Research Interests:

Dr. Kapat, a Doctor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from MIT (1991), is a professor in the Department of Mechanical, Materials, and Aerospace Engineering, and is currently the Lockheed Martin Professor of Engineering. Dr. Kapat is the founding Director of the newly-founded Center for Advanced Turbines and Energy Research (CATER). He also leads the Siemens Center of Excellence that has been set up at UCF as a joint UCF/Siemens collaboration and that is part of SATER. His research interests include Advanced Turbines, Energy and Environment, Miniature Engineering Systems, Micro and Nano-scale Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer, and Flow and Transport in Different Materials Processing Techniques. He has supervised and graduated nine PhD, two MS and three BS Honors students. He has published one book chapter, 32 journal papers, and another 67 papers in peer-reviewed conference proceedings. Three patents have been issued in his name and another 3 are pending. He has received research funds of $5.7 million as a Principal Investigator and $3.2 million as a Co-Principal Investigator. Key Words for Research InterestMiniaturization of engineering systems (Associate Director of MES Initiative), micro-scale fluidics, heat transfer and related sensors with application to MEMS; aerodynamics and heat transfer for gas turbines and other turbomachineries; transition and turbulence and associated effects on droplet evaporation and transport augmentation; flow and transport in different material processing techniques.