Award supports Seyed-Aghazadeh’s research efforts in the area of fluid dynamics, shedding light on the fundamentals of fluid-structure-surface interactions in underwater flexible bodies, including near-surface arrays of energy harvesters and underwater soft robots.
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Dr. Banafsheh Seyed-Aghazadeh, assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering at UMass Dartmouth's College of Engineering, is the recipient of an intended $506,972 CAREER award granted by the National Science Foundation (NSF) for her project titled “Fluid-Structure-Surface Interactions of Flexible Bodies at the Air-Water Interface.”
According to the NSF website, "The CAREER Program is the NSF's most prestigious award in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education."
“Within this project, our goal is to unveil a new physical phenomenon of fluid-structure-surface interaction that would transform our understanding of the complex physics behind the coupling between the dynamics of flexible structures operating near free surfaces of the fluid flow,” says Seyed-Aghazadeh. “The results from this study would open further avenues for research and applications in a wide range including but not limited to soft robotics, bio-inspired propulsion, ocean sensing, and energy harvesting.”
The project will also integrate basic concepts of this research with hands-on educational activities with the goal of inspiring and attracting people to engineering and science disciplines, including K-12 schoolchildren in the South Coast of Massachusetts to graduate students through classroom lectures, project-based learning modules, and game-based outreach activities.
“I am excited to see my lab’s integrated research and educational activities once again manifest another example of UMass Dartmouth’s growing footprint in research and student mentorship activities, empowering the blue economy in the South Coast of Massachusetts,” Seyed-Aghazadeh says.