Eric Westphal Email & Phone Number

Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States

Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States

West Lafayette, In

Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States

Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States

Albuquerque, New Mexico Area

Glassboro, Nj

Worked towards creating an alternative portable power source that utilizes the high energy densities of hydrocarbons. The catalytic combustion of a hydrocarbon with Pt nanoparticles was coupled with thermoelectric generators (TEG) to produce electrical power. Work contributed includes particle synthesis, studying the degradation of the Pt nanoparticles, improving and testing reactor design, and power curve generation with the coupled reactor/TEG setup.

Los Angeles, Ca

Visiting researcher at USC as part of the 2015 Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) Program. Conducted research toward developing a shape memory alloy (SMA)-based microcombustion engine to power sub-gram artificial flapping-wing flyers (small robotic insects). Performed experiments with small (about 2 mm diameter) nickel-titanium SMA wires to utilize their phase changing characteristics to create actuation. These NiTi wires contain 20% platinum; it is hoped to achieve catalytic combustion of a hydrocarbon-air mixture using this Pt content. Work contributed includes successful ignition of this NiTiPt SMA wire with a hydrogen-air mixture, validation of strain measurements of this SMA wire made by NASA, and measurements of this SMA’s hysteresis.

Doctor Of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Mechanical Engineering

Graduate research assistant working with Dr. Steven Son and Dr. Terrence Meyer at the Maurice J. Zucrow Labs. Research interests include.

Master Of Science - Ms, Aeronautics And Astronautics

Bachelor Of Science (B.S.), Mechanical Engineering

Minor in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Served as Vice President and Project lead for AIAA student chapter. Member of the Thomas N..