11 min read

# ULI Interested Partner List (Round 4)

### Lillian Gipson

#### Web Editor

Mar 18, 2021

Article

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**Organization Name**AirMorph LLC

**Organization POC**Robert Love, Founder/CTO

**POC E-mail**contact@airmorph.com

**A****rea of Research Interest**Applications within Thrust 1 & 4: Electric and hybrid electric e-VTOL and e-STOL Air Vehicle Design and Implementation to enable local suburban air mobility

**Lead Partner**Partner

**Organization Name**Hampton University

**Organization POC**Otsebele Nare, Associate Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering

**POC E-mail**otsebele.nare@hamptonu.edu

**A****rea of Research Interest**Thrust 1: Safe, Efficient Growth in Global OperationsThrust 4: Safe, Quite and Affordable Vertical Lift Air Vehicles;

**Lead Partner**Lead/Partner

**Organization Name**University of California, Berkeley

**Organization POC**Susan Shaheen, ProfessorAdam Cohen, Researcher

**POC E-mail**sshaheen@berkeley.eduapcohen@berkeley.edu

**A****rea of Research Interest**Public Perception/Societal Acceptance of UAM, VTOL, Electrification, and Autonomous AviationTopics 1, 4, 5, 7Topic 1: Safe, Efficient Growth in Global OperationsTopic 4: Civil Aircraft that Incorporate Vertical Lift CapabilityTopic 5: Transition to Alternative Propulsion and EnergyTopic 7: Assured Autonomy for Aviation Transformation

**Lead Partner**Lead/Partner

**Organization Name**Rutgers University

**Organization POC**Onur Bilgen

**POC E-mail**o.bilgen@rutgers.edu

**A****rea of Research Interest**Topic 4: Safe, Quiet, and Affordable Vertical Lift Air Vehicles.I am interested in novel morphing propellers.

**Lead Partner**Lead/Partner

**Organization Name**Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company,Advanced Development Programs

**Organization POC**Michael Haro, Environmental Engineer Sr Staff

**POC E-mail**michael.haro@lmco.com

**A****rea of Research Interest**Bioinspired design (biomimetic) solutions to technology challenges faced in achieving NASA ULI strategies in Topics 1 through 7. For example, morphological adaptation of the serrations on the leading edge of owl wings resulting in noise reduction and improvements in aerodynamic performance or application of fractal heat pipes to distribute thermal loads on materials in hypersonic flight. Could potentially collaborate in ULI Round 4 or future rounds.

**Lead Partner**Partner

**Organization Name**Oregon State University

**Organization POC**Prof. Yue Cao, Electrical Engineering (power electronics)

**POC E-mail**yue.cao@oregonstate.edu

**A****rea of Research Interest**Topic 4: Safe, Quiet, and Affordable Vertical Lift Air Vehicles. Prof. Cao has significant experiences with the propulsion system of heavy-duty all-electric VTOL UAV’s. He is previously employed by and currently collaborating with Amazon Prime Air. He specializes in power electronics and motor drives to improve energy efficiency and system reliability, including control and hardware designs, such as fault-tolerant motors and inverters. He has also developed UAV multi-physical power systems modeling and optimization design tool. Prof. Cao received MS/PhD from UIUC (Urbana-Champaign) and BS from UT-Knoxville. Prof. Cao is an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification overseeing UAV related submissions and leading this effort in IEEE Transportation Electrification Community. Oregon State University offers geographical diversity in the Pacific Northwest and access to local Aerospace related industry. OSU owns a 750 kW lab capable of a variety of tests.

**Lead Partner**Lead/Partner

**Organization Name**West Virginia University, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

**Organization POC**Dr. Mario Perhinschi, Professor

**POC E-mail**Mario.Perhinschi@mail.wvu.edu

**A****rea of Research Interest**Thrust 5:  In-Time System-Wide Safety AssuranceThrust 6:  Assured Autonomy for Aviation TransformationNovel artificial intelligence techniques for system monitoring and control, focus on autonomous flight/UAVs

**Lead Partner**Lead/Partner

**Organization Name**Embry Riddle Aeronautical University

**Organization POC**Reda Mankbadi, Professor of Aerospace Engineering

**POC E-mail**Reda.Mankbadi@erau.edu

**A****rea of Research Interest**Aeroacoustics

**Lead Partner**Partner

**Organization Name**University of Florida

**Organization POC**Corin Segal, Professor

**POC E-mail**cor@ufl.edu

**A****rea of Research Interest**Topic 7, experimental reacting and non-reacting supersonic flows in hypersonic regime

**Lead Partner**Partner

**Organization Name**Georgia Institute of Technology

**Organization POC**Dr. Krish Ahuja, Regents Professor of Aerospace Engineering (Expertise: Aeroacoustics)

**POC E-mail**krish.ahuja@ae.gatech.edu

**A****rea of Research Interest**Innovative Noise Control Technologies   applicable to any one or all  the first four topics

**Lead Partner**Lead/Partner

**Organization Name**The Longbow Group LLC / USRTC – Fort Monroe, Virginia

**Organization POC**Marco Sterk, President(Executive Director – Unmanned Research and Technology Center – USRTC.org )

**POC E-mail**msterk@thelongbowgroup.com

**A****rea of Research Interest**Thrust 4: Safe, Quite and Affordable Vertical Lift Air Vehicles;Thrust 5: In-Time System Safety Assurance;Thrust 6: Assured Autonomy for Aviation TransformationUnmanned Traffic Management (UTM)Advanced Air Mobility (AAM)

**Lead Partner**Partner

**Organization Name**San Jose State University (HSI and AANAPISI)

**Organization POC**Dr. Ozgur Keles, Assistant Professor, Materials Engineering, (Co-director, Advanced Manufacturing Lab)

**POC E-mail**ozgur.keles@sjsu.edu

**A****rea of Research Interest**Topic 3: Ultra-Efficient Subsonic Transports (Strategic Thrust 3)Topic 4: Safe, Quiet, and Affordable Vertical Lift Air Vehicles (Strategic Thrust 4)Additive manufacturing of complex materialsToughening and degradation mechanismsQuantum dot synthesis and nano-compositesComputational fracture mechanics

**Lead Partner**Lead/Partner

**Organization Name**Louisiana State University

**Organization POC**Dr. Shyam Menon, Assistant professor, Mechanical Engineering

**POC E-mail**smenon@lsu.edu

**A****rea of Research Interest**Thrust 4: Safe, Quite and Affordable Vertical Lift Air Vehicles. We are involved in development of hybrid powertrains for aircraft/rotorcraft particularly for smaller power requirements suited to urban mobility. 

**Lead Partner**Partner

**Organization Name**Interdisciplinary Consulting Corp (IC2)

**Organization POC**Dr. David Mills, President

**POC E-mail**dmills@thinkic2.com

**A****rea of Research Interest**Topic 7: Novel In-Flight and Ground Measurement Techniques for Hypersonic Flight

**Lead Partner**Partner

**Organization Name**Purdue University

**Organization POC**Guillermo Paniagua

**POC E-mail**gpaniagua@purdue.edu

**A****rea of Research Interest**Propulsion forTopic 2: Innovation in Commercial Supersonic Aircraft (Strategic Thrust 2)Topic 3: Ultra-Efficient Subsonic Transports (Strategic Thrust 3)Topic 4: Safe, Quiet, and Affordable Vertical Lift Air VehiclesTopic 7: Novel In-Flight and Ground Measurement Techniques for Hypersonic Flight

**Lead Partner**Lead/Partner

**Organization Name**University of Tennessee Knoxville

**Organization POC**Dr. Zhenbo Wang, Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering

**POC E-mail**zwang124@utk.edu

**A****rea of Research Interest**Topic 4: Safe, Quiet, and Affordable Vertical Lift Air VehiclesTopic 6: Assured Autonomy for Aviation TransformationTopic 7: Novel In-Flight and Ground Measurement Techniques for Hypersonic FlightGuidance, navigation, and control (GN&C); optimal control; real-time control and optimization; convex optimization; artificial intelligence and machine learning; trajectory optimization; atmospheric flight vehicles; unmanned aerial vehicles; urban air mobility; hypersonic vehicles

**Lead Partner**Partner

**Organization Name**University of Arizona

**Organization POC**Dr. Kyle Hanquist, Assistant Professor in the Department of Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering, hypersonics.arizona.edu

**POC E-mail**hanquist@arizona.edu

**A****rea of Research Interest**Topic 7: Novel In-Flight and Ground Measurement Techniques for Hypersonic FlightComputational Fluid Dynamics, Reactive Flow and Nonequilibrium Modeling, Fluid-Structure-Thermal Interactions, Heat Load Predictions, Simulations, Thermal Protection Systems High-speed and hypersonic wind tunnel testing, shockwave boundary layer interaction, boundary layer stability and transition

**Lead Partner**Lead/Partner

**Organization Name**University of Cincinnati

**Organization POC**Dr. Ou Ma

**POC E-mail**maou@ucmail.uc.edu

**A****rea of Research Interest**Thrust 1: Safe, Efficient Growth in Global Operations;Thrust 5: In-Time System Safety AssuranceThrust 6: Assured Autonomy for Aviation Transformation

**Lead Partner**Lead/Partner

**Organization Name**Flight Safety Foundation

**Organization POC**Dr. Hassan Shahidi

**POC E-mail**shahidi@flightsafety.org

**A****rea of Research Interest**Thrust 1: Safe, Efficient Growth in Global Operations;Thrust 4: Safe, Quite and Affordable Vertical Lift Air Vehicles;Thrust 5: In-Time System Safety Assurance;Thrust 6: Assured Autonomy for Aviation Transformation

**Lead Partner**Partner

**Organization Name**CREDIT Center, Prairie View A&M University (HBCU)

**Organization POC**Lijun Qian, AT&T Endowed Professor, Director of CREDIT center

**POC E-mail**liqian@pvamu.edu

**A****rea of Research Interest**Topic 6: Assured Autonomy for Aviation Transformation (Strategic Thrust 6)

**Lead Partner**Lead/Partner

**Organization Name**VerdeGo Aero Inc.

**Organization POC**Eric Bartsch, CEO VerdeGo Aero

**POC E-mail**ericb@verdegoaero.com

**A****rea of Research Interest**Topic 4: Safe, Quiet, and Affordable Vertical Lift Air Vehicles – VerdeGo’s engineering team is developing large-scale piston hybrid-electric and battery-electric powertrain systems for peak power requirements up to 1MW. Our Jet-A piston (diesel) hybrid hardware has a significantly lower SFC than other hybrid approaches, and we are currently building full scale hardware for ground-based testing and refinement. We also have multi-rotor controls design & testing capabilities and full-scale propulsion test facilities for characterizing performance, control, and noise. VerdeGo is interested in being a partner for research involving powertrain noise reduction, energy/fuel efficiency of hybrid-electric systems, and improvements to safety and redundancy within both hybrid-electric and battery-electric powertrains involving distributed electric propulsion. We also have expertise with large-scale immersion cooled battery pack hardware for battery-electric powertrain applications.

**Lead Partner**Partner

**Organization Name**University of Georgia

**Organization POC**Wenwen Wang, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science

**POC E-mail**wenwen@cs.uga.edu

**A****rea of Research Interest**Computer systems (architectures, compilers, operation systems, runtimes, code generation, software testing, secure and trusted execution environments)

**Lead Partner**Partner

**Organization Name**University of Minnesota

**Organization POC**Suo Yang, Richard & Barbara Nelson Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering (Director, Computational Reactive Flow & Energy Lab, https://cse.umn.edu/me/suo-yang)

**POC E-mail**suo-yang@umn.edu

**A****rea of Research Interest**Topic 2: Innovation in Commercial Supersonic Aircraft (Strategic Thrust 2)Topic 3: Ultra-Efficient Subsonic Transports (Strategic Thrust 3)Topic 4: Safe, Quiet, and Affordable Vertical Lift Air Vehicles (Strategic Thrust 4)Topic 7: Novel In-Flight and Ground Measurement Techniques for Hypersonic Flight

Modeling and Simulation (Computational Fluid Dynamics) of Reacting Flows (Combustion, Turbulence, Nonequilibrium Plasma Physics, Particulate and Multiphase Flows, Supersonic/Hypersonic Aerothermodynamics, Thermoacoustics, and their Multiscale Interactions), including RANS, LES, and DNS, using both physics-based and data-driven modeling approaches.

**Lead Partner**Lead/Partner

**Organization Name**University of Utah

**Organization POC**Pai Wang, Jacob Hochhalter and Robert Parker, Department of Mechanical Engineering

**POC E-mail**pai.wang@utah.edu

**A****rea of Research Interest**Topic 4: Safe, Quiet, and Affordable Vertical Lift Air VehiclesWe are interested in novel designs and agile product developments for noise reduction and vibration mitigation in Urban Air Mobility, aiming at next-generation ultra-light-weight and self-adaptive solutions at the material, structure and system levels.

**Lead Partner**Lead/Partner

**Organization Name**University of Texas at Dallas

**Organization POC**Majid Minary, Eugene McDermott Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering

**POC E-mail**majid.minary@utdallas.edu

**A****rea of Research Interest**Topic 7: Novel In-Flight and Ground Measurement Techniques for Hypersonic Flight, Additive Manufacturing of Polymer-Derived Ceramics for high temperature sensors

**Lead Partner**Partner

**Organization Name**University of Alabama in Huntsville

**Organization POC**Konstantinos Kanistras, Assistant Professor in the Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Department https://aafc.uah.edu/

**POC E-mail**Konstantinos.Kanistras@uah.edu

**A****rea of Research Interest**Topic 3: Ultra-Efficient Subsonic Transports (Strategic Thrust 3) Applied Aerodynamics, Active/Passive Flow control, Aircraft Performance, Aircraft Stability and Control. Wind Tunnel Testing, Flow Visualization and PIV testing, UAS flight testing.

**Lead Partner**Partner

**Organization Name**Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

**Organization POC**Houbing Song, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, and Director, Security and Optimization for Networked Globe Laboratory (SONG Lab, http://www.songlab.us/)

**POC E-mail**houbing.song@erau.edu

**A****rea of Research Interest**Topic 1: Safe, Efficient Growth in Global Operations (Strategic Thrust 1)Topic 5: In-Time System-Wide Safety Assurance (Strategic Thrust 5)Topic 6: Assured Autonomy for Aviation Transformation (Strategic Thrust 6)

**Lead Partner**Lead/Partner

**Organization Name**The Center for Advanced Power Systems of the Florida State University (CAPS-FSU)

**Organization POC**Gian Carlo Montanari, Research Faculty, CAPS

**POC E-mail**Gmontanari@fsu.edu

**A****rea of Research Interest**Main area is insulating material and insulation systems in any type of aerospace and deep space-moon application. Design of insulation, material characterization and specifications, aging model and reliability, premature failure mechanisms,  diagnostic properties, monitoring and condition assessment/maintenance. Superconducting cables. Drives.

**Lead Partner**Lead/Partner

**Organization Name**Universities Space Research Association

**Organization POC**Dr. David Bell, Director

**POC E-mail**dbell@usra.edu

**A****rea of Research Interest**Topic 1: Safe, Efficient Growth in Global OperationsTopic 4: Safe, Quiet, and Affordable Vertical Lift Air VehiclesTopic 5: In-Time System-Wide Safety AssuranceTopic 6: Assured Autonomy for Aviation Transformation

**Lead Partner**Partner

**Organization Name**The University of Texas at Arlington

**Organization POC**Dr. Luca Maddalena, Professor and Director, Aerodynamics Research Center

**POC E-mail**luca@uta.edu

**A****rea of Research Interest**Topic 7: Novel In-Flight and Ground Measurement Techniques for Hypersonic Flight

Development of calorimeters for arc-jet flow under constant and variable heat-flux representative of simulated trajectory requirements. Development of non-intrusive advanced diagnostics for arc-jet free-stream and shock-layer velocity, composition, and thermochemical non-equilibrium effects  (fs-TALIF, FLEET, potentially CARS) with concurrent TPS material degradation. Development of turbulence intensity measurements and effects on TPS testing.  Advanced non-metallic (graphite / zirconia) temperature and heat-flux sensors for in-flight and ground measurements for hypersonics (internal and external flows)      

Operating 1.6MW arc-jet facility “Leste”

**Lead Partner**Lead/Partner

**Organization Name**New Mexico State University (Minority Serving Institute)

**Organization POC**Dr. J.I. Frankel, Department Head and R. Myers Endowed Professor

**POC E-mail**jfrankel@nmsu.edu

**A****rea of Research Interest**Topic 7: Novel In-Flight and Ground Measurement Techniques for Hypersonic Flight

Dr. Frankel’s work involves developing  uniquely analyzed and designed slug calorimeters for arcjets with advanced data reduction equations for resolving surface heat flux in hostile environments.  He is also working on developing new calibration-based data reduction equations for estimating heat flux using thin-film temperature sensors (front of substrate and back of slug) for milli-second time scale experiments associated with shock (impulse) facilities.

**Lead Partner**Partner/Lead

**Organization Name**Texas A&M University

**Organization POC**Jennifer Strong, Associate Professor

**POC E-mail**dr.jen@tamu.edu

**A****rea of Research****Interest**Leadership development, team building and development, leading teams, mentorship, ethical leadership, evaluation

**Lead Partner**Partner

**Organization Name**University of Cincinnati

**Organization POC**Prashant Khare

**POC E-mail**Prashant.Khare@uc.edu

**A****rea of Research****Interest**Multiphase fluid dynamics, combustion, machine learning applied to complex multiphase fluid dynamics, subsonic and supersonic non-reacting and reacting flows, acoustics, efficient combustion, direct numerical simulations, large eddy simulations

**Lead Partner**Partner

**Organization Name**San Jose State University

**Organization POC**Dr. Wenbin Wei, Professor

**POC E-mail**wenbin.wei@sjsu.edu

**A****rea of Research****Interest**Strategic Thrust 1: Safe, Efficient Growth in Global Operations;Strategic Thrust 4: Safe, Quiet, and Affordable Vertical Lift Air Vehicles;Strategic Thrust 5: In-Time System-Wide Safety Assurance;Strategic Thrust 6: Assured Autonomy for Aviation Transformation;

**Lead Partner**Lead/Partner

**Organization Name**Aurora Flight Sciences

**Organization POC**Michael Klinker, Future Mobility

**POC E-mail**klinker.michael@aurora.aero

**A****rea of Research****Interest**Topics 1, 3, 4, 5, 6. Cybersecurity, Aviation Security, Certifiability, Robust AI, Swarm Autonomy, Manned Unmanned Teaming, Urban Air Mobility, NAS Integration, Detect and Avoid.

**Lead Partner**Partner

ULI Round 6 Partner List

ULI Round 5 Partner List

ULI Round 3 Partner List

ULI Round 1 and 2 Partner List

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