Ayhan Yiğit Özel

Project (Working) Title: Evaluation of Nano Surface Coating for Corrosion Protection in Offshore Wind Turbines
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Onur Bilgen

Ayhan, from Turkey, is a first year MS student in Mechanical Engineering at the School of Engineering, Rutgers University–New Brunswick. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering  from Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey, where he graduated with a CGPA of 3.82 and ranked 2nd in his cohort.

His academic projects include designing a CubeSat Solar Panel Rotation Mechanism, developing an autonomous Whack-A-Mole Robot, and analyzing fluid dynamics using OpenFOAM. He has worked part-time at Roketsan, one of the top 100 defense companies in the world, designing control systems, and at the Institut National de l’Energie Solaire (INES), where he conducted research on PV panels and fluid films with Prof. Christian Ruyer-Quil.

Ayhan has experience as a tutor at Bilkent University, teaching both general physics and programming in Python. His technical skills include SolidWorks, Ansys, Python, MATLAB, Simulink, and Julia, and he is  proficient in Turkish and English, with basic knowledge of German.

He also participated in undergraduate research on the stability of falling fluid films and the impact of the Marangoni effect, working with Dr. Luca Biancofiore. He is a keen follower of basketball and have played professionally for over seven years. He loves to read books, especially classical literature and books about how the brain works, and enjoys traveling. He also had the chance to improve his English speaking skills and experience different cultures by staying with a host family in Dublin for a month while he was in high school.