PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS
Dr. Xinfeng Gao
Email: Xinfeng.Gao@colostate.edu
Phone: 970-491-1003
Fax: 970-491-3827
Office: Rm A103D, Engineering Building
Mailing Address:
1374 Campus Delivery
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1374
Dr. Xinfeng Gao is a professor of Mechanical Engineering. She joined Mechanical Engineering faculty in August 2011. Her research interests include the development of advanced parallel CFD algorithms, data-assimilated CFD algorithms for turbulent combustion systems, Polynomial-Chaos-Kriging uncertainty quantification methods in fluid flow computations, and the CFD-based design, analysis and optimization of aerospace propulsion systems. Dr. Gao earned her Ph.D. in Aerospace Sciences and Engineering from University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies in November 2008. Prior to joining Colorado State University, she was a postdoctoral scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory working with two groups: the Applied Numerical Algorithms Group and the Center for Computational Sciences and Engineering, from January 2009 to August 2011.
- Dr. Gao was on sabbatical for AY 2018-2019, working with Dr. Robert Falgout at the Computational Mathematics Group of the Center for Applied Scientific Computing in Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Dr. Stephen Guzik
Email: Stephen.Guzik@colostate.edu
Phone: 970-491-4682
Fax: 970-491-3827
Office: Rm A103H, Engineering Building
Mailing Address:
1374 Campus Delivery
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1374
Dr. Stephen Guzik is an assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering. His research interests include high-order algorithms for partial differential equations (PDEs), software infrastructure such as adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) for solving PDEs, parallel implementations on specialized processors/accelerators, and programming methods for heterogeneous architectures. Dr. Guzik earned his Ph.D. in Aerospace Sciences and Engineering from University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies in 2010. He had worked in the Center for Applied Scientific Computing at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as a postdoctoral researcher for about three years. Dr. Guzik joined Mechanical Engineering faculty in August 2015 as an assistant professor after working for three years as a research scientist in the CFD & Propulsion Laboratory.
PH.D. STUDENTS
Jerett Cherry
Email: Jerett.Cherry@colostate.edu
Phone: 970-491-7545
Fax: 970-491-3827
Office: Rm B107, Engineering Building
Mailing Address:
1374 Campus Delivery
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1374
Jerett Cherry completed his B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Colorado Boulder in December 2019. Jerett entered as a Ph.D. student in the department of mathematics at CSU in 2021, and joined the CFD & Propulsion Laboratory in Spring 2023. His research is focused on analysis and development of Parallel-in-Time algorithms for turbulence.
Eli House
Email: Eli.House@colostate.edu
Phone: 970-491-7545
Fax: 970-491-3827
Office: Rm B107, Engineering Building
Mailing Address:
1374 Campus Delivery
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1374
Eli House completed a dual degree for his B.S. in applied mathematics with a minor in physics at Marian University and B.S. in mechanical engineering at Purdue University in Indianapolis in 2022. Eli joined the CFD & Propulsion Laboratory in August 2022. His research is focused on integrating data assimilation with deep learning to improve CFD predictability of complex fluid dynamics applications in aerospace.
Andy Davis
Email: aldavis1@colostate.edu
Phone: 970-491-7545
Fax: 970-491-3827
Office: Rm B107, Engineering Building
Mailing Address:
1374 Campus Delivery
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1374
Andrew Davis completed his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Mathematics from Tennessee Technological University in December of 2020. Andrew Joined the CFD & Propulsion Laboratory as a Master’s student in January of 2021 and then transferred to the Ph.D. study in September of 2021. His Ph.D. research is focused on the development of CFD algorithms for plasma dynamics modeling with complex geometry.
Erik Brodin
Email: Erik.Brodin@colostate.edu
Phone: 970-491-7545
Fax: 970-491-3827
Office: Rm B107, Engineering Building
Mailing Address:
1374 Campus Delivery
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1374
Erik Brodin completed his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Miami University (Ohio) in 2018. Erik came to CSU in the Fall of 2018 where he spent the first three semesters of his Ph.D. in the Orthopaedic Bioengineering Research Laboratory before moving to the CFD & Propulsion laboratory late in 2019. His Ph.D. thesis involves CFD algorithms development and application for additive manufacturing.
Christopher Hurst
Email: hurstcl@colostate.edu
Phone: 970-491-7545
Fax: 970-491-3827
Office: Rm B107, Engineering Building
Mailing Address:
1374 Campus Delivery
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1374
Chris Hurst completed his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology with a concentration in aerospace in May 2017. He took a year off school working for SpaceX’s launch site at Vandenberg AFB, assisting his grandfather with harvest in New Zealand, and taking a three-month climbing tour all around North America. He then joined the CFD & Propulsion laboratory in the fall of 2018. His Ph.D. research interests include data assimilation and turbulence modeling.
RESEARCH STAFF
Nelson Xie
Email: Nelson.Xie@colostate.edu
Phone: 970-491-0941
Fax: 970-491-3827
Office: Rm B107, Engineering Building
Mailing Address:
1374 Campus Delivery
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1374
Nelson Xie is a research associate working in the CFD & Propulsion Laboratory since August 2012. He works with PIs in this laboratory and Dr. Daniel Olsen on internal combustion engine and energy pipeline where he works closely with industry. Nelson earned his M.S. degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Syracuse University.
Software used in educational research:
- CFD packages: CONVERGE CFD to model internal combustion engine, ANSYS Fluent and CFD++ to model general and advanced CFD problems.
- Pre-processing packages: Pointwise and ANSYS meshing to generate mesh.
- Post-processing packages: FieldView, ParaView, VisIt, Tecplot, EnSight, and ANSYS CFD Post to process CFD simulation solutions.
- CAD packages: CREO, SolidWorks, and ANSYS DesignModeler to create 3D CAD models.
Nathan Spotts
Email: nathan.spotts@rams.colostate.edu
Phone: 970-491-7545
Fax: 970-491-3827
Office: Rm B107, Engineering Building
Mailing Address:
1374 Campus Delivery
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1374
Nathan Spotts is a research affiliate in the CFD & Propulsion Laboratory while he works as a CFD engineer at Woodward Inc. He completed his B.S. and M.S degrees in Mechanical Engineering at Colorado State University, and started working at Woodward in May 2016. His research interests include CFD simulations of transonic flows, high-fidelity Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) simulations of fan-distortion interaction, and the introduction of efficient, high-performance computing (HPC) based CFD into industry workflows.
ALUMNI
Nate Overton
Degree (Year): Ph.D. (2022)
Time Period and Thesis: 08/2016-08/2022, Geometry Considerations for High-Order Finite-Volume Methods on Structured Grids with Adaptive Mesh Refinement.
Job Upon Graduation: Postdoctoral scientist at the Applied Numerical Algorithms Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Scott Polak
Degree (Year): Ph.D. (2022)
Time Period and Thesis: 01/2016-05/2022, A Fourth-Order Finite Volume Algorithm with Adaptive Mesh Refinement in Space and Time for Multi-Fluid Plasma Modeling.
Job Upon Graduation: Member of Technical Staff, Remote Plasma Sources, Advanced Energy, Fort Collins, Colorado.
Sean Walters
Degree (Year): Ph.D. (2022)
Time Period and Thesis: 05/2016-05/2022, Large-Eddy Simulation of Compressible Flows Using the Stretched-Vortex Model and a Fourth-Order Finite Volume Scheme on Adaptive Grids.
Job Upon Graduation: Assistant professor at Southern Adventist University.
Yijun Wang
Degree (Year): Ph.D. (2022)
Time Period and Thesis: 08/2016-01/2022, Bayesian Data Assimilation for CFD Modeling of Turbulent Combustion.
Job Upon Graduation: Data Scientist at Huma.AI, Inc.
Joshua Christopher
Degree (Year): Ph.D. (2021)
Time Period and Thesis: 06/2014-12/2021, Time Integration for Complex Fluid Dynamics.
Job Upon Graduation: Postdoctoral scientist at the Center for Advanced Propulsion and Power Research, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois.
Noah Meisner
Degree (Year): M.S. (2019)
Time Period and Thesis: 09/2016-05/2019, Entropy Stability for a Forth-Order Accurate Finite Volume Method.
Job Upon Graduation: Karagozian & Case
Landon Owen
Degree (Year): Ph.D. (2019)
Time Period and Thesis: 08/2013-06/2019, A Fourth-Order Solution-Adaptive Finite-Volume Algorithm for Compressible Reacting Flows on Mapped Domains.
Job Upon Graduation: Postdoctoral scientist at the Combustion Research Facility, Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore Campus, California.
Justin Weinmeister
Degree (Year): M.S. (2018)
Time Period and Thesis: 04/2016-05/2018, Development of Reduced Polynomial Chaos-Kriging Metamodel for Uncertainty Quantification of Computational Aerodynamics.
Job Upon Graduation: Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Tyler Schott
Degree (Year): M.S. (2016)
Time Period and Thesis: 11/2013-06/2016, CFD Modeling of Aircraft Pressure Relief Doors.
Job Upon Graduation: Blue Origin
Nathan Spotts
Degree (Year): M.S. (2015)
Time Period and Thesis: 02/2012-12/2015, Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes Simulations of Inlet Flow Distortion in the Fan System of a Gas-Turbine Aero-Engine.
Job Upon Graduation: Woodward Inc.
Dr. Catherine Olschanowsky
Dr. Catherine Olschanowsky is now an associate professor of Computer Science at Boise State University. She was a research professor in Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering Departments at CSU, working in the CFD & Propulsion Laboratory from July 2013 to July 2016. Her work involved using the Rose compiler to customize CFD applications to complex computer architectures. She earned her Ph.D. in Computer Science from University of California at San Diego in the Performance Modeling and Characterization Laboratory. Dr. Olschanowsky also worked as a research scientist and software engineer at the San Diego Supercomputer Center.