About me
Dr. Fafalis is a member of the faculty at the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics of Drexel University. He specializes in computational modeling and simulations of mechanical engineering systems using numerical methods and machine learning. He has been partnering with local private sector organizations to develop machine learning models for condition monitoring and fault detection in manufacturing processes. Dr. Fafalis is also the Academic Advisor to the Drexel Formula SAE--a student-run organization that produces a high-performance race car that annually competes in the Formula SAE competition organized by the Society of Automotive Engineers; he advises the team on the mechanical design of various components of the vehicle using computational modeling, data analytics, and machine learning. Dr. Fafalis completed his doctoral studies in Computational Mechanics at Columbia University, where he developed multiscale mathematical and computational models to predict the behavior of synthetic materials under extreme stress conditions. During his postdoctoral fellowship in Mechanical Engineering at Columbia University, he worked on a biomedical engineering project to design high precision micro-needles for the diagnosis and treatment of hearing loss disorders. Specifically, he developed numerical models and computer simulations of the diffusion of therapeutic agents delivered by microneedles into the cochlea. The models were used to explain experimental measurements from MRI and CT-scans, for which rigorous statistical models were developed and interpreted. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Patras in Greece and a MS in Automation Systems from the National Technical University of Athens in Greece.
