Researcher

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 Sensing

Biography

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

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Location

Sydney, Australia

Map reference (Google map)

Contact

+61-2-93488138

Videos

UNSW TV research feature on shockwave/fire interaction studies
ABC News story about shockwave/fire interaction studies
Blasting bushfires with explosives
ExplosionStory