Principal Investigator

Peng Zhang
Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Tennessee Technological University
Brown Hall, Room 329
115 W. 10th Street, Cookeville, TN 38505
Email: pzhang@tntech.edu
Phone: 931-372-3323
Graduate Students

Branson Blaylock
Ph.D. student
B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, Tennessee Tech, 2025
Research interests: Flow control devices and structural health monitoring
Email: bmblaylock42@tntech.edu

Sina Kazemipour
Ph.D. student
M.Sc. in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, 2019
B.Sc. in Civil Engineering, Yazd University, 2016
Research interests: Fluid-structure interactions and smart materials
Email: skazemipo42@tntech.edu

Kritik Niraula
Ph.D. student
M.Sc. in Renewable Energy Engineering, Tribhuvan University, 2025
B.Eng. in Automobile Engineering, Tribhuvan University, 2022
Research interests: Aerodynamics of animal flight and flow control strategies
Email: kniraula42@tntech.edu
Undergraduate Researchers

Charles Russell Hatcher
Undergraduate student
B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, Tennessee Tech, expected 2028
Research interests: Computational fluid dynamics and fluid-structure interaction
Email: crhatcher42@tntech.edu

Emily Smyth
Undergraduate student
B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, Tennessee Tech, expected 2027
Research interests: Aerodynamics and wind tunnel experiments
Email: ebsmyth42@tntech.edu
Alumni
Undergraduate researchers:
Nathan Spann (2026)
Group photos

