Dr. Patrick Safarian, P.E.
Fatigue and Damage Tolerance Senior Technical Specialist
Patrick Safarian is fatigue, damage tolerance and finite element analysis technical specialist at FAA. Since 1997 he has been involved in ensuring safety of the existing fleet as well as certification of new products in Seattle Aircraft Certification Office. Prior to that he spend eleven years at the Boeing Company. During that time he contributed to development of methods and allowables for fatigue and fracture mechanics standards for stress engineers, performed analytical and numerical stress analyses of highly complex structures, including failure analysis in support of in-service problems, accident investigations, major designs and redesigns of large transport airplanes.
Patrick received his BSME from Northrop University in 1983, MSME from California State University, Fullerton, in 1985, and completed his PhD work in Mechanical Engineering at University of California, Davis, in 1987. In June 2004 he completed his Doctorate in Theology at Bakke Graduate School. Patrick has taught damage tolerance, finite element analysis and advance engineering mathematics courses while at Boeing for ten years. He has been teaching post-graduate engineering courses in the fields of fatigue, fracture mechanics and finite element analysis in University of Washington and Central Washington University since 1998. Patrick is married to Annette and they have two children Natasha and Christopher.
Patrick teaches this course as a private instructor and not as an FAA employee. In teaching this course he is assisted by Dr. Francesco Deleo.
Dr. Francesco Deleo
Affiliate Professor in Aeronautics and Astronautics at the University of Washington – Seattle WA, and Director of Project Management at TerraPower – Bellevue WA
Dr. Francesco Deleo is an Affiliate Professor in the Aeronautics & Astronautics Department at the University of Washington and an experienced engineering leader with more than twenty years of industry and academic experience in structural analysis and computational mechanics.
He holds a BS, MS, and PhD in Aerospace Engineering and has extensive experience applying the Finite Element Method (FEM) to complex engineering problems. His FEM background spans both academic research during his doctoral studies and practical industry applications, where he has used finite element modeling to analyze structural behavior, predict failure modes, and support engineering design decisions.
Dr. Deleo has been teaching structural mechanics and numerical analysis topics for many years, including courses on solid mechanics, fatigue, and advanced structural analysis. His teaching philosophy focuses on helping engineers understand the mechanics and assumptions behind FEM, rather than simply how to operate software tools, enabling students to develop reliable and physically meaningful models.
Professionally, he currently serves as Director of Program Management at TerraPower, supporting the development of next-generation nuclear energy technologies. His combination of academic rigor and real-world engineering experience allows him to bring practical insight into how finite element methods are applied in demanding engineering environments. Francesco is married to Vanessa since 2024, and they have a beautiful cavapoo called Brunello.