People

Principal Investigator
James T. Allison

Associate Professor
Jerry S. Dobrovolny Faculty Scholar
Director of Engineering System Design Laboratory

Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering
Aerospace Engineering (affiliate)
Computational Science and Engineering (affiliate)
Institute for Genomic Biology (Biosystems Design, affiliate)

104 S. Mathews Ave., #313, Urbana, IL 61801
217-244-4319

James T. Allison is the director of the Engineering System Design Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests include engineering system design (dynamic systems in particular), multidisciplinary design optimization, integrated physical and control system design, system architecture design, and design for energy efficiency. Design application domains include renewable energy system design, automotive and aerospace system design, robotic system design, and synthetic biology.

Prior to joining UIUC in 2011, he worked as a lecturer at Tufts University in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, as a senior engineer at MathWorks, Inc. in the area of dynamic system modeling and design, at GM in hybrid powertrain design, and at Ford Motor Company in the area of engine design optimization. Prof. Allison received his MSE degrees in mechanical engineering (2004) and industrial and operations engineering (2005), and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering (2008), all from the University of Michigan.

Scholars
Vedant

Postdoctoral Research Associate
PhD AE (2021)

Industrial and Enterprise System Engineering

104 S. Mathews Ave., #406, Urbana, IL 61801

Main Research Areas:

  • Spacecraft Attitude Control
  • Intelligent Structures
  • Co-design
  • Modeling and Simulation
Satya R. T. Peddada

Postdoctoral Research Associate
PhD SEE (2021)

Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering

104 S. Mathews Ave., #406, Urbana, IL 61801

Satya Ravi Teja Peddada received his Bachelors degree in Instrumentation and Control Engineering in 2015 from the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, India. He obtained his Masters at UIUC in Systems and Entreprenuerial Engineering in 2018, and his Ph.D. in Systems and Entrepreneurial Engineering in 2021. His research interests include multi-disciplinary dynamic systems design optimization, integrated plant and control system design (co-design),direct transcription and power optimization of mobile electronics. Previously in the ESDL he worked on optimal temperature sensor placement (OTSP) for power electronic systems. His current research interests are in optimal flow control and architecture exploration for fluid based thermal management and optimal packing and routing algortihms for 2D and 3D electro-thermal systems. In addition to researching with ESDL, he is currently affiliated with the Power Optimization of Electro-Thermal Systems NSF Engineering Research Center here at the UIUC.

Graduate Students
Prajwal Chinthoju

Graduate Research Assistant
MS SEE

Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering

104 S. Mathews Ave., #406, Urbana, IL 61801
Saeid Bayat

Graduate Research Assistant
PhD SEE

Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering

104 S. Mathews Ave., #406, Urbana, IL 61801

Control Co-Design of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines

Chad Peterson

Graduate Research Assistant
PhD SEE

Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering

104 S. Mathews Ave., #406, Urbana, IL 61801
Elena Fernandez

Graduate Research Assistant
PhD SEE

Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering

104 S. Mathews Ave., #406, Urbana, IL 61801
Abbas Bataleblu

Graduate Research Assistant
PhD SEE

Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering

104 Mathews Ave., #406, Urbana, IL 61801
Dario Rodriguez

Graduate Research Assistant
PhD AE

Aerospace Engineering

104 S. Mathews Ave., #406, Urbana, IL 61801

B.Sc. Mechanical Engineering – Escuela Politecnica Nacional (2017)
M.Sc. Aerospace Engineering – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2022)

Biography
Dario completed his B.Sc. majoring in Mechanical Engineering at Escuela Politecnica Nacional, Quito-Ecuador in 2017. He has previously collaborated on the development and implementation of parametric models to characterize the aerodynamics and performance of fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles. He was awarded as a Fulbright Grantee in 2020, which allow him to start his graduate studies in Aerospace Engineering at UIUC. He is currently collaborating in the implementation of Design Optimization methods applied to Scramjets at the Center for Exascale-enabled Scramjet Design

Research Interests
His interests range from engineering design optimization, high-performance computing, hypersonic propulsion to data science, machine learning, computer vision and UAVs.