Ilan M. L. Upfal

Civil and Environmental Engineering, MIT

Cambridge, MA

I am a PhD student in the Howland Lab at MIT. I apply first-principles insights from fluid mechanics to design tommorrow’s energy systems. My work includes experiments, modeling and optimization.

I am passionate about making the world a better place through the design of efficient, sustainable, and affordable energy systems. I am also motivated by building environments which can support high-quality education and mentoring to train the next generation of innovators.

news

Mar 20, 2025	Bio-inspired compliant membrane wings increase the power production of tidal turbines My paper based on my undergraduate work on the aerodynamics of compliant membrane wings was published today in Physical Review Fluids and was recognized as an Editor’s Suggestion. Compliant membrane wings, inspired by the wings of flying mammals such as bats, generate increased lift compared with rigid airfoils and exhibit a delayed onset of stall. When oscillating in a fluid flow such as rivers or tides, a compliant membrane wing can extract more power than a rigid airfoil. Our study investigates the performance of the compliant membrane turbine design across the full kinematic parameter range in addition to comparing the lift and power of compliant and inextensible membrane wings.
Feb 25, 2025	Best Poster Award at CEE Research Symposium I recieved the Best Poster Award at the Annual CEE Research Symposium this week. It was an excellent opportunity to share my work on wind farm control co-design with my collegues in the CEE department. We’re demonstrating how co-optimizing advanced wind farm controls with the wind farm layout can reduce the footprint of wind farms, reduce farm costs and improve wind energy profitability. Thank you to everyone who joined and for all of the great conversations and questions!

Mar 20, 2025

Bio-inspired compliant membrane wings increase the power production of tidal turbines

My paper based on my undergraduate work on the aerodynamics of compliant membrane wings was published today in Physical Review Fluids and was recognized as an Editor’s Suggestion. Compliant membrane wings, inspired by the wings of flying mammals such as bats, generate increased lift compared with rigid airfoils and exhibit a delayed onset of stall. When oscillating in a fluid flow such as rivers or tides, a compliant membrane wing can extract more power than a rigid airfoil. Our study investigates the performance of the compliant membrane turbine design across the full kinematic parameter range in addition to comparing the lift and power of compliant and inextensible membrane wings.

Feb 25, 2025

Best Poster Award at CEE Research Symposium

I recieved the Best Poster Award at the Annual CEE Research Symposium this week. It was an excellent opportunity to share my work on wind farm control co-design with my collegues in the CEE department. We’re demonstrating how co-optimizing advanced wind farm controls with the wind farm layout can reduce the footprint of wind farms, reduce farm costs and improve wind energy profitability. Thank you to everyone who joined and for all of the great conversations and questions!

selected publications

Editor’s Suggestion

Shape-morphing membranes augment the performance of oscillating foil energy harvesting turbines

Ilan M.L. Upfal, Yuanhang Zhu, Eric Handy-Cardenas, and 1 more author

Physical Review Fluids, 2025

Bib

@article{upfal2025prf,
  title = {Shape-morphing membranes augment the performance of oscillating foil energy harvesting turbines},
  author = {Upfal, Ilan M.L. and Zhu, Yuanhang and Handy-Cardenas, Eric and Breuer, Kenneth},
  journal = {Physical Review Fluids},
  year = {2025},
  publisher = {American Physical Society},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.10.034702},
}