Cyrus Aidun

Cyrus Aidun

Cyrus Aidun

Professor

Dr. Aidun joined the Woodruff School as a Professor in 2003 after completion of a two-year period as program director at the National Science Foundation. He began at Tech in 1988 as an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Paper Science and Technology. Prior, he was a research Scientist at Battelle Research Laboratories, Postdoctoral Associate at Cornell University and Senior Research Consultant at the National Science Foundation's Supercomputer Center at Cornell. 

Dr. Aidun's research is at the intersection between fundamentals of the physics of complex fluids/thermal transport and applications to engineering and biotransport. He has a diverse research portfolio in fluid mechanics, bioengineering, renewable bioproducts and decarbonization of industrial processes. 

A major focus has been to understand the physics of blood cell transport and interaction with glycoproteins (e.g., vWF) with applications to cardiovascular diseases.

cyrus.aidun@me.gatech.edu

404-894-6645

Office Location:
Love Building, Room 320

Website

  • Related Site
  • Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Biobased Materials
    • Biochemicals
    • Biorefining
    • Biotechnology
    • Conventional Energy
    • Molecular, Cellular and Tissue Biomechanics
    • Pulp Paper Packaging & Tissue
    • Sustainable Manufacturing
    Additional Research:
    Computational analysis of cellular blood flow in the cardiovascular system with applications to platelet margination, thrombus formation, and platelet activation in artificial heart valves. Thermal Systems. Chemical Recovery; Papermaking.

    IRI Connections:

    Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb

    Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb

    Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb

    Harris Saunders, Jr. Chair and Professor, School of Mechanical Engineering

    Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb joined Georgia Tech in summer 2007 as an assistant professor at the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. Prior to this, she was a senior engineer in the materials and device R&D group of MEMS Research and Innovation Center at QUALCOMM MEMS Technologies, Inc. Her work included characterization and optimization of optical and electric response of IMOD displays and research on novel materials for improved processing and reliability of IMOD. Bassiri-Gharb's research interests are in smart and energy-related materials (e.g. ferroelectric and multiferroic materials) and their application to nano- and micro-electromechanical systems. Her research projects integrate novel micro and nanofabrication techniques and processes and study of the fundamental science of these materials at the nanoscale, at the interface of physical and electrochemical phenomena.

    nazanin.bassirigharb@me.gatech.edu

    404.385.0667

    Office Location:
    Love 315

    ME Profile Page

  • SmartLab
  • Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Micro and Nano Device Engineering
    • Miniaturization & Integration
    • Nanomaterials
    Additional Research:

    Ferroelectronic Materials; Functional Materials; In-Situ Characterization; Piezoelectronic Materials; Multiscale Modeling; Organic Electronics


    IRI Connections:

    Craig Forest

    Craig Forest

    Craig Forest

    Professor

    Craig Forest is a Professor and Woodruff Faculty Fellow in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech where he also holds program faculty positions in Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering. He conducts research on miniaturized, high-throughput robotic instrumentation to advance neuroscience and genetic science, working at the intersection of bioMEMS, precision machine design, optics, and microfabrication. Prior to Georgia Tech, he was a research fellow in Genetics at Harvard Medical School. He obtained a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT in June 2007, M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT in 2003, and B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech in 2001. He is cofounder/organizer of one of the largest undergraduate invention competitions in the US—The InVenture Prize, and founder/organizer of one of the largest student-run makerspaces in the US—The Invention Studio. He was a recently a Fellow in residence at the Allen Insitutte for Brain Science in Seattle WA; he was awarded the Georgia Tech Institute for BioEngineering and BioSciences Junior Faculty Award (2010) and was named Engineer of the Year in Education for the state of Georgia (2013). He is one of the inaugural recipients of the NIH BRAIN Initiative Grants, a national effort to invent the next generation of neuroscience and neuroengineering tools. In 2007, he was a finalist on the ABC reality TV show "American Inventor.”

    cforest@gatech.edu

    404.385.7645

    Office Location:
    Petit Biotechnology Building, Office 1310

    Website

  • Precision Biosystems Laboratory
  • Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Drug Design, Development and Delivery
    • Molecular, Cellular and Tissue Biomechanics
    • Neuroscience
    Additional Research:
    The Precision Biosystems Laboratory is focused on the creation and application of miniaturized, high-throughput, biological instrumentation to advance genetic science. The development of instruments that can nimbly load, manipulate, and measure many biological samples - not only simultaneously, but also more sensitively, more accurately, and more repeatably than under current approaches - opens the door to essential, comprehensive biological system studies. Our group strives to develop these tools, validate their performance with meaningful biological assays, and with our collaborators, pursue discoveries using the instruments. These instruments, and the discoveries they enable, could open new frontiers forthe design and control of biological systems.

    IRI Connections:

    Andrei Fedorov

    Andrei Fedorov

    Andrei Fedorov

    Professor and Rae S. and Frank H. Neely Chair, Woodruff School Mechanical Engineering
    Associate Chair for Graduate Studies, School Mechanical Engineering
    Director, Fedorov Lab

    Fedorov's background is in thermal/fluid sciences, chemical reaction engineering as well as in applied mathematics. His laboratory works at the intersection between mechanical and chemical engineering and solid state physics and analytical chemistry with the focus on portable/ distributed power generation with synergetic CO2 capture; thermal management of high power dissipation devices and electronics cooling; special surfaces and nanostructured interfaces for catalysis, heat and moisture management; and development of novel bioanalytical instrumentation and chemical sensors. Fedorov joined Georgia Tech in 2000 as an assistant professor after finishing his postdoctoral work at Purdue University.

    AGF@gatech.edu

    404.385.1356

    Office Location:
    Love 307

    Fedorov Lab

  • ME Profile Page
  • Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Cancer Biology
    • Conventional Energy
    • Drug Design, Development and Delivery
    • Electronic Materials
    • Fuels & Chemical Processing
    • Hydrogen Production
    • Hydrogen Storage & Transport
    • Hydrogen Utilization
    • Materials for Energy
    • Miniaturization & Integration
    • Nuclear
    • Regenerative Medicine
    • Systems Biology
    • Use & Conservation
    Additional Research:

    Heat Transfer; power generation; CO2 Capture; Catalysis; fuel cells; "Fedorov's research is at the interface of basic sciences and engineering. His research portfolio is diverse, covering the areas of portable/ distributed power generation with synergetic carbon dioxide management, including hydrogen/CO2 separation/capture and energy storage, novel approaches to nanomanufacturing (see Figure), microdevices (MEMS) and instrumentation for biomedical research, and thermal management of high performance electronics. Fedorov's research includes experimental and theoretical components, as he seeks to develop innovative design solutions for the engineering systems whose optimal operation and enhanced functionality require fundamental understanding of thermal/fluid sciences. Applications of Fedorov's research range from fuel reformation and hydrogen generation for fuel cells to cooling of computer chips, from lab-on-a-chip microarrays for high throughput biomedical analysis to mechanosensing and biochemical imaging of biological membranes on nanoscale. The graduate and undergraduate students working with Fedorov's lab have a unique opportunity to develop skills in a number of disciplines in addition to traditional thermal/fluid sciences because of the highly interdisciplinary nature of their thesis research. Most students take courses and perform experimental and theoretical research in chemical engineering and applied physics. Acquired knowledge and skills are essential to starting and developing a successful career in academia as well as in many industries ranging from automotive, petrochemical and manufacturing to electronics to bioanalytical instrumentation and MEMS."


    IRI Connections:

    Alper Erturk

    Alper Erturk

    Alper Erturk

    Woodruff Professor, School of Mechanical Engineering

    Erturk began at Georgia Tech in May 2011 as an Assistant Professor, he was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2016 and became a full Professor in 2019. Prior to joining Georgia Tech, he worked as a Research Scientist in the Center for Intelligent Material Systems and Structures at Virginia Tech (2009-2011). His postdoctoral research interests included theory and experiments of smart structures for applications ranging from aeroelastic energy harvesting to bio-inspired actuation. His Ph.D. dissertation (2009) was centered on experimentally validated electromechanical modeling of piezoelectric energy harvesters using analytical and approxIMaTe analytical techniques. Prior to his Ph.D. studies in Engineering Mechanics at Virginia Tech, Erturk completed his M.S. degree (2006) in Mechanical Engineering at METU with a thesis on analytical and semi-analytical modeling of spindle-tool dynamics in machining centers for predicting chatter stability and identifying interface dynamics between the assembly components.

    alper.erturk@me.gatech.edu

    404.385.1394

    Office Location:
    Love 126

    Smart Structures & Dynamical Systems Laboratory

  • ME Profile Page
  • Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Autonomy
    Additional Research:

    Structural Dynamics; Vibrations; Smart Materials & Structures; Energy Harvesting; Acoustic Metamaterials; Acoustics and Dynamics; Smart materials; Piezoelectronic Materials; Metamaterials; Energy Harvesting


    IRI Connections:

    Chaitanya Deo

    Chaitanya Deo

    Chaitanya Deo

    Professor

    Dr. Deo came to Georgia Tech in August 2007 as an Assistant Professor of Nuclear and Radiological Engineering. Prior, he was a postdoctoral research associate in the Materials Science and Technology Division of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. He studied radiation effects in structural materials (iron and ferritic steels) and nuclear fuels (uranium dioxide). He also obtained research experience at Princeton University (Mechanical Engineering), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories.

    chaitanya.deo@nre.gatech.edu

    (404) 385.4928

    Website

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Algorithms & Optimizations
    • Computational Materials Science
    • Conventional Energy
    • Materials for Energy
    Additional Research:

    Nuclear; Thermal Systems; Materials In Extreme Environments; computational mechanics; Materials Failure and Reliability; Ferroelectronic Materials; Materials Data Sciences


    IRI Connections:

    Baratunde (Bara) Cola

    Baratunde (Bara) Cola

    Baratunde Cola

    Professor, Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering

    Baratunde A. Cola is a professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He received his degrees from Vanderbilt University and Purdue University, all in mechanical engineering, and was a starting fullback on the Vanderbilt football team as an undergrad. Cola has received a number of prestigious early career research awards including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientist and Engineers (PECASE) in 2012 from President Obama for his work in nanotechnology, energy, and outreach to high school art and science teachers and students; the AAAS Early Career Award for Public Engagement with Science in 2013; and the 2015 Bergles-Rohsenow Young Investigator Award in Heat Transfer from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In addition to research and teaching, Cola is the founder and CEO of Carbice Corporation, which sells a leading thermal management solution for the global electronics industry.

    baratunde.cola@me.gatech.edu

    404.385.8652

    Office Location:
    Love 316

    Profile Page

  • NEST Lab
  • Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Electronic Materials
    • Materials and Nanotechnology
    • Micro and Nano Device Engineering
    • Nanomaterials
    • Optics & Photonics
    Additional Research:

    Carbon Nanotubes; Electronic Materials; Heat Transfer; Integrated Photonics; Nanoelectronics


    IRI Connections:

    Suman Das

    Suman Das

    Suman Das

    Morris M. Bryan, Jr. Chair and Professor, Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
    Director, Direct Digital Manufacturing Laboratory

    suman.das@me.gatech.edu

    404.385.6027

    Office Location:
    MARC 255

    Direct Digital Manufacturing Laboratory

  • ME Profile Page
  • Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Additive manufacturing
    • Biomaterials
    • Conventional Energy
    • Materials and Nanotechnology
    Additional Research:

    3D printing; Additive/Advanced Manufacturing; Biomaterials; Composites; Emerging Technologies; Nanocomposites; Nanomanufacturing; Manufacturing, Mechanics of Materials, Bioengineering, and Micro and Nano Engineering. Advanced manufacturing and materials processing of metallic, polymeric, ceramic, and composite materials for applications in life sciences, propulsion, and energy. Professor Das directs the Direct Digital Manufacturing Laboratory and Research Group at Georgia Tech. His research interests encompass a broad variety of interdisciplinary topics under the overall framework of advanced design, prototyping, direct digital manufacturing, and materials processing particularly to address emerging research issues in life sciences, propulsion, and energy. His ultIMaTe objectives are to investigate the science and design of innovative processing techniques for advanced materials and to invent new manufacturing methods for fabricating devices with unprecedented functionality that can yield dramatic improvements in performance, properties and costs.


    IRI Connections:

    Devesh Ranjan

    Devesh Ranjan

    Devesh Ranjan

    Chair, Mechanical Engineering

    Devesh Ranjan was named the Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. School Chair in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech and took over the role on January 1, 2022. He previously served as the Associate Chair for Research, and Ring Family Chair in the Woodruff School. He also holds a courtesy appointment in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering and serves as a co-director of the $100M Department of Defense-funded University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics (UCAH). At Georgia Tech, Ranjan has held several leadership positions including chairing ME’s Fluid Mechanics Research Area Group (2017 - 2018), serving as ME’s Associate Chair for Research (2019-present), and as co-chair of the “Hypersonics as a System” task-force, and serving as Interim Vice-President for Interdisciplinary Research (Feb 2021-June 2021). 

    Ranjan joined the faculty at Georgia Tech in 2014. Before coming to Georgia Tech, he was a director’s research fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory (2008) and Morris E. Foster Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering department at Texas A&M University (2009-2014). He earned a bachelor's degree from the NIT-Trichy (India) in 2003, and master's and Ph.D. degrees from the UW-Madison in 2005 and 2007 respectively, all in mechanical engineering. 

    Ranjan’s research focuses on the interdisciplinary area of power conversion, complex fluid flows involving shock and hydrodynamic instabilities, and the turbulent mixing of materials in extreme conditions, such as supersonic and hypersonic flows. Ranjan is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and has received numerous awards for his scientific contributions, including the DOE-Early Career Award (first GT recipient), the NSF CAREER Award, and the US AFOSR Young Investigator award. He was also named the J. Erskine Love Jr. Faculty Fellow in 2015. He was invited to participate in the National Academy of Engineering’s 2016 US Frontiers in Engineering Symposium. For his educational efforts and mentorship activity, he has received CATERPILLAR Teaching Excellence Award from College of Engineering at Texas A&M, as well as 2013 TAMU ASME Professor Mentorship Award from TAMU student chapter of the ASME. At Georgia Tech, Ranjan served as a Provost’s Teaching and Learning Fellow (PTLF) from 2018-2020, and was named 2021 Governor’s Teaching Fellow. He was also named Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Fellow for 2020-21. 

    Ranjan is currently part of a 10-member Technical Screening Committee of the NAE’s COVID-19 Call for Engineering Action taskforce, an initiative to help fight the coronavirus pandemic. He currently serves on the Editorial Board of Shock Waves and was a former Associate Editor for the ASME Journal of Fluids Engineering.

    devesh.ranjan@me.gatech.edu

    (404) 385-2922

    Website

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Energy Generation, Storage, and Distribution
    • Nuclear
    • Thermal Systems
    Additional Research:

    Nuclear; Thermal Systems


    IRI Connections:

    Shreyas Kousik

    Shreyas Kousik

    Shreyas Kousik

    Assistant Professor

    Shreyas Kousik is an assistant professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. Previously, Shreyas was a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University, working in the ASL under Prof. Marco. Kousik completed a postdoc with Prof. Grace Gao in the NAV Lab. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan, advised by Prof. Ram Vasudevan in the ROAHM Lab and received his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech, advised by Prof. Antonia Antoniou.

    Kousik’s research is focused on guaranteeing safety in autonomy via collision avoidance methods for robots. His lab’s goal is to translate safety in math to safety on real robots by exploring ways to model uncertainty from autonomous perception and estimation systems and ensure that these models are practical for downstream planning and control tasks

    shreyas.kousik@me.gatech.edu

    Lab Webpage

  • Github
  • Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Autonomy
    • Collaborative Robotics
    • Human-Centered Robotics
    • Robotics

    IRI Connections: