1. Devising economic solutions to lower monthly energy costs for manufacturing facilities.2. Evaluating facility energy waste streams using knowledge of thermodynamic principles.

I spent the summer exploring ‘Additive Manufacturing using thermally conductive composites’ in Dr. Roger Kemper’s laboratory. Specifically, I prepared samples using PRUSA 3-D printers. By the end of the summer, I was able to gain a better picture of additive manufacturing using thermally conductive composites and its applications. This is important because there is a never-ending requirement for a stronger, lighter and more conductive material.

Enhancement of condensation heat transfer has become an important area of research in the last decade owing to its vast applications. One of the important methods of enhancing the condensation process is by inducing hydrophobicity with the help of low surface energy coating. Being effective, silane and functionalized CNT coating have been studied individually, but there is a need to compare the performance enhancement brought about by them. Therefore, in this study, enhancement brought about by silane coating is compared against the enhancement brought about by CNT coating. A copper substrate was silane coated using a vacuum desiccator and another substrate was coated with a functionalized CNT using the dip-coating method. Values obtained from a bare copper surface was used as a reference to compare the performance of surface modification.

During the first few weeks, I was assigned work on a drafting project proposal for a project funded by the Ministry of Mines, India. Later, I worked on the enhancement of pool boiling using CNT coated micro-grooved surfaces.