Bio
Dr. Jonathan (Jono) McConnell graduated from the University of Central Florida in 2018 with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. Upon graduation, he joined the Hybrid Sustainable Energy Systems Laboratory at UCF studying under Dr. Tuhin Das. In 2019, Dr. McConnell graduated with an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering defending a thesis on first-principles, lumped modeling of a heat recovery steam generator. This research was funded by Siemens Energy, Inc. In his doctoral research, Dr. McConnell lead an NSF funded effort to model the dynamics of a tethered autogyro for energy efficient surveillance flight and high-altitude power generation. This work culminated in his dissertation in 2022 as well as multiple journal and conference articles which explore the dynamics of a tethered autogyro as well as a single-winged autorotating samara.
Currently, Dr. McConnell's work focuses on the development and deployment of modular, hardware-in-the-loop reactor test beds and mock reactors. This work utilizes robust, Dockerized software design on small edge deployed Linux machines to provide system control, data management, and graphical user interface with key hardware components. This test bed development bolsters the efforts currently underway for micro- and small modular reactors as well as space nuclear propulsion and various other space nuclear applications.