Past Members

go back to present members: http://sites.nd.edu/sakaue-lab/people/

Alumni

Andrew Chen
Andrew completed his M.S. in the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Notre Dame in the spring of 2023. Andrew was a graduate student originally from Taipei, Taiwan. He graduated in 2021 with a BS in Aerospace Engineering and have spent two years in undergrad working on different topics in Sakaue Lab. His research topic was on determining the effects of microfiber on cylinder flow.

Tatsunori Hayashi
Tatsu was a postdoctoral scholar at our group. He is originally from Fukuoka, Japan. Tatsu received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Tokyo University of Science and received his Ph.D degrees in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering from University of Notre dame in the spring of 2020. He worked as a design engineer in IHI Inc, a jet engine company in Japan. After working for two years, he joined our group in the spring of 2016. His research topic is the development of a new differential pressure measurement technique using PSP sensors.
Linkedin

Steven Claucherty
Steve joined our group in the fall of 2015 and completed his Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering in the summer of 2020 from the University of Notre Dame. He is originally from Royal Oak, Michigan. His research topic is the development of a new unsteady pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) with reduced temperature dependency. He is also interested in using PSP in traditionally challenging test environments. He now works as a post-doctoral researcher at Innovative Scientific Solutions Inc!
Linkedin

Wesley Patterson
Wes completed his M.S. in the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Notre Dame in the summer of 2020. In 2016, he received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Western Kentucky University where he conducted industry-sponsored research into thermal fluid sciences – particularly phase change processes. Later that year, Wesley began graduate work in the Sakaue Lab. He worked in using luminescent sensors for thermal fluid diagnostic applications and chemical flow control with a primary focus in supercooled surface icing phenomenon.

Postdoctoral Scholars

Yuichi  Hirai
Yuichi was a post-doctral scholar from Hokkaido University in Japan for 2017-2018. He was a post-doctral Scholars at Université Paris-Saclay in France for 2019-2020. He is now a researcher at NIMS-Tsukuba in Japan.

Undergraduate Students

Korey Walters
Korey is a senior studying aerospace engineering. He is from Syracuse, New York and currently lives in Keough Hall.  Korey joined the lab in the fall of 2021 and is currently working on the development of High-temperature sentive paints.

Vincent DiFilippo
Vince is a senior studying Aerospace Engineering from Cleveland, Ohio. He joined the lab in the spring of 2021 and is studying the noise reduction of a propeller due to a hair-like microfiber coating.

Dan Forkey
Dan was a freshman studying Mechanical Engineering from Princeton, Massachusetts. He joined the lab in the fall of 2022 and is studying the noise reduction of a propeller due to hair-like microfiber coatings.

Ashlyn McDonald
Ashlyn was a sophomore studying Chemical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. She is originally from Philadelphia, PA, and she currently lives in Lewis Hall. Ashlyn joined the lab in October of 2022, and she is working towards developing a pressure and temperature sensitive coating to be used for high speed flow testing.

Phil Lombardi
Phil’s bio will be uploaded soon.

Owen Duffy
Owen was an undergraduate student in Mechanical Engineering from Saint Charles, Illinois. In the fall of 2021, he worked in Sakaue’s lab researching luminescence of temperature sensitive solutions that are used in high-velocity impact experiments.

Christopher Peterson
Christopher Peterson was an undergraduate student in Aerospace Engineering and Theology at the University of Notre Dame. He was from Roanoke, Illinois, and resided in Dunne Hall while on campus. Christopher joined the Sakaue Lab during the Spring 2022 semester to research heat transfer of blade contact on ice using luminescent imaging techniques.

James Kutufaris
James was a sophomore studying Aerospace Engineering at Notre Dame. He worked in the Sakaue Laboratory in January 2021 and designed and made a environmental chamber to control oxgen concentration for characterizing PSP sensors.

Brendan Kane
Brendan was an undergraduate student in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Notre Dame originally from Westfield, NJ. Brendan joined the Sakaue Lab in Fall 2020, and researched the development and characterization of pressure and temperature sensitive ice comparable to current pressure and temperature sensitive paint technologies.

Quinn Gallagher, Spring 2021
Quinn was an undergraduate student in Aerospace Engineering at Notre Dame. He started working in the Sakaue Laboratory in January 2021 and was focsuing on the measurment of luminous transmittance  of optical filters.

Allison Taylor
Allison was an undergraduate student in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. She was from Yuma, Arizona and currently resided in Cavanaugh Hall. She worked in the Sakaue lab in the Fall of 2020, where she researched on a material coating that combines hydrophobicity and solar radiation to maximize de-icing.

Gabrielle Beach
Gabi was an undergraduate student in the dual-degree engineering program between Saint Mary’s College and the University of Notre Dame originally from St. Petersburg, FL. She majored in Physics and Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in Aerospace. She had previously conducted research at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Notre Dame Physics Department. She started research in the Sakaue Laboratory in Fall 2020 and helped to characterize temperature- and pressure-sensitive paint.

Marta Kernan
Marta was an undergraduate student from Dayton, Ohio: the birthplace of aviation! She attended Saint Mary’s College and the University of Notre Dame where she studyied Physics and Aerospace Engineering. She started her first semester conducting research related to sensor characterization with the Sakaue Laboratory in the spring of 2019!

Neil Niere
Neil was an undergraduate student in Aerospace Engineering at Notre Dame. He’s from Olathe, Kansas, and resided in Stanford hall. He started working in the Sakaue Laboratory in January 2019 and researched cavity flow, analyzed pressure and sound data and implementing microfiber coatings to reduce flow separation/noise in areas within the cavity.

Joseph Sutton
Joe was an undergraduate student originally from Columbus, Ohio, and majored Aerospace Engineering.  He started in the Sakaue lab in January 2019, and worked on PSP and TSP characterization using a shock tube.

Jack Gorman
Jack graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a Bachelor’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering in May 2020. Originally from Valhalla, New York, he joined Sakaue lab in January 2018. His first project involved researching methods to manufacture microfiber coatings of varying densities and angles. He then shifted to applying these microfiber coatings to propellers in an attempt to reduce noise generation. He now works as a Test Engineer at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

Michael Rogers
Michael graduated from the University of Notre Dame in the class of 2019 with an undergraduate degree in Aerospace Engineering. Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he has been passionate about space and flight from a young age. Michael worked in the Sakaue lab from January of 2018 to Spring 2020. His main area of focus was the development of a drag reduction coating for airfoils using microfibers, specifically targeted at mitigating wing tip vortices and downwash. He now works as a system engineer at Raytheon.

Adam Matteson
Adam Matteson joined Sakaue lab from Fall 2017 to Summer 2018. He worked on the development of experimental setup of cavity flow and the development of water pipe flow system.

Adam Mallette
Adam Mallette joined our Sakaue lab from Fall 2017 to Spring 2018. He worked on the development of temperature sensitive coatings.
He now pursues his Ph.D. at University of Houston.

Alexandre Boueri
Alex  joined Sakaue lab from Fall 2017 to Fall 2018.

Matthew Hennessy
Matthew  joined Sakaue lab from Fall 2017 to Spring 2018.

Jens Rataczak
Jens joined our lab for Fall 2017.

Kelly Prussack
Kelly was an undergraduate student in mechanical engineering major and energy studies minor from Long Valley, NJ. She worked in the Sakaue lab in the Fall of 2017 under Mitsu. Her project involved researching methods to manufacture microfiber coatings of varying densities and angles.
Linkedin

Shane Combs
Shane joined Sakaue lab from Spring 2017 to Fall 2017.

Ryan Dixon
Ryan joined Sakaue lab from Spring 2017 to Fall 2017.

Alfredo Duarte Gomez
Alfredo Duarte graduated from the University of Notre Dame class of 2019 with an undergraduate degree in Aerospace Engineering. Originally from Teguciglpa, Honduras, Alfredo worked in the development and characterization of Pressure Sensitive Paint from Spring 2017 to Spring 2018.
He is now pursuing his PhD at the University of Texas at Austin as part of the Reactive Flow Modeling Lab.
Linkedin

Kevin Warten
Kevin Warten graduated from the University of Notre Dame in the class of 2018 with an undergraduate degree in Aerospace Engineering. He now lives in West Hartford, CT and works for Pratt & Whitney as an Acoustic Engineer. With the Sakaue Lab, Kevin researched microfiber coatings aimed at increasing the efficiency of wind turbine propellers, as well as decreasing the noise generated by wake interaction. As an avid musician at Notre Dame, Kevin was inspired by his time with the Sakaue Lab to pursue a career that was able to combine his passions for both engineering and noise. As an Acoustic Engineer at Pratt & Whitney, Kevin now works to ensure that engines in both the commercial and military realms operate as quietly as possible.

Senay Argaw Tilahun
Senay joined Sakaue lab from Spring 2016 to Spring 2017.

Visiting Scholars/Visiting Students

Sathya Narayanan
Sathya Narayanan is a visiting scholar from CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore, India. He obtained his Masters degree from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India and doctorate from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India. He has nineteen years of research experience in high speed flows and their control. His expertise include delta wings, cavities, shock-wave boundary-layer interaction (SBLI), jets, intakes and flow diagnostic tool pressure sensitive paint (PSP).

Tsubasa Ikami
Tsubasa was a PhD student in the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Tohoku University, Japan. He was originally from Aichi, Japan. He received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Engineering from Tohoku University. His main research topic was the evaluation of the carbon nano-tubes temperature-sensitive paint (cntTSP) technique in the unsteady flow measurement. He worked on optimizing the formulation of PSP for the motion-capturing pressure measurement.

Duong Nguyen
Duong Thai Nguyen was born in 1994. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Aerospace engineering from National Defense Academy of Japan. Then, he joined the Doctoral Course at the Aerospace Department of the National Defense Academy of Japan from 2020. His main research area was the aerodynamic characteristics of objects in transonic and subsonic flow. He conducted chracterization study of PSP/TSP sensors, while he was researching high-lift devices design, vortex structure and computational fluid dynamic simulations.

Henrique Fanini Leite
Henrique was a PhD student at the Brazilian Technological Institute of Aeronautics (ITA – Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica), worekd as a visiting student at Sakaue Lab since August 2018. His thesis is on the quantitative analysis of unsteady phenomena using fast response pressure sensitive paint (Fast-PSP). This builds on his previous experience in using a wide range of pressure and temperature sensitive paints for steady flow diagnostics. Besides his main line of research, Henrique has performed investigations of 3-D cylinder wakes using time-resolved PIV and robust data processing techniques.

Yusuke Hirose
Yusuke joined Sakaue Lab as a visiting student from April 2019. He was a PhD student of Mechanical Engineering at Chiba University, Japan. He was originally from Tokyo, Japan. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Chiba University.  His research topic was simultaneous pressure and integral value of density gradient measurement by PSP method and Background Oriented Schlieren (BOS) method.

Teppei Kuwata
Teppei was a visiting student for fall 2018. He was an undergrad student from National Institute of Technology, Toyota College, in Japan.

Takeshi Fujimoto 
Takeshi was a visiting student for spring 2018 . He was an undergrad student from Yokohama National University in Japan.

Yusak Nishio
Yusaku was a visiting student for a year from 2017 to 2018. He was an undergrad student from the University of Electro-Communicactions in Japan.

Tatsuya Yamada
Tatsuya was a visiting student for 2017 summer. He was an master’s student from National Defense Academy of Japan.

Akira  Kotani
Akira was a visiting scholar from National Institute of Technology, Toyota College, in Japan for  2017-2018. He was a associate professor at National Institute of Technology, Toyota College, in Japan.

Miki Nishimura
Miki was a visitng student for September to October 2015. She was a master’s stundet from Tokyo University of Science in Japan.

Mio Tanaka
Mio was a visiting student for September to October 2015. He was a Ph.D. student from Tokyo University of Science in Japan.

Kazunobu Kobayashi
Kazu was a visiting scholar from Osaka Gas in Japan for 2015-2016. He is a researcher at Osaka Gas in Japan

Internship Students

Xinchen Xia
Xinchen was an undergraduate student in Engineering Mechanics at Tianjin University in China. Xinchen joined the Sakaue Lab in the 2021 iSURE programme and challenged on a patterned hydrophobic and hydrophilic coating in water flow.

Dawn Kelly
Dawn was a final-year undergrad student studying physics and chemistry in Dublin, Ireland. She was visiting Notre Dame for the summer thanks to a Naughton Fellowship grant. In the Sakaue lab she was working on improving the uniformity of a two-colour pressure-sensitive paint, which can be used to characterise the pressure distribution of objects in motion.
She enrolled in a graduate progam at University of Cambridge in Fall 2020.

Wenxi Chen
Wenxi was a junior student studying aircraft engineering in Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China. He was visiting Notre Dame though iSURE program during the summer of 2019. Presently he was working with graduate students on the experiment of micro-fiber coating application in pipe flow.
He enrolled in a graduate progam at Columbia University in Fall 2020.

Anthony Garatoni
Anthony was a student at Marian High School in Mishawaka, IN. He joined the lab in the fall of 2018 and was helping Wes with research into the phenomenon of ice formation in supercooled environments.

Hanbin Qiu
Jason (Hanbin) was an internship student of iSURE program for 2018 summer. He was  from Tsinghua University in China. He was working on a dynamic characterization using the shock tube with Steven.

William Gothard
Will was a senior undergraduate studying aerospace engineering at North Carolina State University. As an aspiring pilot in the US Air Force, he has a passion for aviation and aerospace technology. He joined the Sakaue Lab as an intern of NURF program during the Summer of 2018, where he worked with Tatsu and Daiki to investigate frequency response characteristics of pressure sensitive paints. His current interests include cavity flow and store separation.
Linkedin

Qiaochu Wang
Wang was an internship student as of iSURE program for 2017 Summer. He was an undergrad student from Zhenjian University in China. After the intership he enrolled in John Hopkins University and completed his Master’s degree in the summer of 2020.
He enroledl in a PhD progam at City University of Hong Kong in the summer of 2021.

Arnau Rodríguez Rubio
Arnau was an intership student as of NURF student program for 2016 summer. He was an master’s student from University of Rovira i Virgili (URV) in Spain.
Now he is pursuing his Ph.D. at University of Southampton.

Kamolthita Ruengthong 
Miew was an internship student as of iSURE program for 2016 summer. She was an undergraduate student from Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. She finished her Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Manchester in United Kingdom.
Currently she is working as a Business Development in Shell Thailand.

Hengfei Wang
Hengei was an internship student as of iSURE program for 2016 summer. He was an undergrad student from Tsinghua University in China. He worked on building shocktube system for PSP measurment with Steven.