Member

Dr. Parsaoran Hutapea is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He received his BS, MS, and PhD all in Aerospace Engineering from North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Dr. Hutapea is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Doyoung Kim is a PhD candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Her research focuses on the study of the mechanics of curved needles in soft tissues using both experiments and finite element method. She is the recipient of the Presidential Fellowship, one of Temple University’s most prestigious awards. She received her BS and MS degrees from Drexel University in 2020.

Hamid Ghasempoor is a PhD student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He earned his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Isfahan University of Technology in 2021 and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology in 2024 before joining Temple University in Spring 2025. He is currently working on numerical simulations of needle insertion in tissues using LS-DYNA.

Nikolaos Farfaras is an MS/PhD student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He received BS and MS degrees in Automotive Engineering from International Hellenic University, Thessaloniki, Greece.

Samer Al-Safadi is a PhD candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The goal of his current research is to study the interaction between living tissues and surgical needles using finite element analysis and simulations. He received his MS degree in Mechanical Engineering from Temple University in 2018 where he studied the modeling of needle insertion in tissues. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Damascus University, Damascus, Syrian Arab Republic.

Past Members

Sharad Acharya received his PhD in 2024. His research focused on the study of mechanics of medical devices. He worked on a project involving application of Nitinol-based Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) actuator for bending of surgical needle. He holds a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from Tribhuvan University, Nepal. He has worked as a lecturer in Kantipur Engineering College, Nepal and as a design and operation engineer at Devighat Hydropower Station, Nepal Electricity Authority before joining the PhD program at Temple University in the Fall of 2018.

Kavi Patel received his PhD in 2024. The goal of his research was to study composite polymer coatings for medical device applications. He received his MS degree in Mechanical Engineering from Temple University in 2018 where he studied the polymer coating for biopsy needles. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Gujarat Technological University, India.

  • Naresh Datla, PhD
  • Georgiy Diloyan, PhD
  • Sai Teja Reddy Gidde, PhD
  • Mohammad Honarvar, PhD
  • Felix O. M. Joseph, PhD
  • Jinho Kim, PhD
  • Bardia Konh, PhD
  • Seyed Vahid Khodaei, PhD
  • Byoung-gook Loh, PhD
  • Tuan M. Nguyen, PhD
  • Mohammad Sahlabadi, PhD
  • William Slovinsky, PhD
  • Jordan Weaver, PhD
  • Ximu Zhang, PhD
  • Lixin Zhao, PhD
  • Yanziang Zhao, PhD
  • Ramadan Abdussalam, MS
  • Christopher Altenderfer, MS
  • Jitendra Bambharoliya, MS
  • Branko Bogicevic, MS
  • Luis Breziner, MS
  • Daniel Choi, MS
  • Joe Koo, MS
  • Yuehao Luo, MS
  • Mark Smith, MS
  • Tamara Lozano Trujillo, MS
  • Jonasan Younan Attia, BS
  • Teri-Lynn Allonardo, BS
  • Fazel Ashkan, BS
  • Thales Brandt De Barros, BS
  • Ivy Chen, BS
  • Stephen Ching, BS
  • Bryan Dallas, BS
  • Kendrick Davis, BS
  • Edmee Brown-Egue, BS
  • Edson Filho, BS
  • David Gardell, BS
  • Christophe Garant, BS
  • Timothy Jennings, BS
  • Kyle Jezler, BS
  • Jezreel Konstatinos, BS
  • Nicholas J. Lagnese, BS
  • Harold Lee, BS
  • Paola Luchtenberg, BS
  • Elyse Meyer, BS
  • Ryan Miernicki, BS
  • Marwan Mougharbel, BS
  • Patrick McCunney, BS
  • Bhavesh Patel, BS
  • Ryan Probasco, BS
  • Rodrigo de Quadros, BS
  • Marcelo Oliveira Renno, BS
  • Chaitanya Sakhalkar, BS
  • Alexa Sano, BS
  • Keith Shaffer, BS
  • Benjamin Soboloff (Georgia Tech)
  • Kyle Stern, BS
  • Peter Strahs, BS
  • Tyler Tolton, BS
  • Tolulope Verissimo, BS
  • Vincent Zhao, BS
  • Orlando Delarosa (Kensington High School)
  • Paul Hutapea (La Salle College High School)
  • Marckus Louima (Central High School)
  • Toga Mohamed (Julia Masterman High School)
  • Nathaniel Gauthier (Carver High School)
  • Anu Thomas (Central High School)