My Expertise
Drones, autonomous systems, remote piloting - director of the Remote Piloted Aircraft Systems degree program at UNSW's School of Aviation
Aircraft, electric aircraft, and aerodynamics - original founder of a drone company (Seaflight Technologies) which makes uncrewed (remote piloted) large electric air cargo aircraft, pioneer of aerodynamic technologies for electric aircraft
Keywords
Fields of Research (FoR)
Aerodynamics (excl. Hypersonic Aerodynamics), Aerospace Engineering, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Autonomous Vehicles, Aircraft Performance and Flight Control Systems, Air Transportation and Freight Services, Aeronautical Transportation, Photogrammetry and Remote SensingBiography
I'm an engineer, scientist, and entrepreneur known internationally for my work on aerodynamics for automotive and aviation applications, particularly for electric vehicles and aircraft. My projects have been featured in the New York Times, Popular Science, ABC News, USA Today, BBC World News and TechCrunch.
I founded a venture-backed technology startup, Seaflight Technologies Inc. in Los Angeles in 2022, steering the company through the...view more
I'm an engineer, scientist, and entrepreneur known internationally for my work on aerodynamics for automotive and aviation applications, particularly for electric vehicles and aircraft. My projects have been featured in the New York Times, Popular Science, ABC News, USA Today, BBC World News and TechCrunch.
I founded a venture-backed technology startup, Seaflight Technologies Inc. in Los Angeles in 2022, steering the company through the high-profile Y Combinator accelerator. Seaflight develops long-range large electric cargo drones, working with the US Air Force, the US National Science Foundation, and the Australian Government to advance novel aerodynamic technologies to help accelerate an equitable and electric future for flight. Seaflight was a spin-out of the R&D company I founded in LA, Rebel Research, which also attracted funding from the US National Science Foundation and helped electric vehicle companies refine their real-world range.
I worked at EV startup Canoo in California before that, leading the aerodynamics team and championing the range attribute across a novel range of commercial and consumer electric vehicles. Prior to this I spent 4 years as a Lockheed Martin-endowed Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering at California Polytechnic State University. Here, I served as Director of the Low Speed Wind Tunnel Lab and worked on applied aerodynamic research projects with NASA, Tesla, Joby Aviation, Honda, FLIR and others.
As a Lecturer at UNSW in my early career before I moved to the US, I garnered global media attention for novel work involving the potential of supersonic shock waves to extinguish bushfires with explosives, and worked on projects in collaboration with the Australian Defence Force Academy and the US Navy.
An award-winning educator and researcher in the university setting, I have applied the philosophy of hands-on "Learn By Doing" to all my teaching and work with undergraduate researchers, and I bring this approach to UNSW's School of Aviation as the lead academic developing a unique new Bachelor program in Remote Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS).
My Grants
Selected competitive external grant highlights:
2024 $1.49m (Partner Investigator (industry lead) with Macquarie University)
Emerging Aviation Technology Partnerships (EATP) program of the Australian Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, and the Arts
Project: The AURA-e (Australian Ultra-efficient Regional Aviation - Electric) Sub-scale Flight Demonstrator
2024 $150k USD (Original Chief Investigator, since transferred)
SBIR Phase I Award - US Strategic Capabilities Office
Project: Affordable autonomy for sustained ultra-low altitude flight over open ocean
2024 $74k USD (Chief Investigator)
SBIR Phase I Award - US Air Force Research Laboratory
Project: An aerodynamic circulation control system for ultra-short takeoff and landing
2023 $275k USD (Chief Investigator)
SBIR Phase I Award - US National Science Foundation
Project: Novel Circulation Control for Electric Aircraft
2021 $256k USD (Original Chief Investigator, since transferred)
SBIR Phase I Award - US National Science Foundation
Project: Controlled Application of Shock Waves to Extinguish Wildfires
2017 $188k USD (Original Chief Investigator, since transferred)
Professional Formation of Engineers: Research Initiation in Engineering Formation - US National Science Foundation
Project: Why do students choose to participate in co-curricular engineering projects?
2017 $130k USD (Chief Investigator)
High Performance Computing Award - Silicon Mechanics
Project: A High Performance Computing Cluster for Cal Poly Aerospace Engineering
2016 $64k USD (Chief Investigator)
American Honda Foundation
Project: The Prototype Vehicles Laboratory Challenge for Middle School Students in STEM
2016 $30k AUD (Chief Investigator)
QANTAS Fellowship - The American Australian Association
My Qualifications
2014 - Grad. Cert. in University Learning and Teaching - UNSW Sydney
2009 - PhD - UNSW Sydney - "High Speed Ground Effect Aerodynamics"
2004 - M.Eng - University of Glasgow - Aeronautical Engineering
My Awards
2018 President’s Learn By Doing Scholar Award - California Polytechnic State University
Uncovering barriers to the participation of under-represented students in engineering projects
2018 Outstanding Faculty Adviser – California Polytechnic State University College of Engineering
2018 Society of Women Engineers’ Most Supportive Professor
Student-voted award recognizing mutli-year efforts to promote more involvement from women engineers in projects
2017 Lockheed Martin Endowed Professorship
Helping to train the next generation of aerospace defence professionals.
2012 QANTAS American Australian Association Research Fellowship
2011 UNSW Faculty of Engineering Early Career Researcher Award
2007 Royal Aeronautical Society Centennial Scholarship
My Research Supervision
Supervision keywords
Areas of supervision
Large drone (uncrewed aerial system / Remote Piloted Aircraft System) design, operations, and applications
Socio-economic impact of drones in Australia
Socio-economic impact and potential of drones for Pacific island nations
Aerodynamics involving active flow control (aircraft and automotive)
Electric Aircraft technologies and techno-socio-political strategies for accelerated adoption
My Teaching
Teaching hands-on courses in the Bachelor of Aviation (Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems) program:
AVIA 3025 Drone Applications and Programming
AVIA 2125 Drone Operations Management
AVIA 2225 Drone Information Systems