faculty
Center Director
Dr. Yong Tao, Ph.D., P.E., Fellow ASME,
Betty L. Gordon Endowed Chair and Distinguished Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Contact: y.tao19@csuohio.edu
Relevant Research
- Renewable energy & energy efficiency in building
- Heat and mass transfer in porous media
- Freezing and melting
- Electronic cooling
- Enhanced heat transfer
- Refrigeration systems
- Geothermal heat pump systems
- Computational fluid dynamics
Co-Director
Dr. Navid Goudarzi
Assistant Professor
Mechanical Engineering
Contact: n.goudarzi@csuohio.edu
Relevant Research
- Wind energy (residential/commercial, technology, assessment, engineering)
- Solar energy (PV systems, design, O&M)
- Ocean energy (ocean current turbines, wave energy converters, resource assessment)
- Feature extraction (ROM, SVD)
- High-performance buildings (net-zero, building-integrated renewable energy solutions)
- Integrated cost-performance design (multidisciplinary designs)
Co-Director
Dr. Wei Zhang
Associate Professor
Mechanical Engineering
Contact: w.zhang13@csuohio.edu
Relevant Research
- Wind-structure interactions in normal operational and extreme weather conditions (non-synoptic winds, hurricanes, tornadoes, and thunderstorms)
- Wind energy (wind prediction, wind characteristics affected by terrain, diurnal cycles, turbulence impact on wind turbines’ performance, environmental impact of wind farms)
- Bio-inspiration and biomimicry
- Synergy of rigorous laboratory simulation, numerical modelling and field tests
Dr. Hanz Richter
Professor
Mechanical Engineering
Contact: h.richter@csuohio.edu
Relevant Research
- Modeling and simulation of multidomain power networks
- Generalized thermodynamic optimization
- Energy-optimal design and control of electromechanical systems
- Hybrid fuel-electric aircraft propulsion
- Energy-aware robotics and cyber-physical systems
- Supercapacitors
Dr. Mustafa Usta
Assistant Professor
Mechanical Engineering
Contact: m.usta@csuohio.edu
Relevant Research
- Carbon-neutral energy-water-climate nexus
- Sustainable and green desalination
- Carbon capturing
- Energy storage
- Osmotic energy
- Integrated SciML/AI
Dr. Qin Lin
Assistant Professor
Computer Science
Contact: q.lin80@csuohio.edu
Relevant Research
- Robotics (motion planning and control)
- Machine learning (explainable AI, symbolic AI, hybrid automata learning, learning for control)
- Unmanned ground vehicle (UGV)
- Cyber security for cyber-physical systems/industrial control systems (spoofing attacks detection, recovery control)
- Safe control (safety-guaranteed human-robot interaction, collision avoidance, etc.)
- Formal methods (reachability analysis for hybrid dynamic systems)
Dr. Wenbing Zhao
Professor
Electrical Engineering
Contact: w.zhao1@csuohio.edu
Relevant Research
- Dependable Distributed Computing
- Cyber Physical Systems
- Smart and Connected Healthcare
- Machine Learning and Computer Vision
Dr. Ye Zhu
Associate Professor
Computer Engineering
Contact: y.zhu61@csuohio.edu
Relevant Research
- Networking & distributed systems
- Security & Privacy
- Privacy-preserving Data Mining
Dr. Xiongyi Liu
Associate Professor
Curriculum and Foundations
Contact: x.liu6@csuohio.edu
Relevant Research
- Technology-enhanced collaborative learning
- Web-based peer assessment
- Motivation and self-regulated learning
- Case-based learning
- Game-based learning
- STEM education
- Technology-facilitated intervention for individuals with special needs
Dr. Maryam Younessi Sinaki
Assistant Professor of Practice
Mechanical Engineering
Contact: m.younessisinaki@csuohio.edu
Relevant Research
- Energy conversion systems
- Numerical modeling
- Combustion
- Thermo-fluid systems
- Hydrogen production
Andrew Thomas
Executive In Residence, Energy Policy Center
Urban Research & Public Service Center
Contact: a.r.thomas99@csuohio.edu
Relevant Research
- Microgrids, energy storage systems, distributed generation
- Electricity and natural gas markets
- Fuel Cells, hydrogen economy, zero emission transportation
- Oil and Gas law, mid and downstream hydrocarbon development
Mark Henning
Research Associate, Energy Policy Center
College of Urban Affairs
Contact: m.d.henning@csuohio.edu