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


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