About
Hi, I'm Jonathan Bardolf. I'm a rising senior at Chaminade High School and I think you might be able to tell where my interests lie. I'm really fascinated by what happens in aerodynamics near the surface of things. The boundary layer, the laminar separation bubble, the spanwise vortices of tubercles, the flow of a plasma actuator, and the list goes on. I've also been enticed by geometry, and how creative--even unorthodox--alterations can alter aerodynamic performance significantly. This fascination brought me to learn to CFD study of tubercle-modified airfoils as well as to design and build a wind tunnel to test plasma actuators.
Background
The tubercle work started as an AP Research project and kept going after the course ended. It won the AP Research award at the 1st Annual Chaminade Research Symposium, took 3rd place at the SAWAA Science Fair, and received Honors at the Long Island Science and Engineering Fair. I'm writing it up for journal submission now.
The plasma actuator project is ongoing. I've consumed a ton of literature regarding the topic, but no one is testing the airfoil in a wind tunnel in their garage. That doesn't discredit my work, because methodological rigor always supersedes institutional connections--as I've learned from W.E.B. Du Bois. Most of the work so far has been methodological, since the forces are small enough that measuring them is the hard part. In summer 2026 I attended the University of Pennsylvania's Engineering Summer Academy on the AI track, where PINNpoint came from.
My single largest time commitment outside of my research is rowing for Chaminade Crew. This is kind of the glue that holds my life together; it's been as important to my intellectual development as my research. It's interesting how one can love a sport that hates them back.
Tools I use frequently
ANSYS Fluent, OpenFOAM, Autodesk Fusion 360, SolidWorks.
Contact
[email protected] — or use the contact form. I'm always eager to talk.