Serkan Solmaz

Serkan Solmaz is an early stage researcher in MSCA-ENT project Charming at KU Leuven, Belgium. The main concern of the present research is to apply an immersion-based approach in the development of intensified chemical processes using external energy forms herewith related numerical models and experimental databases for educational purpose (ESR 6). His ultimate tasks through this position might be gone over as follows:

• Applying computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools and related databases for chemical-model based AR/VR design
• Developing AR/VR concepts, scenarios and paper prototypes for a sono- and photo-reactor case
• Generating generic guidelines for the integration of reactor models in an AR/VR environment
• Leveraging playful e-learning prototypes for secondary-school and university students

Serkan obtained his BSc degree in Mechanical Engineering at Istanbul Technical University (2014, Turkey) within a senior year specialization in the field of thermofluids. Having been interested in both industry and academy, he participated a joint MSc degree in Thermofluids at Istanbul Technical University (2014-2016, Turkey) within a collaboration with Arçelik A.Ş. which is an international household appliance manufacturer from Turkey. Going through this joint position, he perennially worked as an R&D engineer at Central R&D Fluid Dynamics Department of Arçelik A.Ş., and concurrently completed a master thesis based on a joint master project. He spent two years on the master thesis “Household Appliance Integrated Heat Pump Atmospheric Water Generator Design” and several interdisciplinary projects both in academy and industry. Computational fluid dynamics, thermodynamics and heat transfer are the major topics that he had specialized during this program. The collaboration was granted by Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (Tubitak).

His thorough curiosity headed Serkan into the academy seeking for an appropriate position. In order to amplify his academic knowledge in the field of fluid dynamics, he attended the research master program (master-after-master degree – MaM) given by the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (VKI) starting from October 2017 (Sint-Genesius-Rode, Belgium). He graduated from VKI in June 2018 and carried out post-master-studies for a couple of months more afterward.  During MaM program, he has taken several courses and lecture series related computational and experimental fluid dynamics, and also completed his second master thesis entitled as Boiling Regime Detection with Ultrasonic Technique for Space Application. He has issued one conference paper, two journal articles and five patent applications so far covering all studies he has had. CFD, aeroacoustics, and ultrasound technique are the topics that he mostly indulged in and specialized during MaM degree. Above all, he is fond of doing numerical simulations (so-called CFD), reading about natural sciences, and generating connotations to explain physical phenomena. He has intentionally paid attention to share the experience he obtained up to now by social media accounts and his personal blog.

His primary research interests are CFD, interactive numerical simulations, and inter-related fields implying multiphysics. He has been headed to the present project which is thoroughly “Charming” so as to pick up to paces rapidly on the way of being an entrepreneur exclusively backed up by the academy.