Professor Seongkyu Lee

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
2104 Bainer Hall
University of California, Davis
Davis, CA 95616

Email: skulee at ucdavis.edu
Phone: (530) 752-4432

Research: Professor Lee’s research interests primarily lie in the fields of aerodynamics, aeroacoustics, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). His research has a broad application range, including fixed-wing aircraft, rotorcraft, wind energy, aircraft engines, and turbomachinery. Before joining UC Davis, Professor Lee spent five years working at the GE Global Research Center in New York.

Currently, students at the Computational Flow Physics and Aeroacoustics (CFPA) Lab are working on a range of exciting projects, including rotorcraft CFD and aeroacoustics, rotor broadband noise predictions, dynamic stall, trailing edge noise, and computational aeroacoustics. To learn more about our lab’s research, please visit our website. 

In addition to his research and teaching activities, Professor Lee also serves as a founding faculty advisor for the Vertical Flight Society (VFS) UC Davis Student Chapter and a faculty advisor for the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) undergraduate club at UC Davis.

Research and Lab Highlights

1. October, 2024: My interview about Air Taxis was featured in The Washington Post. 
2. April, 2024: Jessica Shum (PhD student) was awarded the Vertical Flight Foundation (VFF) scholarship from the Vertical Flight Society. 
3. March, 2024: Prof. Lee published an invited book review of “Aeroacoustics of Low Mach Number Flows: Fundamentals, Analysis and Measurement” in the International Journal of Aeroacoustics.
4. March, 2024: Prof. Lee delivered an invited talk at NASA Advanced Modeling and Simulation (AMS) Seminars.
5. October, 2023: We were selected to receive a new Next Level Research Award and a research grant from UC Davis COE. 
6. June, 2023: We have received a research grant from Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL) for research related to dynamic stall in harsh environments. 
7. December, 2022: A release of a new version of UCD-QuietFly and contract with Supernal were featured in Aerospace America’s 2022 Year in Review.
8. August, 2022: Our lab students’ recent awards were featured in the news.
9. June, 2022: Prof. Lee and Donghun Kang (PhD student) have been invited to participate in the Center for Turbulence Research (CTR) Summer Program at Stanford.
10. April, 2022: Our lab’s rotorcraft research has been featured on the FieldView website.
11. April, 2022: We have received a new two-year grant from Supernal for UAM aircraft noise research.
12. April, 2022: CITRIS featured our Caltrans project on advanced air mobility digitization.
13. February, 2022: We have received a new two-year research grant from Caltrans (California Department of Transportation) about advanced air mobility digitization. 
14. January, 2022: Prof. Lee has been elected an Associate Fellow of AIAA. 
15. November, 2021: UC Davis College of Engineering featured our lab’s research in urban air mobility aircraft noise.
16. November, 2021: We have received a new five-year research grant from US Army through Vertical Lift Research Center of Excellence (VLRCOE).
17. October, 2021: Kevin Li (PhD student) was featured in MAE website as student spotlight.
18. July, 2021: Prof. Lee interviewed with Lifewire about flying car.
19. July, 2021: Prof. Lee received the UC Davis Graduate Program Advising and Mentorship Award.
20. July, 2021: Prof. Lee interviewed with Bloomberg about eVTOL noise. 
21. June, 2021: Prof. Lee published a review paper about trailing-edge noise in Progress in Aerospace Sciences. 
22. May, 2021: Kevin Li (PhD student) and Prof. Lee received the best paper award in the Acoustic session at the VFS conference.
23. May, 2021: We have received a new three-year NASA ULI (University Leadership Initiative) grant about eVTOL aircraft design and optimization. 
24. March, 2021: Kevin Li and Jared Sagaga (PhD students) received the Vertical Flight Foundation (VFF) scholarships.
25. February, 2021: Prof. Lee interviewed with Capital Radio about the viability and challenges of off-shore wind energy. 
26. December, 2020: The development and accomplishment stories of UCD-QuietFly, which is a multi-rotor broadband noise prediction tool, were published in Aerospace America. 
27. December, 2020: Henry Jia (PhD student) gave an invited talk at NASA Ames about his PhD work on coaxial rotor noise and UAM rotor noise. 
28. May, 2020: We have received NSF XSEDE HPC computer resource for our research in aeroacoustics including drone rotor noise. 
29. April, 2020: Prof. Lee was featured in UC Davis Give Day movie. 
30. January, 2020: We have received a research grant from Hyundai Motor Company for urban air mobility aircraft noise research. 
31. August, 2018: Prof. Lee received the Hellman Fellowship Award, which is an early-career faculty award at UC Davis.
32. November, 2017: Henry Jia (PhD Student)’s VFF award was featured in Vertiflite magazine, which is a publication of AHS International.
33. July, 2017: Henry Jia (PhD Student) has received the Vertical Flight Foundation (VFF) scholarship from the American Helicopter Society (AHS).  
34. May, 2017: We have received a research grant from Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials for off-shore wind turbine research. 
35. June, 2016: We have received a research grant from the US Army for rotorcraft aeroacoustic research and joined a new Vertical Lift Research Center of Excellence (VLRCOE) team. 
36. January, 2016: Prof. Lee gave an invited talk at NASA Ames Research Center about acoustic scattering and nonlinear sound propagation.