Lab Director

 

 

Pezhman Mardanpour, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
pezhman.mardanpour@fiu.edu
+1 (305) 348 6103

Prof. Mardanpour received his Ph.D. and M.S. from the School of Aerospace Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Under the supervision of Professor Dewey H. Hodges, he became an expert in Hodges’s nonlinear composite beam theory as well as the aeroelastic design of UAVs.
After graduating, Prof. Mardanpour joined UCLA as a post-doctoral fellow to serve as the assistant director of the Flutter System Research Center and to work with Professor A. V. Balakrishnan on his continuum theory of aeroelasticity; together they studied its applications on experimental flow-induced vibration and power harvesting.
Before he joined Georgia Tech, Prof. Mardanpour earned another M.S. from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran, and worked as a research scientist at the Institute of Aeroelasticity at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Göttingen, Germany, where he focused on the experimental aeroelasticity of high-aspect-ratio wings.
He is regular contributor to the Journal of Aircraft, the Journal of Fluids and Structures, the Journal of Nonlinear Dynamics, and the Journal of Vibration, Sound and Control. Prof. Mardanpour is a professional member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME), and the American Physical Society (APS).

 

Current Members

Hadi Ebrahimi Fakhari, PhD
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
hebra007@fiu.edu

I’m a Ph.D. candidate in Mechanical Engineering at Florida International University, where my research focuses on the Constructal design of thin-walled aerospace structures to improve their performance. I earned my master’s degree from Amirkabir University of Technology and my bachelor’s from Isfahan University of Technology, both in Mechanical Engineering.

With over 12 years of professional experience, I’ve led major projects in the design and manufacturing of plastic products, energy absorbers, and aerospace components. My work combines theory and practical design in areas like fluid–structure interaction, origami-inspired structures, and fatigue optimization. I’ve published in top journals, presented at international conferences such as AIAA SCITECH and Earth & Space, and I’m skilled in FEA tools like ANSYS, as well as CAD software including SolidWorks, Inventor, and CATIA.

 

Ahmed Shabaka, PhD
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
ashab014@fiu.edu

My name is Ahmed Shabaka, a PhD student from Egypt. I earned my bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2017, and after working for five years as a rotating equipment engineer in the oil and gas industry, I joined Florida International University (FIU) in 2024 to pursue my doctoral studies. My background is rooted in mechanical systems, with a strong focus on equipment and fluid dynamics. I’m deeply fascinated by engineering—particularly the fields of aerospace, fluid mechanics, and rotating machinery—and I’m driven by the desire to contribute to innovative

Youssef Shanbaky, M.S
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
yshan006@fiu.edu

My name is Youssef Shanbaky, and I am a graduate of Aerospace Engineering from the University of Central Florida, currently pursuing a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering at Florida International University. My academic and research background centers around advanced aerospace structures and fluid dynamics, with hands-on experience in aeroelastic analysis, drone systems, rocket simulations, and propulsion technologies like scramjets. I’ve led multidisciplinary engineering projects — from designing delivery drones that meet FAA regulations to conducting high-fidelity CFD and FEA simulations — and have a strong foundation in software tools like SolidWorks, ANSYS, and MATLAB. Additionally, I bring technical management, machining, and web development skills to the table, and I thrive in fast-paced environments that demand adaptability, precision, and innovation.

Former Members

 

 

Ehsan Izadpahani, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
eizad001@fiu.edu

Dr. Izadpanahi joined the Mechanical engineering program at Florida International University as a PhD student in 2016. During his Ph.D., he developed a new numerical tool by coupling three different computer programs to conduct his dissertation research entitled, “Constructal Design and Stability Analysis of HALE Aircraft”. For the first time, he applied Constructal Law of physics in Aeroelasticity. This law was used to shed light on how a certain design parameter could influence the flow of stresses in an aircraft structure. Dr. Izadpanahi contributed to several funded projects, including “Use of drone in accelerated bridge construction” and “Structural design and simulation of origami antennas”. He graduated in Spring 2020, which he received the Outstanding Graduate Award. 

 

 

Mojtaba Moshtaghzadeh
PhD Student
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
mmosh009@fiu.edu

Mojtaba received his Master’s and bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering from Iran. He joined the FSI lab at the Florida International University as a PhD student in Jan. 2019. He has experience working in industrial projects for more than 7 years and conducted research in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Applied Numerical Methods, Heat Transfer, Gas Turbine & Wind Turbine performance, Renewable Energy and Exergy.

 

 

Siavash Rastkar, Ph.D.
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
srast002@fiu.edu

Siavash received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Florida International University, and before joining FIU obtained a Ms.c. from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.
Siavash’s main area of research is computational mechanics; he has a strong background in continuum mechanics, finite element analysis, and numerical simulations. Throughout graduate school, he conducted research on developing computational platforms in order to implement novel numerical analysis methods and optimization techniques. He worked extensively with meshless methods and developed a platform in C++ which uses images of porous micro-structures to predict its homogenized properties.

 
 

 
 
 

Hamidreza Radnezhad
PhD Student
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
hradn002@fiu.edu

Hamidreza received his Master and bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering and he is very passionate about manufacturig methods. His cuurent research is on manufacturing and analysis of novel origami-inspired antennas.

 

 

Shanae Powell
Master Student
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
spowe020@fiu.edu

Shanae Powell is currently a master’s student in the Mechanical and Materials Engineering department. She obtained a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering at Florida International University wherein she focused on Computational Fluid Dynamics. She has experience working with micro- air vehicles as well as a range of Computer- Aided Design and CFD software programs.

 

 

 

Samira Zad
Researcher
 smohamm5@neiu.edu

Samira Zad received her Bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics from Kashan University, Iran, and her M.S. degree in computer science from Northeastern Illinois University. Throughout graduate school, she conducted research in Robotics and AI about extended Kalman filters. She has Java programming background, particularly in Discrete Modeling and Analysis, and Object Oriented design. She has also conducted research on Database Analysis projects for using relational database software packages for market. In addition, she is experienced with Graph Algorithms applications that used Floyed, Prim and Dijkstra algorithms to display the graphs of the shortest path and calculates their running time. Samira joined FSI lab in Spring 2016, and she is conducting research on brain mapping under supervision of Dr. Mardanpour.

 

Sukeerth Calastawad
Master Student
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
scala007@fiu.edu

Sukeerth Calastawad is currently a Master’s student in the Department of Mechanical and Materials engineering at the Florida International University and a member of the engineering honour society Tau Beta Pi. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical engineering from Visvesvaraiya Technological University, India. During his undergraduate education he has performed several projects in the field of aircraft design and has also participated at the SAE events, which has awarded him with the NASA systems engineering certificate. He has also performed innovative projects in the field of automobiles like development of a self-chargeable battery electric vehicle which was selected at the “NASA Tech Briefs Create the Future Design contest” and has also published articles in the same field. As a graduate student he is currently working as a research assistant at the Fluid-structure Interaction Laboratory at the Florida International University and is aiming to understand the effects caused by blast loading on the Aeroelastic stability.

Antonin Royer
French Airforce Academy
Aeronautics & Mechanical Engineering

Clément Thibaud
French Airforce Academy
Aeronautics & Mechanical Engineering

Antonin and Clement were working as student pilots, engineers, and career officers at French Airforce Academy and they spent a semester (Summer 2018) at the FSI Lab researching on flight mechanics, and aeroelasticity.