing a positive social impact is an art.

She also helped Chris Reuter, one of ProfessorJu’s graduate students, by developing newanalyzing software to study cool flames.These have a maximum temperature around600 degrees Celsius and are produced bythe chemical reactions of certain fuel-airmixtures. His study seeks to understandhow transportation fuels can operate over a larger range of conditions, which is important for designing more efficient and cleaner engines and fuel.

Dimitui says she loves experiments as muchas coding: “I'm a very hands-on type of person, and I love feeling the tangibility ofmechanical equipment while collaboratingwith peers.”

As far as her life’s canvas is concerned,Dimitui’s work is a mixed media piece: she continues to dabble in traditional art byproviding graphic design services to variousorganizations on campus; she is using hercoding and development skills working onan app as a side project; and she has beeninvolved with Engineers Without Bordersboth as a participant on the technical teamof the Peru International Project and on thestudent board helping with the overarching administration of the organization.

“Engineers Without Borders, to me, acts asan intersection between community serviceand engineering, which I feel really alignswith my personal values,” she says.

Upon graduation, Dimitui hopes to find a job that builds on her experience in hardware and programming. Ultimately,she would like to return to the Philippines.

But as long as she is involved with a sustainable project in technology that has a social impact, Dimitui will consider herwork a masterpiece. ©

Adelle has helped writesome new analyzing software to help ourteam better understandturbulent flames andhas also worked onsome coding to help usmore easily analyze thedetails of combustionchemistry. We can giveher an idea and shetakes it and runs withit, which is very helpfulto us; she is a goodworker, friendly, and independent.

— Chris Reuter, graduate student in Professor YiguangJu’s Advanced Combustion

and Propulsion Lab

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”MAE Report 2018 • Page 15

• MAE Report 2018

ESeminar Committee Yiguang Ju, ChairMikko Haataja Marcus Hultmark Egemen Kolemen Diversity Committee Mikko Haataja, ChairMarcus Hultmark Dan Steingart Howard StoneHonors and Awards Committee Howard Stone, ChairAlexander SmitsC.K. LawNaomi Leonard SEAS EPAC Committee Luigi Martinelli Robotics & Intelligent Systems Program Robert Stengel, ChairSustainable Energy Program Yiguang Ju, ChairCommittee on Appointments: None in AY18Committee on Research Appointments C. K. Law, ChairLuigi MartinelliClancy Rowley Teaching Schedule Coordinators Michael LittmanAlex GlaserJill Ray, ex-officioJo Ann Love, ex-officioClimate & Inclusion Committee Marcus Hultmark, co-chairJulia Mikhailova, co-chairDeanna SpothLou RiehlTyler Van BurenSuin ShimChuck WittDaniel Floryan Katherine Kokmanian Howard Stone, ex-officioJenn Widdis, ex-officioJill Ray, ex-officioFreshman Advisors Marcus Hultmark Andrej Kosmrlj Gigi Martinelli Michael Mueller Dan Nosenchuck EEO OfficerDaniel Steingart

Meet the People of MAE

FACU

LTY

Every day, the people of MAE harness theirvast expertise and insatiable curiosity to improve how human beings interact with theworld through the creative science of engineering.Our faculty cultivate the unique matrix of lessons and research through which both discoveries and student potential can thrive.

FACULTY AWARDS, HONORS AND RECOGNITION

Amir Ali Ahmadi (Associated Faculty, Assistant Professor of Operations Research & Financial Engr.)n 2018 Innovation Award of the Princeton School of Engineering and Applied Science

n 2018 Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative Award of the AFOSR

n 2018 National Academy of Engineering U.S. Frontiers of Engineering SymposiumCraig Arnold (Professor)n 2017 Thomas Edison Patent AwardEmily Carter (Professor & Dean)n 2017 Julian C. Smith Lecturer in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Cornell University

n 2017 Fritz London Memorial Lecturer, Duke Universityn 2017 Emerson Center Lectureship Award, Emory Universityn 2017 College of Engineering Fall Distinguished Lecturer, University of California, Davis

n 2018 ACS Award in Theoretical Chemistry, American Chemical Societyn 2018 Donald L. Katz Lectureship in Chemical Engineering, University of MichiganPhilip Holmes (Professor, Emeritus)n 2017 Inaugural Brain and Behavior Initiative-Kavli Lecture, University of MarylandYiguang Ju (Professor & Director of the Program in Sustainable Energy)

n 2017 Distinguished Visiting Fellow, The Royal Academy of Engineering, UK

n 2017 Honorary Professorship, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Chinan 2017 Air Products Distinguished Lecture, Pennsylvania State University

n 2018 Fellow of the Combustion Institute, The Combustion Institute (International)Andrej Kosmrlj (Assistant Professor)n 2018 School of Engineering and Applied Science Excellence in Teaching Award

n 2018 NSF Career AwardC.K. (Ed) Law (Professor)n 2018 Elected Fellow, The Combustion InstituteNaomi Leonard (Professor & Director of the Council on Science & Technology)

n 2017 Plenary Lecture, SIAM Annual MeetingAnirudha Majumdar (Assistant Professor)n 2018 Paper of the Year Award, International Journal of Robotics Research

n 2018 Google Faculty Research AwardAlexander Smits (Professor, Emeritus)n 2017 Plenary Lecture, University of Michigan/NASA Symposium on Advances in Turbulence Modeling

n 2017 25th Robert T. Wallace Lecture, MITn 2018 11th Gerald M. Faeth Memorial Lecture, University of MichiganHoward Stone (Professor & Chair)n 2017 4th Annual Indira Foundation Distinguished Lecture, IIT Bombay, India

n 2017 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE), Invited Speaker, Florida

n 2018 Keynote Lecture, Ontario on a Chip, Toronto, Canadan 2018 G. I. Taylor Medal of the Society of Engineering ScienceSzymon Suckewer (Professor, Emeritus)n 2018 Alfred Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement AwardRobert Vanderbei (Associated Faculty, Professor of Operations Research & Financial Engineering)

n 2017 Optimization Society Kachiyan Prize

Professor Craig Arnold Emily Carter Edgar Choueiri Mikko Haataja Yiguang Ju N. Jeremy Kasdin Chung (Ed) Law Naomi Leonard Michael Littman Clarence Rowley Alexander Smits Robert Stengel Howard Stone, ChairAssociate Professor Alexander Glaser Luigi Martinelli Daniel Nosenchuck Daniel Steingart Assistant Professor Luc DeikeMarcus Hultmark Egemen Kolemen Andrej Kosmrlj Anirudha Majumdar Julia Mikhailova Michael Mueller Visiting Assistant Professor for Distinguished TeachingLuiz Gonzalez Lecturer Biswadip Dey Jens Eggers Lamyaa El-Gabry Glenn Northey Associated Faculty Ilhan Aksay, Chemical & Biological Engineering

Amir Ali Ahmadi, Operations Research & Financial EngineeringElie Bou-Zeid, Civil & Environmental EngineeringNathaniel Fisch, Astrophysical SciencesBruce Koel, Chemical & Biological EngineeringDavid Spergel, Astrophysical SciencesSalvatore Torquato, ChemistryRobert Vanderbei, Operations Research & Financial Engineering Claire White, Civil & Environmental Engineering

DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEESGraduate Committee Alex Glaser, ChairMarcus Hultmark Jeremy Kasdin Michael Mueller Dan Steingart Director of Graduate Studies Alex Glaser Undergraduate Committee Michael Littman, ChairCraig ArnoldMarcus HultmarkYiguang Ju (Spring 2018)Luigi Martinelli Julia MikhailovaAlex Glaser, ex-officioResearch Committee Yiguang Ju, ChairCommittee constituted on an ad hoc basis



BClass of 2018 Craig Arnold Marcus Hultmark Yiguang Ju Andrej Kosmrlj Michael Littman Julia Mikhailova Dan Nosenchuck Robert Stengel Class of 2019 Craig Arnold Luc Deike Yiguang Ju Michael Littman Dan NosenchuckClancy Rowley Daniel Steingart

Faculty

Professor

Associate

Assistant

Other

Subtotal

Professional Researchers

Visiting Researchers

Technical Research

Technical Teaching

Administrative

TOTAL

2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18

17 15 16 15 13 12

4 3 2 2 3 4

4 6 7 7 6 7

1 2 1

26 26 25 24 22 24

43 44 45 50 52 43

10 13 13 12 13 19

5.5 6.5 6.5 5.5 5.5 4

4 4 4 4 4 4

12 12 12.5 11.5 12 11

100.5 105.5 106 107 108.5 105

Department Personnel (as of September 1)

Class of 2020 Craig Arnold Michael Littman Luigi Martinelli Chemical Hygiene Officer Michael Vocaturo Safety Manager Jonathan Prevost SEAS Lab Safety Committee Reps Michael Littman Jonathan Prevost Michael Vocaturo Student Organization RepresentativesAIAA: Michael MuellerSAE: Yiguang JuMRS: Craig Arnold

Tau Beta Pi (SEAS-wide):Michael Mueller, Howard Stone Faculty Leaves Fall 2017: Yiguang JuSpring 2018: Lex Smits

0

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

’10 ’11 ’12 ’13 ’14 ’15 ’16 ’17 ’18

MAE Operating Expenditures

0

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

’10 ’11 ’12 ’13 ’14 ’15 ’16 ’17 ’18

MAE Sponsored Research Volume

The Baetjer Seminar Series and Crocco ColloquiumBeyond the classroom, student learning is enhanced through an expanding program of lectures, seminars, colloquia and conferencesbrought to the University. Leading scholars from outside the Princeton community give lectures about exciting, leading-edge research in fields related to mechanical and aerospace engineering.

Sarah Bergbreiter, University of MarylandMicrosystems-inspired RoboticsCampbell Carter, Air Force Research LabKHz Imaging Diagnostics for Tough, PracticalProblemsDennice Gayme, Johns Hopkins UniversityWind Farm Modeling & Control for Power GridSupportSimone Hochgreb, University of CambridgePicking the Right Tools for the Job Experimental Diagnostics for Reacting Flows & ThermoacousticsPeko Hosoi,MITHairy HydrodynamicsKen Kamrin,MITContinuum Modeling of Flowing GrainsChris Kliewer, Sandia National LabUltrafast Laser Diagnostics Development for CombustionHadass Kress-Gazit, Cornell UniversitySynthesis for Robotics: Guarantees & Feedback for Complex BehaviorsMiroslav Krstic, UC San DiegoTraffic Flow Control Calming “Stop-and-Go” in Congested Traffic Ellen Kuhl, Stanford UniversityNeuromechanics – Perspectives, Challenges & OpportunitiesDavid Lentink, Stanford UniversityAvian Inspired Design

Jennifer Lukes, University of PennsylvaniaAtomistic Transport Processes at Liquid-VaporInterfaces Stephane Popinet, Institut Jean Le Rond d’Alembert, Université Paris-SorbonneNumerical Models of Surface TensionManu Prakash, Stanford UniversityEmergent Mechanics & Origins of Behavior in Simple Non-Neuronal SystemsPadmini Rangamani, UC San DiegoDecoding Information in Cell Shape the Role of Membrane CurvatureAndy Ruina, Cornell UniversityPassive Dynamics is a Good Basis for Robot Design and ControlAngela Schoellig, University of TorontoSafe Learning-Based Control for Mobile RobotsJulie Shah,MITEnhancing Human Capability with Intelligent Machine TeammatesAnna Stefanopoulou, University of MichiganStretching Battery Utilization using NovelStress/Strain Models and MeasurementsSunney Xie, Harvard UniversityStimulated Raman Scattering Microscopy: Seeingthe Invisible in Biology and Medicine

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

Faculty Research Expenditures Distribution FY18

500 1000 1500 2000

Numb

er of

Facu

lty

Research Expenditures (In 1,000s)

Page 18 • MAE Report 2018


SMadelyn Baron, Mistifying the Fourth State of Matter: Characterizinga Plasma Jet and Water Interface for Applications in Medical Treatment Jordon Brown, Design and Implementation of an Actuated Probe Suitefor an Orificed Hollow Cathode Daniel Carbonatto-Bowkett, Aquaticopter: An Underwater and AerialVehicleIsabel Cleff, Design, Construction, and Supersonic Wind Tunnel Testing of an Aerospike Rocket NozzleJeffrey Diament, Developing a Wind-Sensing Drone: Integration of Nano-Scale Flow Sensors Onboard a Quadrotor UAVTarik Dzanic, Implicit Large Eddy Simulations of a Large-RadiusLeading Edge VFE-2 Delta WingThomas Fair, The Effects of Cycling and Storage Conditions on Li-IonBattery Health, Rate Capability, and RecyclabilityAnkita Ghoshal, Solid-State Microengines for Efficient and High-Endurance PerformanceDevon Hartsough, Precision-Actuated Kinematic Mount Design for a Balloon-borne Three Mirror AnastigmatGokul Iyer, Analysis of Dendrite Growth in Secondary Zinc Cells via EIS AnalysisJacqueline Jones, Pool School: Color-based Object Tracking and ShotPrediction as a Learning Tool in BilliardsMobasher Khan, Applications of Data Science to ElectrochemistryLa Lee Lo, A Large Eddy Simulation Study of the Flame Structures of Piloted Turbulent Dimethyl Ether FlamesDelaney Miller, Assessment of a Wireless Accelerometer System forTracking Asymmetries in Gait Jason Muldering, A Solid Mechanics-Informed Continuum Model Approach to Phase Engineering Bendable Group VI Transition MetalDichalcogenide MonolayersBernardo Pacini, Design, Development, and Construction of a Biologically Inspired Sensor System for Real Time Flow Visualization Brian Poirier, Regrounding Contemporary Rammed-Earth Systems Amir Raja, Imaging Basic Structures Using Ultrasonic Methods Coupledwith Inversion Techniques

Senior IndependentWork Projects

Senior independent work is the culminatingexperience for the undergraduate mechanicaland aerospace engineering programs. Theyparticipate, in teams, groups or individually,in a research or engineering project that includes elements of engineering design. The Class of 2018 completed the following interesting and exciting year-long projects.

UNDE

RGRA

DUAT

E

01020304050607080

’12 ’13 ’14 ’15 ’16 ’17 ’18 ’19 ’20 ’21

MechanicalAerospace

Mechanical and AerospaceTotal

Mechanical & Aerospace EngineeringUndergraduate Actual Enrollment by Concentration by Class Year

MAE supports the education of 179 undergraduate studentsfrom the U.S. and around the world, preparing them for a careeror further study. In addition to getting exposure to vast learningresources through our faculty and research staff, students alsohave the chance to apply their discipline to their own projectsand/or collaborate with MAE classmates and students in otherdisciplines.

Matthew Romer, Distributed Control of Rigid BodyAttitude Kinematics Mark Scerbo, Tiger Power: An Electrical Power System for Princeton’s First CubeSatOmkar Shende, On the Efficacy and Accuracy ofModels for Large Eddy Simulations of Turbulent 9 Premixed CombustionLouis Tambellini, Z-Beam Composite Stiffened PanelManufacturing Methods Santiago Aguirre-Garnica, Joshua Freeman, ColinReilly, Benjamin Shi, Maxwell Schwegman,HORUS: An Origami-Unfolding Solar Array forAutonomous Deployment on MarsJan Bernhard, Trevor Henningson, Viveque Ramji,Intelligent Quadruped: Simplified RGBD-BasedAutonomous Navigation for a Quadruped RobotSusannah Crowell, Bertha Wang, Autonomous One-Inch Robot Arm Prototype (Littlefinger)Lena Dubitsky, Leif Fredericks, Investigating theCharacteristics of Helmholtz Resonator EnergyHarvestingMichael Fuerst, John VanOrden, Enhancing Consumer ROV Platforms for the Observation of Juvenile White Sharks (Carcharodon carcharias)Aliya Greenberg, Bar Kadosh, Tenley Shield,Lithium-ion Batteries: An Analysis of CommercialViability and an Application in an Off-Grid Solar-Battery SystemHenry Ha, Juan Sepulveda-Varon, Ozone-AssistedDeflagration to Detonation Transition of LeanC2H2/Ox Mixtures in MicrochannelsJonathan Lord, Augustin Wambersie, Julian Castellon,A. Ju, Tarik Dzanic, Modular Jet Engine Design:an Alternative Power Generation SolutionGrace Lynch, Soumya Sudakar, Control of PropellerHang on a Fixed-Wing UAVFitsum Petros, Jesus Serrano-Cendejas, MadelineTravnik, Let's Get In Formation: Autonomous Robots for Solar Energy ConcentrationAbhimanyu Shah, Josh Rogers, CARP: An EconomicalUnderwater Robot for Algorithm Testing

T

MAE Report 2018 • Page 23Page 22 • MAE Report 2018

2017-18 Graduate StudentsClayton Byers, PhDAdvisor: Marcus HultmarkThesis: Theoretical and Experimental Investigations of SimilaritySolutions in Turbulent Flows Position: Assistant Professor, Trinity College, Hartford, CTTing-Hsuan Chen, PhD MAEMSAdvisor: Craig ArnoldThesis: Ultrafast Varifocal Lenses in Laser Material Processing andParticle Tracking Velocimetry Position: PTD Module and Integration Device Yield Engineer, IntelCorporation, Hillsboro, OR Tat Loon Chng, PhDAdvisor: Richard MilesThesis: Remote Detection of Trace Species for Combustion and Atmospheric Magnetometry Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France Greg Davies, PhDAdvisor: Dan SteingartThesis: Characterization of Batteries Using Ultrasound: Applicationsfor Battery Management and Structural Determination Ryan Davis, PhDAdvisor: Mikko HaatajaThesis: Multi-phase Field Models and Microstructural Evolutionwith Applications in Fuel Cell Technology Yuyang Fan, PhDAdvisor: Marcus HultmarkThesis: High Resolution Instrumentation for Flow MeasurementsPosition: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Mechanical and AerospaceEngineering, Princeton University Alta Fang, PhDAdvisor: Mikko HaatajaThesis: Modeling microstructural evolution during crystallization:from organic thin films to electrodeposited metalsPosition: Postdoctoral Fellow, NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), Boulder, CO

Xiang Gao, MSEAdvisor: Elie Bou-ZeidThesis: Velocity Variance In The Atmospheric Surface Layer Position: Data Scientist, Self-employed Jingjie Hu, PhDAdvisor: Wole SoboyejoThesis: Breast Cancer Detection: From Tumor-SpecificNanoparticles to Cell Mechanics Position: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, MayoClinic, Scottsdale, AZ Jeffry Lew, MSEAdvisor: Michael MuellerThesis: Large Eddy Simulation Subfilter Modelingof Soot-Chemistry-Turbulence Interactions Position: Assistant Engineer, SciTec, Inc., Princeton, NJ Wenkai Liang, PhDAdvisor: Chung K. LawThesis: Theoretical Studies on Combustion Chemistry and WavesPosition: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University Jonathan MacArt, PhDAdvisor: Michael MuellerThesis: Computational Simulation and Modeling of Heat Release Effects on Turbulence in Turbulent Reacting FlowPosition: Postdoctoral Research Staff, CoordinatedScience Lab, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Jonathan will join the University of NotreDame as an Assistant Professor in January 2020. Tara Nealon, MSEAdvisor: Marcus HultmarkThesis: Simulating and Modeling A DynamicallyScaled Wind Turbine Position: Upper School Science Teacher, RanneySchool, Tinton Falls, NJ Sebastien Philippe, PhDAdvisor: Alex GlaserThesis: A Physical Zero-Knowledge Proof and Unclonable Sensors for Nuclear Warhead Verification Position: Stanton Nuclear Security PostdoctoralFellowship, Harvard University, Kennedy Schoolof Government, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs Benjamin Reimold, MSEAdvisor: Alex GlaserThesis: Minimally-Invasive Treaty Verification: A Proposal of the Buddy TagPosition: Mechanical Design Engineer, CraneAerospace & Electronics, Lynnwood, WA

Hari Subedi, PhDAdvisor: N. Jeremy KasdinThesis: Low-Order Wavefront Sensing for FutureSpace-Based Coronagraphic Missions with aSparse Aperture MaskPosition: Optical Engineer, NASA Goddard SpaceFlight Center, Greenbelt, MD Xiaoyu Tang, PhDAdvisor: Chung K. LawThesis: Dynamics of Drop Impact on Liquid FilmPosition: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, ChemicalEngineering, University of California at Santa Barbara Sheng Yang, PhDAdvisor: Chung K. LawThesis: Chemical Kinetics and Propagation Dynamics of Laminar and Turbulent Flames Position: Quantitative Researcher, Two Sigma,New York, NY Deying Yu, PhDAdvisor: Wole SoboyejoThesis: Adhesion and the Lamination/Failure of Stretchable Organic and CompositeOrganic/Inorganic Electronic Structures Yibin Zhang, PhDAdvisor: Julia MikhailovaThesis: The Development and Characterization of Femtosecond Laser Velocimetry Methods Position: Postdoctoral Appointee, Sandia NationalLaboratories, Albuquerque, NM

GRAD

UATE

The majority of outstanding technical problemsin today’s science and engineering fields require amulti-disciplinary research approach at the intersectionof engineering, physics, chemistry, biological science,and applied mathematics. Our 101 graduate students,who can earn a PhD or MSE, stand at the center ofthese challenges. Through their research and study,they contribute new knowledge in mechanical andaerospace engineering to answer the challenges toimportant societal, scientific, and industrial problems.

Graduate Programsin MAE

0

20

40

60

80

100

2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18

First Year

Fifth Year

Second Year

Total DCEThird Year Fourth Year

Total Program

Mechanical & Aerospace EngineeringGraduate Actual Enrollment by Year (PhD)

97 97 94 94 96

• MAE Report 2018

Graduate Program Professional Development To complement academic offerings, MAE provides programming to promote student success in research,teaching, career development, and professionalism. Students can participate in a number of workshops to develop skills in areas such as public speaking, writing, research, and exploration of post-graduationpossibilities.Alumni Career Panel, Mac Haas ’16, Assistant Professor, Rowan University; Grunde Jomaas ’08, Professorand BRE Chair of Fire Safety Engineering, University of Edinburgh, Scotland; Brendan McAndrew ’04,Electronics Engineer, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland; Emanuel Stockman ’09, Senior Associate, Osage University Partners, Princeton, NJ; Mohamed Bahri, Graduate Student, Calculating Effective Elastic Moduli of 2-d Materials; Timothy Chen, Graduate Student, Plasma-Assisted Fuel Reformingof Methane Using Non-Equilibrium Excitation; Luc Deike, Assistant Professor, Waves, Drops and Bubblesin Ocean Atmosphere Interactions; Nikita Dutta, Graduate Student, Structural Characterization ofChalcogenide Glasses during Solution Processing; Christopher Galea, Graduate Student, Towards XenonNeutral Density Measurements Using Radar REMPI; Aaron Goodman, Graduate Student, Ion Heating inMultiple X-Line Reconnection Geometries; Matthew Heinrich, Graduate Student, Generalizing MechanicalModels of Epithelial Sheets to Study Collective Behavior of Cells; Kelly Huang, Graduate Student, MimickingAtmospheric Flow Conditions to Examine Mosquito Orientation Behavior; Susanne Killian, PhD, AssociateDirector of Graduate Student Career Advising, Career Services, Interview Skills for Post-Doc and IndustryPositions; Susanne Killian, PhD, Associate Director of Graduate Student Career Advising, Career Services,Networking and Job Search Tools for Engineering PhDs; Andrej Kosmrlj, Assistant Professor, Guidelinesfor Giving Good Talks; Andrej Kosmrlj, Assistant Professor, Mechanics of Slender Structures; Matthew New-Tolley, Graduate Student, Characterization of Flow Perturbations Generated by a Femtosecond LaserPulse; Louis Riehl, Assistant Grants Manager, MAE Business Center: Traveling and Getting Reimbursed;Jacob Simmonds, Graduate Student, Miniaturization of Low Power Hall Thrusters; Judith A. Swan, PhD, Associate Director for Writing in Science and Engineering, Princeton Writing Program, Informative Abstracts: Scientific Writing from the Readers’ Perspective; Sijie Tong, Graduate Student, Mechanics of Wrinkled Structures

Departmental and Awards: Nikita Dutta, MAE Department Second Year FellowshipDaniel Floryan, Harari Post Generals FellowshipYing Liu, Larisse Rosentweig Klein AwardZirui Liu, MAE Department Second Year Fellowship Mark Miller, Crocco Award for Teaching Excellence Samuel Otto, Athena-Feron Award, GuggenheimSecond Year Fellowship, Sayre Award for Academic ExcellenceSijie Tong, Summerfield Second Year FellowshipJoseph Tylka, Crocco Award for Teaching ExcellenceNan Xue, Phillips Second Year FellowshipOmar Yehia, Guggenheim Second Year FellowshipEstella Yu, Harari Post Generals FellowshipUniversity: Matthew Edwards, Porter Ogden Jacobus GraduateHonorific Fellowship Yao Lai, Maeder Graduate Fellowship in Energyand the Environment Sebastien Philippe, Harold W. Dodds GraduateHonorific Fellowship External: Ting-Hsuan Chen, Ministry of Education StudyAbroad Fellowship Elizabeth Davison, National Science Foundation

David Feng, National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Matthew Fu, National Defense Science and Engineering GraduateSarah Gady, DOE Computational Science GraduateFellowshipKelly Huang, National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Peter Landgren, National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Justice Mason, GEM Fellowship Bruce Perry, National Science FoundationChristopher Reuter, National Defense Science andEngineering GraduateAric Rousso, National Defense Science and Engineering GraduateAnthony Savas, National Defense Science and Engineering GraduateVivian Steyert, National Science FoundationHari Subedi, National Science FoundationYibin Zhang, National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate

Graduate Student Fellowships and Awards

May 2018SpaceShot Team’s rocket soars highPrinceton Rocketry Club’sSpaceShot team launched its11-foot-tall student-builtrocket toward space fromSpacePort America in NewMexico. While the rocketlaunched successfully and its second stage reached analtitude of 50,000 feet, itdid not reach outer space,which is defined as about328,084 feet (100 km) altitude. The team madeplans for future tries.

May/June 2018Majumdar receives three awardsIn May, Assistant Professor Anirudha Majumdar was awarded a National ScienceFoundation (NSF) CRII Grant for robotics,entitled, “Memory-efficient Representationsfor Robot Tasks: Lower Bounds and ScalableAlgorithms.” He also received a Google FacultyResearch Award.

In June, he won the inaugural International Journal of Robotics Research Paper of the Year Award for his paper,“Funnel libraries for real-time robust feedback motion planning,” published in the June 2017 edition of the journal. The research considered the challenges of generatingmotion plans for a robot that are guaranteed to succeed despite uncertainty in the environment, parametric modeluncertainty, and disturbances.

May 2018Taunay wins annual Princeton Graduate School teaching awardPierre-Yves Taunay, a fourth-year MAE graduate student,served as AI for “Microprocessors for Measurement andControl,” “Aircraft Flight Dynamics” and “Automatic Control Systems.” He expects to finish his degree in 2020.One student said: “I’ve had Pierre-Yves as a TA for twoclasses now, and each time, his kindness, enthusiasm andhard work have made him stand out as an exceptional TA.”Another student said: “The duration and difficulties of [theMicroprocessors course] final project was making everyoneinvolved frustrated — except for Pierre-Yves. We wouldn’thave been able to complete our project without him.”

June 2018Reuter named recipient of a2018 Bernard Lewis FellowshipThe Combustion Instituteawarded graduate studentChris Reuter a fellowshipfor the 37th InternationalSymposium on Combustion.

Year in Review continued from page 7


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