Our lab consists of a principal investigator, graduate and undergraduate students, internship students, and visiting scholars. Members of the lab are passionate about research and have a wide variety of interests, ranging from icing research to luminescent sensors to drag reducing surface coatings. Our group is always looking for motivated students who share an interest in understanding challenging problems with an appreciation for interdisciplinary study. Please contact us if you are interested or have any questions.
Lab Members (Fall 2023 Updates)
Principal Investigator
Hirotaka Sakaue
Hirotaka Sakaue is the principal investigator of this laboratory. He joined the University of Notre Dame as an associate professor in the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Department in 2015. He is originally from Japan and spent many years working for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), where he served as a mentor and adviser to many students.
Postdoctoral Scholars
Mitsugu Hasegawa
Mitsu is a postdoctoral scholar at Notre Dame and is originally from Kanagawa, Japan. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Kanagawa Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D degrees in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering from University of Notre dame in the Fall 2020. He conducted a research on in-cloud icing, particularly the development and evaluation of novel anti-/de-icing concept. Since 2015 Mitsu has been working on the research project which focuses on flow control using hair-like structure.
Graduate Students
Daiki Kurihara
Daiki joined our group in the spring of 2017 after receiving his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Tokyo University of Science. He worked in the lab as a visiting student in summer 2015. He is originally from Tokyo, Japan. His research topic is the development of a novel motion-capturing pressure measurement technique using PSP sensors.
Joseph Gonzales
Joe is a graduate student originally from Woodbridge, VA, working toward his PhD in Aerospace Engineering. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2019 with his B.S. in Aerospace Engineering, and spent 2 years of his undergrad working on the development of de-icing technologies in the Sakaue Lab. His current research is focused on the development and characterization of hypersonic flow measurement techniques using pressure and temperature sensitive paints.
Masafumi Yamazaki
Zakky joined Sakaue Lab in the fall of 2020. He is originally from Saitama, Japan. He received B.S. in Applied Physics from Tokyo University of Science and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Kanagawa Institute of Technology. He has worked on icing problems and mitigation techniques in aviation and wind energy field. He works on the elucidation of the freezing mechanism of a supercooled water droplet.
Nicholas Slusher
Nick is a graduate student studying Aerospace Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. He is from Columbia, MO, and currently lives in Keenan Hall. Nick joined the Sakaue Lab in January 2021 and is currently researching the effects of temperature on anodized aluminum pressure-sensitive paint.
Undergraduate Students
Oluwatomi Ogunleye
Oluwatomi is a freshman studying Aerospace Engineering at the University of Notre Dame and from Bowie, Maryland. She joined the Sakaue Lab in February 2023 and is currently researching temperature-sensitive luminescent water and ice that can be used for recording changes in a rocket’s coating as it enters Earth’s atmosphere.
Dylan Wachula
Dylan Wachula is a Junior studying aerospace engineering at the University of Notre Dame. He is from Chicago, IL, and currently lives in Fisher Hall. Dylan joined the Sakaue Lab in February 2023 and is currently working on designing and fabricating testing apparatuses.
Connor Mangan
Connor’s bio will be uploaded soon.
Jonah Ikeda
Jonah Ikeda is a sophomore studying aerospace engineering at the University of Notre Dame. He is from Union, KY, and currently lives in Knott Hall. Jonah joined the Sakaue Lab in September 2023 and is currently researching temperature and pressure sensitive paint to be used in high speed flow testing.
Oscar Pontiff
Oscar Pontiff is a junior studying Mechanical Engineering from Chestnut Hill, MA. He is currently a member of Notre Dame’s Air Force ROTC detachment and plans to become a developmental engineer for the Air Force after college. Oscar has worked with Honeywell on surface wettability properties of aircraft and is currently working on building a resin model to understand heat distributions in CPUs through the use of temperature sensitive paint (TSP).
Russell Henggeler
Russell Henggeler is a junior studying Mechanical Engineering from Dayton, MD. He is currently a proud resident of Baumer Hall and is also a member of Notre Dame’s Air Force ROTC detachment. Russell joined the Sakaue Lab in September 2023 and is currently researching the effect of microfiber coatings on propeller noise reduction.
Samuel Carnogursky
Samuel Carnogursky is a Junior studying Computer Science at the University of Notre Dame. He comes from Bratislava, Slovakia. Samuel joined the Sakaue Lab in May of 2023 and is currently aiding with writing code to improve fluid dynamics simulations.
Visiting Scholars/Visiting Students
Currently, there are no visiting scholars/visiting students.
Internship Students
Arnaud Carboni
Carbo is a graduate exchange student from the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium. He is in his final year of a master’s degree in aerospace and energy engineering at the École Polytechnique de Louvain-La-Neuve. He has joined the Sakaue laboratory for the fall of 2023 as a research assistant at the University of Notre Dame. In addition, he is continuing his research as part of his master’s thesis on the coupling of a high-fidelity aerodynamic solver and a multi-agent formalism for simulating the flight dynamics of bird formations.
Past Members
go to past members: http://sites.nd.edu/sakaue-lab/people/past-members/