Ashim K. Datta, Professor

• Research Areas
• Biomedical Applications
• Food as Porous Media
• Combination Microwave Heating
• Thermal and Hygrostresses
• Computer-Aided Food Safety and Quality Engineering

What We Do

Ashim K. Datta, Professor

Our research and teaching program are built around the application of transport phenomena (e.g., energy and water transport, fluid flow) in biological processes in an effort to better understand their complexities with the intent of improving them through optimization. We have been active in two broad application areas— industrial food processing and medicine. From a fundamental engineering standpoint, these two areas have a lot in common that become particularly evident as we approach from a transport phenomena viewpoint. In food process engineering, we develop quantitative models for complex processes such as frying and meat cooking under various heating modes (such as microwave and infrared) and their combinations, with a goal to improve their safety and quality. We have two ongoing biomedical projects, both joint activity, one involving modeling of airflow in the upper airway of an exercising horse (with Professor Normand Ducharme of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell) and the other involving modeling of transport in radio-labeled antibody in radioimmunotherapy (RIT) to treat metastatic melanoma (with Professor Ekaterina Dadachova of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine). The teaching program provides the knowledge base in transport processes through two well-coordinated courses. The first course deals with the basics of energy and mass transport and the second one builds on the first one through class projects involving real-life biomedical processes.

Current Research Projects

	Equine Airway Model
	Drug Delivery
	Combination Microwave Heating
	Moisture Transport in Baking and Frying
	Uncertainty in Thermal Processing
	Computer-Aided Engineering