Fellows
Lorenzo Mazzanti
Lorenzo studied Mechanical Engineering at Università degli Studi di Ferrara: he obtained his Bachelor in 2017 and his Master in 2019. He performed his Master thesis activity at Siemens Industry Software NV in Leuven (Belgium), where he spent a period of six months as intern working on the development of Optimal Sensor Placement strategies for Kalman-based input estimation.
Currently, he is employed by Siemens Industry Software NV as research engineer associate and enrolled as PhD student at KU Leuven’s Doctoral School. He has joined the Eco Drive Innovative Training Network as Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher to develop augmented sensing techniques for the estimation of contact forces and strains in geared drivetrains.
Vinay Prakash
Vinay obtained his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Visvesvaraya Technological University, India in 2014 and his Master’s degree in Computational Engineering from Friedrich-Alexander-University (FAU), Erlangen, Germany in 2020. He carried out his internship and master’s thesis in collaboration with Robert-Bosch GmbH, Stuttgart (Germany). His master’s thesis titled “Topology Optimization of electrical machines considering demagnetization” aimed at improving the efficiency of e-motors using adjoint sensitivities.
Vinay is currently employed at Groupe PSA, Vélizy-Villacoublay, France as a MSCA Early Stage Researcher and enrolled as a Ph.D. student at INSA Lyon, France. Within the framework of ITN ECO DRIVE, his research work is directed towards the development and validation of meta-models including simulation and test components for linking powertrain design with NVH performance.
Navdeep Sharma
Navdeep obtained his bachelors' degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, India, in 2014. Subsequently, he worked as an NVH Engineer supporting the development of two-wheelers at Hero Motocorp Ltd.
He then studied for a Master of Science degree in Acoustics at École Centrale de Lyon, France. For his masters' thesis work, he worked on sound-source balance and aerodynamic noise in electric vehicles at Groupe PSA. After obtaining his masters' degree in 2019, he worked at Punch Powertrain, Netherlands as an NVH Engineer working on acoustics and vibration improvement of dual-clutch transmissions for MHEV/PHEV applications.
Currently, he is employed as an MSCA Early Stage Researcher in the Technical Acoustics group at Fraunhofer IWU Dresden, Germany, and enrolled as a Ph.D. candidate at KU Leuven, Belgium. His research activity focuses on simulation-based studies on the impact of lightweight construction approaches on gearbox acoustics.
Kalasagarreddi Kottakota
Kalasagarreddi K(Sagar) holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering (2015) from Amrita School of Engineering, Bangalore (India) and a masters in Sound and Vibration (2019) from Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg (Sweden). He carried out his master thesis at Scania CV AB, Sodertalje (Sweden), titled ‘Noise source identification and localization based on principal components and virtual coherence analysis with a focus on engine noise’. Prior to his masters, Sagar worked as an NVH Engineer for 2 years at an automotive and turbomachinery industries.
He is currently employed as a doctoral engineer at MicrodB, Ecully (France) and enrolled as a PhD student at INSA, Lyon (France). His primary research activity focusses on exploiting microphone array techniques and sound source separation techniques for a sound source contribution assessment of powertrain components.
Steve Koshy Mathew
Steve obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Amrita School of Engineering, Coimbatore (India) in 2012. After his graduation, he was employed as a structural validation engineer in Renault Nissan R&D (India), for 4 years, after which he moved to Yamaha Motors R&D (India) and worked as a structural & vehicle NVH performance validation lead, for 3 years.
He then obtained his Master's in Automotive Systems Engineering from the Loughborough University, Loughborough (UK), in 2020. In his Master’s thesis, he developed models for fault diagnosis of an engine, based on its acoustic signature, using Wavelet Packet Transform, Principle Component Analysis and Bayesian Optimization.
He is currently employed as a Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher at Laboratoire de Mécanique des Contacts et des Structures (LaMCoS), INSA Lyon, France and enrolled as a Ph.D. student at INSA Lyon, France. His research activity focuses on the development and validation of angular models and experimental tools for lightweight transmission systems and drivelines.
Xian Wu
After finishing his bachelor of German Literature, Xian took an unusual path and chosen to become a mechanical engineer. At RWTH Aachen University, Germany, he obtained both his bachelor- and master’s degree. During his one-year internship and bachelor thesis at Robert-Bosch GmbH, Stuttgart, he was part of the start-up team for the self-learning acoustic fault diagnosis system and developed a novel algorithm to localize sound sources using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). For his master thesis, he explored the possibility of using Deep Learning for data augmentation to improve the performance of vehicle detection tasks. After his graduation, he was employed as an NVH engineer at HEAD Acoustics GmbH in Aachen, for one and a half years.
Xian is currently employed at the Noise and Vibration Research Group, KU Leuven, Belgium as a Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher. His research focuses around the identification, localization, and separation of noise sources of hybrid vehicle drivetrains.
Reza Jamali
Reza started to study as an undergraduate student at K. N. Toosi University of Technology in 2011. Participating in the theoretical and experimental projects under the supervision of excellent professors encouraged him to explore more aspects of this major. Then, seeking better opportunities, he started a master’s program at Amirkabir University of Technology and confronted new challenges through new projects. Reza was working on developing new methods to predict fluid flow field using Artificial Intelligence algorithms during his master thesis. After graduation, part-time working as data analyzer was his incredible teamwork experience in measurement and data analysis.
He has joined the Eco-Drive Innovative Training Network as Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher to explore advanced signal-processing techniques for feature identification and correlate the metrics to subjective perception.
Muhammad ALBEZZAWY
Muhammad obtained his Bachelors' degree in Production Engineering from the Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University, Egypt in 2014. After graduation, He was awarded a job as a Teaching Assistant in the Production Engineering Department of Alexandria University.
He obtained his Master's in Manufacturing Engineering from the same department, in 2020. In his Master’s thesis, he developed signal processing techniques for fault diagnosis of rolling element bearing, based on its vibration, through optimizing techniques such as; Continuous Wavelet Transform, Deconvolution, and Autoregressive Filtration.
He is currently employed as an Early Stage Researcher at the Laboratoire Vibrations Acoustique (LVA), INSA Lyon, France, as a part of the ECO DRIVE Project, funded by the European Commission through the H2020 “Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks” program. He is enrolled as a Ph.D. student at the MEGA Doctoral School of INSA Lyon. His research activity focuses on the development of advanced cyclostationary signal-processing methods for breaking down the measured noise into the various contributions being emitted from the different sources, in electrical and hybrid vehicles’ drive systems.
Rafael Dias
Rafael obtained his Bachelor’s (2018) and Master’s (2020) degrees in Mechanical Engineering from University of Porto, Portugal. He carried out his master thesis activity at Siemens Industry Software NV in Leuven, Belgium, where he worked on the exploration of state-space modelling techniques for transfer path analysis applications.
Currently, Rafael is employed as a Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher at Università Politecnica delle Marche in Ancona, Italy, where he is also enrolled as a PhD student. His research activity focuses on the investigation of component TPA approach for engine noise in vehicles.
Nicolo Salamone
Nicolò obtained his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical engineering in 2014 and his Master’s degree in automotive engineering in 2017, both at Politecnico di Torino. He worked as a research fellow for two years in the Energy department of the same university where he focused his research in unconventional diesel combustion modes analysis and in the development of a system able to control autonomously the tire inflation pressure of a passenger vehicle. Then he worked as a project calibration engineer at FPT Industrial, and in FCA as part of the team of diesel vehicle calibration and application.
He is currently employed as a research engineer at Siemens Industry Software NV, and enrolled as a PhD student at KU Leuven’s Doctoral School. His primary research activity focuses on the development of multi-objective models for the eco-powertrain performances optimization.
Julian Staiger
Julian received an M. Sc. Degree in vehicle engineering from Hochschule München, Munich, Germany in 2020. During his Bachelor and Master studies, he got in touch with multiple industrial partners in the automotive sector. He carried out his Master thesis in the field of vehicle dynamics and automated traffic in cooperation with the Delft University of technology. After graduation, Julian worked in the development of ADAS systems in the Munich area.
Currently, he is employed as an MSCA Early Stage Researcher at the LMSD Division at KU Leuven and enrolled as a doctoral student at KU Leuven’s doctoral school. Julian’s research activity focusses on Time-domain-based model correlation and validation for vehicle powertrains.
Khadijeh Farshi
Khadijeh received her bachelor’s degree in Mechanical engineering in 2009 and her Master’s degree in the field of dynamics and vibration especially in rotor dynamics in 2013 from Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran. For her master’s thesis she works on identification of vibration and dynamic behaviour of rotor systems. After completing her master's degree, she worked in the R&D department of Heavy Duty Pumps and Water Turbine Manufacturer Company (Petco) as an engineer to predict the safe range for the critical speed of the pumps. She has also engaged in teaching Dynamics, Vibrations and Control Systems courses at Payame Nour University (PNU) in Tabriz, and has gained teaching experiences for a couple of years.
Currently, she employed as an MSCA Early stage Researcher in the NVH and System Validation group at Institute of Product Engineering (IPEK) in Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and enrolled as a Ph.D. candidate at KIT, Germany. Khadijeh’s research activity mainly focusses on test-based method to evaluate a gear box by means of psychoacoustic metrics.
Alessandro Zucchini
Alessandro obtained his Bachelor´s degree in Mechanical Engineering at Università degli Studi di Ferrara in 2016 and his Master´s degree from Alma Mater Studiorum, the University of Bologna, in 2019.
During his Master´s degree he conducted a 6 months internship inside Ferrari S.p.A where he wrote his thesis titled “dynamic modelling of the brake system of a sport car” where he tried to describe the brake squeal phenomenon.
After his studies he has been employed inside the R&D department of the FAAC Group, a well-known automation company, where he had the possibility to research and study some different topics.
Currently Alessandro is employed by BMW as a NVH research engineer and enrolled as a PhD student at KU Leuven’s Doctoral School. He has joined the Eco Drive Innovative Training Network as Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher to write and develop some math models of a car´s subassembly and to connect them in the correct way so that it could be possible predict the noise emission of the overall structure of an electric car.