Team

ALI BONAKDAR, Ph.D.
Assoc. Professor

AMTL DIRECTOR

Bio:

Dr. Ali Bonakdar currently holds the position of Associate Professor within the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science as well as the Energy Production and Infrastructure Center (EPIC) at UNC Charlotte. Prior to joining UNC Charlotte in August 2023, he has been working at Siemens Energy Canada, in the gas turbine engines division, where he oversaw advanced manufacturing research, with a particular emphasis on additive manufacturing. In addition to his industrial role, Dr. Bonakdar has served as an Adjunct Professor at several esteemed institutions, including Concordia University, University of Waterloo, Western University, and École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS). He has taken the lead on numerous collaborative research projects bridging the gap between industry and academia.

Dr. Bonakdar holds a wealth of experience spanning over 25 years, encompassing various facets of mechanical engineering and advanced manufacturing. Throughout his career, he has worked in world-class laboratories and high-tech aerospace and energy industries such as Rolls-Royce and Siemens. Dr. Bonakdar earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Concordia University and extended his academic endeavors as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at McGill University. Throughout his career, Dr. Bonakdar has made significant contributions to areas of advanced manufacturing and additive manufacturing, resulting in numerous publications of research findings in reputable journals and conferences as well as patents.

MARJAN MOLAVI-ZARANDI, Ph.D.
Assoc. Professor

AMTL Co-Director

Bio:

Dr. Marjan Molavi-Zarandi holds the position of Research Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science at UNC Charlotte. Before joining UNC Charlotte in 2023, she served as a Research Scientist at the Automotive and Surface Transportation Centre of the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) in Montreal from 2016. Following her doctoral studies in Mechanical Engineering at McGill University in 2013, she began a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Bombardier Aerospace, focusing on topology optimization for laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) additive manufacturing. In 2015, she joined Siemens Canada as a Postdoctoral Fellow, enhancing her expertise in advanced manufacturing and developing a high-fidelity finite element model for simulating the LPBF process. Leveraging over ten years of experience in numerical modeling and advanced manufacturing simulation, Dr. Molavi-Zarandi’s research focuses on advancing numerical modeling techniques for cutting-edge manufacturing processes, including LPBF, direct energy deposition, fused filament fabrication, thermoplastic composite forming, and design/topology optimization for additive manufacturing.