Keynote Speakers
Specialization: Computational fluid dynamics to solve problems in mechanical and aerospace engineering
Prior to joining the faculty at Washington University in 2001, Professor Agarwal was the Chair of the Aerospace Engineering Department at Wichita State University from 1994 to 1996 and the Executive Director of National Institute for Aviation Research from 1996 to 2001. From 1994 to 2001, he was also the Bloomfield Distinguished Professor at Wichita State University. From 1978 to 1994, Professor Agarwal worked in various scientific and managerial positions at McDonnell Douglas Research Laboratories in St. Louis. He became the Program Director and McDonnell Douglas Fellow in 1990. From 1976 to 1978, Professor Agarwal worked as a NRC Research Associate at NASA Ames Research Center and as a Principal Research Engineer at Rao and Associates in Palo Alto, California from 1975 to 1976.
Over a period of 45 years, Professor Agarwal has worked in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Computational Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) and Electromagnetics, Computational Aeroacoustics, Multidisciplinary Design and Optimization, Rarefied Gas Dynamics and Hypersonic Flows, Bio-Fluid Dynamics, and Flow and Flight Control. More recently, he has devoted some of his efforts in nanotechnology and renewable energy systems - in particular wind, solar and biomass. He is the author and coauthor of over 600 publications and serves on the editorial board of more than 20 journals. He has given many plenary, keynote and invited lectures at various national and international conferences in over 60 countries worldwide. Professor Agarwal continues to serve on many professional, government, and industrial advisory committees. Professor Agarwal is a Fellow of 23 societies including: American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS), American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), American Physical Society (APS), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), American Academy of Mechanics (AAM), American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics (CSAA), Institute of Pysics (IOP), UK, Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), Energy Institute (EI), Australian Institute of High Energetic Materials, American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), Academy of Science of St. Louis, Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS), etc. and World Innovation Foundation (WIF). He has received many honors and awards for his research contributions including the ASME Fluids Engineering Award (2001), ASME Charles Russ Richards Memorial Award (2006), Royal Aeronautical Society Gold Award (2007), AIAA Aerodynamics Award (2008), AIAA/SAE 2009 William Littlewood Lecture Award (2009), James B. Eads Award of Academy of Science of St. Louis (2009), ASEE/AIAA John Leland Atwood Award (2009), SAE Clarence Kelly Johnson Award (2009), SAE Franklin W. Kolk Award (2009), AIAA Lindbergh Award (2010), SAE Aerospace Engineering Leadership Award (2013), SAE Excellence in Engineering Education Award, SAE International Medal of Honor (2015) and AIAA Reed Aeronautics Award (2015) among many others. Read more at Personal Website | View Scopus Profile
Specialization: Renewable Energy, Aerodynamics, Nanofluids, Optimization
Dr. Ahmad Sedaghat (PhD, FIEAust, CPEng) is currently an associate professor in Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering at Australian University (AU) in Kuwait, an adjunct professor of the Central Queensland University (CQU) Australia, Charted engineer in Aerosapce and Mechanical Engineering and a fellow member of Engineers Australia. His passion is teaching and research in multidisciplinary engineering fields including mathematical and petroleum engineering. He is the principal investigator (PI) or Co-PI of several KFAS, ACK and the ACK-CQU joint international research projects in:
- Energy saving for buildings,
- Nanofluid system,
- Thermo-hydro/aerodynamic drag reduction,
- Rheology and automated viscometer.
- Postdoctoral position: in High Performance Computing (MMARINE European project at K.U. Leuven in Belgium, 1997);
- EPSRC postdoctoral position: in CFD & Computational Non-linear Aeroelasticity (Manchester Univ. & BAE Systems, 1998);
- EPSRC postdoctoral position: in Combustion Instabilities (Leeds Univ., 2001);
- EPSRC postdoctoral position: in Innovative Wind Turbines (UCLan, 2008).
His past research includes experimental heat transfer of nanofluids, irradiative properties of nanolayers, hermetic gas heater, wind tunnel development & testing, innovative wind turbine concepts, wind turbine optimization, hybrid renewable energy systems for hydrogen production, solar systems for water distillation systems, nanofluid for friction reduction of drilling fluids, and development and application of project-based learning (PBL) teaching for engineering students. Dr Sedaghat published more than 272 refereed articles in English language with over 3300 citation (h-index 28) in various peer reviewed international journals or conferences. He is the associate editor of Natural Resources Conservation and Research journal and in the Editorial board of JEPS, IJEPE, AJEE, & IJSGE, former co-editor and head of publishing office of JAFM and reviewer of several Elsevier journals such as RSER, Applied Energy, ECM, Energy, and International Hydrogen Energy.
Read more at Personal Website | View Scopus Profile
Specialization: Hardware Neuron Model, Neural Network, MEMS, Micro Robot, Pulse-Type Hardware Chaotic Neuron model, Asynchronous, Artificial Neural Network, Brain machine Interface
Dr. Ken Saito received a B.S. degree, an M.S. degree, and a Ph.D. degree in engineering from Nihon University in 2001, 2004, and 2010, respectively. He was a Research Assistant from 2007 to 2011 and Assistant Professor from 2011 to 2017 in the same university. Also, he was a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. He is now an Associate Professor at Nihon University. His current research interests include hardware neural networks, neuro-robotics, and microrobot. He has written more than 10 English book chapters in the fields of microrobot. Also, he has written more than 100 full papers, proceedings with peer review, and proceedings with abstract review papers. He is a member of JIEP, IEEE, IEEJ, and so on.