Engineering Welcomes New Faculty Members
The Faculty of Engineering is pleased to welcome the following new faculty members (in order of left to right as pictured above):
Dr. Philip Ferguson, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Philip Ferguson holds Bachelor’s degree in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto and a Masters and PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His doctoral research focused on astronaut brain modeling to predict control adaption in microgravity. Following graduate school, he developed space control, navigation and power systems for small space telescopes at Microsat Systems Canada Inc. and the RADARSAT Constellation Mission at Magellan Aerospace, Winnipeg. He also served as the Vice President of Product Development at PrecisionHawk Unmanned Systems Inc., where was responsible for all drone systems engineering, research and production. Dr. Ferguson’s research studies spacecraft manufacturing and control technologies that can improve satellite reliability while simultaneously reducing the cost and design schedule, thereby improving the accessibility of space.
Nishant (Nish) Balakrishnan, Instructor, Centre for Engineering Professional Practice and Engineering Education
Nishant Balakrishnan joined the Centre for Engineering Professional Practice and Engineering Education as a Design Instructor in November 2017. His professional experience has focussed on engineering design and design fabrication both as an independent consultant and in the context of employment as a lab instructor/manager in the Faculty since 2015. His main teaching and research background are in: mechanical design, digital manufacturing/fabrication, biomechanics, and applied robotics/mechanics. Nishant received both his B.Sc and M.Sc degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Manitoba with research contributions in biomechanics, passive dynamic walking, and bipedal locomotion. He currently teaches in the technical practicum courses in the faculty (engaging students in real world design with a focus on prototyping and implementation) and advises student competition teams on their designs.
Dr. Guo-zhen Zhu, Assistant Professor and Canada Research Chair, Mechanical Engineering
Guo-zhen Zhu joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering as an Assistant Professor. She attended Tsinghua University for her undergraduate studies in Materials Science and Engineering department and followed her interest in Materials Science to McMaster University at Canada, where she completed her Master in 2009 and her Ph.D. in 2012. After one-year post-doctoral research, she joined the faculty of Shanghai Jiao Tong University as associate research professor in 2014 and promoted to the research professor in 2016. She has published 26 papers in prestigious journals such as Nature, J phys Chem C, Scientific reports etc. She also won various national and international awards, such as Canadian Foundation for the Development of Microscopy Award and Gerard T. Simon Award from Microscopical Society of Canada, young scientists awards from international electron energy-loss spectroscopy meeting and European microscopy congress, and “Thousand-People-Plan for Young Scientists” from Chinese government.
Dr. Mohammad Khoshdarregi, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Mohammad Khoshdarregi joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering as Assistant Professor in October 2017. His research interests are in the fields of advanced manufacturing, machining processes, industrial automation, and digitalization. Dr. Khoshdarregi received both his Master’s and PhD degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, and his BSc degree from the Iran’s premier engineering school, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran. In his doctoral research, Dr. Khoshdarregi developed novel physics-based mathematical models describing the mechanics and dynamics of thread machining of oil pipes, aiming at reducing the rupture of pipelines in in-land and off-shore oil transportation. Dr. Khoshdarregi has also specialized in CNC design and precision control of industrial machines. He has developed novel techniques to achieve vibration-free and accurate path-following in high-speed 5-axis CNC machine tools. Dr. Khoshdarregi’s research contributions have been published in some of the most reputable journals in the field of manufacturing.
Farhoud Delijani, Instructor, Centre for Engineering Professional Practice and Engineering Education
Farhoud Delijani received his Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering in Iran in 1995 and became a licensed P. Eng. approved by the Iranian Ministry of Housing and Urban Development in 2000. In 2001, Farhoud moved to Canada with his wife and in January 2007, started his Master’s studies in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Manitoba. Farhoud completed his Master’s degree in October 2010 and served as a research assistant at the Alternative Village (University of Manitoba) working on a building envelope research project for about 4 months. In 2011, he started his PhD research in the department of Biosystems Engineering. Farhoud research focused on ‘Load-Response and the Effect of De-bonding on Structural Insulated Panels Performance’. In October 2016, he graduated and joined the construction industry right after. Having grown up in a family of engineers and teachers, Farhoud has always had a natural desire for engineering and teaching is looking forward to his teaching position with the Centre for Engineering Professional Practice and Engineering Education starting November 2017.