Dr. Dixia FAN 
范迪夏 博士
Assistant Professor, PI, Westlake University
Email: fandixia@westlake.edu.cn
Research Scientist, MIT Sea Grant Program, 2021
Assistant Professor, Queen’s University, Canada, 2021
PDF, MIT Sea Grant College Program, 2020
Ph.D. MIT, 2019
M.Sc., MIT, 2016
B.Sc., SJTU, 2013
Research Interests
5. Intelligent, Informational, Integrated, Interdisciplinary Fluid-Structure Interaction (i⁴-FSI).
4. Bio-Inspired Design for Marine Surface and Underwater Vehicles.
3. Vortical Flow Sensing and Control.
2. 2D Assembly/Soft Materials for Aero/Aquatic Application.
1. Teaching Method and Philosophy in STEM Education.
Editor Roles
1. Editorial Board Member, Micro- and Nanoelectromechanical Systems, Frontiers in Mechanical Engineering (2021 - )
2. Guest Editor, Physics of Fluids (2021 - 2023)
3. Session Organizer, International Society of Ocean and Petroleum Engineer (ISOPE).
4. Guest Editor, Ocean Engineering (2023 - )
5. Junior Editor, Journal of Hydrodynamics (2023 - )
Shot Bio
Dixia Fan established the i⁴-FSI Lab (Intelligent, Informational, Integrated, Interdisciplinary Fluid-Structure Interaction Laboratory) at Westlake University and Queen's University. The group focuses on physics-informed machine learning in experimental vortical flow control and sensing for both fundamental understandings of fluid-structure interaction problems as well as for marine and aerospace engineering applications. Experiments are conducted both in controlled lab environments (see the Facilities section) as well as in the field (both in vivo and at large environmental scales).
Dixia obtained his PhD (2019) and MSc (2016) from MIT Mechanical Engineering and BSc (2013) from Shanghai Jiao Tong University Naval Architecture, Ocean and Civil Engineering. Then He spent one year as a post-doctorate associate and then a research scientist at MIT Sea Grant College Program, where he founded the world-first intelligent towing tank (ITT). He then joined Queen's University as an Assistant Professor in January 2021. In February 2022, Dixia joined Westlake University as an Assistant Professor (full time). He was awarded multiple fellowships and prizes, including the 2019 Energy fellow at MIT Energy Initiative, the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) research fellow, the MIT de Florez prize, the Nico van Wingen prize from the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and so forth.
Apart from his research, Dixia is passionate about various STEM education outreach and has established numerous student and teacher training programs in the USA and China.
