Dr. Dixia Fan, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, joined the faculty in January and brings with him a new seminar series which is successfully expanding the network of AI and Bio-inspiration in fluid mechanics researchers.

The Intelligent and Bio-Inspired Mechanics (IBiM) Seminar series debuted in October 2020, just months before Dr. Fan join the Queen’s Faculty of Engineering, and it has already amassed a nearly 500-strong mailing list. “We would like to build a platform for fluid researcher as well as give undergraduate and graduate student at Queen’s a chance to see what the state-of-art fluid research is about,” he said.

Returning from a hiatus the last few months, the seminar series resumes February 3. See the full list of upcoming speakers.

IBiM logo credit: Dr. Giovanni Iacobello

“It started with a conversation between me and Prof. David Rival,” he said. “We tested the idea last semester and the seminar was well received. I maintained this mailing list, which now has over 470 people registered.”

Co-organizers of the IBiM series include four professors at Queens:

Dr. Dixia Fan (Assistant Professor, Queen’s University)
Dr. Qiang Zhong (Postdoc, University of Virginia)
Dr. Giovanni Iacobello (Postdoc, Queen’s University)
Dr. Sicheng He (Postdoc, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor)
Dr. Kai Zhang (Research Scientist, Queen’s University)
Dr. David Rival (Associate Professor, Queen’s University)

The seminars will be held every Wednesday from February 3 through June 2 via Zoom. Eighteen speakers have been invited and will present their state-of-art research works. The complete list of dates, speakers, and topics is available at the i4 Fluid Structure Interaction website, which is also overseen by Dr. Fan and also includes links to all the previous presentations in the series.

“Everyone is welcome,” he said. “The majority of the researchers focus on fluid-related problems. However, there are also researchers talking about robotics, material, which has the great potential to be applied in the new fluid applications.”