About Me
Hello, I am Herman Mak (麥翰文).
I am a fluid dynamics engineer with a doctoral-level research background in theoretical and numerical fluid mechanics and aeroelasticity at École polytechnique and ONERA - The French Aerospace Lab. I am deeply interested in uncovering the fascinating secrets of turbulence, aerodynamics, and their interaction with transportation (ground/air/space), infrastructure, or any other parts of our built environment. I also have a wider interest in the social sciences and how the human world works. I therefore like to apply creative, critical, interdisciplinary, detailed thinking in everything I approach. Please find below a short overview of my education and experience so far, or alternatively view my full CV here.
Language spoken: English (native), Cantonese (native), Mandarin (C2), French (B2-C1).
CFD/Engineering Skills
CAD (SolidWorks/Fusion 360)
Other Skills
MS Office/iWorks (incl. Excel)
Hobbies
Modern & classical concerts
Partner dancing (salsa/bachata)
Doctoral Researcher/Engineer in Fluid Mechanics
École polytechnique & ONERA - The French Aerospace Lab
11/2021 — 11/2024
I conducted doctoral-level research in theoretical and numerical fluid mechanics and aeroelasticity on the Improvement of Aeroelastic Models for Linear Gust Response Prediction for aerofoils in subsonic and supersonic flow using resolvent analysis. This project was supervised by Dr Olivier Marquet (ONERA-DAAA), with Dr Lutz Lesshafft (École polytechnique-LadHyX) as my Directeur de Thèse. The project was partly funded by DGAC and ONERA with collaborators at Airbus. We wrote and presented a peer reviewed conference proceeding titled Resolvent Analysis for Aerofoil Response to Optimal Gusts at FIV2024 in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil on 2-5 July, 2024. (link).
During this time, I was also an assistant teacher for courses at École polytechnique including Aerodynamics, Sports Aerodynamics, and Physics Lab modules. Guiding students in CFD and aerodynamics/physics experiments, and evaluating their work.
MSc Advanced Aeronautical Engineering
Imperial College London
10/2020 — 10/2021
I received a grade of Distinction after having completed modules on a broad range of topics related to aeronautical engineering including aerodynamics (including turbulence, flow control, aeroservoelasicity, compressible flows, and CFD), structural dynamics, control theory, AI, spaceflight mechanics, aircraft design, and airworthiness.
Furthermore, I conducted a research project to predict the net drag reduction that can be achieved by positioning an undulating sinusoidal wavy wall at an oblique angle to the flow direction to emulate spanwise forcing (link); this idea was first proposed by my supervisor in Chernyshenko (2013).
BA&Sc How do fluids affect vehicles?
Quest University Canada
09/2016 — 05/2020
At Quest, after completing a set of foundation courses, each student chooses a Question to focus their third and fourth years. I chose investigated the above Question "How do fluids affect vehicles?" To this end, I self studied fluid dynamics, took classes in physics and maths, and completed a final project based on my research project at the University of Southampton.
Quest is an innovative liberal arts and sciences university, where courses with no more than 20 students are taken one at a time in sequential, intensive, immersive month-long blocks of inquiry based learning, promoting collaboration with peers and professors in group/individual projects.
During my time there I also worked part-time as a special events crew for my first two years, and a peer-tutor for my latter two years.
Visiting Research Student
University of Southampton
10/2019 — 01/2020
I conducted particle image velocimetry under the guidance of Dr Christina Vanderwel of cambered and symmetric aerofoils at different angles of attack in low Reynolds number flow in a water tunnel to observe vortex shedding and coherent structures from the separated flow. The data were used to complete my final project (Keystone) for Quest University Canada.
Education Technology Intern
Independent Schools Foundation Academy
06/2018 — 08/2018
I managed the school's online learning platform during an unexpected staff vacancy by taking the initiative to learn HTML, Javascript, and MySQL to help the transition from one school year to the next. As a result, I was able to perform my tasks and user requests much quicker, culminating in a project to automate a yearly process, which put the team I worked with weeks ahead of schedule.