Dr. Nana Obayashi

Biography

Nana Obayashi is an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Aerospace Engineering Department at the Tandon School of Engineering of New York University. She holds a Ph.D. in Mechanics from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and has completed her B.S. and M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her expertise lies in design optimization for robots that exploit soft body-fluid interactions, focusing on developing bio-inspired soft robots that can interact with and exploit fluids to exhibit intelligent behaviors in natural environments. Obayashi's research incorporates methods such as large-scale experimentation and data-driven design, and she has worked in the aerospace and automotive industries, contributing to vehicle performance optimization and aerodynamic analysis. Her professional background includes positions as a Performance Engineer at Honda Aircraft Company and as an Aerodynamics Engineer at Volvo Group Trucks Technology. She was also a Research Assistant at TU Braunschweig, Institute of Jet Propulsion and Turbomachinery. Obayashi is a recipient of the Amelia Earhart Fellowship and the RSS Pioneer Award.

Research Interests

Experience