Dr. Bakhtier Farouk, the College of Engineering J. Harland Billings Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics (MEM), has been named the “Outstanding Engineer of the Year” by the Southern New Jersey Professional Societies.
Dr. Bakhtier Farouk
The Societies include the most prestigious engineering organizations with a presence in Southern New Jersey, including the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the International Council of Systems Engineers (INCOSE), the International Test and Evaluation Association (ITEA), the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), and the Human Factors Ergonomics Society (HFES).
The award took place at the Societies’ 16th Annual Awards Banquet this month in recognition of the outstanding engineers, scientists, and technical leaders within its ranks. Farouk was chosen for outstanding contributions to the success of a research and teaching program initiated and sustained at MEM for the past three and a half decades.
“It was awesome,” said Farouk, who has been an associate fellow of the AIAA since 2014. “I was quite surprised. There were a lot of professional and industry people there, so I thought perhaps an academic guy wouldn’t satisfy their requirements. So, my reaction was a little bit of surprise and a lot of happiness.”
Farouk has been with Drexel University for 37 years, and has lived in southern New Jersey for 31 years. He has served as a faculty advisor to the student chapter of AIAA at Drexel, and regularly attends AIAA National Conferences on Fluid Dynamics, Plasma Dynamics, and Lasers.
At the College of Engineering, his undergraduate and graduate courses have focused on high speed gas dynamics; optimization of thermal systems; computational fluid dynamics; conduction, convection and radiation heat transfer; and statistical thermodynamics.
Throughout his academic career, Farouk’s research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Army Research Laboratory, NASA, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and various industries as he seeks to advance scholarship and translational research in Fluid Dynamics, Acoustics, Cryogenics; and Supercritical Fluids.
Since May of 2017 in particular, Farouk has been following up on pioneering research initiated during his year-long sabbatical at the Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. In addition, his experimental and computational research on thermoacoustics has led to the design, construction, and testing of thermoacoustic speakers made of carbon nanofibers.
Farouk has given more than 150 technical seminars at national and international conferences for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), AIAA, APS, and the IEEE, and at. numerous US and overseas universities. He has published more than 150 journal papers. Some 27 of his graduate students have received PhDs. He has also contributed to many book chapters. Several past PhD students under Farouk’s supervision have joined academia and are carrying out research in the areas of plasma dynamics and cryogenic refrigeration.
Farouk received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology; his MS in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Delaware; and his PhD in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Delaware.