Materials

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Ehsan Barjasteh headshot

Ehsan Barjasteh

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Dr. Ehsan Barjasteh has over 10 years of industry experience with development and manufacturing of polymer composite materials for commercial and aerospace applications. He has consulted at Composite Technology Corp., Henkel Aerospace, and Tencate Advanced Composites since 2007. His industry career focused on developing lightweight products and processes to increase material performance and reduce manufacturing cost. He was a visiting scholar at McGill Composite Center at USC in 2015. His research focuses on development and optimization of advanced polymer and composite materials and processes. He obtained his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from University of Southern California in 2011.

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Dr. Chae and students

Eun Jung Chae

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Dr. Eun Jung Chae's research focuses on the numerical, theoretical, and physical modeling in single/multiphase flows of smart/adaptive propulsions, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), morphing wings, and energy conversion systems. She has been involved with research activities in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) simulations of flexible lifting bodies on the aeroelastic response and stability. She developed a new FSI coupling model to determine the stability boundaries and governing instability modes and to examine flow-induced vibration characteristics. The current research has focused on quantifying the aerodynamic benefits of morphing wings with respect to aircraft adaptation to a multitude of different off-design conditions through both numerical simulations and experiments. Dr. Eun Jung Chae joined the CSULB Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering as an Assistant Professor in 2017. She obtained her Ph.D. and M.S. in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2015. Prior to joining CSULB, she served as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2015-2017) in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at University of Michigan.

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Dr. Navdeep Singh Dhillon Headshot

Navdeep Singh Dhillon

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Dr. Dhillon is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at CSULB. His research interests lie in the use of experimental high-speed optical & infrared imaging techniques as well as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods to understand and enhance critical thermo-fluidic and phase change processes (e.g. boiling and condensation). Applications include improving efficiency of industrial boilers, enabling renewable solar-thermal energy generation, and electronics cooling. Dr. Dhillon received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from University of California, Berkeley in 2012. Prior to joining CSULB, he served as a Shapiro Postdoctoral Fellow (2012-2013) and Postdoctoral Associate (2013-2016) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, teaching courses in Thermal-Fluids and conducting experimental and theoretical research in boiling heat transfer.

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Joseph Kalman

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Dr. Joseph Kalman's research focuses on combustion of solid fuels and energetic materials (solid composite propellants) for propulsion and defense applications with an emphasis on non-intrusive diagnostic. His work seeks to understand the underlying physics and chemistry of how these materials ignite, decompose, and deflagrate. Previous work has studied high-temperature spectral emissivity of metal oxide particles, ball-milled boron/PTFE composites, and combustion of submicron CL-20 propellants. Recently, he has worked on applying synchrotron based x-ray diagnostics to unravel the low temperature decomposition mechanism of ammonium perchlorate, a common oxidizer, and was the first to use x-rays to make in-situ measurements of aluminum agglomerates at motoring pressure. Dr. Kalman holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He worked in the Combustion Science and Propulsion Research Branch at the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division in China Lake, Calif., from 2014-2018.

Ji-Hwan Kang

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Dr. Ji-Hwan Kang’s research focuses on developing soft active materials that respond to their surroundings for dynamically reconfigurable, intelligent systems. His research applies a multidisciplinary approach to create bio-inspired, programmable deformation and instability towards smart sensing/actuating platforms such as untethered soft robotics, mechanical logic gates, adaptive porous surfaces, and drug delivery systems. During his graduate studies, Dr. Kang demonstrated optofluidic encapsulation of photon-frequency amplification system via triplet fusion with functional polymer composites for low-threshold photonic device integration and both holographic interference lithography and colloidal self-assembly for hierarchical nanostructured energy devices. Recently, he designed new types of shape-morphing materials with tunable mechanical properties for robust self-folding, light-driven motion, and self-limiting assembly. He holds a Ph.D. in chemical and biomolecular engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology.

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Dr. Moghtadrnejad Lab

Sara Moghtadernejad 

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In the Multiphase Flow Lab (MFL), Dr. Moghtadernejad studies processes and phenomena involving fluid and powders that depict phase changes and have multiple states. Research arises from real applications with the aim of solving challenging and contemporary industrial issues. The lab is equipped with state-of-the-art tools to closely reproduce real-life conditions and perform distinct numerical and statistical analyses. MFL is a result-oriented laboratory to benefit Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, Automotive Metal Powder Technology, Process Health, Safety and Environment (HSE), and the Aerospace and Oil and Gas industries. Before joining CSULB as an assistant professor in Fall 2018, she researched as a postdoctoral fellow and a lecturer at McGill University’s Biomimetic Surface Engineering Lab and the NSF Engineering Research Center on Structured Organic Particulate Systems (CSOPS) of Rutgers University. Her collaborations include the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), National Science Foundation (NSF), Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), 3M, and Bombardier Aviation.

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Daniel Whisler

Daniel Whisler

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Dr. Whisler's research focuses on developing experimental and computational techniques for extreme loading environments and understanding dynamic behavior of materials and structures. Experimental and finite element validation tests include composites, honeycombs and foams, and sandwich panels ranging from coupon-sized to full-scale actual components. This research is being applied in vehicle crashworthiness, projectile impacts onto structures, explosive blast mitigation, and protection from natural disaster. He graduated from University of California San Diego with a Ph.D. in Structural Engineering, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship researching impacts and composites before in 2016 joining CSULB's Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department.