The Case for Makers Against Covid19

Stay Calm and Keep Building

 Posted on March 21, 2020  |  5 minutes  |  1058 words  |  

In the fight against Covid19, as an individual you can help on many fronts. You can help find a cure & vaccine. You can help inform the public and policy makers so they can take better public health decisions. You can help healthcare workers and hospitals treat the infected patients. At the very least you can help by being a concerned law abiding citizen. Now, if you have makers skills, you can help in ways no one else can. [Read More]
makers 

Lessons on Giving Workshops

 Posted on February 19, 2020  |  1 minutes  |  135 words  |  

I recently gave a 3 hours workshop with the team of Beirut AI exploring how to think about Artificial Intelligence problems from a business perspective. We covered topics like AI in the business world, AI in the Middle East and North Africa, dived into analytical visualization tools such as Microsoft Power BI, and finally solved a consulting business case exercise about a bank marketing campaigns. Lessons learned on how to prepare for a workshop: [Read More]
talk  public speaking  workshops 

Experiments in combustion in grad school

 Posted on July 2, 2018  |  8 minutes  |  1662 words  |  

I started my research at the Combustion and Propulsion Research Lab in Indiana University Purdue University under the supervision of Dr Razi Nalim in the beginning of 2015. The next 2 years that followed were a tremendous learning experience. I had been away from academia for 5 years and diving back into textbooks and theories was not easy, however I found a fulfilling challenge in experimental research in the lab like with pulse jets, flame throwers, wave rotors, combustion chambers and much more. [Read More]
flames  experiments  combustion 

Python web application with Dash

 Posted on February 15, 2018  |  1 minutes  |  42 words  |  Ali Tarraf

Project goal is to create a web application to quickly access Oracle database data. The web app is created using Dash by Plotly library which makes it really easy to deliver fully functional web application without going through all the javascript details.

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App  Python 

FANSIS, a Fan ANalySIS tool

 Posted on November 15, 2017  |  1 minutes  |  154 words  |  Ali Tarraf

In paper DOI: 10.1243/09544062JMES1196 by Dr Epple on “Design of radial impellers: a combined extended analytical and numerical method”, a method is described for the analysis of centrifugal fan. Dr Epple suggest creating a spreadsheet as a conceptual analysis for a fan design. After creating a spreadsheet with all the relevant equations, I got frustrated with the constant editing that needs to be done on excel, and decided to implement the the design equation code in python. [Read More]
app  pump  fan  python  dash 

Milling a wiper for a metal 3D printer

 Posted on December 24, 2016  |  1 minutes  |  75 words  |  Ali Tarraf

Cuts Finished wiper Chips Machining aluminum 6061 for a friend who is working on a metal 3D printer. You got to love the mountain of chips! Squaring off big parts is always an issue, specially that you have to clamp down the parts and make sure it is aligned with a dial indicator. [Read More]
machining  3D printing 

Experiments with sparks

 Posted on November 15, 2016  |  1 minutes  |  18 words  |  Ali Tarraf

Experimenting with a low cost (<100$) plasma circuit on spaced electrodes, spark plug, and in a combustion chamber.

[Read More]
ignition  sparks 

Schlieren high speed videography

 Posted on November 15, 2016  |  1 minutes  |  67 words  |  Ali Tarraf

I was having fun shooting quarters with a jet of combusted methane air products. Interesting how the initial shock-wave propagates, and how the jet speed slows down gradually. The initially speed of the jet can be estimated by looking at the images noting the jet tip evolution versus time. It starts at around 300ms, or Mach 0.88 and drops down very quickly to 100m/s and steadily decay.

[Read More]
high speed  schlieren