Dr. Rafic Ajaj is an Associate Professor at the Department of Aerospace Engineering of Khalifa University of Science and Technology (KUST). He joined KUST in August 2019. Rafic is also a Visiting Academic in Aerospace Structures at the Aerodynamics and Flight Mechanics Group of the University of Southampton, UK. His research is mainly focused on morphing wings, aircraft/UAVs design, flight mechanics, aeroelasticity, and adaptive structures. In 2015, Rafic was awarded a Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) Industrial Secondment, which allowed him to work for one year at Airbus UK to develop a novel actuation system for folding wingtips used for load alleviation on large transport aircraft. A patent with Airbus UK was granted (US11203410B2) on this work. Rafic is also a fellow of the Higher Education Academy in the UK since 2015 and a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) since 2020. In 2009, he received the Boeing UK Prize for the best master’s research project in aerospace engineering. He also received the Faculty of Engineering Award for the Most Outstanding Student in Integrated Aerospace Systems Design at the University of Bristol in 2009.
Research Keywords & Expertise
Aircraft Design
Aircraft Structures
morphing aircraft
UAVs
Adaptive/smart structu...
Acoustic fatigue
Short Biography
Dr. Rafic Ajaj is an Associate Professor at the Department of Aerospace Engineering of Khalifa University of Science and Technology (KUST). He joined KUST in August 2019. Rafic is also a Visiting Academic in Aerospace Structures at the Aerodynamics and Flight Mechanics Group of the University of Southampton, UK. His research is mainly focused on morphing wings, aircraft/UAVs design, flight mechanics, aeroelasticity, and adaptive structures. In 2015, Rafic was awarded a Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) Industrial Secondment, which allowed him to work for one year at Airbus UK to develop a novel actuation system for folding wingtips used for load alleviation on large transport aircraft. A patent with Airbus UK was granted (US11203410B2) on this work. Rafic is also a fellow of the Higher Education Academy in the UK since 2015 and a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) since 2020. In 2009, he received the Boeing UK Prize for the best master’s research project in aerospace engineering. He also received the Faculty of Engineering Award for the Most Outstanding Student in Integrated Aerospace Systems Design at the University of Bristol in 2009.
