LAUNCH-SPACE

Dr. Servadio’s research interest focuses on estimation, control, and astrodynamics. Whenever needed, estimation can be performed on available models to strengthen their validity. With his experience on nonlinear filtering and Bayesian updates, Dr. Servadio will guide the students in incorporating real data into the modeling of the real environment. He has worked extensively with graduate and undergraduate students and working in his lab on the creation of the LEO population dataset, developing economical optimization for Active Debris Removal (ADR) Target selection using Genetic Algorithms.

Dr. Sidharth’s research focuses on high fidelity simulations and modeling of hypersonic flow regimes, both internal and external flows. Physical processes of interest include multiscale mix and burn, high temperature and multimaterial transport, turbulent processes and discovery of novel coherent and statistical transport mechanisms in fluid flows. Other applications of interest are fusion energy, geophysical fluid dynamics and sustainable energy systems. He is also the faculty mentor and the CFD advisor for the undergraduate rocket team CyLaunch.

Dr. Halder’s research designs and analyzes tools in stochastic control and probabilistic machine learning for safety-critical engineering applications such as Mars EDL. In the past, his joint work with graduate and undergraduate students have won several research awards and fellowships. He is also the creator and instructor of an innovative feedback control summer course for 8-11 graders in STEM, teaching control theory without using linear algebra or calculus. Students from this course have won awards in international robotics competitions.

Dr. Slaughter’s research focuses on early-stage technology demonstrations for solid-state cooling technologies. Her DOE projects have focused on advancing high power density magnetocaloric and elastocaloric cooling for air conditioning and refrigeration. She currently has a Department of Defense SERDP project aimed at elastocaloric cooling for military vehicle air conditioning with a goal of replacing harmful and flammable refrigerants.

Dr. Xia’s research focuses on understanding the complex behaviors of hierarchical materials via bottomup multiscale modeling and data-driven approaches for the design and prediction of their performance in structure/infrastructure, aerospace, energy, and bioengineering applications. Dr. Xia and his group have developed multiscale modeling tools and established innovative materials-by-design frameworks for high performance multifunctional materials by integrating fundamental theories, multiscale modeling, computation, and experiments.

Dr. He leads the iDesign lab, whose vision is to create revolutionary analysis, design, and optimization methods and tools to transform educational and research activities in academia and industry. Specifically, our research focuses on developing efficient algorithms and software, such as computational fluid dynamics and adjoint solvers, to understand the fundamental behavior of multidisciplinary engineering systems and to facilitate their design. The applications include aerodynamic, heat transfer, structural, and hydrodynamic analysis, design, and optimization for next-generation land, air, sea, and space vehicles.