People Category: Moderator

Bahareh Zaghari

Dr. Bahareh Zaghari is a lecturer in propulsion integration at Cranfield University, UK. Bahareh’s research areas include, electrified aircraft propulsion, performance diagnostics and failure analysis, nonlinear dynamics and energy harvesting, electrical machines and drives, sensor technologies and measurement, and wireless data and power transmission.

As well as her teaching and supervising PhD. and MSc. students, Bahareh leads the research in electric power distribution within the FutPrInt50 project (Horizon 2020), which aims to advance the state of the art by identifying and developing technologies that will accelerate the entry-into-service of a commercial hybrid-electric aircraft.

Bahareh is also involved in research projects within Cranfield University in building electric aircraft (enabEl project, Innovate UK).

Bahareh leads research in high temperature sensing, in particular temperature sensing of turbine blades and nozzle guide vanes. Herself and her team are designing and testing new acoustic sensors as part of a project funded by the LIoyd’s Register Foundation and the International Consortium of Nanotechnologies.

Prior to joining Cranfield University in September 2020, Bahareh was a Research Fellow at the School of Electronics and Computer Science, Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering at the University of Southampton, UK, where she has worked on several research projects. These projects include: Intelligent Integrated Bearing Systems (Horizon2020, Clean Sky 2, I2BS), European Infrastructure Powering the Internet of Things (Horizon2020, EnABLES), and Wearable and Autonomous Computing for Future Smart Cities (EPSRC). Bahareh has conducted research related to the design of high temperature amplifiers, self-powered wireless sensors, and processors. Bahareh has contributed to developing novel signal processing algorithms to identify failure modes in bearings. These algorithms were incorporated into a smart bearing sensing system, which consists of a thermal energy harvesting system, a switched reluctance rotational energy harvester, and high temperature embedded processors, wireless data transmission, amplifiers, and power management circuits. The resulting bearing system was developed in collaboration with Safran Aircraft Engines and Schaeffler Group.

Bahareh has been a principal investigator on cycling with an intelligent communication link (CICL) (part of EPSRC Wearable and Autonomous Computing for Future Smart Cities), andwith her team they designed a novel electric motor based on a switched reluctance machine for a smart bicycle. As part of this project, they developed mobile pollution sensing, and wearable wireless power transmission systems.

In 2017, Bahareh received her PhD., “Dynamic analysis of a nonlinear parametrically excited system using electromagnets”, from the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, University of Southampton, UK. She finished her MSc. in Advanced Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics from University of Southampton, UK 2012.

Bahareh is a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Within AIAA, she serves as the Publications Committee chair for the 2021 AIAA/IEEE Electric Aircraft Technologies Symposium. She is also a member of IET and IEEE. Bahareh was nominated by the staff and students in 2019 and received WISET+ ward for her contributions in supporting students and teaching.

Gokcin Cinar

Gökçin Çınar is a Research Engineer II at Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory (ASDL) at Georgia Institute of Technology. Çınar’s main research interests include electrified aircraft propulsion and power, aircraft systems architecting, design and integration, and power management optimization. Since 2012, she has been involved in a range of projects including but not limited to future aircraft technologies, green aviation, electrified aircraft and its propulsion subsystems, thermal management systems, and model-based systems engineering.

Çınar received Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech in 2015 and 2018, respectively. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey in 2012. Her doctoral dissertation titled “Methodology for Dynamic Sizing of Electric Power Generation and Distribution Architectures” was conducted in consultation with Prof. Dimitri Mavris at Georgia Tech. As part of her Ph.D. work, she created a parametric, physics-based novel aircraft design and analysis software called “Electrified Propulsion Architecture Sizing and Synthesis (E-PASS)”. E-PASS has since enabled various new research topics funded by entities such as NASA, AFRL, and Boeing.

As a research engineer at ASDL, Çınar leads or works with multi-disciplinary groups to conduct fundamental research funded by various sponsors from the industry and government. She advises graduate students on their projects and theses. As someone who likes to add their own touch to their “habitat”, Çınar also kick-started or rekindled some projects at ASDL that were not necessarily in her job definition. She manages ASDL’s website and social media accounts on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, and rekindled the ASDL publication repository on Georgia Tech’s open-access publication repository, SMARTech, where you can find the many research papers and dissertations published by ASDL over the years. Çınar started the ASDL Knowledge Sharing Project which provides a platform for researchers to share their experience, codes, tools, documents, or Q&A’s.

Çınar is a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Within AIAA, she serves as the Publications and Policy Chair of the Electrified Aircraft Technical Committee, and is a also the Technical Program Co-Chair for the 2021 AIAA/IEEE Electric Aircraft Technologies Symposium.

Charles Cross

Dr. Charles J. Cross is the Chief of the Turbine Engine Division, Aerospace Systems Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Air Force Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. In this capacity, he leads a 250 person division in executing a $110,000,000 per year budget to plan, develop and transition advanced turbine engine technologies in order to sustain legacy systems, develop emerging systems, and enable future propulsion concepts. To fulfill this mission, he is the Tri-service lead for the Advanced Turbine Technology for Affordable Mission Capability (ATTAM) program, ensuring USAF efforts are coordinated across DoD services.

Dr. Cross has been with the Air Force Research Laboratory and its predecessor organizations since 1989. His multi-faceted technical activities have included serving as an in-house researcher, team leader, group leader, program manager, branch chief, consultant, mentor and technical leader for basic research in structural dynamics, life prediction and failure analysis of turbine engine components. He is an internationally recognized expert in turbine engine dynamics, mechanics and durability and has led numerous national and international teams to investigate costly turbine engine fatigue and structural dynamics issues to resolve problems that impacted fielded engine systems for many years. His publication record includes over 110 journal papers, technical reports and proceedings, and one patent.

 

Mykel Kochenderfer

Mykel Kochenderfer is an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University. He is the director of the Stanford Intelligent Systems Laboratory (SISL), conducting research on advanced algorithms and analytical methods for the design of robust decision making systems. In addition, he is the director of the SAIL-Toyota Center for AI Research at Stanford and a co-director of the Center for AI Safety. He received a Ph.D. in informatics from the University of Edinburgh and B.S. and M.S. degrees in computer science from Stanford University. Prof. Kochenderfer is an author of the textbooks “Decision Making under Uncertainty: Theory and Application”, “Algorithms for Optimization”, and “Algorithms for Decision Making”, all from MIT.Mykel Kochenderfer is an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University. He is the director of the Stanford Intelligent Systems Laboratory (SISL), conducting research on advanced algorithms and analytical methods for the design of robust decision making systems.

Cindy Hoover

Cindy Hoover was named Vice President for Research & Technology and Growth Programs in August, 2020. In this role, she creates the strategy and capabilities to deliver technical innovation to support the global business and to grow and diversify the company through new growth initiatives.

Previously, Cindy was Vice President & Chief Engineer of Operations. In that role, she provided engineering and technical support services to operations. Cindy joined Spirit in 2007 and held Director Roles in Lean Operations, Fuselage Engineering and the 767 Tanker Program. In 2012, Cindy was promoted to Vice President and ran the 737 MAX Program, where she oversaw the development, execution and integration of the product into existing operations and delivery to the customer. Cindy also held positions as Vice President for the 777X Program Development and Integration and the Boeing Sustaining Twin Aisle Program.

Cindy began her professional career more than 30 years ago at Koch Industries, where she gained experience in engineering and project management, before moving to LSI Corporation. During her ten years at LSI, Cindy held leadership positions with increasing levels of responsibility in Program Management, Six Sigma, and Operations prior to her role as Site Leader of the Wichita Facility.

A graduate of Wichita State University, Cindy received her bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering. She received her MBA from Friends University and her Six Sigma Black Belt Certification from Six Sigma Academy.

Cindy has been a member and leader of the Society of Women Engineers for more than 33 years, where she has held multiple leadership roles including Treasurer and President of the Society. An active member of the Wichita community, Cindy has previously served on the boards for WSU Tech, United Way of the Plains, Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland, Wichita Area Outlook Team, Wichita Chamber of Commerce and Wichita State’s College of Engineering. Currently, Cindy is serving as Chair of Wichita State University’s Alumni Association and is a member of the University’s National Advisory Council.

Cindy and her husband, Bryan, reside in Wichita, Kansas.

Jess Sponable

Over the past three years Jess has supported commercial launch, hypersonic and space systems via consulting with the aerospace industry, the Aerospace Corporation and more recently Millennium Engineering and Integration.  In November 2017 he left the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency where he served over two separate tours and seven years as a program manager.  He led multiple space initiatives including the experimental spaceplane, high power solar electric propulsion, autonomous robotic arm, and solar thermal propulsion programs.  With a combined budget of over $400 million and 50+ contracts, his efforts included technology maturation of satellite projects, power systems, solar cells, rocket engines, electric propulsion, space launch, and even exotic physics for power and propulsion.  Prior to DARPA he spent over 30 years in the United States Air Force as both a military officer and civilian.  His career supported diverse jobs ranging from Atlas launch operations at Vandenberg AFB to project management jobs developing and deploying the early Global Positioning System.  Prior to the Space Shuttle Challenger accident, he was selected as an Air Force Manned Spaceflight Engineer and trained as a Space Shuttle payload specialist, then transitioned to support development of hypersonic flight at the National Aero-Space Plane program. Starting in 1991 he served in the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization managing multiple programs including the vertical take-off and landing Delta Clipper-Experimental (DC-X), which inspired many follow-on entrepreneurs.  In 1994 he transitioned to the Air Force Research Laboratory supporting NASA’s follow on initiatives DC-XA, X-33, X-34 and related technologies.  In the Air Force he led or supported numerous projects and studies maturing hypersonic aircraft, orbit transfer vehicles, reusable space launch/military spaceplanes, and prompt global strike systems.  Jess also spent several years in the entrepreneurial space launch sector working for Universal Space Lines and Pete Conrad, the Apollo 12 and Skylab commander.  He has served on numerous national space transportation studies and panels.  He graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1978 with a bachelor’s degree in physics and holds advanced degrees in Astronautical Engineering and Systems Management.  He is a graduate of the Defense Systems Management College.

Michael Patterson

Michael Patterson is an aerospace engineer in the Aeronautics Systems Analysis Branch at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA where he serves as the Lead for the Emerging Applications and Technologies Group. He earned a BS in Aerospace Engineering from Auburn University and holds MS and PhD degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech. Michael has been a thought leader in NASA’s advanced air mobility (AAM) work, and he currently works for NASA’s AAM Mission Integration Office as the Systems Analysis and ConOps Lead. He has been an active member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) his entire professional career, including previous service as the Chair of the Transformational Flight Integration Committee.

Mike Ohadi

EDUCATION

  • Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 1986

HONORS AND AWARDS

  • Accredited member, The European Process Intensification Center, in recognition of contributions in Enhanced Heat ad Mass Transfer Augmentation research impact, April 2013
  • Contributing Author, the Global Energy Assessment (GEA) policy document, Nov. 2012.  The GEA document was authored by selected experts from around the world. It examines major global challenges and their linkage to energy; existing and emerging technologies for affordable and clean energy; and policies/measures for sustainable future energy resources.
  • Nominated for the 2013 ASHRAE Campbell Award, in recognition of contributions in Research, Educational, and Professional Outreach activities in the sciences and applications of HVAC and refrigeration systems.
  • ITherm 2012 Award (the 13th Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Theermomechncial Phenomenon in Electronic Systems), in recognition of contributions to Panel Discussions and service as Track Co-Chair , June 2012
  • ASHRAE (American Society of Heating Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers)  Exceptional Service Award, June 2011
  • SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers) distinguished contributions award, May 2010
  • Regional Editor, Journal of Enhanced Heat Transfer (2001-Present)
  • Member, ASME Global Communities District J Operating Board (2009-Present).
  • Listed in Who’s Who in Engineering Academia; Who’s Who in the World, Marquis Who’s Who, and several other distinguished citations.
  • Member of the Advisory Board and past Chairman, ASME Executive Committee for Process Industries (2004-Present)
  • ASHRAE Distinguished Service Award, June 2002
  • Elected ASHRAE Fellow Member Grade,  June 2002
  • Elected ASME Fellow, May 1999
  • Elected to the ASME Society-Level Nominating Committee, June 2000-June 2002
  • Elected to ASME Potter Medal Awards Committee, February 2001-2005
  • Chairman of ASHRAE TC 8.4 Technical Committee on Air-to-Liquid Heat Exchangers, June 2001-June 2004
  • Faculty Advisor Award for “Most Active ASHRAE Student Chapter in the Eastern United States,” 2001
  • ASME/JSME Distinguished Service Award, June 1999
  • Japan STA Fellowship Award, 1998-1999
  • Finalist for “Invention of the Year Award,” University of Maryland, 1996
  • ASME ECO World 92 Distinguished Contribution Award, 1992
  • SAE Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award, 1989
  • Michigan Tech. Distinguished Teaching Award, University Level, 1989
  • Michigan Tech. Distinguished Teaching Award, Mechanical Engr. Departmental Level, 1988
  • State of Michigan MAGB Distinguished Faculty Award, 1988

Dan Heller

Daniel (Dan) J. Heller is vice president of Lockheed Martin Corporate Engineering where he is responsible for functional excellence and rapid digital transformation of the 50,000 person Lockheed Martin engineering workforce.

Prior to this role, Mr. Heller was the principal technical leader for the RMS business area and its nearly 14,000 engineers and scientists. With an emphasis on creating a world-class, all digital development environment, he focuses his team on developing disruptive technologies, driving superior program performance and delivering innovative solutions that exceed customer and company expectations.

Mr. Heller also served as chairman and president for the Applied NanoStructured Solutions, LLC – a world leader in nanotechnology solutions for commercial and defense applications.

Previously, Mr. Heller served as vice president of Sustainability Technologies line of business for the Mission Systems and Training business area, responsible for leveraging existing technologies and capabilities from across Lockheed Martin to access non-traditional markets, with a strong focus on sustainability-related markets.

Mr. Heller’s career spans over 30 years of experience in the industry with Lockheed Martin and heritage companies. He previously served as vice president of Nuclear Systems and Solutions for the Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control (MFC) business area, where his primary responsibility was to penetrate the civil nuclear energy market with products and services from across the corporation. Mr. Heller also served as the vice president and general manager of the MFC Archbald site that specialized in nuclear instrumentation and controls and direct attack weapons and training devices.

Mr. Heller holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from Pepperdine University. Mr. Heller has participated in advanced program management and leadership courses taught by the Defense Systems Management Systems College, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Lockheed Martin.

Whitley Poyser

Whitley Poyser is the director of Lockheed Martin Space’s Business Transformation Program office, leading a cross-functional integrated product team which provides strategic technology vision, enterprise solution architecture, technology development, and program technology adoption for capabilities enabling Lockheed Martin’s digital transformation. In this role, Whitley is responsible for enterprise architecture, strategic planning, technology roadmaps, technology program execution, and transition of processes and capabilities that enable a digital environment within Lockheed Martin Space, and across Lockheed Martin. Prior to her current assignment, Whitley was held a variety of leadership roles shaping the technical strategy across Lockheed Martin.

She has received multiple awards and recognition during her time at Lockheed Martin, including receiving the inaugural 2019 Space’s Future Award, a Nova award for the STELaRLab Start-up Team, and was honored with a Science Spectrum Trailblazer Award in 2018 and a Rising Technology Leader Award in 2019 at the Black Engineer of the Year Awards and Women of Color Awards respectively, for her work shaping the future of engineering, science, and technology.

Whitley is a graduate from University of North Texas with a BS in Logistics and Supply Chain Management and Mathematics. She also earned an MS in Operations Research and Logistics Systems Engineering from Southern Methodist University. She is passionate about influencing change, encouraging innovation, and fostering an environment of creative thinking that enables teams to achieve the art of the possible.