Each year, the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering graduates between 30 and 40 doctoral students - each with unique contributions to make in research, academia, industry, and the evolution of the discipline itself. On this page, we provide links to their abstracts and their published dissertations. We're also introducing Next Gen Ideas, a video series in which our doctoral candidates will have ~ 3 minutes to explain research that took them years to produce. (No one ever said aerospace engineering was easy.) Click on the video above to get started.
| Name | Title | Brief Abstract | Advisor | Dissertation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Darshan Sarojini | Structural Analysis and Optimization of Aircraft Wings Through Dimensional Reduction | Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) are critical drivers of aircraft design. Early-stage aircraft design involves a tight coupling between structural dynamics, aerodynamics, and flight mechanics, with time-dependent loads arising from the considerations of the FARs. | Prof. Dimitri Mavris | read the dissertation |
| Kevin Reilley | P-SEMP: A Platform for Systems Engineering Modeling and Planning | Systems engineering management and planning has long been a realm dominated by arcane standards, by the weight of years of practice, and by authority. However, with technological advances and the desire to solve socio-technical problems at the level of increasingly complex systems, authority alone is no longer sufficient for the justification of systems engineering practice | Prof. Dimitri Mavris | read the dissertation |
| Nathan Brown | Development and Evaluation of Terahertz Time-Domain Spectroscopy for Electric Propulsion Plasma Diagnostics | Electric propulsion utilizes plasma to provide propel satellites and space exploration vehicles. Due to limitations in available plasma diagnostics, open questions regarding the physics of electric propulsion (EP) thruster operation remain unanswered. | Prof. Mitchell Walker and Prof. Adam Steinberg | read the dissertation |
| Eugene Mangortey |
Development of a Data Fusion Framework to support the Analysis of Aviation Big Data |
Tremendous progress has been made over the last two decades towards modernizing the National Airspace System (NAS) by way of technological advancements, and the introduction of procedures and policies that have maintained the safety of the United States airspace. | Prof. Dimitri Mavris | read the dissertation |
| Manish Pokhrel | A Framework for Fan Stage Conceptual Design Under Distortion Induced by Boundary Layer Ingestion | Various tightly integrated aircraft concepts have emerged as a result of aggressive performance goals set forth by various organizations. Most integrated aircraft system configurations exploit the concept of Boundary Layer Ingestion (BLI). | Prof. Dimitri Mavris | read the dissertation |
| Dushhyanth Rajaram | Methods for Construction of Surrogates for Computationally Expensive High-Dimensional Problems | Maturation of computational models has increased reliance on numerical simulations for the analysis, and more importantly, design of complex engineered systems. The high accuracy and realism offered by simulation-based analysis often comes at a high computational cost especially in the many-query context, as such limiting its applicability in exploratory design studies. | Prof. Dimitri Mavris | read the dissertation |
| Jai Ahuja | A Methodology for Capturing the Aero-Propulsive Coupling Characteristics of Boundary Layer Ingesting Aircraft in Conceptual Design | Economic and environmental benefits of fuel efficient aircraft have driven research towards unconventional configurations and technologies. Boundary Layer Ingesting (BLI) concepts appear to be a promising solution, relying on a synergistic interaction between the airframe and propulsor for improved fuel efficiency | Prof. Dimitri Mavris | read the dissertation |
| Patrick Meyer | Evaluating the Effects of Model Simplifications on the Transference of Policies Learned in Simulation | Both the military and civil worlds are being transformed by the development and deployment of unmanned systems to a wider range of scenarios. As the field of unmanned systems has grown and matured, it has continuously advanced towards increasing levels of autonomy. | Prof. Dimitri Mavris | read the dissertation |
| Alex Miller | Swirl Effects on Compactness of a Peripherally Piloted Reheat Combustor | In aircraft turbine engines, it is desirable to minimize size and maximize efficiency. One of the largest components found in high-performance aircraft turbine engines is the thrust augmentor, which traditionally uses bluff body flameholders. | Prof. Jerry Seitzman | |
| Feyyaz Guner | Development and Analysis of Finite State Multi-Rotor Dynamic Inflow Models |
An analytical finite state multi-rotor dynamic inflow model known as Velocity Potential Superposition Inflow Model (VPSIM) is formulated from first principles. VPSIM superimposes the velocity potentials of each rotor to account for aerodynamic interactions among the rotors. | Prof. J. V. R. Prasad | read the dissertation |
| Eugina D. Mendez Ramos | Enabling Conceptual Design and Analysis of Cryogenic In-Space Vehicles through the Development of an Extensible Boil-Off Model |
This work is motivated by the high degree of uncertainty surrounding early estimates of the propellant losses due to boil-off and the resulting impact to the vehicle design. Typically, the heat entering the propellant tank is assumed to be directly responsible for boil-off of the liquid propellant. | Prof. Dimitri Mavris | read the dissertation |
| Junghyun (Andy) Kim | Data-Driven Approach using Machine Learning for Real-Time Flight Path Optimization | Airlines typically gather all available weather information before departure to generate flight routes that avoid hazardous weather while minimizing operating expenditures. However, pilots potentially have to perform in-flight re-planning as weather information can significantly change after original flight plans are created. | Prof. Dimitri Mavris | read the dissertation |
| Jack Ridderhof | Applied Stochastic Optimal Control for Spacecraft Guidance |
Optimal control theory has been successfully applied to a wide range of a problems in spacecraft trajectory optimization. Historically, the identification and management of uncertainty in spaceflight applications has been a separate endeavor from optimal trajectory design, with the exception of heuristic margins applied on the deterministic optimal trajectory. | Prof. Panagiotis Tsiotras | read the dissertation |
| Mayank Bendarkar | An Integrated Framework to Evaluate Off-Nominal Requirements and Reliability of Novel Aircraft Architectures in Early Design |
One of the barriers to the development of novel aircraft architectures and technologies is the uncertainty related to their reliability and the safety risk they pose. In the conceptual and preliminary design stages, traditional system safety techniques rely on heuristics, experience, and historical data to assess these requirements. |
Prof. Dimitri Mavris |
read the dissertation |
| Eric J. Inclan | A Method for System of Systems Definition and Modeling Using Patterns of Collective Behavior |
The Department of Defense ship and aircraft acquisition process, with its capability-based assessments and fleet synthesis studies, relies heavily on the assumption that a functional decomposition of higher-level system of systems (SoS) capabilities into lower-level system and subsystem behaviors is both possible and practical. | Prof. Dimitri Mavris | read the dissertation |
| Hao Chen | Interdisciplinary Space Logistics Optimization Framework for Large-Scale Space Exploration | As low-cost rocket launch technologies and space resource utilization systems emerge, human space exploration is attracting increasing interest from industry, government, and academia. To extend the domain of human activity beyond the low-Earth orbit and maintain a long-term human presence in cislunar space and eventually Mars, we need to build a sustainable and affordable interplanetary space transportation system. |
Prof. Koki Ho |
read the dissertation |
| Mingxuan Shi | An Architecting Methodology for Thermal Management Systems of Commercial Aircraft at the Conceptual Design Phase |
An aircraft thermal management system (TMS) is a subsystem to handle the cooling and heating requirements of the whole aircraft. Traditionally, the TMS is architected based on experience. Its impacts on aircraft conceptual design are estimated using empirical data. | Prof. Dimitri Mavris | |
| Venkata Ramana Makkapati | Games of Pursuit-Evasion with Multiple Agents and Subject to Uncertainties |
Over the past decade, there have been constant efforts to induct unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into military engagements, disaster management, weather monitoring, and package delivery, among various other applications. | Prof. Panagiotis Tsiotras | read the dissertation |
| Kenneth Decker | A Reduced Order Modeling Methodology for the Multidisciplinary Design Analysis of Hypersonic Aerial Systems | Recent years have seen a significant increase in the demand for an advance and diverse fleet of hypersonic aerial systems. As computational power has increased, high-fidelity physics-based numerical analyses have emerged as feasible alternatives to physical experimentation, especially during early design phases. | Prof. Dimitri Mavris | read the dissertation |
| Mark Leader | Stress-Based Topology Optimization for Steady-State and Transient Thermoelastic Design | Topology optimization is a powerful design tool, benefiting from a broadened design space that can be efficiently navigated with gradient-based optimization algorithms. Complex design problems which often involve coupled multidisciplinary domains may require the use of gradient-based optimization techniques to satisfy demanding design requirements. | Prof. Graeme Kennedy | read the dissertation |
| Nelson Gregory Andriano | System of System Stakeholder Planning in a Multi-Stakeholder, Multi-objective, and Uncertain Environment | The United States defense planning process is currently conducted in a partially consolidated manner driven by the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System (JCIDS) process. Decisions to invest in technology, develop systems, and acquire assets are made by individual services with coordination at the higher joint level. | Prof. Dimitri Mavris | read the dissertation |
| Mackenzie Lau | A Methodology to Enhance Quantitative Technology Evaluation Through Exploration of Employment Concepts for Systems-of-Systems | The process of designing a new system has often been treated as a purely technological problem, where the infusion or synthesis of new technologies forms the basis of progress. However, recent trends in design and analysis methodologies have tried to shift away from the narrow scope of technology-centric approaches. | Prof. Dimitri Mavris | read the dissertation |
| Paola Zanella | A Methodology to Improve the Proactive Mitigation of Helicopter Accidents Related to Loss of Tail Rotor Effectiveness | Loss of tail rotor effectiveness (LTE) has been recognized to be a major contributing factor in several helicopter accidents where pilots lost directional control. However, it has been noticed that different definitions of this phenomenon exist in the rotorcraft community. | Prof. Dimitri Mavris and Prof. J.V.R. Prasad | read the dissertation |
| Matthew Guckenberger | A Methodology for Reducing Uncertainty in Performance Evaluations for Increasingly Automated Systems | As systems move through the levels of automation on the way to autonomy, there is a growing and unsustainable amount of uncertainty within the early development process technology evaluations. The role of the operator is changing from sole actor to a shared supervisor/actor role. | Prof. Dimitri Mavris | read the dissertation |
| Ana Bella Gabrielian | Capturing the Acoustic Properties of Small Unmanned Aerial System Noise with a Novel Frequency Weighting | As the advent of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) draws near, the obstacles to such vehicles and operations grow larger. One of these obstacles is the noise created through the operation of these air vehicles. | Prof. Dimitri Mavris | read the dissertation |
| Auraluck Pichitkul | A Unified Approach for Modeling Fluid-Structure Interactions of Large-Scale Offshore Wind Turbines | Wind turbine technology has grown over the past several decades and has been globally accepted as an economically viable form of renewable energy. Further development in size and power production of wind turbine demands continuous advances in the underlying technologies - aerodynamics, structures, engineering materials, aeroelasticity, electrical systems, mechanical and hydraulic control, and manufacturing. | Prof. Lakshmi Sankar | read the dissertation |
| Ethan N. Evans | Spatio-Temporal Optimization for Control of Infinite Dimensional Systems in Robotics, Fluid Mechanics, and Quantum Mechanics | The majority of systems in nature have a spatio-temporal dependence and can be described by Partial Differential Equations (PDEs). They are ubiquitous in science and engineering, and are of rising interest among the control, robotics, and machine learning communities. | Prof. Evangelos A. Theodorou | read the dissertation |
| Coline Ramée | Conceptual-Level Analysis and Design of Unmanned Air Traffic Management Systems | There have been multiple announcements by different companies in the past couple years of package delivery by drone and air taxi projects. However, there are still many barriers to the deployment of high densities of aerial vehicles in low-altitude airspace over urban areas. | Prof. Dimitri Mavris | read the dissertation |
| Kiran Ravikumar | Extreme-Scale Computing and Studies of Intermittency, Mixing of Passive Scalars and Stratified Flows in Turbulence | Turbulent flows are known for the intermittent occurrence of intense strain rates and local rotation, and for its ability to provide efficient mixing. This thesis focuses on pursuing fundamental advances in physical understanding, using high-resolution Direct Numerical Simulations based on a Fourier pseudo-spectral approach. | Prof. P. K. Yeung | read the dissertation |