Dr.

Turaj Ashuri
Mechanical Engineering Professor
UTD Richardson, TX
9/25/15
2:00 PM

Interview Assessment #1
My first interview was one with a professor at UTD who focused on
wind energy. This interview was actually a joint interview with another
classmate who is studying mechanical engineering. The interview was at
UTD and was with Dr. Ashuri. Dr. Ashuri has focused most of his research in
the recent years towards renewable energy. Dr. Ashuri has been through 12
years of post high school education and now works as a professor. He began
in Iran where he got his bachelors in mechanical engineering and then later
focused his work to aerospace engineering during his master's work, also in
Iran. He went on to get his PhD in Netherlands at the Delft University of
Technology. Most recently Dr. Ashuri was a postdoctoral fellow and the
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. All this education had made Dr. Ashuri a
very respectable professor who is trying to push the boundaries of wind
farming and trying to promote awareness about global warming and its
impeding side effects.
When me and my classmate, Julie, walked in for the interview, Dr.
Ashuri was busy with a meeting. He promptly introduced to one of his grad
students Chandra. Chandra was in his second year of his masters research
and had moved from India to work on his research. When we first started
talking with Chandra, he told us how he ended up working with Dr. Ashuri
and how he ended up researching wind farms. Chandra said he didn't really
have a direction when he came to America, he had done his bachelors in
engineering but didn't really know what to do with it. So he chose to pursue a
masters in hopes that he can find what was right for him. He stumbled upon
Dr. Ashuri and found an interest in wind farming and wind energy. Chandra
also said that the reason he chose Dr. Ashuri was because something he had

Dr. Turaj Ashuri

Mechanical Engineering Professor
UTD Richardson, TX
9/25/15
2:00 PM

told him. It is a bit hard to explain with words so I tried to show with pictures
below.

Dr. Turaj Ashuri

Mechanical Engineering Professor
UTD Richardson, TX
9/25/15
2:00 PM

Looking at the picture there are are 4 circles in which it is a progression

from the left most to the right most to the bottom circle. The first circle
shows the boundaries of current knowledge. The second shows the
knowledge with your knowledge gained from research added. The research
you do is pushing the boundary of your respective area which creates a
bulge in that area. The 3rd circle shows other researchers pushing the
boundaries in their respective fields. This creates a circle of knowledge with
many bulges where the boundary has been pushed. Over time, research will
have been done in every field possible to where all the bulges round out to
form a larger round circle of knowledge. This circle is larger meaning the
overall knowledge had grown. Dr. Ashuri explained that if you manage to
even just be that one bulge on the circle expanding the knowledge of just
one topic, you have done your part for the field. This explanation as a form of

Dr. Turaj Ashuri

Mechanical Engineering Professor
UTD Richardson, TX
9/25/15
2:00 PM

motivation is amazing and makes sense. This explanation is very

inspirational to me and makes me want to go out and do my part.
Chandra also explained the basics of wind turbines and how they work
and function as well as some of the problems or ways to make it more
efficient and the research he is doing for his thesis. Chandra explained to us
the main problems with wind farming, mostly about wake. There are 4 main
models for explaining wake, which is basically the reduction of wind velocity
behind a turbine. But only 2 models are of interest. Chandras thesis involves
mostly the Jensen model, the more accurate one, and he is working on
creating a program which maps the wake on a graph depending on various
variable he feeds in such as wind speed. After about 45 minutes of
explanation, we watched a video on global warming until Dr. Ashuri was
available.

Dr. Turaj Ashuri

Mechanical Engineering Professor
UTD Richardson, TX
9/25/15
2:00 PM

When we met with Dr. Ashuri, he told us about the impending nature of
global warming and how the work he does is trying to curb that. He also told
us some more about his past and how he ended up an aerospace engineer
and a professor. It turns out that he actually didn't start out as an engineer
and was stuck on wanting to be a doctor until his friend got him interested.
After that he just fell in love with teaching and trying to change the world in
his small way. He also expressed his concern with the long hours he worked
and his concern with not having enough time to spend with his young child.
He said the hours were long and left little time for other activities, especially
time for himself. Last of all he explained that engineering and teaching was
not a career for those who wanted money. You could be a dentist and make
5x the money in half the time of school. He said people should do
engineering for the passion and the potential to change the world. His
speech was a little weird as it sounded as if e was warning is away from
engineering but I understood that he meant that engineering come with its
drawbacks but it is ultimately worth it if you enjoy it and are passionate.
Overall, this interview was amazing for my first one. Both Dr. Ashuri
and Chandra were extremely kind and helpful. It was obvious that both of
them were very passionate about what they are doing. I learnt a lot from this
interview including a whole another aspect of aerospace engineering
involving on earth land based engineering in contrast to the vehicular
engineering I was used to. From this interview, Dr. Ashuri gave a couple of
pieces of advice, including the explanation I show above. He told us to make
sure to research as much as possible. If there is an opportunity to research
then it is worth your time to take it. And secondly, make sure to learn how to
code as it will be one of the most helpful things you can learn before and
during your college career. I am very thankful this interview and made me
look forward to every interview after this one.