Dr. Forooza Samadi – College of Engineering
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JgqWPVIAAAAJ&hl=en
Alabama Building Training and Assessment Center: https://abtac.eng.ua.edu/
Forooza Samadi, Ph. D.
Dr. Forooza Samadi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Alabama. Before joining UA, she was a postdoctoral associate at Virginia Tech, where she collaborated in a few projects, including coupled conduction-radiation modeling using Discrete Green’s Functions and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations for additive manufacturing (AM) of centimeter-scale optical components.
Dr. Samadi’s research focuses on heat transfer modeling, inverse design, and diagnosis in thermal-fluid systems, with applications spanning energy, materials, and process engineering. She is also interested in improving inverse solutions and regularization techniques through mathematical modeling.
Dr. Samadi is the director of the Alabama Building Training and Assessment Center and the assistant director of the Alabama Industrial Training and Assessment Center. She is a member of K-6: Heat Transfer on Energy Systems and K-20: Computational Heat Transfer committees of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the Thermal Sciences Technical Committee of the American Society of Thermal and Fluid Engineers (ASTFE). She actively serves as a session chair at ASME and ASTFE conferences.
Graduate Students
Yizhou Yang
Yizhou is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alabama. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Building Construction from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
His academic and research interests lie at the intersection of building energy performance, sustainable building design, building integrated photovoltaic systems, and energy-efficient technologies, with a focus on applying simulation tools and data-driven methods to evaluate and optimize the design of energy-efficient buildings. He is currently conducting research projects under the guidance of Dr. Qiuhua Lisa Duan as his advisor and Dr. Forooza Samadi as his co-advisor. The research focuses on developing feasibility assessments for solar energy systems, exploring advanced window technologies, and reviewing cutting-edge applications of Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) systems.
Soheil is a Ph.D. student in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alabama who focuses on high-efficiency thermal energy systems, building energy optimization, and renewable energy integration. His research interests include energy-efficient HVAC systems, thermal energy storage (TES), solar-thermal energy utilization and battery thermal management systems (BTMS). He is currently contributing to smart building technologies and clean energy strategies to support the transition to net-zero emission scenarios.
Soheil Omiddezyani
Emine Ilhan
Emine is a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Her main research area is renewable energy systems, and she focuses on spatial decision-making and GIS-based modeling. In her project, she works on optimal site selection for solar farms in the United States. She uses a hybrid method that combines Fuzzy Logic and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) with GIS tools to create high-resolution solar suitability maps. She uses expert opinions to define the importance of each criterion and apply fuzzy logic to standardize spatial data.
Emine has a multidisciplinary academic background, which helps her understand energy problems from both technical and system perspectives. She received her master’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Cukurova University in Turkey and completed her bachelor’s degree in the same field at Istanbul Arel University. During her undergraduate education, she also studied Mechanical Engineering at the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany through the Erasmus program.
In addition to her research, Emine is also a teaching assistant at the Critical Languages Center at the University of Alabama. She supports student learning and helps manage language programs. She also worked as a Turkish tutor before. Before coming to the U.S., she had work experience in Turkey in both startups and corporate companies. Emine worked in project management, market research, and operations, which helped her improve her skills in communication, teamwork, and leadership.
Muhammad Tayyab is currently pursuing his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alabama, under the supervision of Dr. Forooza Samadi. He holds an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology (GIKI), Pakistan, and a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Lahore, Pakistan. His research interests include experimental and computational heat transfer and fluid mechanics. During his MS, he conducted studies on the “Hydro-Thermal Investigation of Gravitational Water Vortex Heat Exchanger.” Currently, his research focuses on heat transfer in metal foams integrated with phase change materials (PCMs) and thermal metamaterials.
Muhammad Tayyab
Ramon Peruchi Pacheco
Ramon Peruchi Pacheco da Silva is a Ph.D. student at the University of Alabama, specializing in applied heat transfer, Green’s functions, and inverse heat conduction problems (IHCP). He serves as a lead student at the Alabama Industrial Training and Assessment Center (AITAC), where he supports energy efficiency research and industrial assessments.
Ramon holds a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Bachelor’s degree in Marine Engineering from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Brazil. His previous research includes the development of additively manufactured heat exchangers for the oil and gas industry and the performance evaluation of plate and printed circuit heat exchangers from thermal, hydrodynamic, and structural perspectives.
At the University of Alabama, his current research focuses on low-cost flow measurement and potential fault detection systems. He is developing machine learning models and applying inverse techniques to characterize the thermal behavior and internal heat flux of band heaters in dynamic conditions.
Undergraduate Students
Ashley Hamme
Ashley, originally from Ridgeland, MS, is a third-year mechanical engineering student at the University of Alabama, minoring in mathematical statistics. In addition to her research with Dr. Samadi on building energy analysis, modeling, and prediction, she is involved in Tikkun Olam Makers, contributing to the off-road wheelchair project focused on accessibility and assistive design. She is also an active member of the mechanical design team for Alabama Astrobotics, where she helps engineer systems for competitive robotic applications. Her work is driven by a passion for human-centered design, robotics, and thermal systems analysis.
Elaina is an undergraduate Mechanical Engineering student at the University of Alabama. Her interests include thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and controls. She is involved in the Alabama Building Training and Assessment Center through building energy simulation using EnergyPlus and applying Machine Learning methods to the data obtained from the models for building energy forecasting.
Elaina Nichols
John Emerson
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Kymberly is a University of Alabama senior from Fort Branch, Indiana. Graduating in December of 2025 with a bachelor’s degree in architectural engineering and a minor in Engineering Positive and Intentional Change, her research interests include built environments and analyzing energy consumption of existing and new structures. Outside of academics, Kymberly enjoys playing pickleball and being in nature.
Kymberly Reeder
