Ilan M. L. Upfal

Civil and Environmental Engineering, MIT

Cambridge, MA

I am a Ph.D. student in the Howland Lab. I apply first-principles insights from fluid mechanics to design tomorrow’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.

Outside the lab, I like to row on the Charles River with the MIT Rowing Club, go for long bike rides, and hike up in the White Mountains!

selected publications

Editor’s Suggestion

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

I. M. L. Upfal, Y. Zhu, E. Handy-Cardenas, and 1 more author

Physical Review Fluids, 2025

DOI Bib

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

An analytical model for rotors in confined flow across operating regimes

I. M. L. Upfal, K. J. McClure, K. S. Heck, and 4 more authors

Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 2026

To appear

arXiv Bib

@article{upfal2026analytical,
  title = {An analytical model for rotors in confined flow across operating regimes},
  author = {Upfal, I. M. L. and McClure, K. J. and Heck, K. S. and Pieris, S. and Kurelek, J. W. and Hultmark, M. and Howland, M. F.},
  year = {2026},
  journal = {Journal of Fluid Mechanics},
  eprint = {2603.06895},
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  primaryclass = {physics.flu-dyn},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.06895},
  note = {To appear}
}