It's the talent and passion of our research experts, combined with the strength of our technology and industry partnerships, that truly make the McNAIR Center a research leader in the aerospace industry.
The dedicated McNAIR Center team is here to serve the needs of our industry partners and research collaborators. Contact us today.
Dr. Ali's research interests include conformal antennas, reconfigurable antennas, broadband structural load bearing antennas, metamaterials and metasurfaces, aircraft antennas and their coupling reduction, MIMO antennas, and wireless power transfer and wireless sensors.
Dr. Banerjee's expertise and fundamental research interests are in the general areas of Acousto-Ultrasonic Multi-scale Imaging and Physics based Multi-scale Predictive Model for Engineering and Biological materials.
Dr. Bayoumi's research interests include Smart Predictive Systems, Condition Based Maintenance (CBM), Design, Advanced Manufacturing and Biomechanics.
Dr. Deng's research and interests include nanomechanics/atomistic simulation, fracture mechanics/crack-growth simulation, manufacturing process modeling/simulation (friction stir welding, metal cutting, GMA welding).
Dr. Dryer has over 45 years of applications-driven fundamental research experience in thermal sciences relevant to space and air-breathing propulsion, fossil and renewable energy conversion related to ground transportation and stationary power generation, combustion-related pollutant mitigation, and fire safety.
Dr. Farouk’s expertise is in the general area of Reacting Thermal Fluid Sciences involving plasma, combustion multiphase reacting flow, chemical-kinetics-turbulence interaction and energy systems. His research interests are in multi-scale, multi-physics computational model development for studying complex phenomena.
Dr. Giurgiutiu's research interests span active materials, smart structures, structural health monitoring, mechatronics, and other multi-physics applied mechanics topics.
Dr. Gürdal’s research interests are in structural and multidisciplinary design and optimization, design and optimization of composite materials and structures, and computational methods for design with manufacturing emphasis.
Haj-Hariri earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees from MIT. He joined the faculty at University of Virginia in 1988 and most recently served as professor and chair of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. He also served as a visiting faculty member at Arizona State University and Stanford University.
Dr. Harik’s research interests is in (1) Automated Fiber Placement (AFP): Process Planning, Smart Structures, New Materials (dry fibers and thermoplastics), Toolpath Optimization and Automated Inspection, and (2) Digital Transformation of Manufacturing (DTM): PLM, Virtual Commissioning, IOT, Cyber-manufacturing and Smart Production.
Dr. Neset Hikmet is a Professor within the College of Engineering and Computing, University of South Carolina and is heavily involved in research and health sector related activities.
Dr. Kidane's research interest includes fracture, shock and impact mechanics, multifunctional material.
Dr. Matolak's research interests include wireless channel characterization, ad hoc communication networks, modulation/detection PHY/MAC, random process modeling, and electromagnetics modeling.
Dr. Rekleitis' research interests include mobile robotics, space robotics, multi-robot systems, sensor networks, artificial intelligence, computer vision and image processing, computational geometry, and computer graphics.
Dr. Reynolds' research and interests include friction stir welding, fatigue and fracture, experimental micro-mechanics, quantitative fractographic analysis.
Dr. Rocheleau’s group has interest in machine design and machine component design. His group has done work in optimizing the design of epicyclic gear trains to ensure long life and reduced noise.
Dr. Shimpalee's current research is in the area of renewable energy including fuel cells, energy storage, high temperature thermal system, and bioenergy. His expertise is to use multi-scale and multi-dimensional modeling combine with electrochemistry to understand the physics inside their complex systems particularly in the transport phenomena.
Dr. Sockalingam’s research interests include development of advanced composite materials that are light weight and stronger through a multiscale experimental and computational approach for aerospace, automotive and defense applications.
Dr. Sutton's research and interests include coherent and incoherent optics applications, experimental mechanics, digital image processing, Computer Vision, applications of integral methods and experimental mechanics, boundary valve problems, plastic fracture mechanics, finite elements modeling of cracked bodies.
Michael is the initiator of the thermoplastic composites research program at the Center. The program includes induction heating/welding, automated fiber placement, continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic additive manufacturing, structural design of composites, aircraft design, design methodologies including knowledge based engineering and multidisciplinary design optimization.
Dr. Vitzilaios’ research interests are in the broad area of Autonomous Unmanned Systems and include Robotics, Intelligent Systems, Mechatronics, Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), perception and autonomous navigation of mobile robots, operational autonomy, field robotics, robot teams, automation, control systems, and machine learning.
Dr. Wang's research interests include computer vision, medical imaging, and machine learning.
Dr. Won’s research involves; 1) Combustion chemistry of real transportation fuels, 2) Development of experimental platforms to investigate the role of combustion chemistry in near-limit combustion dynamics, 3) Plasma-assisted combustion techniques, and 4) Development of novel combustion diagnostic techniques.
Dr. Lingyu Yu’s research interests include structural health monitoring (SHM) and nondestructive evaluation (NDE), theoretical modeling, advanced signal processing and data analysis; damage diagnosis in complicated structures; scanning laser vibrometry for guided wave propagation; and mechatronics.
Dr. Zhang's research interests include prognostics and health management (fault detection and isolation, failure prognosis, fault tolerance), robotics, unmanned systems, electromechanics, and industrial electronics
Dr. Ziehl oversees an active research program in aerospace composite materials, structural prognostics, and real-time in flight evaluation systems.