Daren Watson

Dr. Daren Watson joined Florida Polytechnic University in 2021 as an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Watson is a fluid mechanician with expertise in experimental fluid mechanics, fluid-structure interactions, and biomechanics of insect locomotion on fluid surfaces. He also has extensive experience in the development of alternative energy solutions for small island developing states. Watson’s work in these areas has generated broad interest across the field of engineering, resulting in publications in several high-impact journals such as Physical Review Fluids, Physics of Fluids, Journal of Fluids and Structures, and Energy Reports.

Awards and Honors

• Recipient, Prime Minister’s National Youth Award for Excellence, 2020. The award is the highest honor bestowed upon a Jamaican youth who has achieved eminent national and international distinction in a specified area.
• Member, Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, 2019
• Recipient, Fulbright Foreign Student Scholarship, 2017
• Recipient, University of the West Indies Graduate Scholarship, 2013

Education

• Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, University of Central Florida, 2020
• M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, University of Central Florida, 2019
• M.Phil. in Physics, University of the West Indies, 2016
  B.S. in Environmental Physics and Mathematics, University of the West Indies, 2013

Expertise

• Interfacial Fluid Mechanics
• Fluid-Structure Interactions
• Alternative Energy Systems

Professional Activities

• Reviewer, Physics of Fluids, American Institute of Physics, 2021 – present
• Member, Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, 2019 – present

Select Publications

• Watson, D. A., Bom, M. J., Weinberg, P. M., Souchik, J. C., and Dickerson, A. K. (2021) “Water entry dynamics of spheres with heterogeneous wetting properties”. Physical Review Fluids, Volume 6, Issue 4, doi:10.1103/physrevfluids.6.044003, April 2021.
• Watson, D. A., Souchik, J. C., Weinberg, P. M., Bom, M. J., and Dickerson, A. K. (2020) “Making a splash with fabrics in hydrophilic sphere entry”. Journal of Fluids and Structures, Volume 94, 102907, doi:10.1016/j.jfluidstructs.2020.102907. March 2020.
• Alam, E., Smith, N., Watson, D., Hassan, T., and Neupane, K., (2019) “Early screening of DDH using svm classification”. 2019 SoutheastCon, doi:10.1109/SoutheastCon42311.2019.9020565, April 2019.
• Watson, D. A., Stephen, J. L., and Dickerson, A. K. (2019) “Impacts of free-falling spheres onto a deep liquid pool with altered fluid and impactor surface conditions”. Journal of Visualized Experiments, Issue 144, e59300, doi:10.3791/59300, February 2019.
• Watson, D. A., Stephen, J. L., and Dickerson, A. K. (2018) “Jet amplification and cavity formation induced by penetrable fabrics in hydrophilic sphere entry”. Physics of Fluids, Volume 30, Issue 8, doi:10.1063/1.5036655, August 2018.
• Watson, D. A., Binnie, Y., Duncan, K. L., Dorville, J. F. (2017) “Photurgen: The open-source software for the analysis and design of hybrid solar wind energy systems in the Caribbean region: An introduction to its development policy”. Energy Reports, Volume 3, doi:10.1016/j.egyr.2017.03.001, November 2017.