Virginia Tech® home

John Ferris

Associate Professor
John Ferris
143 Durham Hall (0710)
1145 Perry Street
Blacksburg, VA 24061

Research Interests

Improving ground vehicle performance by studying vehicle system interactions with terrain surfaces. Specifically, chassis design and development, vehicle dynamics, terrain topology (high-fidelity measurement, statistical analysis, and stochastic modeling), driver-vehicle interactions, virtual proving ground development, vehicle performance (ride, handling, reliability, mobility), and automated vehicle development.

See Dr. Ferris' publications and research on Google Scholar.

Latest publications:

  • Pereira* S., and Ferris, J.B., 2020, “Random Sampling and Probabilistic Consensus (RSPC) for Identifying Outliers in Road Surface Datasets'', Int. J. Vehicle Systems Modeling and Testing, doi.org/10.1504/IJVSMT.
  • Altmann* C.T., and Ferris, J.B., 2020, “Theoretical Development of Localized Pseudo Damage”, SAE Journal of Passenger Cars – Mechanical Systems, vol. 13, no. 1, doi:10.4271/06-13-01-0003.
  • A. Nazari, L. Chen, F. Battaglia, J. B. Ferris, and F. Flintsch, S. Taheri, “Prediction of Hydroplaning Potential Using Fully Coupled FE-CFD Tire Models”, Journal of Fluid Engineering, FE-19-1721, 2020.
  • Altmann, C.T., and Ferris, J.B., “Identification of Damaging Road Events Using Pseudo Damage Density," SAE Journal of Passenger Cars – Mechanical Systems, vol. 13, no. 2, 2020; doi: 10.4271/06-13-02-0010.
  • Altmann C.T., and Ferris, J.B., "Similarity Between Damaging Events Using Pseudo Damage Density" SAE International Journal of Passenger Cars: Mechanical Systems, vol. 13, no. 3, 2020; doi:10.4271/06-13-13-0016.
  • Kang*, Y., and Ferris, J. B., 2018, "Performance Margin for Geometric Road Design,” SAE Int. J. Passeng. Cars - Mech. Syst., vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 263-272, doi:10.4271/06-11-04-0022
  • Bobade, P., Majumdar, S., Pereira*, S., Kurdila, A.J., and Ferris, J.B., 2018, “Adaptive estimation for nonlinear systems using reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces,” Advances in Computational Mathematics, https://doi.org/1 0.1007 /s1 0444-018-9639-z
  • Kang*, Y., Nazari, A., Chen, L., Ferris, J. B., Taheri, S., Battaglia, F., and Flintsch, G., 2018, "A Probabilistic Approach to Hydroplaning Potential and Risk,” SAE Int. J. Passeng. Cars - Mech. Syst., vol. 12, no. 1, doi:10.4271/06-12-01-0005
  • Ma*, R., Ferris, J., Reid, A., and Gorsich, D., 2017, "Admissible Shape Parameters for a Planar Quasi-Static Constraint Mode Tire Model," SAE Int. J. Passeng. Cars - Mech. Syst. 10(3). doi:10.4271/2017-01-9683
  • 2005-Present, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech
  • 2001-2005, Senior Technical Specialist, ZF Lemforder
  • 1995-2001, Senior Technical Specialist, DaimlerChrysler Corporation
  • 1992-1995, Research Assistant, University of Michigan
  • 1990-1992, Project Engineer, Chrysler Corporation
  • Ph.D. - Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, 1996
  • M.S. - Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, 1992
  • B.S. - Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie-Mellon University, 1990