University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Energy Transport Research Lab


Nenad Miljkovic

Founder 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

CV, UIUC MechSE, Google Scholar, Linkedin, ResearchGate


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


Donghyeon Yoo

Donghyeon Yoo received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering in Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), South Korea. He then continued as a Postdoctral Fellow at POSTECH. His research interest are the surface structure engineering of polymers and metals and their applications in liquid-solid contact electrification phenomena and energy harvesting. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the ETRL. Besides research, he enjoys walking, watching movies and various sports.

Email: yoo91@illinois.edu


Seungtae Oh

Seungtae Oh received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Kyung Hee University in 2021, where he worked under the supervision of Professor Youngsuk Nam. After earning his PhD, he worked at the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH) as a postdoctoral researcher from September 2021 to April 2023. His research has focused on surface engineering for solar/thermal energy conversion & storage and thermal management of electronics. He has also been investigating pollution prevention technologies to address environmental challenges posed by fossil fuels. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the ETRL working on liquid metal TIMs as well as energy storage technologies. His personal website is: drstoh.com.

Email: stoh@illinois.edu


Vishwanath Ganesan

Vish Ganesan received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University under the leadership of Prof. Issam Mudawar working in the Boiling and Two-Phase Flow Laboratory. At Purdue, he also held joint appointments with NASA-GRC as a Visiting Researcher and with the School of Mechanical Engineering as a Ward A. Lambert Graduate Teaching Fellow. Prior to joining Purdue, he worked as a Junior Research Fellow at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay under the leadership of Prof. Kannan Iyer working in the Thermal Hydraulics Test Facility. Since 2012, he has worked on the experimental design of thermal-hydraulics test facilities, in-house multiphase CFD code development, two-phase interfacial turbulence modeling, cryogenic two-phase flow boiling physics, and statistical analysis for correlation development, all within the realm of two-phase flow boiling. He is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Energy Transport Research Laboratory working on high-fidelity experiments and computations of transient two-phase flow for understanding cryogenic propellant tank transfer and on holistic rack-to-processor power and thermal co-design for future servers.

Email: vganesa@purdue.edu


Changmin Choi

Changmin Choi received his B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Hanyang University, South Korea. He is conducting an research and development engineer in the air solution field at LG Electronics. He is currently a visiting scholar in the ETRL working on control methods for HVAC&R systems. Besides studies, he enjoys walking, watching movies and playing various sports.

Email: changmin.choi@lge.com


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


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


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


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 his 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 received 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


Alex Solecki

After receiving her B.S. in mechanical engineering at Marquette University, Alex earned her M.S. at the University of Illinois studying sustainable aviation fuels. There, she gained an appreciation for the importance of energy efficient, sustainable practices across the industrial landscape, particularly in bio-feedstock conversion. In the ETRL, she is working on high efficiency electro-thermal pulse de-icing for electrified aircraft and PV’s. Outside of work, you can find Alex making new friends at the bookstore or losing herself in Wikipedia rabbit holes.

Email: solecki4@illinois.edu


Ghassan Arissi

Ghassan received his B.E. in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Applied Energy from the American University of Beirut in 2022. Prior to joining ETRL, he was involved in a desiccant dehumidification review paper, in addition to several projects in the Energy field. He is currently working projects related to pinhole-initiated blister formation in thin films. Aside from research, Ghassan enjoys sports, reading and film.

Email: garissi@illinois.edu


Woo Young Park

Woo Young received his B.S. in Mechanical Science and Engineering from UIUC in 2019. Prior to joining the ETRL, he worked on several projects in the semiconductor package industry with Samsung Electronics for 3 years. In the ETRL, Woo Young is working on electronics cooling research, with a focus on interconnects and data centers. He is co-advised by Professor Bill King of Mechanical Science and Engineering.

Email: wypark2@illinois.edu


Yiyang Chen

Yiyang Chen received dual Bachelor's degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Zhejiang University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2022. Currently, in the ETRL, he is actively engaged in research focused on refrigerant pool boiling heat transfer enhancement and the development of an innovative fin manufacturing method. Apart from his academic pursuits, Yiyang enjoys playing soccer in his leisure time, which happens to be his favorite sport.

Email: yiyangc5@illinois.edu


Mostafa Olyaei

Mostafa received his B.S. in mechanical engineering from Shiraz University in 2018, and his M.S. in mechanical engineering from Sharif University of Technology in 2021. In the ETRL, he is working on applying simulation tools to the design and optimization of electrothermal systems for electric vehicles. In his spare time, he likes to hike, go to the gym, and watch TV shows.

Email: molyaei2@illinois.edu


Sarath Subramaniyan

Sarath completed his B.E. degree in Mechanical Engineering at Anna University - College of Engineering, Guindy, Tamil Nadu, India. He has a deep fascination for thermal systems and materials engineering. In the ETRL, he is explorin distinct coatings for heat exchangers, aiming to enhance their efficiency and longevity. He is also conducting system level modeling of thermal architectures.

Email: ssubra52@illinois.edu


Syed Angkan Haider

Angkan received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) in 2019. He joined MechSE as a PhD student in 2021, and prior to joining the ETRL, he worked on system-level HVAC&R research at the ACRC. In the ETRL, his research focus will be on oil circulation rate (OCR) measurement methods for variable speed systems, oil separation strategies, compressor oil return and quantification of oil-refrigerant properties.

Email: shaider4@illinois.edu


Muntasir Alam

Muntasir received his B.Sc. in 2016 and M.Sc. in 2019, both in Mechanical Engineering, from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh. His research interests include micro/nano scale phase change heat transfer, heat transfer enhancement through different techniques, and refrigeration technologies. Currently, he is working on the utilization of ejector technologies in HVAC&R applications. In his spare time, he loves watching and playing soccer (an avid “Manchester United” supporter from childhood), traveling to new places, and hanging out with friends.

Email: mmalam3@illinois.edu


Purav Patel

Purav received his B.E. in Mechanical Eng. and M.E. in Thermal Science and Eng. from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur) in 2019. He is working on a storage heat pump system design for improving the operating range of heat pump systems. He is also studying the performance of different types of heat exchanger designs for heat pump systems.

Email: puravp2@illinois.edu


Xin Wang

Xin received her B.S. in Renewable Energy from Zhejiang University in 2020. Then she received her M.S. degree in Mechanical Science and Engineering from UIUC in 2022. In the ETRL, Xin is a Ph.D. student studying transient oil migration at compressor suction and discharge, with the goal of improving oil return and reducing oil retention.

Email: xinw8@illinois.edu


Jiazheng Liu

Jiazheng received his M.S. in Engineering Thermophysics at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2023, where he focused on microscale flow and heat transfer. He has a strong interest in studying physical phenomena using both experimental and theoretical methods. He joined the ETRL in the Fall of 2023. In the ETRL, Jiazheng is working on heat exchanger design, liquid/air side heat transfer and etching, as well as frosting physics. In his spare time, Jiazheng is crazy about table tennis and also enjoys reading.

Email: jl266@illinois.edu


Valentin Belosludtsev

Valentin received his B.S. in Physics and M.S. in Mechanics and Mathematical modeling from Novosibirsk State University in 2020 and 2022, respectively. During his studies he was working in the Kutateladze Institute of Thermophysics conducting experimental investigations of flow boiling and shear-driven liquid film heat transfer and hydrodynamics in mini- and microchannels. He also has research experience in industry that he obtained during his internship in the Novosibirsk Technology Center of Schlumberger. In the ETRL, Valentin is conducting research on the flow boiling of refrigerant blends using conventional and advanced IR thermography methods. During his spare time, he likes to watch NBA basketball, cook, and hanging out with friends and play videogames.

Email: vb23@illinois.edu


Harsh Tyagi

Harsh received his B. Tech in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Insttute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) in 2020. He worked as an ePowertrain Engineer at Jaguar Land Rover India where he worked on thermal design and analysis of PMSM and IM tracton motors. He is interested in thermal engineering and its utlizaton for the advancement of sustainable energy technologies. In his spare time, he likes to play football, sim racing, and read thriller fiction novels.

Email: harsht2@illinois.edu


Robert Stavins

Robert received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2020. His current research focuses on additive manufacturing, microfluidics, and thermal management. He is co-advised by Dr. William P. King, also in MechSE. Outside of research, he enjoys playing tennis, watching football and soccer, and mentoring a local high school robotics team.

Email: stavins@illinois.edu


Saptarshi Joshi

Saptarshi received his B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering with Honours from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Bombay) in 2023. In his Bachelor’s thesis, he conducted experimental and numerical studies on the use of rib turbulators to enhance heat transfer in pin-fin channels for gas turbine blade cooling. In the ETRL, he is working on developing cooling strategies for batteries as well as non-cryogenic superconducting motors. In his free time, he enjoys listening to music, playing the guitar, and playing tennis.

Email: syjoshi2@illinois.edu


Radhe Jha

Radhe received his Bachelors in mechanical engineering from IIT Kharagpur in 2021. Since then, he worked in a multinational company as a producton engineer and modelling and simulaton scientst. In the ETRL, he is working on dynamic system modeling of HVAC&R systems.

Email: radhebj2@illinois.edu


Luke Markuson

Luke received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Science and Engineering at UIUC in June of 2023. As a senior, he worked on electronics immersion cooling with a graduate student in the ETRL. As a PhD student, he will continue his work on electronics cooling as well as looking into sustaniability and renewable energy technologies. In his free time, Luke likes reading, rollerblading, and working on his 1968 mustang.

Email: lukerm3@illinois.edu


Simran Singh

Simran received her B.Tech in Aerospace Eng. from Indian Institue of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur) in 2022. Her interests focus on Fluid Dynamics, CFD and heat transfer. In the ETRL, Simran is a Masters student working on Boundary Layer Theory for flows over structured surfaces. Outside the lab, she enjoys playing tennis and volleyball, painting, and pet cats.

Email: simrans9@illinois.edu


Saif Al Afsan Shamim

Shamim received his B.Sc in Mechanical Engineering degree from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) in 2019. He later completed his M.Sc in Mechanical Engineering in 2023 from the same university. His research interests focus on Thermal Management and Electronic Cooling. Shamim is a passionate soccer player and enjoys watching movies in his leisure hours.

Email: sshamim2@illinois.edu


Nusrat Chowdhury

Nusrat received her B.Sc. in 2021 from the Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET) in Mechanical Engineering. She completed her M.Sc. in the Material Tribology Laboratory in UIUC in 2023 under the supervison of Professor Alison C. Dunn on surface and structural properties of physically and chemically crosslinked hydrogels. She has worked on soft material tribology and mechanics of the click beetle mechanism. She has had internship experience in Trane Technologies which grew her interest in thermal transport properties. Her PhD is focused on the thermal conductivity of vitrimer polymers. She is co-advised by Professor David Cahill of MatSE. In her spare time, she loves hiking, listening to music, hanging out with friends, and cooking.

Email: nusratc2@illinois.edu


Omar Zaki

Omar received his BSc with High Honors from Cairo University in 2019 while being the valedictorian of his class. He also received his MSc from Cairo University in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on heat transfer and air conditioning. Omar worked on research projects with entities such as ORNL, KAUST, and UNIDO related to HVAC&R applications. His research mainly focuses on heat transfer and air conditioning applications both on a component level and on a system level. His research at UIUC is concerned with applying additive manufacturing technology in heat transfer applications to achieve higher performance when compared with conventional heat exchanger technologies. He is co-advised by Professor Bill King.

Email: omarz2@illinois.edu


Behnood Bazmi

Behnood received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2023 at the Sharif University of Technology in Iran. In the ETRL, he is pursuing his Ph.D. and working on the effect of latent load on heat exchanger design and condensate drainage. In his free time, he enjoys doing and following sports, reading, and watching movies

Email: bbazmi2@illinois.edu


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


George Penn

George is an undergraduate student studying mechanical engineering. He is interested in thermodynamics and sustainability. Aside from school, he enjoys biking andsoccer.”


Amelia Korveziroska

Amelia is a dual degree student majoring in Mechanical Engineering at UIUC and Physics at Illinois State University. Her previous projects include analysis on UV burst spectra and fabrications of nanomaterials. She is currently working with a graduate student on structured stainless-steel for enhanced flow-boiling heat transfer. She plays percussion and spends her time at the gym and archery. She also loves food so she will try anything at least once.”


Daniel Robert Kawiecki

Daniel is a senior at the University of Illinois, pursuing his B.S. degree in Mechanical Science and Engineering. He is helping a Ph.D. student to study the fundamentals of heat transfer enhancement in energy systems with nano and microengineered surfaces. In his free time, Daniel enjoys playing baseball, cooking, and working out.”



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.

Email: Patrick.birbarah@honeywell.com


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. In January of 2021, he started his faculty career as Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Middle Eastern Technical University (METU). In January 2023, he moved to the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Bilkent University as an assistant professor.

Email: agunay@bilkent.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.

Email: johannes.kohlermendizabal@carrier.com


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, Tarek completed his PhD from January 2017 to December 2022 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


Sagar Singh

Sagar received his B.Tech degree in Mechanical Engineering with Honors at IIT Bombay, India, in 2021. In the ETRL, he worked on developing thermal system designs for Electric Vehicles using simulation analysis. In May 2023, he completed his M.S. degree in Mechanical Science and Engineering. He joined Tesla's heat pump team as a staff engineer in Fremont, California.

Email: sagars3@illinois.edu


Rizwan Khan

Rizwan received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering with High Distinction from GIK Institute, Pakistan in 2015. He has four years of experience working in renewable energy (solar and hydroelectric generation facilities). In the ETRL, he completed his M.S. degree in May 2023. His work focused on applying analytics on a vast dataset of dropwise condensation and extracting machine learning insights from it. In June 2023, he returned to Pakistan to start a career in the power generation industry.

Email: rak6@illinois.edu


Wuchen Fu

Wuchen was in the UIUC ZJU 3+2 program. He spent 3 years in Zhejiang University and 2 years at UIUC, receiving his B.S. in ZJU and M.S. in UIUC. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Science and Engineering in 2023, conducting seminal work in the ETRL on dynamic phase change materials and low-GWP refrigerant pool boiling. In October 2023, he joined Zipline in California as a thermal system engineer.

Email: wuchenf97@outlook.com


Junyoung Lee

Junyoung received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Yonsei University in 2017. He received his PhD in Mechanical Science and Engineering from UIUC in 2023 doing work in the ETRL on the design and development of durable lubricant-infused surfaces for water-shedding applications. In September 2023, he started his career as a Research Scientist at Teledyne Scientific & Imaging in Thousand Oaks, California.

Email: jl59@illinois.edu


Ho Chan Chang

Ho Chan received his B.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Seoul National University in 2017. He received his PhD in Mechanical Science and Engineering doing work in the ETRL on thermal characterization and development of ultra-thin high thermal conductivity hydrophobic surfaces, including metal polymer composites and three omega measurement methods. In September 2023, he started his career as a packaging engineer at Samsung Semiconductor Inc, San Jose, California.

Email: hochanc2@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


Chi Wang

Chi Wang received his PhD in Nuclear Science and Engineering from MIT in 2022 where he worked under the guidance of Prof. Matteo Bucci. His doctoral thesis focused on the boiling heat transfer enhancement on micropillar surfaces. He worked in the ETRL from November 2022 to November 2023 on a variety of projects related to IR thermometry applicatons in condensaton, chilldown and other heat transfer processes. In December 2023, he started a faculty positon as an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of New Mexico.

Email: chiw@illinois.edu


Bo Wang

Bo Wang received his M.S. degree in Control Theory and Engineering from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, in 2018. He received his PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering (dynamics and control) from Villanova University, Villanova, PA, USA, in 2022. After receiving his Ph.D., he worked in the ETRL as a postdoc from January to August 2023 on a wide variety of projects mainly focusing on modeling and optmizaton of heat pump systems. In September 2023, he joined the City University of New York as an Assistant Professor.

Email: wangbo@illinois.edu


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.


Ghassan Arissi

Ghassan worked in the ETRL during the fall of 2022 focusing on two projects related to pinhole-initiated blister formation in thin films. He returned to the ETRL in spring 2023 as a full time PhD student.


Hassan Farroukh

Hassan worked in the ETRL during the fall of 2022 focusing on two projects related to frost formation He is currently pursuing his PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Texas A and M University.


Natthakamol Toanan

Natthakamol was an undergraduate student visitor during 2022 from the department of Mechanical Engineering, King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Thailand. Her research involveed flow boiling in micro channels using Machine learning methods.


Natwara Kamolphiwong

Natwara was a visiting undergraduate student during 2022 from the Mechanical Engineering Department of King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Thailand. She worked on condensation heat transfer on biphilic surfaces.


Patcharee Oumpakdee

Patcharee was a visiting student during 2022 from the King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang in Thailand. She worked on experiments investigating different heat exchanger type and its impact on frosting, defrosting, and water retention.


Pawinee Kaewluenma

Pawinee was a visiting undergraduate student in 2022 from the Mechanical Engineering Department of Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Thailand. Her research involved developing and using machine learning algorithms to predict flow boiling pressure drop in micro channels.


Sedtanan Pornprasertsin

Sedtanan was a visiting undergraduate student during 2022 from the Mechanical Engineering Department of King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Thailand. His research involved the comparative study of condensation heat transfer on biphilic surface in different patterns.


Wichapon Ponsawat

Wichapon was a visiting undergraduate student during 2022 from the Mechanical Engineering Department of King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Thailand. He worked on developing codes to quantify bubble departure dynamics from endoscopy videos using machine learning.


Ethan Boris

Ethan was an undergraduate student in the Mechanical Science and Engineering Department at UIUC. In his free time, he enjoyed playing guitar and watching soccer.


Edwin Siuda

Edwin studied mechanical engineering and planning to complete his bachelor's degree in Spring of 2023. In the ETRL, Edwin worked with a senior PhD student on pool boiling heat transfer performance of low-GWP refrigerants and blends.


Eric Roman

Eric was 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. In the ETRL, he worked on thermal engineering, renewable energy, electric vehicles, and carbon capture. He is currently a PhD student in the ME department at the University of Muchigan.


Alex Patel

Alex worked in the ETRL with a graduate student on two projects; one exploring the feasibility of thermal energy storage which uses dynamic phase change materials and another testing the efficiency of electrostatic separation of oil in HVAC compressors. He is currently an engineer employed at Caterpillar in Illinois.


Frank Baez

Frank worked with a graduate student on both building a transient flow boiling experimental setup and observing electroplating methods for tube-fin connection.”


Hyrum Dickinson Scott

Hyrum Dickinson was a freshman working in the ETRL while in the Engineering Undeclared program at UIUC. His projects included drone prototyping, developing a functional chess AI in python, and developing a computer synchronized 3D-printed chess set.


King Yu

King Yu Tai was a freshman studying undeclared engineering (going for ME) while working in the ETRL. He worked on optical microscopy measurements during phase change.


Dawei Ding

Dawei was an undergraduate student in the Mechanical Science and Engineering Department majoring in Mechanical Engineering. He worked with a graduate student on the development of a thermal energy storage system with ice/melt front control using conventional phase change materials.