Our Team

Balaji Panchapakesan

Director
Small Systems Laboratory


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Sadegh Mehdi Aghaei

Post-doctoral fellow

Dr. Sadegh Mehdi Aghaei is a postdoctoral fellow at SSL. He received his MSc degree from Sharif University of Technology, Iran, completing his studies with a PhD in Electrical Engineering at Florida International University.

His previous research was mainly focused on the modeling and experimental studies to elucidate the properties of 2D nanomaterials and their implementation in gas nanosensors. His research interest lies in engineering nanomaterials for their applications in micro and nanofabrication, energy storage devices, and biotechnology. His major work at SSL involved the development of advanced nanomaterial-based chips for capture, characterization, and study of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in peripheral blood of cancer patients.  Dr. Aghaei has co-authored over 20 peer-reviewed articles.  Prior to joining WPI, he worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at FIU.


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Aref Aasi

Graduate student

Aref Aasi is a Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. student. He received his B.S. degree from Tabriz University, Iran, and M.S. degree from Shahid Beheshti University, Iran. He joined SSL in 2019, his research interests span across Bio-sensors, Low-Dimensional Nano-materials, Health Monitoring, Condition Monitoring, and Neural Networks.