Principal Investigator
Prof. Raphael St-Gelais joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Ottawa as an Assistant Professor in January 2018. From 2016 to 2017, he was a postdoctoral researcher with Sankey lab at McGill University (Physics), where he studied the interplay of mechanics and nanoscale thermal radiation in ultra low loss mechanical resonators. From 2013 to 2016, he was a postdoctoral researcher with Prof. Michal Lipson’s group at Cornell and Columbia Universities (Electrical Engineering), where he developed nanosystems for near-field radiative heat transfer control. From 2009 to 2012, he was a Ph.D. student at Polytechnique Montreal (Engineering Physics) where he worked on integrated optical sensors and MEMS-tunable optical components He was awarded the Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship in 2009 for his Ph.D. work at Polytechnique Montreal as well as postdoctoral fellowships from FRQNT and NSERC for his work at Cornell & Columbia.
Current group members
MASc Students
Dmytro Lomovtsev (Mechanical Engineering): 2020/01 –
co-supervision with Prof. Vincent Tabard-Cossa (Physics)
Project: Thermal cycling of silicon nitride nanopore membranes
Nikaya Snell (Mechanical Engineering): 2019/09 –
Project: Characterization of noise in micromechanical resonators
Gengyang (Albert) Mu (Mechanical Engineering): 2019/09 –
Project: Microfabrication of silicon nitride nanomechanical resonators with integrated actuators
Mathieu Giroux (Mechanical Engineering): 2019/09 –
OGS schorlaship awardee
Project: Near-field radiative heat transfer measurement platform
Chang Zhang (Mechanical Engineering): 2019/01 –
Project: Radiation sensing using high mechanical Q-factor micro resonators
Kevin Cheevers (Mechanical Engineering): 2018/10 –
Co-supervision with Prof. Matei Radulescu (Mechanical Engineering)
Project: Optical interferometer for localized shockwave structure characterization
Undergraduate students
Timothy Hodges (Mechanical Engineering): 2019/05 –
Summer Volunteer & Honors thesis student
Project: Accelerometers and gyroscopes sensing platform for training medical students in the manipulation of ultrasound imaging probes
Collaborators: Ross Prager MD, Prof. Scott Millington MD
Chloé Richard(Chemical Engineering): 2019/09 –
Part-time volunteer
Project: Silicon nitride membranes fabrication
Past group members
Postdocs
Huan Huang (Mechanical Engineering): 2018/11 – 2019/09
Project: Optical Characterization of directional MEMS microphones
Industrial collaborator: Soundskrit
MASc Students
Farbod Babaei (Electrical Engineering): 2018/06 – 2019/10
Project: Directional MEMS microphones
Industrial collaborator: Soundskrit
Undergraduate students
Ollaff Shilton (Electrical Engineering): 2019/08 – 2019/12
Visiting student from IME Brazil
Project: Driving electronics for MEMS oscillators
Albert Mu (Mechanical Engineering): 2019/01 – 2019/08
Chang Zhang (Mechanical Engineering): 2018/06 – 2019/12
Joao Bacelar (Electrical Engieering): 2018/08 – 2019/02
Visiting student from IME Brazil
Project: High-precision temperature sensing circuitry
Mathieu Giroux (Mechanical Engineering): 2019/01 – 2019/04
Théa Abdul Nour (Mechanical Engineeging): 2018/05 – 2019/04
Co-op & 4th year honors thesis student
Project: High-vacuum chamber design, assembly and characterization
Ras-Jeevan K. Obhi (Physics): 2018/05 – 2018/08
Project: High voltage amplifier for high vacuum piezoelectric actuators
Group Pictures



