University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Energy Transport Research Lab
Principal Investigator
Nenad Miljkovic
Professor
Mechanical Science and Engineering
Electrical and Computer Engineering (Courtesy)
Materials Research Laboratory (Courtesy)
Associate Director, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Center
Deputy Thrust Leader, Center for Power Optimization of Electro-Thermal Systems
Kritzer Faculty Scholar
Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, MIT, 2013
M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, MIT, 2011
BASc in Mechanical Engineering, University of Waterloo, 2009
Phone: (617) 981-9247
Email: nmiljkov@illinois.edu
Address: 105 South Mathews Avenue, MEL 2136, Urbana, IL 61801
Postdoctoral Scholars
Xuzhi Du
Xuzhi Du received his PhD in Automotive Engineering at Tongji University in June 2019. He then continued as a postdoctoral associate in the Shanghai Automotive Wind Tunnel center (SAWTC) at Tongji University. His doctoral thesis focused on the study of fundamental icing physics, deicing/defrosting and impinging jet flow structure evolution and heat transfer. He has also participated in several National Key Programs: Thermal Management of Lithium-ion Batteries, and Snow Accretion Simulation and Prevention of a Maglev Train. He is working on the development of models and carrying out experiments on agrivoltaic systems (co-location of Photovoltaics and Agriculture).
Email: xuzhidu@illinois.edu
Muhammad Jahidul Hoque
Jahid received his B.Sc in 2013 and M.Sc in 2016, both in Mechanical Engineering from the Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh. He then completed his PhD in the ETRL in March 2022 by conducting research on micro/nano scale phase change heat transfer, and thermal-system performance enhancement. He also worked on thermo-physical property measurement of ultra-thin layer materials and heat transfer enhancement & durability of superhydrophobic surfaces. He stayed in the ETRL and is currently a Postdoctoral Scholar working on electro-thermal pulse deicing. Besides research, he likes to play tennis, badminton and enjoys to read & travel. Above all, he believes “Life is not perfect, but it’s meant to be perfect ; it just needs to shape that way.
Email: mjhoque2@illinois.edu
Visiting Scholars
Ramy H. Mohammed
Ramy H. Mohammed is an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Power Engineering department at Zagazig University. He was awarded his Ph.D. from the University of Central Florida, USA. His research interests focus on solving scientific challenges at the interface of thermal-fluid, material, and energy sciences, trying to address the energy-water-environment nexus in an integrated way. So, his research interests center around energy conversion systems, including adsorption systems for cooling, desalination, and dehumidification, combined cooling, heat, and power (CCHP) systems, heat/mass exchangers, and thermal desalination systems.
Email: Rhamdy@Knights.ucf.edu
Graduate Students
James Carpenter
James received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Missouri-St.Louis/Washington University in Saint Louis (joint degree) in 2015 and his M.S. in Mechanical Science and Engineering from UIUC in 2018. His research interests include sustainable energy solutions, thermal efficiency enhancements of engineering systems, and the application of nano-scale heat transfer concepts to achieve both. Currently, his research focuses on ice-bridge formation on superhydrophobic surfaces. He enjoys reading, exercise, and mindfulness practices.
Email: jscarpe2@illinois.edu
Ho Chan Chang
Ho Chan received his B.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Seoul National University in 2017. In the ETRL, Ho Chan is working on thermal characterization and development of ultra-thin high thermal conductivity hydrophobic surfaces.
Email: hochanc2@illinois.edu
Yashraj Gurumukhi
Yashraj Gurumukhi received his B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering with Honours from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay) in 2018. In the ETRL, Yashraj is working on interfacial pulse-defrosting techniques. He is also an avid tech enthusiast and a casual gamer.
Email: yashraj2@illinois.edu
Junyoung Lee
Junyoung received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Yonsei University in 2017. In the ETRL, Junyoung is working on understanding the fundamental degradation mechanisms of lubricant infused surfaces using optical diagnostic techniques.
Email: jl59@illinois.edu
Wuchen Fu
Wuchen is in the UIUC ZJU 3+2 program. He spent 3 years in Zhejiang University and 2 years at UIUC, receiving his B.S.+M.S. degrees in Energy and Environmental System Engineering in the summer of 2019. Wuchen is now a PhD student in MechSE working on studying the fundamental mechanisms governing pool boiling of low-GWP refrigerants on engineered surfaces.
Email: wuchenf2@illinois.edu
Majid Linjawi
Majid received his B.Sc. in 2015 and M.Sc in 2018, both in Mechanical Engineering from King Fahd University of petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. He joined UIUC to pursue his PhD in Mechanical Engineering with a full scholarship from KFUPM. His current research interests include sustainable engineering, renewable energy, and water desalination.
Email: linjawi2@illinois.edu
Siavash Khodakarami
Siavash received his B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Tehran in 2018 and is currently a Ph.D. student at UIUC. His research focuses on two-phase heat transfer characterization on engineered surfaces using data-driven modeling and machine vision techniques to capture and predict the dynamics of droplets and bubbles. He also works on developing new cost-effective and reliable two-phase heat transfer characterization techniques using machine learning to obtain a better understanding of the surface heat transfer performance on engineered surfaces.
Email: siavash4@illinois.edu
Kevin Uvodich
Kevin graduated from UIUC with his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 2019 and is currently pursuing his M.S. in the same field. He is currently researching emerging additive manufacturing technology and exploring the implications on heat exchanger design for a variety of applications. In his spare time he loves playing golf, tennis, and basketball.
Email: kevinu2@illinois.edu
Aniket Lad
Aniket received his BE (Hons.) from Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani (BITS Pilani) in 2018. He worked as a Thermal Systems Engineer at Ecozen Solutions in India where he worked on compressor and other components selection for solar energy based micro cold storage. He is interested in renewable energy, thermal engineering and refrigeration technologies.
Email: aniketl2@illinois.edu
Soonwook Kim
Soonwook received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Korea University in 2016. He worked briefly under the guidance of Dr. Gaurav Bahl prior to switching groups to join the ETRL. He is interested in high power density electro-thermal system design, thermal switching and routing, and thermal management. He is co-advised with Dr. William P. King in MechSE. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling and taking photographs.
Email: sk27@illinois.edu
Bakhshish Preet Singh
Bakhshish received his Dual degree (BTech and MTech) in Mechanical Engineering and specializing in Thermal and Fluid Engineering from IIT, Bombay in 2020. He is working on phase change heat transfer and electronics cooling with an emphasis on infrared thermography. He is also working on multi-physcis modeling of battery thermal runaway. He enjoys reading, movies, anime, sketching and hiking.
Email: bpsingh2@illinois.edu
Ishrat Zarin
Ishrat received her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) in 2020. Her research interests focus on interfacial adhesion and energy transfer. Currently she is studying pinhole-initiated blister formation in hydrophobic polymer thin films. Previously, she studied highly strained buckles in transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers. In her spare time, she likes to cook recipes from different cuisines, spend time in the swimming pool, bop her head to alternative and hard rock music, and critically watch movies.
Email: izarin2@illinois.edu
Jalal Inanlu
Jalal received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2020 from The University of Tehran with a focus on interfacial science. In the ETRL, he is studying fundamental mechanisms governing flow boiling heat transfer of refrigerants as well as infrared microscopy techniques. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, watching movies, cooking, and hanging out with friends.
Email: minanlu2@illinois.edu
Arielle Gamboa
Arielle graduated with her B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Rutgers University in 2020. Her background is in hybrid micro- and nanomanufacturing, including electrospray deposition and thermocapillary-based patterning of thin films. In the ETRL, she is exploring pool boiling and heat spreading as cooling techniques for electronics. Outside of research, Arielle enjoys watching movies, baking, playing music, and salsa dancing.
Email: agamboa3@illinois.edu
Dalia Ghaddar
Dalia received her B.S and M.S in mechanical engineering from the American University of Beirut (Lebanon) in 2018 and 2020, respectively, with high honors. Before joining the ETRL in January of 2021, she worked on several research projects in the field of personalized ventilation, phase change materials, and fluid dynamics. In the ETRL, Dalia is working on testing different types of coated heat exchangers to study their anti‐icing and frosting performance.
Email: ghaddar2@illinois.edu
Sujan Dewanjee
Sujan received his B.Sc in 2017 and M.Sc in 2020, both in Mechanical Engineering from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh. His research interests focus on micro/nano structure fabrication and thermal-system performance enhancement. Presently he is working on nanostructure development using holography technique to achieve specific wickability and thermo-physical property. Besides research, he likes to sketch, watch movies, meet new people, read and travel to new places. Sujan is co-advised by Professor Paul Braun of MatSE.
Email: sujand2@illinois.edu
Vivek Garimella
Vivek received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering with Highest Honors from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2021. His topics of interest include waste heat recovery, energy storage, refrigeration, and two-phase heat transfer. In the ETRL, he will be studying electrostatic separation and energy storage using dynamic phase change materials. In his free time, Vivek enjoys watching and playing tennis and basketball, and is interested in the science and practice of brewing coffee.
Email: viveksg2@illinois.edu
Jiayi Zhang
Jiayi Zhang received his B.S. in Energy and Environment Systems Engineering from Zhejiang University in 2018 and his M.E. in Power Engineering from Zhejiang University in 2021. In the ETRL, he is working on flow boiling and pool boiling heat transfer enhancement as well as the scalable tube-fin joining techniques.
Email: jiayiz19@illinois.edu
Tarandeep Singh Thukral
Tarandeep received his bachelor's degree (BTech) in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Delhi, India in 2021. He is interested in working on microscale thermo-fluidic phenomena involving fouling and corrosion, wetting, and droplet transport. Apart from academics, he likes to read about human history, try out new recipes and play cricket.
Email: thukral3@illinois.edu
Mohammed Jubair Dipto
Dipto received his B.S in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in 2018. He is currently working on Manufacturing and Recycling of High Energy Density Li-ion Battery Cells. He enjoys music – from Jazz to Hip-hop, loves to socialize and is “a man who drinks tea”.
Email: mdipto2@illinois.edu
Sagar Singh
Sagar received his B.Tech degree in Mechanical Engineering with Honors at IIT Bombay, India, in 2021. In the ETRL, he is working on developing thermal system designs for Electric Vehicles using simulation analysis. An F1 and tennis enthusiast, he also watches anime and likes to jog, swim and play basketball in his free time.
Email: sagars3@illinois.edu
Md Rakibul Hasan Roni
Rakib received his B.Sc and M.Sc in Mechanical Engineering from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) in 2017 and 2019 respectively. His research interests focus on phase change heat transfer, CFD and renewable energy. In the ETRL, he is working on water flow boiling heat transfer on structured surfaces.
Email: mroni2@illinois.edu
Wentao Yang
Wentao received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Science and Engineering from UIUC in 2021. When he was an undergraduate, he worked with Dr. Xiao Yan in the ETRL on the prediction of liquid bridge formation between surfaces with wettability contrast. Now, he is a Ph.D. student in the ETRL and works on surface durability during condensation. During his leisure time, he likes to go to the gym, or play video games with my friends.
Email: wentaoy3@illinois.edu
Joshua Feldman
Josh Feldman is a PhD candidate in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He received his B.S. in mechanical engineering in 2019 and M.S. in electrical engineering in 2021 from the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. He is co-advised with Professor Kiruba Haran of ECE. His research focus is on flow boiling of hydrogen for cooling of superconducting motors.
Email: jmfeldm2@illinois.edu
Holton Miller
Holton got his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from North Dakota State University in 2020. Currently, he works at John Deere as an embedded software developer supporting engine interface and HVAC controls. He is pursuing his MSME online, doing research to develop a thermal management system for a variable pole-count induction motor. In his free time, he likes to ride dirt bikes and stand-up jet skis, and also get involved with skiing and hockey in the winter.
Email: holtonm2@illinois.edu
Alireza Bakhshi
Alireza received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering and Aerospace Engineering in 2021 at the Sharif University of Technology in Iran. In the ETRL, he is working on his PhD which focuses on refrigerant flow boiling and heat transfer enhancement techniques. He is also studying machine learning as it applies to flow boiling research. In his free time, he plays volleyball and reads novels and history books.
Email: bakhshi3@illinois.edu
Pouya Kabirzadeh
Pouya received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology in 2021. In the ETRL, he is working on his PhD which focuses on thermo-fluid science and renewable energy systems. Currently, he is working on condensation heat transfer on micro/nano-structured surfaces and immersion cooling techniques for electronics and batteries. In his spare time, he enjoys listening to different types of music, working out in the gym, and hiking.
Email: pouyak2@illinois.edu
Haoyun (Aaron) Qiu
Aaron received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Electrical Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2022 with summa cum laude and University Honors. In the ETRL, his PhD research focuses on energy-efficient data center cooling strategies as well as functional surface development. In his spare time, Aaron enjoys watching TV shows, reading history, and playing mini golf.
Email: haoyunq2@illinois.edu
Kaushik Chettiar
Kaushik received his B.Tech. and M.Tech. Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT Madras). His MS Thesis involved the simulation of Vapor Compression Refrigeration Systems, and he has a strong background in the fundamentals of thermal engineering. Kaushik graduated as a first rank holder in his class at IIT Madras. In the ETRL, Kaushik is working on the design and manufacturing of metal additive manufactured liquid-to-air heat echangers as well as high power density permanent magnet motor cooling architectures.
Email: kc63@illinois.edu
Shayan Aflatounian
Shayan received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 2021 at the Sharif University of Technology in Iran. In the ETRL, he is working on the immersion cooling of electronics, as well as heat spreading architectures. In his spare time, he loves watching movies, cooking, listening to music, and he is a sports geek
Email: shayan3@illinois.edu
Reihaneh Jahedan
Reihaneh received her B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2019 from Sharif University of Technology in Iran. She is currently working on the optimal 3D multiphysics spatial packaging (SPI2) design of thermal management systems (TMS) for Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs). She is co-advised by Dr. James Allison of ISE. Apart from research, she loves hiking, camping, and other outdoor activities.
Email: jahedan2@illinois.edu
Undergraduate Students
Matthew Wu
Matthew is an undergraduate student in the Materials Science and Engineering Department at UIUC. He has been working in ETRL for more than a year. He is working with a graduate student and a postdoc on scalable fabrication methods of advanced micro/nano structured surfaces to enhance two phase heat transfer.
David Cruz
David is a senior majoring in Engineering Physics at UIUC. He is working with a post doc in investigating the effects off electro-thermal pulses on interfacial frosted surfaces. In his spare times, he likes to play the guitar, listen to music, and bike riding.
Ethan Boris
Ethan is an undergraduate student in the Mechanical Science and Engineering Department at UIUC. In his free time, he enjoys playing guitar and watching soccer.
Sarah Wang
Sarah is a sophomore pursuing a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering since August 2019. She is working on developing a frost detection sensor in the ETRL. When she's not doing classwork, she's usually hiking, designing parts for electric vehicles, and cooking different cuisines.
Omar Shaikh
Omar is a junior majoring in Mechanical Engineering and minoring in Computer Science at UIUC. He is helping a graduate student with research on heat transfer. In his free time, Omar enjoys rock climbing, badminton, and playing piano.
Krish Mehta
Krish is a freshman pursuing a B.S in Aerospace Engineering at UIUC. He is currently working with two graduate students on wind tunnel testing of superhydrophobic and superhydrophilic heat exchangers. In his spare time, Krish enjoys playing chess, basketball, and on line games.
Ayush Tiwari
Ayush is an undergraduate junior majoring in Engineering Physics at UIUC. At ETRL, he is working on the electro-thermal de-snowing of PV cells and wind turbines. He plans on pursing a career in the field of Renewable Energy Technologies. In his free time, he enjoys playing the guitar and going to the golf range.
Hyrum Dickinson Scott
Hyrum Dickinson is a freshman in the Engineering Undeclared program at UIUC intending to major in Electrical Engineering. His previous projects include drone prototyping, a functional chess AI in python, and a computer synchronized 3D-printed chess set. On his own time, Hyrum enjoys playing and teaching the piano, running, reading, dancing, hiking, and writing.
King Yu
King Yu Tai is currently a freshman studying undeclared engineering (going for ME). He is helping with optical microscopy measurements during phase change studies.
Rohan Rao
Rohan is currently a freshman majoring in Mechanical Engineering and minoring in Mathematics at UIUC. He works with a graduate student studying the heat transfer coefficient at different flow regimes in fluid boiling. In his free time, he plays chess and is involved with the Formula SAE team at UIUC.
Dawei Ding
Dawei is an undergraduate student in the Mechanical Science and Engineering Department majoring in Mechanical Engineering. He is currently working with a graduate student on the development of a thermal energy storage system with ice/melt front control using conventional phase change materials. During his free time, he enjoys learning more about product design, working out, playing sports, hanging out with friends, long boarding, and being in nature.
Rishi Anand
Rishi is a freshman currently majoring in Civil Engineering at UIUC. He is currently working with a graduate student to develop a frost sensor for low density ice defrosting. In his free time, Rishi likes to run triathlons, design race cars with the Illini Formula Electric team, and raise service dogs.
Edwin Siuda
Edwin is studying mechanical engineering and planning to complete his bachelor's degree in Spring of 2023. Edwin is also looking to earn a masters degree in mechanical engineering or another discipline of engineering. In the ETRL, Edwin is working with a senior PhD student on pool boiling heat transfer performance of low-GWP refrigerants and blends. He is a member of Illinois track and field and cross country teams.
Rene Chang Mohammadi
Rene is an undergraduate sophomore majoring in Mechanical Engineering on a Pre-Medicine Track at UIUC. In the ETRL, she is working with a postdoc on the Agrivoltaics project. When she is not studying, Rene is active in her Student Organizations, and loves to cook and spend time with friends.
Qianmeng Chen
Qianmeng Chen is an undergraduate student majoring in Mechanical Engineering and Statistics at UIUC. She is currently working with a postdoc on the measurement of the thickness of thin liquid films during flow boiling. In her spare time, she enjoys playing the piano and trying new culinary arts.
Finnley Ryan
Finnley Ryan is studying Mechanical Engineering at UIUC and plans to complete his bachelor’s degree in Spring 2025. His interests include renewable energy, regenerative agriculture, and sustainable urban design. He is currently working with a postdoc carrying out experiments on agrivoltaics systems. In his free time, he enjoys running, watching baseball, and getting outdoors.
Ghassan Arissi
Ghassan received his B.E. in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Applied Energy from the American University of Beirut in 2021. Prior to joining the ETRL, he was involved in a desiccant dehumidification review paper, in addition to several projects in the Energy field. He is currently working with a graduate student on two projects related to pinhole-initiated blister formation in thin films. Aside from research, Ghassan enjoys sports, reading and film.
Hassan Farroukh
Hassan received his B.E in Mechanical Engineering from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon in 2022. In the ETRL, he is currently working with a graduate student on testing several coated heat exchangers and studying their frosting and anti-icing performance. In his free time, he enjoys watching sports and movies.
Eric Roman
Eric is a senior studying mechanical engineering. In the summer of 2022, he researched thermal management for electric vehicle power electronics at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. He is interested in researching thermal engineering, renewable energy, electric vehicles, and carbon capture. In his free time, he likes hiking, cooking, and dancing.
Alex Patel
Alex is a senior pursuing a B.S in Mechanical Engineering at UIUC. He is currently working with a graduate student on two projects; one exploring the feasibility of a thermal energy storage which uses dynamic phase change materials and another testing the efficiency of electrostatic separation of oil in HVAC compressors. In his spare time, Alex enjoys working out, playing video games, and simply living life.
Alumni
Graduate
Patricia B. Weisensee
Patty completed her PhD in the ETRL in December of 2016 while being co-advised by Professor William P. King, working on micro- and nanostructured omniphobic surfaces for droplet-based heat transfer applications. Read her PhD thesis here. She is currently an assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Washington University in Saint Louis.
Email: p.weisensee@wustl.edu
Address: Green Hall, Office 3156, 1 Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899
Jesus Sotelo
Jesus completed his M.S. in the ETRL in June of 2017 working on the development of nanoengineered surfaces to study nucleation-mediated flooding delay during condensation. Read his M.S. thesis here. He is currently a thermal engineer at Boeing in Washington State.
Email: sotelojesus2@gmail.com
Hanmesh Gunnam
Hanmesh received his M.S. in the ETRL in July 2018 working on the development of enhanced brazing techniques using micro/nanostructured surfaces. Read his M.S. thesis here. He is currently working for Skorpios Technologies in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Email: gunnam2@illinois.edu
Alex Wu
Alex received his M.S. in the ETRL in June 2018 working on fundamental dropwise condensation problems on smooth surfaces. Read his M.S. thesis here. He is currently working for Samsara in San Francisco, California.
Email: alexwu2@illinois.edu
Keith Coulson
Keith received his M.S. in the ETRL in December 2018 working on flexible heat pipes and nanoengineered surfaces intended to improve condensation. Keith wa co-advised by Professor Sanjiv Sinha. Read his M.S. thesis here. He is currently working for NASA as a Propulsion Systems Engineer in Houston, Texas.
Email: keithcoulson12@gmail.com
Patrick Birbarah
Patrick received his B.E. in Mechanical Engineering from the American University of Beirut (Lebanon) in 2014 with High Honors, and his M.S. in Mechanical Science and Engineering from UIUC in 2016. He received his PhD in Mechanical Science and Engineering in 2019 doing work in the ETRL on improving condensation heat transfer on nanomanufactured superhydrophobic surfaces. Read his M.S. thesis here and his PhD thesis here. In August 2019, he started his career as a Research Scientist for Trane in La Crosse, WI, a Subsidiary of Ingersoll Rand. In December 2021, he moved to Honeywell in Buffalo NY as an Advanced Research and Development Scientist in their refrigerants division.
Shreyas Chavan
Shreyas received his B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B), India, and his M.S. in Mechanical Science and Engineering from UIUC in 2016. He received his PhD in Mechanical Science and Engineering in 2019 doing work in the ETRL on development and characterization of micro/nanostructured surfaces for anti-frosting. Read his M.S. thesis here and his PhD thesis here. In July 2019, he started his career as a Consultant working for McKinsey and Company in Chicago, IL. In July of 2021, he left McKinsey and joined DataRobot as AI Success Manager. DataRobot is a late-stage startup that enables organizations to leverage the transformational power of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and help them rapidly turn data into value. His role sits at the intersection of two areas of passion – machine learning and solving business problems.
Email: sac.iitb@gmail.com
Alperen Gunay
Alp received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Middle East Technical University (Ankara, Turkey) in 2014 with High Honors, and his M.S. in Mechanical Science and Engineering from UIUC in 2016. He received his PhD in Mechanical Science and Engineering in 2019 doing work droplet evaporation dynamics. Read his M.S. thesis here and his PhD thesis here. In July 2019, he started a Postdoctoral Scholar position at the University of Tokyo in Japan.
Email: gunaya@metu.edu.tr
Moonkyung Kim
Moonkyung received his B.S. with summa cum laude honors in Mechanical Engineering from Hanyang University in 2014, and his M.S. in Mechanical Science and Engineering from UIUC in 2016. He received his PhD in Mechanical Science and Engineering in 2019 doing work fabrication of superhydrophobic surfaces using various techniques and materials. Read his M.S. thesis here and his PhD thesis here. In July 2019, he started his career as a Research Scientist position at Samsung Global Research in Seoul, South Korea.
Email: mksteven.kim@samsung.com
Junho Oh
Junho received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 2013, and M.S. in 2015, both from Sungkyunkwan University (Seoul, Korea). He received his PhD in Mechanical Science and Engineering in 2019 doing work on nature-inspired wetting phenomena and electronics cooling. Read his PhD thesis here. In August 2019, he started a Postdoctoral Scholar position at University College London under the guidance of Dr. Manish K. Tiwari. In August 2021, he started as a tenure track assistant professor at Hanyang University in South Korea.
Email: junhooh@hanyang.ac.kr
Hyeongyun Cha
Hyeongyun received his B.S. in Mechanical Science and Engineering from UIUC in 2014, his M.S. in Mechanical Science and Engineering from UIUC in 2016, and his PhD in June of 2020. Read his M.S. thesis here and his PhD thesis here. In March of 2020, he started a postdoctoral associate position with the DRL at MIT under the guidance of Professor Evelyn Wang.
Email: cha10@mit.edu
Thomas Foulkes
Tom received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Applied Mathematics from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. In 2015 and 2019, he received his M.S. and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, respectively. As a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, his research examined advanced cooling techniques and multilevel switched-capacitor topologies in order to increase the power density of converters for electric vehicle applications. Read his M.S. thesis here and his PhD thesis here. Thomas is currently pursuing a startup company called Aqua Quant Laboratories (AQL).
Email: foulkes@pacergy.com
Hanyang Zhao
Hanyang received his B.S. in Physics from Harbin Institute of Technology and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2014 and 2015, respectively. He then received his M.S. in Mechanical Science and Engineering at UIUC in 2016. He completed his PhD in the ETRL from September 2016 to June 2021. His doctoral research focused on coating development for anti-fouling, anti-corrosion, and reduced pressure drop in HVAC applications. He is currently a thermal engineer at Midea in China.
Email: hzhao27@illinois.edu
George Popovic
George received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from UIUC in 2018. He did his M.S. degree in the ETRL on work focusing on enhanced spray cooling of superhydrophilic nanoengineered aluminum heat exchangers focusing on automotive applications. He is currently a Future Technical Leader - Systems Engineer at Northrop Grumman.
Email: georgepopovic650@gmail.com
Vaibhav Agarwal
Vaibhav received his Bachelors of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani (India) in the year 2019. His M.S. thesis focused on pulsed electro-thermal deicing technologies for aviation applications. He completed his degree from September 2019 to June 2021. He is currently working as a thermal systems integration and test engineer at Tesla in California.
Email: va15@illinois.edu
Tianyu Yang
Tianyu received her B.S. in Engineering Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering from Tsinghua University in 2016 and her M.S. in Mechanical Science and Engineering from UIUC in 2018. She completed her PhD in the ETRL from 2018 to 2021 on the development of efficient thermal switches and thermal buffers. Tianyu was co-advised by Professor William P. King. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University under the guidance of Dr. John Rogers.
Email: tianyuy2@illinois.edu
Jingcheng Ma
Jingcheng received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. He completed his PhD in the ETRL from September 2016 to May 2022 on the development of optical pump-probe techniques for thermal conductivity and mechanical property measurements of thin polymer films as well as the analysis of functional surface durability during condensation. Jingcheng was co-advised by Professor David Cahill of MatSE. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago under the guidance of Dr. Bozhi Tian in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Chicago.
Email: jcma36@illinois.edu
Johannes Kohler
Johannes received his B. S. in Mechanical Engineering (summa cum laude) in 2017 from Universidad del Valle, Guatemala. He completed his M.S. in Mechanical Science and Engineering from UIUC from June 2019 to December 2021. His M.S. Thesis focused on flow condensation of hydrocarbons, ammonia, and new low-GWP refrigerants. He also developed additive manufacturing approaches to enhance thermal management of electronic systems. Johannes is currently an engineer in the Disruptive Technologies and Innovation Group at Carrier Corporation.
Ankit Patel
Ankit received his B.S. in Engineering Mechanics with high honors from UIUC in 2017. He completed his M.S. in Mechanical Science and Engineering from UIUC from June 2019 to June 2022. His M.S. Thesis focused on computational modeling of droplet condensation and evaporation. He is currently employed by John Deere Power Systems where he works on development and continuous improvement of internal combustion engines.
Email: apate277@illinois.edu
Kalyan Boyina
Kalyan received his B.S in Mechanical Engineering from Oklahoma State University-Stillwater in 2014, and his M.S. in Mechanical Science and Engineering from UIUC in 2016. He completed his PhD in the ETRL from September 2016 to August 2022 on fabrication strategies and testing of large scale (> 20 cm) superhydrophobic heat exchangers to study their anti-icing and frosting performance in a variety of conditions (heat pumping, air cycle machines, refrigeration). Kalyan is currently a research engineer at Trane Technologies in LaCrosse, Wisconsin.
Email: boyina2@illinois.edu
Mohamed Mousa
Mousa received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Business Administration from The American University in Cairo (Egypt) in 2018 with Highest Honors. He was the recipient of Shell’s Excellence Award 2018 and has research experience at The American University in Cairo and industry. He completed his PhD in the ETRL from August 2017 to August 2022 working on sustainable energy solutions, two-phase flow heat transfer and thermodynamics. Mousa is currently a thermal engineer at ASM International in Phoenix, Arizona.
Email: mousa2@illinois.edu
Kazi Fazle Rabbi
Kazi received his B.S. (summa cum laude) in Mechanical Engineering from the Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET) in 2016. He completed his PhD in the ETRL from January 2017 to August 2022 on phase change heat transfer at the micro/nano scale. Hi thesis focused on studying superhydrophobic surfaces and anti-icing coatings for heat transfer enhancement as well as coating material development to enable slippery surfaces for low surface tension fluids. Kazi is currently a research engineer at Intel Corporation in Portland, Oregon.
Email: kazif2@illinois.edu
Nithin Upot
Nithin received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from College of Engineering Guindy, Anna University, India (2014) and a M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from UIUC (2016). He completed his PhD in the ETRL from September 2016 to December 2022 working on electro-thermal design of smart FPGAs for power electronics, flow boiling of refrigerants on scalable structured metallic surfaces. Nithin is currently a research engineer at Intel Corporation in Chandler, Arizona in their Thermal Systems Group.
Email: upot2@illinois.edu
Tarek Gebrael
Tarek received his B.E. in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Applied Mathematics from the American University of Beirut in 2017 with High Honors. Prior to joining the ETRL, he worked on several research projects in the fields of MEMS, energy harvesting and uncertainty quantification. In the ETRL, completed his PhD from January 2017 to December 2022 working on working on pool boiling on electronics as well as heat spreading architectures. Tarek is currently a research engineer at Intel Corporation in Chandler, Arizona in their Electronics Packaging Group.
Email: gebrael2@illinois.edu
Postdocs
Jiaqi Li
Jiaqi Li received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the institute of Thermal Science and Power Systems, School of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, China. His doctoral thesis focused on the pool boiling heat transfer on micro/nano-structured surfaces during quenching. Jiaqi worked in the ETRL from January 2019 to July 2022 on a wide variety of projects mainly focusing on evaporation and boiling heat transfer enhancement on superhydrophilic surfaces. In September 2022, he joined the School of Energy and Power Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, as an Assistant Professor.
Email: lijiaqi@illinois.edu
Xiao Yan
Xiao Yan received his PhD in nuclear engineering from the Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology (INET), Tsinghua University, China. His doctoral thesis focuses on the condensation heat transfer on micro/nano-structured surfaces. Xiao worked in the ETRL form January 2018 to September 2021 on a wide variety of projects mainly focusing on condensation heat transfer and nanofabrication. In October 2021, he joined the group of Dr. Shuhuai Yao at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology as an postdoctoral fellow.
Email: yanxiao@ust.hk
Jin Yao Ho
Jin Yao Ho received his PhD from the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in 2019. He performed his PhD studies under the supervision of Professors Kai Choong Leong and Teck Neng Wong. His PhD research focused on the enhancement of natural and forced convection condensation using novel structures fabricated by additive manufacturing (AM) techniques. Jin Yao worked in the ETRL form January 2020 to December 2021 on a variety of projects mainly focusing on the condensation of low surface tension fluids and the development of AM fabricated structures for enhancing heat transfer. In January 2022, he joined the School or Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) as an assistant professor.
Email: jyho@ntu.edu.sg
Sungmin Hong
Sungmin Hong received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from Texas AandM University in 2012 and joined the ETRL from July 2021 to February 2022 as a Visiting Research Engineer to collaborate with the Army Corps of Engineers Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) on advanced water purification which uses contactless ion concentration. In February 2022, he joined CERL in Champaign, Illinois as a staff scientist.
Email: sungmin.cerl@gmail.com
Allison Mahvi
Allison Mahvi received her PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech in 2018 where she worked under the guidance of Dr. Srinivas Garimella. Her doctoral thesis focused on the hydrodynamics of two-phase flows in microchannel heat exchanger manifolds. She also investigated the use of heat transfer enhancement devices in air-cooled condensers to improve the efficiency and reduce the fresh-water requirements of base load power plants. She worked in the ETRL from October 2018 to October 2019 on a variety of projects related to integrating novel surfaces engineered at the micro- and nanoscale into phase-change heat exchangers. In October 2019, she joined National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) as a postdoctoral research scientist. In the fall of 2022, she started a faculty position as assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wistconsin-Maddison
Email: allison.mahvi@wisc.edu
Donald Docimo
Donald Docimo received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University in 2017 under Dr. Hosam Fathy. His doctoral thesis focused on the modeling and control of battery packs and building energy systems. He worked in the ETRL from October 2017 to December 2019 in collaboration with the Alleyne Research Group on control of electro-thermal energy systems and our group on advanced thermal management. In Jamuary of 2020, he started a faculty position as assistant professor at Texas Tech University.
Email: donald.docimo@ttu.edu
Soumyadip Sett
Deep received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) in 2016 where he worked under the guidance of Dr. Alexander Yarin. His doctoral thesis focused on dynamics of thin surfactant films and aqueous foam. He also worked on fabricating nonwoven nanomaterials from biopolymers and their applications as self-healing composites, filtration membranes, and scaffolds. He worked in the ETRL from September 2016 to June 2021 on several projects related to micro/nanoscale surface engineering for phase change heat transfer enhancements. Primarily, his work at ETRL focused on enhancing heat transfer during condensation of low surface tension fluids on lubricant-infused surfaces (LIS). He is currently an assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Gandhinagar in India.
Email: soumyadipsett@iitgn.ac.in
Longnan Li
Longnan Li received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Sogang University in South Korea in 2017 where he worked under the guidance of Dr. Daejoong Kim. His doctoral thesis focused on the performance of oscillating heat pipes (OHPs) for low grade energy harvesting. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Water Supply and Sewerage Engineering from the Northeast Petroleum University, China. Longnan worked in the ETRL from 2016 to 2021 where he studied enhanced anti-icing performance of superhydrophobic coatings for air-source heat pump applications. He is currently an associate professor within the GPL Photonics Laboratory at Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics (CIOMP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
Email: longnanli@ciomp.ac.cn
Visitors
Yukihiro Yokoyama
Yukihiro was a visiting scholar in the ETRL from the Japanese Patent Office during July 2015 - June 2016. While at the ETRL, he studied hydrocarbon adsorption based wettability change of rare earth oxide surfaces using XPS and TOF-SIMS techniques. Hiro is now back at the JPO in Japan.
Email: yokoyama-yukihiro@jpo.go.jp
Aihua Liu
Aihua was a visiting scholar from China during September 2016 - December 2017. Dr. Liu received her B.E in Mechanical Engineering from Wuhan University of Technology in 2005 and her PhD from Wuhan University of Technology in 2013. She is currently an associate professor in Wuhan University of Technology. At the ETRL, she studied droplet impact on ultra-supercooled surfaces.
Yina Yao
Yina was a one year visiting PhD student sponsored by the China Scholarship Council from September 2017 - September 2018. She was a PhD student from Department of Engineering Physics, Tsinghua University, China. Her doctoral thesis focused on wetting phenomena and phase change heat transfer on micro/nano-structured surfaces. In the ETRL, she worked on freezing of water on superhydrophobic surfaces.
Hang Li
Hang was a joint PhD student participating in the government-sponsored Joint-training Doctoral Program from the China Scholarship Council from September 2017 - September 2018. He was at the Institute of Turbomachinery in Xi’an Jiaotong University. He received his B.E. in Thermal Energy and Power Engineering from Zhengzhou University in 2014. His doctoral thesis focused on the power generation and heat transfer utilizing renewable energy. At the ETRL, he conducted research on the condensation of low surface tension fluids.
Email: hnaylihang@stu.xjtu.edu.cn
Baojin Qi
Baojin was a visiting scholar from China during January 2017 - January 2017. Dr. Qi received his B.E. in Mechanical Engineering from the Zhejiang University (ZJU) in 2005, and later obtained his PhD from the State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering at East China University of Science and Technology in 2011. Currently, he is an associate professor in Xi'an Jiaotong University.
Email: bjqi@xjtu.edu.cn
Seyed Mohammad Reza Razavi
Mohammad was a visiting scholar from Iran. He obtained his PhD at the School of Polymer Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology (IUT). He received his M.S. in Polymer Engineering from Arak University (AU) in 2013. His research at the ETRL focused on preparation and investigation of anti-biofouling polymeric coatings by creating natural plant-based superhydrophobic surfaces.
Dong Niu
Dong was a visiting PhD student (January-July 2017) sponsored by the China Scholarship Council. He is a PhD student at Xi'an Jiaotong University, China. He did research at the ETRL on the simulation of micro/nanoscale heat transfer during dropwise condensation using molecular dynamics.
Ji-Xiang Wang
Ji was a visiting PhD student sponsored by the China Scholarship Council. He is a PhD student at Beihang University, China. His doctoral thesis focuses on spray cooling for onboard electronics. At the ETRL, he is working on the quantification of hydrophobic functional surface durability.
Email: j.x.wang.buaa@hotmail.com
Wei Su
Wei was a visiting PhD student from the School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, China. He is sponsored by the China Scholarship Council. His doctoral thesis focuses on condensation and freezing heat transfer on micro/nano-structured surfaces for anti-frosting heat pump applications. In the ETRL, he is currently working on flash condensation.
Email: ilysuwei@hotmail.com
Xiong Wang
Xiong was a visiting PhD student sponsored by the China Scholarship Council. He was a PhD student from Tsinghua University, China. His doctoral thesis focuses on dynamic wetting of Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids under different structures. At the ETRL, he is working on the evaporation and boiling heat transfer enhancement on superhydrophilic surfaces.
Daolong Yang
Daolong was a 2019 visiting scholar sponsored by the Jiangsu Normal University. He received his PhD in Mechanical Design and Theory from China University of Mining and Technology in 2016. At the ETRL, Daolong studied adsorption of micro droplets on coal dust.
Huan Ma
Huan was a 2019 visiting PhD student sponsored by the China Scholarship Council. He was a PhD student from Southeast University, China. At the ETRL, he worked on droplet jumping and frosting simulations.
Xiaolong Fang
Xiaolong was a 2019 visiting scholar sponsored by the China Scholarship Council. He received his PhD in manufacturing and automation from the College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering at NUAA, China. At the ETRL, Xiaolong studied electrochemical machining including surface texturing.
Email: xlfang87@illinois.edu
Zhongyan Liu
Zhongyan was a 2019-2020 visiting scholar sponsored by the China Scholarship Council. He received his PhD in Engineering Thermophysics from Tianjin University, China. At the ETRL, Zhongyan studied frosting and anti-frosting on micro/nano-structured surfaces for heat pump applications.
Email: liu314@illinois.edu
Zhiru Yang
Zhiru Yang was a 2020 visiting scholar. He received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Key Laboratory of Education Ministry for Modern Design and Rotor-Bearing System (MDRS), Xi’an Jiaotong University, China. His doctoral thesis focused on the heat transfer of lubricating fluids. He is working on heat transfer of micro/nano-structured anti-dew surfaces.
Email: yangzr@illinois.edu
Puhang Jin
Puhang Jin was a 2019 - 2020 visiting PhD candidate in Engineering Thermophysics in the MOE Key Laboratory of Thermo-Fluid Science and Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, China. His doctoral thesis focuses on thin film evaporation heat transfer of low surface tension fluids. In the ETRL, he is working on bubble dynamics during thin film evaporation and icing/frosting on micro/nano-structured surfaces.
Email: phjin@illinois.edu
Yujia Zho
Yujia Zhou was a 2019 - 2020 visiting PhD student from Tsinghua University, China. Her doctoral thesis focused on the hydrodynamics of bubble motion. In the ETRL, she is studying bubble burs phenomena through thin liquid films.
Email: zhouyj16@illinois.edu
Qi Peng
Qi was a 24-month visiting PhD student sponsored by the China Scholarship Council in 2018. He was a PhD student from Beijing Jiaotong University. His doctoral thesis focused on the dynamics of droplet heat transfer on micro/nano-structured surfaces. In the ETRL, he studied nucleation and jumping of droplets on micro/nano-structured surfaces.
Email: qipeng@illinois.edu
Undergraduate
William Moy
William graduated with a B.S. in Mechanical Science and Engineering at UIUC. He worked in the ETRL during his senior year (2014-2015) studying fabrication of scalable metal oxide nanostructured surfaces for phase change heat transfer applications. He is now an Operational Engineer for the Watlow Electric Manufacturing Company.
Email: WMoy@Watlow.com
Maneesh Nallapaneni
Maneesh was a summer undergraduate researcher from the Mechanical Engineering Department at National Institute of Technology Warangal (NITW) India. He worked in the ETRL in 2015. His research involved anti-icing techniques using superhydrophobicity. He is currently pursuing his PhD the Mechanical Engineering Department at Northwestern University.
Leicheng Zhang
Leicheng was a summer undergraduate researcher from the Department of Thermal Engineering at Tsinghua University. He worked in the ETRL in 2017. His research involved droplet jumping studies with a graduate student.
Lezhou Feng
Lezhou was a summer undergraduate researcher from the School of Energy and Power Engineering, Beihang University, China. He worked in the ETRL in 2017. His research involved hydrophobic plants and jumping droplets. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the Hong King University of Science and Technology under the guidance of Dr. Shuhuai Yao.
Xiaochen Ma
Xiaochen was a visiting undergraduate researcher from the Department of Nano-Materials, School of Material Science and Engineering, Beihang University, China. She worked in the ETRL in 2017. Her research involved the study of icing dynamics on nanoengineered surfaces.
Irene Andsager
Irene was an undergraduate researcher from the Liberal Arts and Sciences Physics Department at UIUC. She worked in the ETRL from 2016 to 2017 on bi-philic and bi-conductive surfaces. She is currently employed at CERL in Champaign.
Anand Thamban
Anand was a visiting summer undergraduate researcher from the Mechanical Engineering Department of the National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, India. He worked in the ETRL in 2016 on closed loop wing tunnel design and fabrication. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern.
Junyoung Ahn
Jun was an undergraduate researcher from the Mechanical Science and Engineering Department at UIUC. He worked in the ETRL in 2017 with senior graduate student on bi-philic surface research.
Eojin Kim
Eojin was an undergraduate researcher from the Mechanical Science and Engineering Department at UIUC. He worked in the ETRL during 2017. He conducted research with a graduate student on high speed imaging and microscopy. In 2017, he transferred to UC Berkeley.
Naveen Nagarajan
Naveen was an undergraduate researcher from the Mechanical Science and Engineering Department at UIUC. He worked in the ETRL from 2015 to 2017. He conducted research with a graduate student on aerogel-based solar-thermal energy systems. Naveen is pursuing his PhD in Mechanical Science and Engineering at UIUC.
Mateusz Lopez
Mateusz was an undergraduate researcher from the Mechanical Science and Engineering Department at UIUC. He worked in the ETRL from 2016 to 2017. He conducted research with a graduate student on doped aerogels for controllable radiative properties for solar thermal applications.
Saketh Undurty
Saketh was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL during the fall of 2014 and spring of 2015. He conducted research with a graduate student on scalable fabrication of metal oxide nanostructured surfaces for phase change heat transfer applications.
Michael Atten
Michael was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL during the winter, summer, and fall of 2015. He conducted research with a graduate student on synthesis of aerogels for solar-thermal energy systems. He is now a full time Graduate Student in the MechSE department at UIUC.
Alexander Pauls
Alexander was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL from fall 2014 to summer 2016. He conducted research with a graduate student on improving condensation heat transfer on nanomanufactured superhydrophobic surfaces.
Micheal Ye
Michael was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL during the summer of 2015. He worked with a graduate student to develop a novel optical method to measure the in-situ velocity of moving droplets and bubbles.
Hannah Xu
Hannah was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL during September 2014 to December 2015. She studied jumping droplet dynamics on nanostructured superhydrophobic surfaces in collaboration with a graduate student.
Steven Yeung
Steven was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL during September 2014 to December 2015. He studied condensation heat transfer through individual droplets on hydrophobic and superhydrophobic surfaces. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at MIT.
Chen Zhong
Chen was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL during September 2014 to December 2015. She studied jumping droplet dynamics on superhydrophobic surfaces. He is currently a graduate student in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Stanford University.
Qian Wang
Qian was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL during September 2014 to June 2016. He studied droplet nucleation dynamics during condensation. He is currently a graduate student in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Stanford University.
Jeffrey Jun
Jeffrey was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL during January 2016 to June 2016. He helped build and instrument a box vacuum chamber for phase change heat transfer measurements in collaboration with a graduate student.
Shreyas Hegde
Shreyas was a summer (2016) undergraduate researcher from the Mechanical Engineering Department at National Institute of Technology - Suratkal, India. His research involved experimentally studying the frost/defrost performance of hybrid wetting surfaces. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Duke University.
Kishan Kumar
Kishan was a summer (2016) undergraduate researcher from the Mechanical Engineering Department at National Institute of Technology - Suratkal, India. His research involved experimentally studying the frost/defrost performance of large scale superhydrophobic evaporators for HVAC heat pump applications. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at TU Delft in the Netherlands.
Jingcheng Ma
Jingcheng was a visiting (2016) undergraduate researcher from the Mechanical Engineering Department in Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. He worked on the analysis of water droplet impact on vibrating elastic superhydrophobic surfaces. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at UIUC in our lab.
Yunbo Wang
Yunbo was a visiting (2016) undergraduate researcher from the Mechanical Engineering Department in Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China. He experimentally measured the droplet distribution during condensation on liquid infused surfaces. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at UCLA.
Junjiao Tian
Junjiao was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL during January 2015 to June 2016. He worked on droplet impact experiments on flexible superhydrophobic surfaces. He is currently pursuing his PhD at Carnegie Mellon University in Robotics.
Nitish Singla
Nitish was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL during January 2015 to June 2016. He worked on experimentally measuring the individual droplet freezing time during condensation frosting. He is currently working at AIG.
Ryan O'Sullivan
Ryan was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL during the summer of 2016. He worked with a graduate student to help build an experimental vacuum chamber. Ryan has graduated with his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering and is currently working as a Technology Analyst at Accenture.
Dong Hoon Kang
Dong Hoon was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL during January 2015 to June 2016. He worked with a graduate student to collect and analyze data for jumping droplet dynamics on nanostructured superhydrophobic surfaces.
So Hyeon 'Leah' Youn
Leah was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL during January 2015 to June 2016. She worked with a graduate student to develop spin-coat based nanoengineered surfaces.
Jorge Anaya
Jorge was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL during the summer of 2016. He worked with a graduate student to help build an experimental vacuum chamber.
Nealay Kalita
Nealay was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL during the summer and fall of 2016. He worked with a graduate student to develop transparent aerogel solar thermal absorbers.
Jacky Tam
Jacky was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL during the summer of 2016. He worked with a graduate student on condensation heat transfer measurements.
Chengpu Li
Chengpu was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL in 2016. He is currently working as at SpaceX in Los Angeles, CA.
Jae Min Chun
Jae Min was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL in 2015 and 2016. He received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Science and Engineering in 2016 and is continuing on to his doctoral degree at UIUC in our lab.
Zhaoer Li
Zhaoer was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL in 2015 and 2016. He received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Science and Engineering in 2017 and is continuing on to his doctoral degree at the University of Michigan.
Jonah Nguyen
Jonah was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL in from May 2016 to January 2017. He received his B.S. degree in Agricultural and Biological Engineering in June 2017. At the ETRL, he studied the antimicrobial properties of insect wings in collaboration with a graduate student.
Jason Yang
Jason was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL from May 2016 to June 2017. He received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Science and Engineering in June 2017. At the ETRL, he investigated durability of a variety of hydrophobic coatings to understand nano-engineered surface degradation in collaboration with a graduate student.
Sang A. Lee
Sang A. was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL from May 2016 to June 2017. She received her B.S. degree in Mechanical Science and Engineering in June 2017. At the ETRL, she studied condensation nucleation dynamics on smooth and structured surfaces.
Matthew Steinlauf
Matt was an underaduate researcher in the ETRL at UIUC. He worked at the ETRL during the summer of 2017 on fabrication of superhydrophobic surfaces and droplet tracking MATLAB software.
Zhuo Chen
Zhuo was an underaduate researcher in the ETRL from May 2017 to June 2018. He worked with a postdoc on enhanced anti-icing performance of superhydrophobic coatings.
Jiashuo Tong
Jiashuo was an underaduate researcher in the ETRL from May 2017 to January 2018. He worked with a senior graduate student to study condensation on hydrophobic surfaces.
Adam Castaneda
Adam was an underaduate researcher in the ETRL from May 2016 to June 2017. Adam worked on jumping droplet electronics cooling.
Diego Gundersen
Diego was an underaduate researcher in the ETRL from September 2016 to June 2018. He worked on hydrophobic surface durability. He is currently pursuing graduate studies in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame.
Yangxue (Sherry) Yu
Yangxue (Sherry) was an underaduate researcher in the ETRL from May 2015 to June 2018. She worked on HVACR icing mitigation strategies. She is currently pursuing a PhD in the ECE department at UIUC.
Sabrina Yin
Sabrina wwas an underaduate researcher in the ETRL from May 2015 to June 2018. She developed jumping-droplet vapor chambers for high power density electronics thermal management as part of the POETS NSF center. She is currently working for Raytheon in Texas.
Deokgeun "Daniel" Park
Deokgeun was an underaduate researcher in the ETRL from May 2015 to June 2018. He studied droplet growth on superhydrophobic surfaces in the presence of non-condensables. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Texas A and M.
Juo-Yun Chen
Juo-Yun was an underaduate researcher in the ETRL from May 2016 to June 2018. She studied condensation behavior of low-surface tension fluids in collaboration with a graduate student.
Yujin Chang
Yujin was an underaduate researcher in the ETRL from May 2015 to September 2017. She worked with a graduate student to study droplet impact on flexible superhydrophobic surfaces. She is currently with Bosch in Champaign, IL.
Joseph Mayer
Mike was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL from May 2017 to May 2018. He worked with a graduate student to study frosting on superhydrophobic heat exchangers. Mike is currently pursuing his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan.
Yein Kim
Yein was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL from May 2017 to May 2018. She worked with a senior graduate student on aerogel fabrication.
Carter Wood
Carter was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL from May 2016 to May 2018. He worked on studying the effects of surface inclination and droplet size on droplet departure dynamics for different surfaces.
Yukai Lin
Yukai was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL from May 2018 to August 2018. He worked with a postdoc on condensation in the presence of non-condensible gases.
Guanning He
Guanning was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL from May 2018 to August 2018. He worked with a graduate student on droplet evaporation.
Eui Chel Kim
Eui was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL from May 2017 to August 2018. He worked with a senior graduate student on biphilic surfaces.
Neil Ghosh
Neil was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL from May 2017 to August 2018. He worked with a postdoc on droplet growth of water on liquid infused surfaces.
Marisa Gnadt
Marisa was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL from May 2017 to May 2019. She worked with a graduate student to study the effect of droplet size, temperature and surface material on evaporation rate.
Peter Sokalski
Peter was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL from May 2016 to May 2019. He worked with many students on a veriety of projects ranging from condensation to icing. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at UT Austin under the guidance of Dr. Li Shi.
Harpreet Auby
Harpreet was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL from May 2017 to May 2019. He worked with a postdoc on liquid infused surfaces.
Maya Seskiewicz
Maya was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL from May 2018 to May 2019. He worked with a postdoc on liquid infused surfaces.
Luwen (Lucy) Sun
Lucy was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL from May 2017 to May 2019. She worked with a senior graduate student to study condensation on hydrophobic surfaces.
Timmy Dong
Timmy was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL from May 2018 to May 2019. He worked with a postdoc on pool boiling experiments.
Thomas Butruille
Thomas was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL from May 2018 to May 2019. He worked with a postdoc on condensation experiments.
Sean Ebihara
Sean was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL from May 2016 to May 2019. He worked with a graduate student on microfabrication and studies on condensation.
Derek Dai
Derek was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL from May 2018 to May 2019. He worked with a graduate student to study icing performance on superhydrophobic evaporators.
Kirk Fortelka
Kirk was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL from May 2017 to May 2019. Kirk worked with a graduate student to study superhydrophobic and biphilic surfaces for anti-frosting.
Young Seong Kim
Young was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL from May 2016 to August 2019. He worked with a senior graduate student on sintering-based nanomaterial research.
Alvin Tanasta
Alvin was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL from May 2018 to May 2019. He worked with a senior graduate student on cloaking of SLIPS and LIS.
Haowen Wang
Haowen Wang was a 2019 summer research undergraduate student from Zhejiang University, China. He worked on hierarchical condensation. In his spare time, he pursues his passion for data science and he likes playing the piano.
Feipeng Chen
Feipeng was a 2019 summer research undergraduate student from the School of Energy, Power and Mechanical Engineering at North China Electric Power University, China. He worked on studying the dynamics of microdroplets between hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces. In sparing time, he likes playing sports and traveling.
Jinchi Sun
Jinchi was a 2019 summer undergraduate researcher from Department of Energy Engineering at Zhejiang University, China. He worked with a postdoc on droplet spreading studies on superhydrophilic surfaces.
Yongyi Zhao
Yongyi was a 2019 summer undergraduate researcher from Department of Mechanical Engineering at Chongqing University, China. She worked with a postdoc on surface wickability testing.
Aakash Patel
Aakash was a student in the Chemical Engineering Department at UIUC. He worked as an undergraduate researcher under Hanmesh Gunnam.
Bassel Jabal
Bassel was an undergraduate student in the Mechanical Science and Engineering Department at UIUC. He worked with a graduate student to study droplet evaporation for multiple years (2017 - 2020). Bassel is currently pursuing his M.S. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering at UIUC.
Aditya Mahadevan
Aditya was an undergraduate student in the Mechanical Science and Engineering Department at UIUC. He worked with a postdoc on condensation experiments.
Ashay Patel
Ashay was an undergraduate student in the Mechanical Science and Engineering Department at UIUC. He worked with a postdoc on condensation experiments.
Qiyuan Wu
Qiyuan Wu was a visiting undergraduate researcher (summer of 2019) from the Department of Engineering Mechanics in Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. He worked on anti-fouling and anti-corrosion coatings for HVAC applications. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University
Kaiying Jiang
Kaiying was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL from spring of 2018 to fall of 2019. She graduated with her B.S. in MechSE in 2019 and is currently pursuing her PhD at Stanford University under the guidance of Dr Ken Goodson.
Yimeng Qin
Yimeng was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL from spring of 2018 to summer of 2020. He worked with a graduate student on scalable fabrication of superhydrophobic surfaces. Yimeng is currently pursuing his doctoral studies at MIT.
Yifan Yang
Yifan Yang was a 3+2 student from the College of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, China. He worked in the ETRL from the summer of 2019 to summer of 2020. He worked on condensation, frosting and defrosting performance of finned-tubes.
Derrick Liu
Derrick as an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL during the 2019 academic year. He worked on functional coating durability testing and heat transfer performance improvement of engineered surfaces.
Maury Lira
Maury was an undergraduate student in the Mechanical Science and Engineering Department at UIUC. He worked in the ETRL from 2018 to 2020 with a graduate student on condensation frosting.
Nicole Jeon
Nicole was an undergraduate researcher in the ETRL from September 2019 to June 2021. She worked on the effects of condensation and blistering on hydrophobic nanoengineered surfaces. She is currently pursuing her graduate studies in Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University.
Daniel Kang
Daniel was an undergraduate student in the Department of Chemical Engineering at UIUC. He worked with a postdoc on dropwise condensation during his undergraduate research from June 2019 to January 2021.
Jacob Pan
Jacob was an undergraduate student in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department at UIUC. In the ETRL, he is worked with a graduate student on the fabrication of superhydrophobic/superhydrophilic surfaces and fog harvesting experiments from January 2020 to January 2021.
Arya Nallanthighall
Arya was an undergraduate in the Mechanical Science and Engineering Department at UIUC. He worked on etched metal superhydrophobic surfaces with enhanced durability from June 2019 to Jaune 2021.
Joe Koszut
Joe was an undergraduate student majoring in Mechanical Engineering and minoring in Electrical Engineering at UIUC. He worked with two graduate students on wind tunnel testing of heat exchangers as well as thermal management of electronics. In his spare time, Joe enjoyed carrying out projects on the school’s Formula SAE team. He is currently a doctoral student at the University of California at Berkeley.
Ryo Terada
Ryo was an undergraduate student majoring in Mechanical Engineering at UIUC. He worked with a postdoc on condensation primarily focused on thermo-fluid-interfacial science.
Geonwoo Kim
Geonwoo was an undergraduate student majoring in Mechanical Engineering at UIUC. He worked with a postdoc on self-cleaning properties of superhydrophobic surfaces.
Peter Davis
Peter was an undergraduate student majoring in Mechanical Engineering at UIUC. He worked on projects related to characterization and applications of superhydrophobic surfaces.
Wentao Yang
Wentao was an undergraduate student majoring in Mechanical Engineering and minoring in Computer Science at UIUC. He worked on condensation heat transfer and droplet hydrodynamics with a postdoc. Wentao is currently a doctoral student at UIUC in the ETRL.
Sakshi Agarwal
Sakshi was an undergraduate student majoring in Mechanical Engineering at UIUC. She worked on nanostructure casting with a senior PhD student. He is currently a doctoral student at UIUC.
Scotlyn Belew
Scotlyn was an undergraduate student majoring in Mechanical Engineering and Economics at UIUC. She studied droplet impact dynamics on varying wettability surfaces during 2021-2022.
Andrew Pelster
Andrew was an undergraduate student majoring in Aerospace Engineering at UIUC. He studied droplet impact dynamics on varying wettability surfaces during 2020-2022.
Chang Hun Park
Chang Hun was an undergraduate student majoring in Mechanical Engineering at UIUC. In the ETRL, he studied frosting and icing on functional surfaces from 2020 to 2021.
Jiwon Shin
Jiwon was an undergraduate student majoring in Mechanical Engineering at UIUC. She studied condensation on hydrophobic surfaces during 2020 to 2021.
Matt Lawrence
Matthew was an undergraduate student in the Mechanical Science and Engineering Department at UIUC. He studied flow boiling characteristics in structured metal tubes.
Ashish Mittal
Ashish was a an undergraduate student in the Mechanical Science and Engineering Department at UIUC with a minor in Electrical Engineering. He worked on sweat boosted cooling of heat exchangers as well as thermal management of electronics from 2019 to 2021.
Justin Kao
Justin Kao was a an undergraduate student in the Mechanical Science and Engineering Department at UIUC. He is very passionate about the space industry and has had the opportunity to intern previously at Boeing, NASA Johnson Space Center, and United Launch Alliance. He led the Eco Illini Super mileage, a student organization which designs and builds efficient prototype cars. In the ETRL, he investigated power electronics cooling technologies.
Armani Ubeid
Armani was a an undergraduate student in the Mechanical Science and Engineering Department at UIUC with a minor in sustainability, energy, and environment. Armani worked on hydrophobic surface fabrication while in the ETRL from 2020 to 2021.
Willem Alleyne
Willem worked in the ETRL during the summer of 2022 with Vivek Garimella on refrigerant/oil separation. Willem is now studying Mechanical/Aerospace engineering at Princeton University starting in the fall of 2022. In his free time, he enjoys playing soccer and basketball.