Matthew McDowell

Matthew McDowell

Matthew McDowell

Associate Professor, Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
Woodruff Faculty Fellow
IMat Initiative Lead | Materials for Energy Storage
SEI Lead: Energy Storage

Matthew McDowell joined Georgia Tech in the fall of 2015 as an assistant professor with a joint appointment in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Materials Science and Engineering. Prior to this appointment, he was a postdoctoral scholar in the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. McDowell received his Ph.D. in 2013 from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University.

McDowell’s research group focuses on understanding how materials for energy and electronic devices change and transform during operation, and how these transformations impact properties. The group uses in situ experimental techniques to probe materials transformations under realistic conditions. The fundamental scientific advances made by the group guide the engineering of materials for breakthrough new devices. Current projects in the group are focused on i) electrode materials for alkali ion batteries, ii) materials for solid-state batteries, iii) interfaces in chalcogenide materials for electronics and catalysis, and iv) new methods for creating nanostructured metals.

mattmcdowell@gatech.edu

404.894.8341

Office Location:
MRDC 4408

McDowell Lab

  • MSE Profile Page
  • Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
  • Conventional Energy
  • Electronic Materials
  • Hydrogen Production
  • Use & Conservation
  • Additional Research:
    Batteries; Nanostructured Materials; Composites; Fabrication; Energy Storage; Thermal Systems

    IRI Connections:

    Tequila A.L. Harris

    Tequila A.L. Harris

    Tequila A.L. Harris

    Professor, Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
    Director, Polymer Thin Film Processing (PTFP) Group
    SEI Lead: Energy & Manufacturing

    Tequila A. L. Harris is a Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, and is the director of the Polymer Thin Film Processing Laboratory (tharris@gatech.edu). Her research focuses on investigating the fundamental science associated with manufacture of polymer thin films from fluids (e.g., solutions, dispersions, slurries, etc.) as they are coated onto permeable or impermeable surfaces to make components or devices. She explores the connectivity between thin film functionality, based on their manufacture or structure, and their life expectancy, to elucidate mechanisms by which performance or durability can be predicted. In addition to conducting computational analysis, developing analytical models and running experiments, Harris also develops new manufacturing technologies to fabricate thin films, in wide area or discrete patterns. Target applications are well-suited for a variety of industries including food, energy, electronic, and environmental systems to name a few. In conjunction with her research activities, she is committed to the education, mentoring, and advisement of students towards scholarly achievements. She has published over fifty peer-reviewed articles. Harris has several awards including the National Science Foundation's young investigator CAREER Award and the Lockheed Inspirational Young Faculty Award.

    tequila.harris@me.gatech.edu

    404.385.6335

    Office Location:
    MARC 436

    Departmental Bio

  • Polymer Thin Film Processing (PTFP) Group
  • Research Focus Areas:
  • Advanced Materials Additive Manufacturing
  • Delivery & Storage
  • Electronic Materials
  • Energy
  • Flexible Electronics
  • Additional Research:
    Additive/Advanced Manufacturing; Flexible Electronics; Polymers; micro and nanomechanics; Thin Films; Electronics; Energy Storage; Thermal Systems; Manufacturing and Fluid Mechanics; Polymer processing; mechanical system design; fluid flow; mechanical and physical property characterization of thin film

    IRI Connections:

    Ye Zhao

    Ye Zhao

    Ye Zhao

    Assistant Professor; School of Mechanical Engineering

    Dr. Ye Zhao started as an Assistant Professor at the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering in January 2019. Previously he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University and obtained his Ph.D. from UT Austin, where he worked on robust motion planning and decision-making for robot manipulation and locomotion problems with frictional contact behaviors. At Georgia Tech, he directs the Laboratory for Intelligent Decision and Autonomous Robots. His research interests lie broadly in planning, control, decision-making, and learning algorithms of highly agile, contact-rich, and human-cooperative robots. Dr. Zhao is especially interested in computationally efficient optimization algorithms and formal methods for challenging robotics problems with formal guarantees on robustness, safety, autonomy, and real-time performance. The LIDAR group aims at pushing the boundary of robot autonomy, intelligent decision, robust motion planning, and symbolic planning. The long-term goal is to devise theoretical and algorithmic underpinnings for collaborative humanoid and mobile robots operating in unstructured and unpredictable environments while working alongside humans. Robotic applications primarily focus on agile bipedal and quadrupedal locomotion, manipulation, heterogeneous robot teaming, and mobile platforms for extreme environment maneuvering.

    ye.zhao@me.gatech.edu

    404.894.3061

    Office Location:
    GTMI 437

    ME Page

  • Laboratory for Intelligent Decision and Autonomous Robots
  • Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
  • Autonomy
  • Additional Research:

    Robotics; Formal Methods; Optimization; Robust Motion Planning; Control


    IRI Connections:
    IRI And Role

    Nader Sadegh

    Nader  Sadegh

    Nader Sadegh

    Professor; School of Mechanical Engineering
    Associate Director & Education Director; Robotics Ph.D. Program

    Dr. Sadegh's early research work was in the field of robotics and automation. His major contribution to this field was the development of a class of adaptive and learning controllers for nonlinear mechanical systems including robotic manipulators. This work, which evolved from his doctoral research, enables a robot to learn a repetitive task through practice, much like a human being, and without requiring a precise model. He later demonstrated that implementing this learning controller can significantly improve the performance of industrial robots without significantly increasing their cost or complexity, and has the potential to improve the accuracy, autonomy, and productivity of automated manufacturing systems. In addition to robotics, he developed a similar learning controller for speed regulation of copier photoreceptors as part of a project sponsored by the Xerox Corporation. Dr. Sadegh began at Tech in 1988 as an Assistant Professor.

    nader.sadegh@me.gatech.edu

    404.894.8172

    Office Location:
    GTMI, Room 475M

    ME Page

    Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
  • Collaborative Robotics
  • Additional Research:

    Controls; Robotics; AI; Data Analysis; Epidemiology


    IRI Connections:

    Jonathan Rogers

    Jonathan  Rogers

    Jonathan Rogers

    Associate Professor; School of Mechanical Engineering

    Jonathan Rogers joined the Georgia Tech faculty in Fall 2013 as an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Prior to joining Georgia Tech, he was an Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University from 2011 to 2013.

    jonathan.rogers@me.gatech.edu

    404.385.1600

    Office Location:
    MRDC Building, Room 4503

    ME Page

    Research Focus Areas:
  • Autonomy
  • Additional Research:

    Automation/Mechatronics; Robotics; applied dynamics; computational automation; nonlinear control and estimation


    IRI Connections:
    IRI And Role

    Kinsey Herrin

    Kinsey  Herrin

    Kinsey Herrin

    Senior Research Scientist; School of Mechanical Engineering

    Kinsey Herrin is a Senior Research Scientist in the Woodruff George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. She supports a number of wearable robotics research efforts across Georgia Tech's campus and holds the ABC credential for a Certified Prosthetist/Orthotist. Kinsey is passionate about advancing state of the art technology available to individuals with physical challenges and amputations as well as the exploration of wearable technology to augment and enhance human performance. She was the former Clinical Liaison & Coordinator and academic faculty within the Georgia Tech MSPO program. She completed her residency training in orthotics and prosthetics at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and the University of Michigan, respectively, and has over 10 years of experience working with and treating a wide variety of patients in clinical and research settings.

    Kinsey.herrin@me.gatech.edu

    404.894.6269

    Office Location:
    555 14th St Building

    ME Page

    Research Focus Areas:
  • Human Augmentation
  • Additional Research:

    wearable technology to augment and enhance human performance.


    IRI Connections:
    IRI And Role

    Jun Ueda

    Jun Ueda

    Jun Ueda

    Professor, George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
    Director, Biorobotics & Human Modeling Lab

    Jun Ueda joined Georgia Tech in May 2008 as Assistant Professor. Before Georgia Tech, he was a Visiting Scholar and Lecturer at MIT, where he worked on the development and control of cellular actuators inspired by biological muscle. He developed compliant, large strain piezoelectric actuators and a robust control method called stochastic broadcast feedback. From 2002-2008 he was Assistant Professor at Nara Institute of Science and Technology in Japan, where he led a research group dedicated to dynamics and control in robotics, such as robot hand manipulation, tactile sensing, and power-assisting. From 1996 to 2002 and prior to obtaining his Ph.D, he worked at the Advanced Technology R&D Center of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation in Japan. Here he was involved in a variety of activities including disk drives, machine tools, and satellite tracking antennas. His Ph.D. work at Kyoto University was on the end-point control of a robot manipulator mounted on a non-rigid base. He studied feedback control robustness in terms of the coupling of the arm and base dynamics.

    jun.ueda@me.gatech.edu

    404.385.3900

    Office Location:
    Love 219

    Biorobotics & Human Modeling Lab

    Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
  • Human Augmentation
  • Miniaturization & Integration
  • Additional Research:

    Automation & Mechatronics; Bioengineering


    IRI Connections:

    Maegan Tucker

    Maegan Tucker

    Maegan Tucker

    Assistant Professor

    Maegan received her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (ME) from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in May 2023. Prior, she also received a M.S. in ME from Caltech in 2019 and a B.S. in ME from Georgia Tech in 2017. After graduating with her Ph.D., Maegan conducted a brief postdoc at Caltech (May–August 2023), followed by a brief research position at Disney Research (September–December 2023). Generally speaking, her research interests lie at the intersection of control theory and human-robot interaction, with specific applications towards lower-limb assistive devices. Much of her research is centered around the question: “What is the right way to walk?”. In her free time, Maegan enjoys puzzles, playing video games, and the piano.

    Maegan Tucker joined Georgia Tech as an assistant professor with joint appointments in the School of Electrical & Computer Engineering and the School of Mechanical Engineering in January 2024.

    mtucker@gatech.edu

    Personal Website

  • ECE Profile Page
  • Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
  • Bioengineering
  • Human Augmentation
  • Human-Centered Robotics
  • Locomotion & Manipulation
  • Robotics
  • Additional Research:

    Lower-Body Assistive Devices Bipedal Locomotion Nonlinear Control Theory Human-Robot Interaction Preference-Based Learning Human Biomechanics


    IRI Connections:
    IRI And Role

    Kok-Meng Lee

    Kok-Meng Lee

    Kok-Meng Lee

    Professor; School of Mechanical Engineering
    Director; Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics Research Laboratory (AIMRL)

    In 1979 Dr. Lee conducted radiation research as an undergraduate assistant at the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he modeled and simulated the nongray particulate radiation in an isothermal cylindrical medium. At MIT, he designed high-performance fluidic amplifiers and fluid signal transmission systems and investigated analytically and experimentally the effects of temperature changes on fluid power control systems for flight backup control applications. Dr. Lee began at Tech in 1985 as an Assistant Professor.

    kokmeng.lee@me.gatech.edu

    404.894.7402

    Office Location:
    MARC 474

    ME Page

  • Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics Research Laboratory (AIMRL)
  • Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
  • Collaborative Robotics
  • Additional Research:

    dynamics and control; manufacturing automation; mechatronics; actuators; machine vision


    IRI Connections:

    Suhas Jain

    Suhas Jain

    Suhas Jain

    Assistant Professor

    Suhas S. Jain is an Assistant Professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech. He received his bachelor’s from NIT-Karnataka (India) in 2014, M.S. and Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2018 and 2022, respectively, all in mechanical engineering. Before coming to Georgia Tech, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Turbulence Research, Stanford University (2022-2023), a researcher at the Institute of Fluid Dynamics, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Germany (2014-2015), and a project assistant at the Indian Institute of Science (2015-2016).

    His research interests include computational modeling of fluid flows (multiphase flows; turbulent flows; compressible flows; and fluid-structure interaction) with a current focus on modeling atomization, sprays, and phase change for propulsion applications; ice accretion and aerodynamics for sustainable energy and aerospace design; and air-sea interaction modeling for understanding climate change; and modeling of fluid-solid and solid-solid systems for biomedical and high-speed applications. Through the integration of numerical modeling, high-performance computing, and data-driven approaches, Suhas and his group aim to address key challenges in these areas.

    suhasjain@gatech.edu

    Profile of Dr. Suhas Jain


    IRI Connections: