Department of Mechanical Engineering

Jason Rabinovitch, assistant professor in Stevens’ Department of Mechanical Engineering, is collaborating with Cornell University professor Olivier Desjardins on a project to improve the modeling capabilities for high-speed droplet aerobreakup and surface damage.

Rabinovitch and Desjardins have received a $1,067,782 grant from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) for their project titled “Advancing Understanding of and Predicting Modeling Capabilities for High-Speed Shock-Induced Droplet Aerobreakup and Surface Damage.”

When high-speed vehicles fly through adverse weather conditions such as clouds, they may collide with small water droplets at extremely high speeds. Prior to a water droplet hitting a vehicle, it will travel through a shockwave in front of the vehicle and start to break up. This project aims to improve understanding of the aerodynamic breakup process of the droplets, along with predicting how much they may damage a vehicle during these high-speed impacts. The computational modeling results from this work will also be used to update reduced-order droplet drag, breakup and surface damage models.

E.H. Yang, professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, has received a second United States patent under the same title for the invention of a surface robot designed to aid in cleaning up aquatic oil spills. The original patent, titled “In Situ Oil Cleanup and Recovery Using Smart Polymer Integrated Surface Vessels” was issued on Aug. 6, 2024. The revised patent was issued on Feb. 11, 2025, and will remain in effect through April 20, 2040. Fellow Mechanical Engineering professors Ron Besser, Brendan Englot and Chang-Hwan Choi are co-inventors on the patent.

This invention integrates smart membranes into a small, unmanned surface vessel to enable the efficient, automated cleanup of oil spills. The integration of smart membranes selectively traps and releases oils into a small surface vessel, enabling efficient and continuous collection of oils from the water’s surface. The treatment of oily water is critical for many other applications, spanning from refinery processes to oil spill cleanups. Successful demonstration of this method will favorably impact future sustainability of water resources.

The original patent describes the concept that incorporates conjugated polymer surfaces into a small, untethered automated surface vessel, enabling efficient and continuous collection of oil from the water’s surface. But the setup of the conveyer belt system within a surface vehicle does not include detailed mechanisms to collect both heavy and light oils. The updated patent fills the gap by providing the detailed mechanisms and solutions to work on both light and heavy oils.

Yang’s idea for the invention is a low-cost and repeatable solution for oil cleanup that works particularly well in confined aquatic areas such as under piers and the small sections between piers and marine vessels. Persistent oil spillage from the petroleum industry from boats, marine installations and urban runoff accounts for approximately 350,000 barrels of oil spillage per year.

Shima Hajimirza, an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, has been elected to the American Society of Thermal and Fluids Engineers’ Board of Directors for a three-year term set to begin on July 1, 2025.

The American Society of Thermal and Fluids Engineers (ASTFE) was established in July 2014 to promote the science and applications of thermal and fluids engineering and related disciplines. ASTFE aims to provide opportunities for disseminating information and knowledge regarding thermal and fluids engineering, both nationally and internationally.

As a member of the Board of Directors, Hajimirza envisions fostering a research environment that upholds the highest ethical standards while advancing education in thermal and fluids engineering.

"I aim to develop structured ethical guidelines and educational initiatives that equip students, researchers and professionals with the tools to conduct responsible, high-impact research," she said. "I plan to enhance mentorship programs and interdisciplinary collaborations, ensuring that emerging researchers have access to resources that support ethical decision-making and innovative problem-solving.

"Expanding equitable opportunities is also a priority, as a broader range of perspectives leads to more comprehensive solutions to engineering challenges. Through these initiatives, I aspire to make ASTFE a leader in shaping the next generation of engineers who are not only technically proficient but also socially responsible."

Hajimirza’s leadership at ASTFE aligns with her commitment to ethical research practices, mentorship and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, reinforcing the society’s mission to advance the field of thermal and fluids engineering.

Stevens' Board of Trustees and university leadership have approved the appointments of faculty members Brendan Englot and Nicholaus Parziale to endowed chair positions in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Englot has been appointed as Anson Wood Burchard Chair in Mechanical Engineering and Parziale has been appointed as George Meade Bond Chair in Mechanical Engineering for five-year terms. Both appointments are effective on March 1, 2025. These appointments recognize their excellence in scholarly activities and quality of teaching, as well as significant contributions to Stevens and their fields of expertise.

Englot joined Stevens in 2014 as an assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering. He has more than 15 years of experience in developing and deploying mobile robots and autonomous navigation algorithms via land, air and sea. His research uses artificial intelligence to improve the situational awareness of mobile robots operating in degraded conditions, and to enable intelligent robot decision-making under uncertainty. Dr. Englot has been awarded more than $5 million in external funding as a Principal Investigator at Stevens, which includes a 2017 NSF CAREER Award and a 2020 ONR YIP Award.

Parziale joined Stevens in 2013, progressing from visiting assistant professor (2013-14) to assistant professor (2014-2020), associate professor (2020-24), and professor (2024-present). His group’s current research focuses on supersonic and hypersonic aerodynamics, including boundary-layer instability, turbulence, and reacting/multiphase flows.