Advancing Ocean Wave Energy: Innovations in Modeling and Design Optimization

ABSTRACT

Harnessing ocean wave energy could meet up to 34% of U.S. electricity demand, offering a predictable and reliable complement to wind and solar. Despite this potential, large-scale deployment of wave energy converters (WECs) has been constrained by high costs, lengthy design cycles, and investment risks—challenges often tied to traditional, sequential design approaches that overlook subsystem interactions. This talk presents recent advancements in WEC design using multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) and control co-design (CCD), which have achieved significant reductions in electricity cost and power variability. A key enabler is a semi-analytical model that allows rapid, accurate simulation and iterative optimization across WEC geometry, hydrodynamics, control, and structure. The presentation also introduces the first MDO framework for WEC farm optimization, addressing device dimensions, farm layout, and control strategies to minimize cost and footprint. Advanced computational methods capturing both near- and far-field wave effects demonstrate how WEC farms can attenuate downstream waves and reduce fatigue on co-located offshore wind turbines—an outcome strongly influenced by control strategy. Beyond electricity generation, the talk highlights the potential of WECs to support offshore aquaculture, desalination, and carbon sequestration.

BIOGRAPHY

Maha Haji is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Systems Engineering at Cornell University, where she leads the Symbiotic Engineering and Analysis (SEA) Lab. Her research focuses on designing offshore systems that sustainably extract ocean resources—power, water, food, and critical minerals. Current projects include wave energy converters, offshore hydrogen production, seawater lithium harvesters, integrated desalination systems, and marine robotics, with support from NOAA, DOE, DARPA, and Sea Grant. She earned her Ph.D. in 2017 in Mechanical and Oceanographic Engineering from the MIT–WHOI Joint Program. She also worked as an engineering consultant at ATA Engineering, tackling analysis-driven design challenges across aerospace, robotics, and amusement systems. She holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a B.A. in Applied Mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Faculty Host: Jia Mi, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, CEOE

For more info about this seminar, please reach out to Dr. Mi