Current Students

Austin Hayes was in the lab in the fall and winter of 2015-2016. He was a 3rd year mechanical engineering undergraduate. Primarily, he worked with the graduate students in the lab in order to design and create whatever needs to be made using the labs CNC machine. This may include anything from machining test set-ups, micro-channels, etc. Recently he decided to join the BS/MS program and continue his work in the lab. He enjoy it as each day is different and is never boring!

Ishan is a masters student at RIT in the TAMFL lab from Fall 2016. He did his undergrad in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, Aurangabad, India. He is currently working on optical study of evaporating droplets. He loves to play Table tennis!

Farhan Mody received his Bachelor's degree in Mechanical from Marathwada University, Aurangabad, India in 2015. He joined TAMFL in May 2017 in order to pursue an M.S in Mechanical Engineering. His thesis work involves study the effects of heater scalability on pool boiling performance.

Completed my bachelor's degree from G.B.Pant Engineering college, Pauri, India in Mechanical Engineering after that had some experience in I.T. industry for 2 years by working on government projects.Joined RIT in 2017 for masters in mechanical engineering and started working in Tamfl lab on analysing Acoustic emissions in different regions of pool boiling. Currently working on methods to record most precise acoustic data on various surfaces using different techniques. I am passionate about weightlifting and love traveling and exploring.

Solomiya is BS/MS Mechanical Engineering student with a strong interest in imaging sciences. Solomiya has worked on an project for SpaceX to create a small vehicle to be used for detecting structural breaks during the Hyperloop Pod Competition in early 2017. Currently she is studying human tissue using thermal imaging methods.

Past Students

Akhilesh Bapat received his Bachelor's degree from Government College of Engineering, Pune, India in 2004. He then spent a year working for Thermax India Ltd. on industrial boilers and vapor absorption chillers. In September of 2005, he joined the Thermal Analysis Lab in order to pursue an M.S. degree. He worked on single-phase and two-phase heat transfer in microchannels with electronics cooling application, graduating in 2007.

Aniket joined TAMFL in Fall 2015 as a Grad student. He completed his Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering from Pune University, India. He's currently pursuing his Master's Degree with focus on Thermal and Fluid Sciences. His thesis work involves enhancing the heat transfer performance using various electrochemical deposition methods.

Arjun Radhakrishnan joined TAMFL in winter of 2007. He completed his BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, India. He is currently pursuing his MS degree in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on thermo/fluids. He is also working towards the measurement of thermal conductivity of Gas Diffusion Layer in a Fuel Cell stack.

Carlos Rubio joined the TAmFL in winter of 2011 as a part of his Ph.D. program at the University of Guanajuato, Mexico. He received his BS and MS degrees on Mechanical Engineering from the University of Guanajuato in 2007 and 2008 respectively. His Ph.D. research was addressed to propose and analyze numerically a micro pin-fin heat sink system based on varying the fin density along the flow length for high tech IC-chips applications. He received his Ph.D. degree in summer 2012. Currently he works for General Electric Aviation in the thermal performance area.

Lee finished his BS in mechanical engineering at RIT with an automotive focus and is currently enrolled as a full time MS student. His thesis work is in the application of acoustic microscopy for GDL imaging.

Cody is a transfer student from Alfred State where he earned an Associates Degree in Engineering Science. He is currently working towards a Bachelor and Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering as part of the Dual Degree program. He plans on continuing his thesis research in the lab working with Dr. Kandlikar.

Dan Willistein received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from RIT in May, 2003. He completed co-op blocks at Delphi, GM and Calvary Automation, a local automated/assembly machine design company. After graduation he worked at Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems in Portsmouth, Rhode Island as a design engineer. He worked on the mechanical components of weapons data systems for submarine and surface ships. Taking an academic leave of absence in the fall of 2004, he enrolled in the master of science program in mechanical engineering at RIT and joined the TAMFL. He is currently working on two phase flow in minichannels for PEM fuel cell water management applications.

Dave Hein is a fourth year Mechanical Engineering student working in the Lab. He is currently working on a variety of different projects with the graduate students. The most recent project he worked on was for the Melles Griot vibration table setup. He designed an eightand-a-half foot long shelf system to straddle a table that will house all power and recirculation units for test setups on the table, and ordered all the parts to construct it. He has also worked with Mark Steinke on his current research project by machining some parts in the machine shop. Finally, he is working with some data on Critical Heat Flux.

Derek is a BS/MS student currently working on finishing his thesis which studies the effects of pressure drop in micro and mini channels. His professional interests include design and analysis, FEA, solid body mechanics, and micro fluidics. Recently, Derek has been employed at Xerox Corporation where he was a design engineer for the DocuTech 120. Previously, Derek worked at National Fuel Gas where he was in charge of modeling and redesigning natural gas pipe networks. Expected graduation is in March of 2004.

Dwight Cooke received his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from RIT in 2009. He joined the lab as a co-op student in 2008 working with the fuel cell group. His masters thesis investigated the effect of surface enhancements on pool boiling heat transfer for high heat flux cooling.

Evan See is BS/MS Mechanical Engineering graduate who joined the lab as a co-op in 2009 working on in situ fuel cell testing. He developed the control systems, thermal management and data acquisition for the second generation of the fuel cell group's DOE project. His thesis was completed in 2013 on two-phase flow analysis of pressure drop within PEMFC channels and thermal management in PEMFCs.

Indranil Joshi joined TAMFL as a graduate student in Fall 2015. He recieved his Bachelor of Engineering from University of Mumbai, India in 2015. He is working on enhancing heat transfer performance over cylindrical surfaces using microgrooves.

Jackie Sergi is a Mechanical Engineering graduate student pursuing her Masters Degree at RIT. She joined the lab in 2005 as a co-op student, and has since worked for General Motors on a Department of Energy fuel cell project shared with RIT. Her current work involves fuel cell water management research.

Jacob joined the lab in September of 2007 to begin thesis work for his BS/MS degree. He has an interest in advanced energy systems and thermo/fluid systems. His thesis work will focus on heat and mass transfer within a PEM fuel cell.

Jeet Mehta is a M.S. graduate with a degree in mechanical engineering. He joined the lab in 2010. His thesis is on pool boiling of water over cylinderical tubular surfaces with microchannels.

Jeff Perry joined the TAMFL in the Spring of 2004. He has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of New Hampshire and an M.S. in Microelectronic Engineering from RIT. He has a strong background in semiconductor processing. Jeff's Master of Science thesis topic dealt with the effect of deposition pressure on sputtered tantalum film stress with applications to copper CMP (Chemical Mechanical Planarization). Currently Jeff is pursuing his Ph.D. in Microsystems Engineering and his doctoral work will involve flow boiling of water in microchannels.

Joaquin Pelaez joined the Thermal Analysis Lab around winter 2006, studying the effects of freezing and thawing in PEM fuel cells. He completed his BS/MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering in 2007.

John Borrelli worked in the precision tool-making industry as a New York State certified moldmaker for 10 years before completing his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at RIT in May 2003. He has worked co-op blocks at the National Center for Remanufacturing and Resource Recovery, Pfaudler Inc. and Delphi and is currently pursuing a master's degree in mechanical engineering with a concentration in thermo/fluids. His interests are micro/mini-channel flow in fuel-cell applications.

Harshal joined the Thermal Analysis and Microfluidics Lab in 2002 as a MS in Mechanical Engineering student working on Microchannel optimization for electronics cooling applications. He defended his thesis titled 'Single Phase Thermohydraulic Performance Analysis of Microchannel Flow Geometry for Direct Chip Cooling' in 2004. Before joining RIT he got a BS in Mechanical Engineering from University of Pune, India. Harshal has worked with Delphi's Thermal Solutions group in the electronics cooling field. His interests include heat transfer, fluid dynamics and computers.

Ling Chiang received her B.S in Mechanical Engineering from Chung Yuan Christian University in Taiwan, 2013. She is currently taking a Master in Mechanical Engineering at National Central University in Taiwan and is scheduled to graduate in January 2016. She worked in the thermal analysis lab as a visiting scholar in RIT in fall 2015.

Mark joined the TAMFL in Fall of 2000 and has completed a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in Thermal Fluids Science. His thesis topic was the flow boiling of water in microchannels and the potential use of two-phase flows to provide an alternative for microprocessor cooling. Currently, Mark is pursuing a Ph.D. in Microsystems Engineering while remaining in the lab. His dissertation topic is the modeling, experimentation, and optimization of single-phase microchannel flows for direct, integrated cooling of microprocessors..

Matthew Garofalo is a mechanical engineering BS/MS graduate who joined the lab in early 2010 to conduct research on finding the net water transport coefficient in a PEM fuel cell for a graduate level fuel cell class final project. He also completed a summer 2010 co-op in the lab. His thesis deals with both PEM fuel cell water management and gas diffusion layer degradation analyses.

Michael Daino joined the lab in December 2007 as a Microsystems Ph.D. student. He received a B.S. degree in Physics and Mathematics from SUNY College at Brockport in May, 2007. His doctoral work involved the imaging water transport through the gas diffusion layer of a PEM fuel cell.

Narendra Patil completed his bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from India. Narendra is currently a grauduate student in the Computer for Integrated Manufacturing and System concentrating in Product Design. He is currently doing his thesis under the valuable guidance of Dr. Kandlikar and is working on Meniscus heat transfer project. He is confident that his research experience here will help him in the long run of his career.

Nathan English is completing the master of science program in mechanical engineering at RIT with a concentration in thermo/fluids. This builds upon the bachelor of science degree that he earned in physics from Roberts Wesleyan College. His thesis will investigate adiabatic two phase pressure drop of an air-water mixture in minichannels. His chief academic interests are heat transfer, micro fluidics, and fuel cell technology.

Nicholas joined the lab during his second year. He was a co-op during the summer of 2007 where he worked on the DOE fuel cell project. Nicholas has since began his Master's thesis work under the lab's NSF grant studying the effects of surface roughness on heat transfer in microscale.

Prabhu Balasubramanian is a graduate student in Mechanical Engineering Department at Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Madras in 2000. His M.S. thesis is on the study of Heat transfer and two-phase mechanisms during flow boiling in minichannels and microchannels, with applications to electronic cooling and fuel cells. His other areas of research interest include Compact heat exchangers and CFD analysis. He is also a member of ASME since 2001.

Rebecca Wagner joined the lab in the summer of 2008, after receiving her bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from RIT. Her thesis work focuses on the effects of two-dimensional structured roughness on laminar and turbulent fluid flow at the microscale level.

Rishabh Srivastava joined the Thermal Analysis and Microfluidics Laboratory in Fall 2008. He received his Bachelor�s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda, India in June 2008. His work involved numerical and mathematical modeling of flow encountered in microfluidic applications. He studied roughness effects on fluid flow and heat transfer using CFD modeling. He performed numerical investigation of entrance region effects in microchannels in the presence of microscale roughness structures of varying pitches. Currently he is pursuing PhD in mechanical engineering at University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

Sanskar joined TAMFL in Fall 2014. He completed his Bachelor's from Mumbai, India. He's currently enrolled as a Master's student with focus on Thermal Sciences. His thesis work at TAMFL is concentrated on effect of heat sink orientation on flow boiling performance of ethanol in open microchannel manifold.

Tim Brackbill joined TAMFL in the summer of 2005 as a co-op student. He completed his B.S./M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in thermo/fluids in the Spring of 2008. His thesis topic extensively studied the effects of roughness on flow at the microscale level.

Tushara Pasupuleti is a master's student in Microelectronics Engineering Department. She completed her bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering at Kavikulguru Institute of Technology, Ramtek India. She is working on IBM chip cooling project. Her thesis concentration is on studying the roughness effects in microchannels with integrated MEMS pressure sensors.

Viral Dharaiya joined the Thermal Analysis and Microfluids Lab in Fall 2008. He completed his BS degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Institute of Technology, Gujarat, India. He is currently pursuing his MS degree in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on Thermodynamics/Fluid Analysis. He is working on CFD modeling and his major contribution involves numerical analysis of fluid and heat transfer aspects in minichannels and microchannels. He is also involved in performing numerical investigation to study the effect of surface roughness on transport properties in parallel plate microchannels using CFD software, FLUENT.

Wai Keat Kuan received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Louisiana State University and Rochester Institute of Technology, in 1996 and 2003, respectively. He worked at Sony, Inc. from 1996 to 1997, at Intel Technology from 1997 to 1999 and at Xerox Corporation from 1999 to 2002. He is pursuing his Ph.D. in Microsystems Engineering at the TAMFL, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY. His doctoral work is on two-phase microchannel flows. Mr. Kuan is a member of ASME.