Outreach activities
Public engagement event at Politecnico di Milano during the Festival Internazionale dell’Ingegneria
On September 19, 2026, the Training42Phase Doctoral Network hosted a public engagement event at Politecnico di Milano during the Festival Internazionale dell’Ingegneria, introducing high-school students to thermodynamics and two-phase flows. Led by Professor Giacomo Persico, the session began in the turbomachinery laboratory with a live cavitation demonstration, showing how vapour bubbles form in room-temperature water via localized pressure drops.
This observation served as a unifying physical thread for presentations by three doctoral candidates: Saeed Keisari introduced Organic Rankine Cycles for waste-heat recovery, Salman Shahid explained supercritical CO₂ power cycles for high-temperature nuclear and solar energy conversion, and Ahmed Harbi demonstrated how controlled two-phase flow in CO₂ ejectors enhances heat-pump efficiency for domestic decarbonisation. Using tailored non-technical slides and original illustrations, the engaging activity successfully connected basic laboratory phenomena to advanced, sustainable energy technologies.
Online Presentation to Eramsus Mundus Master Students
Ahmed Harbi (DC5) delivered an online keynote presentation to the Decentralised Smart Energy Systems (DENSYS) Erasmus Mundus Master's Programme on 1 September 2026. During the session, he introduced the Training42Phase project, presented his current research activities, and shared insights from his academic journey. The presentation concluded with an interactive Q&A session, providing participants with the opportunity to discuss doctoral research, international collaboration, and career development pathways.
Poster Presentation at KCORC Event
Doctoral candidate Saeed Jamali Keisari, based at Exergy, presented a poster at a KCORC education and training event in September 2026 at Technical University of Munich, Germany. The poster disseminated the project’s work on pump-stage design and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) optimisation for organic Rankine cycle (ORC) systems.
The presentation highlighted design and optimisation approaches intended to improve the reliability, efficiency and operational robustness of ORC pump stages. It provided an opportunity to share ongoing research with fellow researchers, doctoral candidates, academic experts and professionals from the ORC and heat-pump industries.
ASME Turbo Expo 2026 Student and Early Career Engineer Mixing Event
The Student and Early Career Engineer Mixing Event, organized as part of ASME Turbo Expo 2026, provided an excellent opportunity to connect with students, early-career engineers, researchers, and industry professionals working in the field of turbomachinery. The event facilitated the exchange of perspectives on technical research, innovation, and career development, while also offering a platform to showcase the Training42Phase project. Through engaging discussions and networking activities, participants expanded their professional connections and strengthened collaboration opportunities within the turbomachinery community.
The Great Exhibition Road Festival 2026
An interactive exhibition stall titled "Good Vibrations" was showcased at The Great Exhibition Road Festival 2026 on 6-7 June 2026. The stall featured a range of hands-on demonstrations and interactive exhibits designed to introduce visitors to the fundamentals of vibrations and structural dynamics. The outreach activity attracted a diverse audience of students, families, and members of the public, contributing to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) engagement and increasing awareness of vibration engineering and its real-world applications. Alex Mathew (DC7), associated with the Training42Phase project at Imperial College London, actively contributed to the event and managed the stall on 7 June 2026.
ASME Turbo Expo 2026, June 15-19, 2026, Milan,Italy
Papers presented:
- "Extension of the method of characteristics for the design of supersonic stators in two-phase turbines", Authored by Andrea Cioffi, Simone Parisi, Roberto Agromayor, Fredrik Haglind
- "Experimental and numerical analysis of condensation effects on the aerodynamic performance of a supercritical carbon dioxide compressor", Authored by Jiawei He, Roberto Agromayor, Alberto Bergamin, Seungkyu Lee, Gihyeon Kim, Jeong Ik Lee, Fredrik Haglind
The event provided an excellent opportunity for the doctoral candidates to connect with the international turbomachinery community and discuss the latest developments in the field. These interactions encouraged knowledge exchange, inspired new research directions, and strengthened collaborative links across academia and industry.
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Presentation at the 44th International Modal Analysis Conference (IMAC XLIV 2026)
Doctoral candidate Alex Mathew, one of our PhD researchers at Imperial College London, successfully presented his research at the 44th International Modal Analysis Conference & Exposition (IMAC XLIV) by the Society for Experimental Mechanics (SEM), 19-22 January 2026 at Palm Springs, California.
Alex Mathew presented “The Impact of Leading-Edge Erosion on the Dynamic Response of Blade-like Structures” co-authored with Prof. Christoph Schwingshackl, Imperial College London.
Presentation at the 21st Multiphase Flow Conference and Short course
Doctoral candidate Andrés Vignolo Cortabarría, one of our PhD researchers at Imperial College London, successfully presented his research at the 21st Multiphase Flow Conference and Short course, 10-15 November 2025 in Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) in Germany.
Andrés Vignolo Cortabarría presented "On the importance of initial conditions for high-speed droplet impact CFD simulations", co-authored with Prof. David Nowell, Imperial College London and Prof. Giacomo Persico, Politecnico di Milano.
ASME Turbo Expo 2025, June 16–20, 2025, Memphis, Tennessee
Papers presented:
- "Advancing Turbomachinery Meanline Modeling and Optimization with Automatic Differentiation", Authored by Srinivas Diwanji, Lasse Borg Anderson, Roberto Agromayor, and Fredrik Haglind
- "A Hyperbolic One-Dimensional Model for Two-Phase Flows in Converging-Diverging Nozzles", Authored by Andrea Cioffi, Alberto Bergamin, Roberto Agromayor, and Fredrik Haglind
The doctoral candidates met turbomachinery enthusiasts from all over the world and exchanged interesting ideas. This interaction stimulated meaningful collaborations and contributed to the advancement of ongoing research initiatives.
