Education

  • Ph.D., ME, Purdue University, 2007
  • M.S., ECE, Purdue University, 2007
  • M.S., ME, Louisiana State University, 2003
  • B.Tech., ME, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, 2001

Background

Dr. Satish Kumar is a Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech. He joined Georgia Tech in 2009 as an Assistant Professor. Prior, he worked at IBM Corporation where he was responsible for the thermal management of electronic devices. Kumar received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and M.S. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Purdue University, West Lafayette in 2007. He received his M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge in 2003 and B.Tech. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati in 2001. His research interests are in thermal management of electronic devices and electric machines, and electro-thermal transport study in electronic materials, wide bandgap devices, and flexible electronics. He is author or co-author of over 150 refereed journal or conference publications.

Research

  • Heat Transfer and Fluid Mechanics: micro-nano heat transfer, electro-thermal transport, nanoscale materials and devices, computational fluid dynamics, bio-fluids, and electronics cooling.

Our research focuses on investigation of energy transport and conversion in electronic materials and devices at different length scales. The MiNDS lab establishes multi-physics and mutli-scale computational and experimental framework to enhance the energy efficiency, performance and reliability of electronic devices and systems. At small scales we target on wide-bandgap devices, thin-film transistors, 2D materials based heat spreaders for on-chip hot spot-cooling, or materials/devices for extreme conditions. At large scales we target on cooling solutions for the efficient thermal management of electronic devices used in commercial or defense applications such as electric motors, data centers or forward operating bases.

The goals of our lab are to develop principles and theories at small scales and translate them to large scales to engineer the system properties and performance. For example, we develop atomistic models to analyze electro-thermal transport in 1D and 2D nano-structures and their interfaces and develop meso-scale modeling techniques to analyze performance and reliability of devices made by these structures. We investigate the fundamental transport mechanism in a broad range of materials such as boron nitride, gallium-oxide, graphene, nanotubes, and polymers, which are promising to revolutionize the performance and efficiency of next generation of micro-electronics, power-electronics, RF electronics, etc. We develop machine learning enabled multi-scale models that can be employed for rapid and accurate thermal transport analysis of 3D electronic packages, embedded thermo-electrics, electric motors, etc. We use ultra-fast thermo-reflectance imaging and frequency-domain thermo-reflectance (FDTR) techniques for high-fidelity thermal metrology of electronic devices and materials.

Micro-Nano Devices and Systems Lab

 

Research, Teaching, and Service Recognitions:

  • Provost Teaching and Learning Fellow, 2020-2022
  • ASME K-16 Clock Award, 2020
  • ASME Fellow, 2019
  • DARPA Young Faculty Award, 2014
  • Sigma Xi Young Faculty Award, 2014
  • AFOSR Summer Faculty Fellow, 2012

Select Paper Awards and Journal Distinctions

  • Prof. Avram Bar-Cohen Best Paper Award in Component Level Thermal Management Track at The Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems (ITherm), 2022
  • Outstanding Paper Award in Emerging Technologies and Fundamentals Track at The Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems (ITherm), 2018
  • Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Components Packaging and Manufacturing Technology, 2017- present
  • Best Paper Award in the Components: Characterization & Modeling Category for IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology, 2013

Representative Publications

  1. Tadepalli, R., and Kumar, S., Modeling Heat Transfer in Oscillating Heat Pipe for High Temperature Applications, AIAA AVIATION Forum and Exposition Program, June 12 -16, 2023, San Diego, CA.
  2. Tikadar, A., and Kumar, S., “Investigation of Thermal-Hydraulic Performance of Metal-Foam Heat Sink Using Machine Learning Approach,” International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 199, 123438, 2022.
  3. Tikadar, A., and Kumar, S., “Local Hotspot Thermal Management Using Metal Foam Integrated Heat Sink,” Applied Thermal Engineering, 221, 229632, 2022.
  4. Tikadar, A., Kim, J.W., Joshi, Y., and Kumar, S., “Flow Assisted Evaporative Cooling for Electric Motor,” IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification, 8(1), 1128-1143, 2021.
  5. Ramos-Alvarado, B., and Kumar, S., “Spectral Analysis of the Heat Flow Across Crystalline and Amorphous Si–Water Interfaces,” The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2017, 121 (21), pp 11380–11389.
  6. Guo, L., Tang, G., and Kumar, S., “Dynamic Wettability on the Lubricant-Impregnated Surface: from Nucleation to Growth and Coalescence,” ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 12 (23), 26555-26565, 2020.
  7. Barry, M., Wise, K., Kalidindi, S. and Kumar, S., “Voxelized Atomic Structure Potentials: Predicting Atomic Forces with the Accuracy of Quantum Mechanics Using Convolutional Neural Networks,” The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 11, 21, 9093–9099, 2020.
  8. Tikadar, A., Johnston, D., Kumar, N., Joshi, J., and  Kumar, S., "Comparison of Electro-Thermal Performance of Advanced Cooling Techniques for Electric Vehicle Motors," Applied Thermal Engineering, 183(2), 116182, 2021.
  9. Guo, L., Tang, G., and Kumar, S., “Droplet Morphology and Mobility on Lubricant-Impregnated Surfaces: A Molecular Dynamics Study,” Langmuir, 35 (49), 16377, 2019. [Appeared on the cover page of Langmuir December 2019 edition]
  10. Shen, W., and Kumar, S., "Reconsidering Uncertainty from FDTR Measurement and Novel Data Analysis by Deep Learning," Nanoscale and Microscale Thermophysical Engineering, 138-149, Published online: 19 Aug 2020.
  11. Yan, Z., Yoon M., and Kumar, S., “Influence of Defects and Doping on Phonon Transport Properties of Monolayer MoSe2,” 2D Materials, 5 (3), 031008, 2018
  12. Chen L., Wang X., and Kumar S., “Thermal Transport in Fullerene Derivatives Using Molecular Dynamics Simulations,” Scientific Reports, 5, 12763, 2015.
  13. Yan, Z., Chen, L., Yoon, M., and Kumar, S., “Phonon Transport at the Interfaces of Vertically Stacked Graphene and Hexagonal Boron Nitride Heterostructures,” Nanoscale, 2016, 8, 4037-4046.
  14. Brown, D. B., Shen, W., Li, X., Kai, X., Geohegan, D. B., and Kumar, S., “Spatial Mapping of Thermal Boundary Conductance at Metal-Molybdenum Diselenide Interfaces,” ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 11 (15), 14418–14426, 2019.
  15. Kumar, S., “Security keys from paired up nanotube devices,” Nature Electronics, 5(7), 412-413, 2022.