Members of the

Advanced Thermal/Fluid Optimization,
Modelling, and Simulation
(ATOMS) Laboratory

Photo taken outside Professor Amon's office following a meeting on May 16, 2011.

Cristina Amon, ScD, PEng, FAAAS, FASEE, FASME, FCAE, FCSME, FEIC, FIEEE, NAE
Dean, Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, University of Toronto

Email: dean[at]ecf[dot]utoronto[dot]ca
Website: [homepage]

Dr. Cristina H. Amon received her Mechanical Engineering diploma degree from Simón Bolívar University in 1981 and after two years of engineering practice and teaching, continued her education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she earned her M.S. and Sc.D. degrees in 1985 and 1988, respectively.

She was the Raymond J. Lane Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Director of the Institute for Complex Engineered Systems at Carnegie Mellon University until 2006 when she joined the University of Toronto as the Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, and the Alumni Chair Professor in Bioengineering of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering.

Her brief biography is available here.

Aydin Nabovati, PhD, PEng
Post-Doctoral Fellow, 2009 -

Email: a.nabovati[at]utoronto[dot]ca
Website: [homepage]

Aydin is currently a Mitacs Elevate Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto, Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, in the research group of Professor Cristina Amon, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science. He received his PhD degree from the University of New Brunswick (Fredericton, Canada) in 2009, MSc from Sharif University of Technology (Tehran, Iran) in 2005, and BSc from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (Mashhad, Iran) in 2003.

He is an active member of his professional community, and currently sits on the executive board of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Ontario section. He was selected to participate in the Early Career Leadership Intern Program to Serve Engineering (ECLIPSE) in 2011/2012 with the ASME.

His research works focus on computational modelling of transport phenomena in complex engineering systems using conventional and novel physics-based methodologies. The outcomes of these simulations make it possible to analyze the performance, optimize the structure, and improve the efficiency and reliability of such systems.

David Romero, PhD,
Post-Doctoral Fellow, 2010 -

Email: d.romero[at]utoronto[dot]ca
 

David A. Romero is currently a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Mechanical & Industrial Engineering Department, University of Toronto. He is here on sabbatical leave from his position as Profesor Asociado in the Escuela de Ingenieria Mecanica, Universidad del Zulia, Maracaibo, Venezuela. David holds M.Sc. (2003) and Ph.D. (2008) degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. David's research interests are in applied computing, statistics and mathematics in support of engineering design, modeling and optimization, particularly in the thermal sciences. His previous work experience includes surrogate-modeling based optimization of thermal systems and of enhanced oil recovery methods, as well as consulting work in dynamic simulation of thermal/fluid flow systems and evaluation of wind energy resources. Current projects involve the thermal optimization of nano-scale devices with consideration of sub-continuum thermal transport effects, and optimization of wind farms.

Dan Sellan
PhD Candidate, 2007 -

Email: dan.sellan[at]utoronto[dot]ca

Dan currently holds an NSERC Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship (CGS-D) as a PhD candidate in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Waterloo in 2007.

His current research interest is in numerical modeling of sub-continuum thermal transport in semiconductor materials using a combination of lattice dynamics calculations and the Boltzmann transport equation (BTE).

Publications:

D. P. Sellan, E. S. Landry, K. Sasihithlu, A. Narayanaswamy, A. J. H. McGaughey, and C. H. Amon, "Phonon transport across a vacuum gap." Physical Review B 85 (2012) 024118.

A. J. H. McGaughey, E. S. Landry, D. P. Sellan, and C. H. Amon, "Size-dependent model for thin film and nanowire thermal conductivity." Applied Physics Letters 99 (2011) 131904.

A. Nabovati, D. P. Sellan, and C. H. Amon, "On the lattice Boltzmann method for phonon transport." Journal of Computational Physics 230 (2011) 5864–5876.

D. P. Sellan, J. E. Turney, A. J. H. McGaughey, and C. H. Amon, "Cross-plane phonon transport in thin films." Journal of Applied Physics 108 (2010) 113524.

D. P. Sellan, E. S. Landry, J. E. Turney, A. J. H. McGaughey, and C. H. Amon, "Size effects in molecular dynamics thermal conductivity predictions." Physical Review B 81 (2010) 214305.

Carlos Da Silva
Visiting Scholar 2011 -

Email: carlos.dasilva[at]utoronto[dot]ca

Carlos is currently a visiting scholar at the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto. He obtained his bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Universidad de Oriente (Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela), in 2005. After a short period as a technical assistant in the Aluminum Industry, Carlos joined the Center of Numerical Methods in Engineering (CMNI) at the Universidad de Oriente, where he also worked as a teaching assistant in Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics. Carlos' research interests are computational fluid dynamics, vibration in pipelines and propagation of pressure waves.

Elham Pakseresht
MASc Candidate, 2010 -

Email: e.pakseresht[at]utoronto[dot]ca

Elham was born and raised in Yazd, one of the ancient cities of Iran. She obtained her BSc in Aerospace Engineering at Sharif University of Technology (Tehran, Iran). In September 2010, Elham joined the ATOMS lab to pursue her studies and research on thermal conductivity of thin films, and modeling heat transfer in micro and nano-scale devices. Her current research focuses on thermal transport through CMOS MOSFETs and FinFETs.

Being an active member of graduate student community, Elham was elected as Graduate Student Union (GSU) representative, where she serves as a liaison between the GSU and the Association of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Graduate Students (AMIGAS). She enjoys meeting people from different nations and likes to learn about stories, customs and celebrations in different cultures.

Samuel Huberman
MASc Candidate, 2011 -

Email: samuel.huberman[at]utoronto[dot]ca
Website: [LinkedIn]

Sam is currently a MASc student in Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto. He graduated from Mechanical Engineering at the University of Waterloo in 2011. His research interest lies in applying computational methods to modeling energy transfer in semiconductors and nanomaterials. His previous research used Monte Carlo methods to examine heat transfer from a nanoparticle to a surrounding gas.

In his precious spare time, he enjoys reading, chess, and experiencing the outdoors.

Check out his LinkedIn profile!

Peter Yun Zhang
MASc Candidate, 2011 -

Email: peteryun.zhang[at]utoronto[dot]ca
Website: [homepage]

Peter started in the M.A.Sc. program in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering in 2011. His main research focus is multi-objective optimization of wind farm layouts, taking into consideration cost, environmental impacts and energy production. Peter currently holds Hatch Graduate Scholarships for Sustainable Energy Research.

He lived in Wuhan, China for sixteen years before moving to Canada with his family. He attended Sir Winston Churchill High School in Calgary and represented Canada in the International Physics Olympiad in Korea before entering university. During his undergraduate studies at University of Toronto, he did research in the iQua Research Group, the Centre for Global Engineering, and most recently, the Toronto Intelligent Decision Engineering Laboratory with an NSERC USRA.

Peter enjoys watching good movies and playing tennis. He is also an amateur landscape photographer. He has a 5-year-old golden retriever called Mumu.

Weiguan Huang
MASc Candidate, 2011 -

Email: weiguan.huang[at]utoronto[dot]ca
 

Weiguan became a member of the ATOMS lab in September, 2011. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Peking University (Beijing, China) in July, 2011. Now he is pursuing his MASc degree in Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto.

He is currently working on two-phase flow simulation in fuel cells using LBM.