Prospective Students
Multiple projects are available for MS students and undergraduate students interested in gaining research experience. Current research opportunities include:
1. HVAC
Explore how radiative and convective heat-transfer principles can improve the efficiency of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems. Students will model thermal loads, investigate selective-emitter coatings for passive heat rejection, and analyze how building-envelope properties affect energy consumption.
2. Battery thermal management
Lithium-ion batteries degrade rapidly under poor thermal conditions. Students will design and test passive cooling strategies—including radiative-cooling surfaces and phase-change materials—to maintain suitable battery temperatures and extend cycle life in electric-vehicle and grid-storage applications.
3. Thermal diode
A thermal diode conducts heat preferentially in one direction, analogous to an electrical diode. Students will study phase-change materials such as VO2 and nanostructured interfaces to achieve asymmetric heat conduction, with applications in thermal logic and energy harvesting.
4. Radiative cooling
The sky is a natural heat sink. Students will design and characterize subambient radiative-cooling structures—materials that emit strongly in the atmospheric transparency window from 8 to 13 µm—and build outdoor test rigs to measure real-world cooling performance.
5. Infrared thermal camouflage
Engineer metasurfaces whose thermal-emission signature can be tuned to match the background, reducing contrast in infrared imaging for defense and industrial-inspection applications.
6. Thermophotovoltaic emitters
Design spectrally selective thermal emitters that concentrate emission within the useful spectral range of a photovoltaic cell, increasing the efficiency of waste-heat-to-electricity conversion.
7. Smart windows with dynamic thermal control
Investigate electrochromic or thermochromic coatings, including VO2-based systems, for windows that switch between solar-transmitting and solar-blocking states to reduce building cooling loads.
For admissions requirements and program details, see the UMBC Mechanical Engineering Graduate Program.
To inquire about joining the group, email Prof. Ghanekar at alokghanekar@umbc.edu with your background and research interests.