FCAAP Team

Management

FCAAP’s leadership team is composed of personnel with administrative experience in establishing and managing successful, inter-institutional, multidisciplinary research and development programs. The team has national and international reputation in science and engineering with a strong record of collaboration with industry on technology transfer.

DIRECTOR

Dr. Farrukh Alvi

Farrukh Alvi is a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and the Director of Florida Center for Advanced Aeropropulsion. He has been a member of the ME faculty since 1993, when he joined the Department as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate. Dr. Alvi received his B.S. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and his Ph. D. in Mechanical Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University. He has a well-established track record of collaborating on and leading multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional (with universities and industry) research projects and nearly twenty years of experience in conducting state-of-the-art, fundamental and applications-oriented research.

Professor Alvi has worked extensively on shear-flow control and associated problems such as compressible mixing and fluidic thrust vector control. Over the past few years his research has in large part focused on flow and noise control, including control of supersonic impinging jets, cavity flows and flow separation. He is a recognized expert in the development and implementation of actuators, especially micro-fluidic actuators for flow and noise control applications and holds a number of patents in this area. Professor Alvi is also active in the development and use of diagnostics, especially non-intrusive optical techniques for fluid flows. He has published extensively in the areas of fluid dynamics, aerodynamics, flow control and aeroacoustics. He is an Associate Fellow of AIAA and a member of ASME.

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Dr. Louis Cattafesta

Louis Cattafesta is currently a Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida. Prior to joining UF in April of 1999, he was a Senior Research Scientist at High Technology Corporation in Hampton, VA, where he was the group leader of the Experimental and Instrumentation Group. He received a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1986 from Penn State University, a MS degree in Aeronautics from MIT in 1988, and a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1992 from Penn State University. In 1992, he joined High Technology Corporation as a Research Scientist at NASA Langley Research Center. His research at NASA Langley focused on supersonic laminar flow control and pressure- and temperature-sensitive paint measurement techniques. At that time, he became involved in active control of flow-induced cavity oscillations, which provoked his current research interests in active flow control and aeroacoustics. He is an Associate Fellow of AIAA, a Senior Member of ASME, and a member of ASA and APS.

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR FOR INDUSTRY FOCUSED TECHNOLOGY

Dr. Jay Kapat

Jay Kapat is currently the Lockheed Martin Professor of Engineering and Director, Center for Advanced Turbines and Energy Research (CATER). He joined UCF as an assistant professor in August 1997 and he has been a full professor at UCF since August 2005. He has more than 16 years research experience in the areas advanced turbines and energy systems: aerodynamics and heat transfer for gas turbines and other turbomachineries; and miniature Engineering Systems, micro-scale fluidics, heat transfer and related sensors with application to MEMS. His research has been funded by DOE, NSF, NASA, Siemens, AFOSR, Lockheed Martin, Rini Technologies, US Army. As PI or Co-PI, he has received cumulative research funds of $8.9M. He has been able to set up Siemens Center of Excellence (SCOE): Advanced Turbines and Energy Systems at UCF, which he leads. He is also the overall PI of the State University System of Florida Turbine Initiative. He is a member of ASME and an Associate Fellow of AIAA. He also chairs the Energy System Miniaturization committee of ASME (AESD). He Supervised and graduated 10 Ph.D., 21 MS and 2 BS Honors students, and currently supervising 2 PostDoctoral Research Associates, 8 Ph.D., 3 MS students and 6 BS/Honors students. He has authored 1 book chapter and over 100 peer-reviewed papers in journal and conference proceedings. 3 patents have been issued to him with another 4 pending. He has worked or is working with a number of high-tech start-ups Rini Technologies, Inc, Electrodynamics Associates and Acudyn, all based in UCF Technology Incubator.

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR FOR EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH

Dr. Lawrence Ukeiley

Lawrence Ukeiley received his M.S. and Ph. D. degrees from the Department Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Clarkson University. His current research interests include control of supersonic cavity flows and bio-inspired aerodynamic flows although he has conducted research on a wide range of topics in fluid dynamics and aeroacoustics. Most recently an area of specialization in his research has been on fluid structure interactions and specifically the benefits of flexibility for unsteady aerodynamic loads in an effort to develop a class of more agile small air vehicles. Throughout the past ten years of one of Dr. Ukeiley’s areas of specialization has been transitioning concepts from fundamental studies to applied configurations which has included full scale tests of the flow and noise control applications on military aircraft. He is the recipient of the Gordon C. Oates Air Breathing Propulsion Award, a Chateaubriand Fellowship from the French Government and a National Research Council Fellowship. Prof. Ukeiley is an active member of fluid dynamics technical committees in both the ASME and AIAA and is also a member of APS.

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR FOR WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT

Dr. Ray Mankbadi

Reda (Ray) Mankbadi received his Ph.D. from Brown University. His current research interests include the control of turbulent flows, Gas Turbines, sustainable energy, and next generation of hypersonic and micro vehicles. Dr. Mankbadi has published over one hundred refereed technical articles, textbooks, and monographs. He has contributed significantly to the advancement of science in the areas of Propulsion Systems, Aero-Acoustics, Control of Turbulent Flows, and Sustainable energy. Dr. Mankbadi has served as the first Dean of the Embry-Riddle College of Engineering and as the Research Director. Under his leadership the college has progressed in every regard and became one of the top ten engineering schools among non-PhD granting schools. Prior to moving to Embry-Riddle, he has served as a NASA Senior Scientist, Director, and a Fellow of the Lewis Research Academy. Dr. Mankbadi accomplishments have been nationally and internationally recognized. He has twice received the NASA Superior Performance Award, selected as a member of the editorial board of international journals, selected as one of only six NASA Lewis Academy Fellows, selected as a Fulbright Scholar, as an Ohio Board of Regents Professor, and as a Fellow of the ASME.