Alex Czekanski, P.Eng, PhD, MBA

Associate Professor and NSERC/Quanser Chair in Engineering Design for Innovation

Dr. Alex Czekanski is an Associate Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Canada NSERC Chair in Design Engineering and founding Director of York Centre for Automotive Research, York University. Prior to his academic position, he was Engineering Manager of Advanced Engineering Analyses and Materials in Magna Mechatronics, a tier-one automotive global part supplier. He also holds an MBA and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Teaching. Presently, he is a Senior Vice-President of CSME and Past President of CEEA. He is a Fellow of CSME, and CEEA.

Dr. Czekanski has extensive industrial and managerial expertise in automotive and consulting engineering. Dr. Czekanski has been the recipient of several awards including the Lassonde Innovation Award – Established Researcher, the Faculty Excellence in Graduate Mentorship Award, the Faculty Educator of the Year and the President’s University Wide Teaching Award.

Research:

The focus of IDEA Lab (Integrated Design and Engineering Analysis) is on computational and experimental solid mechanics, multi-scale modelling, shape and topology optimization, additive manufacturing, bioprinting and design educational engineering research. See Dr. Czekanski’s personal website for the list of his publications and other research outputs (yorku.ca/alexcz)

Research Keywords: Computational solid mechanics, Experimental solid mechanics, Additive Manufacturing, Bioprinting, Soft and super-soft Materials, Design Engineering Education

Integrated Design and Engineering Analysis (IDEA Lab): www.idea-lab.ca

Email: alex.czekanski@lassonde.yorku.ca

Office: BRG 435D

Alidad Amirfazli, PhD, PEng, FCSME, FEIC

Professor & Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering

Prof. Amirfazli founded the Department of Mechanical Engineering in 2013. He formerly held the Canada Research Chair in Surface Engineering at the University of Alberta. He has more than 250 scientific contributions, many in prestigious peer reviewed journals; and given many invited talks at international level. Dr. Amirfazli has been the recipient of the Martha Cook Piper Research prize, Petro-Canada Young Innovator Award, and Killam Annual Professorship. In 2014 he was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada’s College. He has been a consultant with various companies in USA, Europe, and Canada. He is a Fellow of EIC, and CSME.

Research:

Prof. Amirfazli’s group combines fluid mechanics and heat transfer concepts with physiochemical and thermodynamic principles to tackle many complex problems seen in aerospace, energy, and materials sectors. The group has produced exciting results in wetting behavior of surfaces, drop adhesion and shedding, drop impact, icing, direct laser patterning of self assembled monolayers and super-hydrophobic surfaces. The work is well recognized internationally; active collaborations with various research groups around the world allows many students to spent time in top laboratories or interacted with researchers we host annually in our lab from Germany, Italy, Spain, China, France, Belgium, UK and Switzerland.

Research Keywords: Thermofluid, Fluid Mechanics, Wetting & Capilarity, Icing, coating

Laboratory: Surface Engineering and Instrumentation Lab (SEiL)

Email: alidad2@yorku.ca

Office: BRG 437E

Paul O’Brien, PhD

Associate Professor

Research:

The Advanced Materials for Sustainable Energy Technologies Laboratory (AM-SET-LAB) is currently focused on the design and development of spectrally selective, photothermal, and thermal energy storage materials that control and utilize solar energy and radiant thermal energy for the advancement of sustainability.

Research areas include: (1) thermal photonic materials designed to control the directionality and spectral distribution of the emissivity and absorptivity of thermal radiation with applications in solar thermal energy utilization and radiative day-time cooling, (2) windows that harvest radiant infrared radiation, and (3) thermal energy storage materials that store sensible heat, latent heat, or the heat of adsorption to subsequently be used to provide building heating, cooling, or power generation.

Laboratory: Advanced Materials for Sustainable Energy Technologies Laboratory (AM-SET-LAB)

Email: paul.obrien@lassonde.yorku.ca

Office: Bergeron 435F

Garrett Melenka, PhD

Garrett Melenka received his BSc. (2009), MSc. (2012), and PhD. (2016) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alberta. Garrett joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at York University in July 2017.

Research:

Our research team focuses on the design, manufacture, mathematical modeling and experimental analysis of advanced composite materials and braided composite structures. In addition, Our teams’ experience in composite materials has translated to the experimental analysis and modeling of additive manufactured structures. Our team specializes in the experimental analysis of composite structures using measurement techniques such as three-dimensional digital image correlation (3D DIC) and micro-computed tomography (µCT).

Research Keywords: Braided Composites, Composite Materials, Digital Image Correlation, Micro-computed tomography, Additive Manufacturing

Laboratory: http://gmelenka.info.yorku.ca/

Email: gmelenka@yorku.ca

Office: BRG 433C

Phone: 416-736-2100 (extension 44189)