MIT graduate student Kirby Heck advances wind power by merging fluid mechanics and sustainable energy

Graduate student Kirby Heck’s interest in physics and fluid mechanics led him to study engineering mechanics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He had always been drawn to the aesthetic aspects of the subject, and while aerodynamics is typically applied to airplanes and rockets, wind turbines depend on the same fundamental principles.

Now, as a fourth-year graduate student working under the guidance of Assistant Professor Michael Howland, Heck studies the interactions between atmospheric turbulence and wind farms. “Wind turbines extract power from the wind and convert it into electricity, and this energy is replenished downwind by large-scale mixing of the atmosphere,” he explains. “How mixing and turbulent motions depend on current atmospheric dynamics in wind farms is not well understood. Furthermore, current models, which inform the construction and operation of wind farms, often neglect these physics.”

In his research, Heck uses computational fluid dynamics to set up experiments for improving models of turbulence and mixing in wind farms and in the atmosphere. He co-authored a recent paper in Nature Communications, which reports a new model that accurately represents the airflow around rotors, even in extreme operating conditions. The model could not only improve the way rotors themselves are designed, but also the way wind farms are laid out and operated.

Heck has always been passionate about climate solutions, an interest which has only grown since coming to MIT. “When I first came here, I believed energy and decarbonization was the most pressing issue regarding climate change but being in the civil and environmental engineering department has opened me up to the depth of climate solutions happening at MIT.”

Beyond his research, Heck has become a valuable member of the CEE community, contributing his knowledge and leadership skills to various student organizations and initiatives.

As a member of the CEE Graduate Committee, a student group committed to enriching graduate student experiences through educational development, professional development, and community outreach, Heck was inspired to start the Graduate Student Seminar Series after seeing the success of the department’s Faculty Seminar Series. “I started the Graduate Seminar Series as a way of showcasing the diverse work of students in the different labs and areas of CEE,” he says.

Heck is also president and graduate student advisor of the MIT Wind team, an Edgerton Center build team that he founded in 2022. The team will participate in the 2025 Department of Energy (DOE) Collegiate Wind Competition (CWC). “Our goal this year is to advance to the finals with our model turbine prototype and our project development plan for a hypothetical, utility-scale offshore wind farm,” he says.

In addition, he has taken a leadership role in organizing K-12 outreach activities within CEE, volunteering at the Cambridge Science Festival and multiple K-12 outreach programs, teaching young students and community members about the benefits of wind turbines and renewable energy.

“I really enjoy exploring science and technology with young people and community members,” he says. “We recently had a table about harnessing power from the wind at Cambridge Science Festival where we made over 100 small wind turbines that participants could take home. Outreach fuels me to keep learning and experimenting with effectively communicating science to the public.”

This passion for educating the younger generation about renewable energy and climate technology inspired Heck to develop an active learning game for middle schoolers to engage them in the challenges of decarbonizing the electricity sector.

“The goal is to allow students to discover the trade-offs between traditional fossil fuel-based electricity generation and variable renewable sources of electricity by role playing a decarbonizing power grid,” he explains.

The game requires participants to work cooperatively to effectively spend their revenue to mitigate polluting the environment while maintaining constant electricity supply to their towns. “The game never fails to get a room full of creative minds working toward a common goal of engineering new solutions to climate change.”

Heck’s game was tested at MIT Spark in 2024 under the title “Watt’s the solution?” and will continue to be developed in partnership with Cambridge Public Schools this winter.

While he is still deciding what life will look like after graduation, he is leaning towards a career in academia, “I love teaching engineering physics, like fluid and solid mechanics, to undergraduate and graduate students,” he says. “It would be amazing to hold a faculty role and build a career around learning alongside my future students.”

Heck often finds himself inspired by the intellectual diversity and wide range of research topics studied in the department. “It feels like someone in CEE touches every corner of climate change, from atmospheric chemistry to transportation systems and everything in between. It’s why we started the graduate student seminar series, and I’m always excited to hear what my neighbors in the office are working on.”