Alper Erturk
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alper Erturk (born April 3, 1982) is a mechanical engineer and the Woodruff Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology.[1]
Alper Erturk | |
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| Born | April 3, 1982 |
| Education | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, METU |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions | Georgia Institute of Technology, George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering |
Research
Erturk leads the Smart Structures and Dynamical Systems Laboratory[2] at Georgia Tech. His publications are mostly in the areas of dynamics, vibration, and wave propagation involving smart materials and metamaterials.[3] Erturk made fundamental contributions in the field of energy harvesting from dynamical systems. His distributed-parameter piezoelectric energy harvester models[4][5] have been widely used by many research groups. He was one of the first researchers to explore nonlinear dynamic phenomena for frequency bandwidth enhancement in energy harvesting, specifically by using a bistable Duffing oscillator with electromechanical coupling, namely the piezomagnetoelastic energy harvester.[6] His early energy harvesting work also included the use of aeroelastic flutter to enable scalable airflow energy harvesting through piezoaeroelastic systems.[7] His collaborative work on flexoelectricity[8] established a framework to exploit strain gradient-induced polarization in elastic dielectrics for enhanced electricity generation at the nanoscale.[9]
Erturk's group also contributed to smart material-based bio-inspired aquatic locomotion by developing the first untethered piezoelectric swimmer[10] and explored fluid-structure interaction via underwater actuation of piezoelectric cantilevers.[11][12] Their recent efforts resulted in multifunctional piezoelectric concepts for bio-inspired swimming and energy harvesting.[13]
Another research topic explored by his group is wireless power and data transfer using ultrasound waves.[14][15] More recently, Erturk and collaborators investigated the leveraging of guided waves in cranial and transcranial ultrasound.[16][17][18]
Erturk and collaborators also explored metamaterials and phononic crystals for elastic and acoustic wave phenomena. They developed and experimentally tested some of the first 2D elastic wave[19][20] and 3D bulk acoustic wave[21][22] lenses, locally resonant metamaterial-based structural theories and experiments,[23] including programmable piezoelectric metamaterials and metastructures.[24]
Awards
- Elected Fellow of SPIE (2020)[25]
- SEM James W. Dally Young Investigator Award (2020)[26]
- Elected Fellow of ASME (2017)[27]
- ASME C.D. Mote Jr. Early Career Award (2017)[28][29]
- TASSA Young Scholar Award - Junior Faculty Level (2016)[30]
- ASME Gary Anderson Early Achievement Award (2015)[31][32][33]
- ASME Energy Harvesting Best Paper Award (2015, 2017)[34]
- National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2013)[35]
- Liviu Librescu Memorial Scholarship (2008)
- METU Parlar Foundation Thesis of the Year Award (2006)