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Krishna Kota

Krishna Kota is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the New Mexico State University (NMSU). He has previously worked as a Research Scientist at Bell Labs and as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He obtained a Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Central Florida. His research focus is on the interdisciplinary study of the physical, chemical, and biological interactions between surfaces and their surrounding thermal, fluidic, and particulate environments with the goal of developing novel functional surfaces. His research group is currently working toward developing novel surface-based solutions for addressing research and technological problems in the areas of energy and thermal management, health, and long-duration space transportation. He is the author/co-author of three book chapters, three published technical reports, 10 conference and poster presentations, and more than 52 peer-reviewed publications in journals and conference proceedings. He has delivered 18 invited plenary, keynote, and seminar lectures and served in organizational roles at numerous ASME, ASTFE, and ICHMT conferences. He is the inventor/co-inventor on five U.S. patents. He has supervised or supervising 12 Ph.D./M.S. students. His research program at NMSU has secured more than $5.6 million from federal agencies such as AFOSR, AFRL, DOE, MDA, NASA, NSF, and USBR. He served/serves as a reviewer of grant proposals submitted to NSF, DOE, The National Academies, and NSERC (Canada), and as a Review Editor for the journal Frontiers of Mechanical Engineering, and as a peer-reviewer for 27 international journals.  He is a member of ASME, ASEE, and a senior member of AIAA. He is the recipient of four NMSU faculty awards and numerous student awards, scholarships, and honors including a University Gold Medal for securing First Rank (out of ~2500 students) in his undergraduate class.

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Javed Akhtar (Ph.D Student)

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Javed is an international student from India, holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Power Engineering from Jadavpur University, India. He has a research internship experience at IIT KGP (Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur), India and has also worked as a research intern for 6 months in AMRA (Advanced Materials Research and Applications) Lab of Jadavpur University, India. Now as a Ph.D. student at the SIRE Lab, he is enjoying the study of the science and the energy, heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics of particulate flows.
 Nikhil Dani (Ph.D Student)
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Nikhil Dani holds a master's degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee and a bachelor's degree from Pune University in Mechanical Engineering. He has worked as a Project Associate Researcher at the prestigious Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore on two research projects namely, “Solar Energy Research Institute for India and the United States” (SERIIUS) and “Impacting Research Innovation and Technology” (IMPRINT) initiatives, researching on improving the stability and efficiency of single tank thermocline based thermal energy storage systems using thermo-syphoning effect. He has joined the SIRE lab as a Ph.D. student in Fall 2021 and working on a NASA-sponsored project for the development of novel, compact heat exchanger technologies for recuperative cryocoolers.
Erick M Resendiz (Ph.D Student)
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Erick is an international student from Mexico and holds a BS in Aerospace Engineering. He has internship experience with Broetje, France and UK (main Airbus’ supplier) and CIMAV, researching aluminum alloys used in aeronautical applications. Now as a Ph.D. student at the SIRE Lab, he is focused on conducting boiling heat transfer experiments on novel micro/nano-manufactured surfaces.
Dr. Prasanna Jayaramu (Post-Doc Fellow)
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Dr. Prasanna Jayaramu has joined the SIRE Lab as a Postdoctoral Research Scholar in Summer/Fall 2021. He has both the industrial and the academic research experience. Previously, he worked as a Mechanical Engineer in Fire Engineers Australia (an engineering consultant firm) for six months and the Center for Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research at Indian Institute of Technology Madras for six months as a Project Officer. His research interests and experience are in the area of phase change heat transfer and micro-scale flow. He has obtained a Ph.D. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, Chennai, India. The topic of his Ph.D. research work was "Flow boiling in a copper mini/micro-channel: Experimental investigation of the effect of ageing-induced surface characteristics". He holds a master's degree in Thermal Power Engineering from Visvesvaraya Technological University and a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the same university. He is currently working on a NASA-sponsored project on the development of novel, compact heat exchanger technologies for recuperative cryocoolers.

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Seyedali Seyedkavoosi (Summer 2016)
 
Ali worked as a guest researcher at SIRE Lab on optimizing a novel organic Rankine cycle configuration for waste heat recovery from IC engines. He graduated with a Ph.D. from NMSU under the supervision of Dr. Igor Sevostianov.
 
Bharath Bharadwaj (Fall 2018 – Spring 2019)
 
Bharath has worked on internal forced convection experiments on CO-LUB surfaces during his stay at the SIRE Lab. He graduated from PES University, India with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and is currently a graduate student at Virginia Tech.
 
Ram Prasad (Fall 2019 – Spring 2020)
 
Ram Prasad is a Ph.D. student at NIT-K, India. He is visiting SIRE Lab to conduct pool boiling heat transfer experiments on binary surfaces.

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Nicholas Clegg (Undergraduate Research Assistant, 2013)
Nicholas is the first student of SIRE Lab and as such, he was the first to begin the work on superhydrophobic copper surface preparation in the lab. He is also the first author on a journal paper based primarily on this work, which was dedicated to him in his memory for his excellent contributions to the group.
 
Shannon Eason (Undergraduate Research Assistant, 2013)
 
Shannon graduated with a B.S. from NMSU. She worked on various aspects related to the design of a wavy cryogenic heat exchanger.
 
Mohotarima Tabassum (M.S. Non-Thesis Research Project, Spring 2015)
 
Mohotarima graduated with a B.S. from Khulna University of Engineering and Technology. She obtained an M.S. while working on the CO-LUB surface project.
 
Stephen Wootton (Undergraduate Research Assistant, 2013-2015)
 
Stephen graduated with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Aerospace Engineering as well as Mathematics. He worked on fabricating tailored micro-scale roughness surfaces for boiling heat transfer enhancement, and on designing and building a compact, phase change cooling system for Air Force thermal management applications. He is employed by GE Aviation.
 
Jason Shelby (M.S. Thesis, Fall 2015)
 
Jason Shelby graduated with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from NMSU in Fall 2013. He obtained an M.S. with the focus on three-dimensional numerical simulations of flow and heat transfer in wavy cryogenic heat exchangers. He is employed by NAVSEA.
 
Xin He (M.S. Thesis, Fall 2015)
 
Xin moved to NMSU as an undergraduate student and obtained her M.S. from NMSU with a focus on superhydrophobic and ultra-omniphilic surface preparation and characterization. She is currently a Ph.D. student at the Michigan Technological University.
 
Melissa Gonzalez (Undergraduate Research Assistant, 2015)
 
Melissa graduated with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. She worked on the mechanical design of components of a variable gravity phase change heat transfer system. She is employed by General Motors.
 
Brandon Johnson (Undergraduate Research Assistant, 2016)
 
Brandon worked on the preparation of ultra-omniphilic surfaces. He is employed by Lockheed Martin.
 
Juan Villa Martinez (Undergraduate Research Assistant, 2016)
 
Juan graduated from NMSU with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. He worked on the design of a compact, phase change cooling system for thermal management applications.
 
Jessica Reyes (M.S. Thesis, Spring 2016)
 
Jessica graduated with a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from NMSU/Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua in Fall 2013. For her master’s thesis at NMSU, she worked on the 2D and 3D parametric numerical modeling of forced convective transport on CO-LUB surfaces. She was also responsible for designing and building the experimental set-up and testing the forced convective performance of CO-LUB surfaces. She is currently employed by Ford Motor Company.
 
Ryan Maki (Undergraduate Research Assistant, Summer 2016)
 
Ryan worked on building the experimental set-up and testing the forced convective performance of CO-LUB surfaces.
 
Orlando Segovia (Undergraduate Research Assistant, Fall 2016)
 
Orlando obtained a double major in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. He worked on the design and assembly of a liquid-vapor phase change cooling system.
 
Ryan Holguin (M.S. Thesis, Spring 2017)
 
Ryan obtained a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from NMSU. For his master’s thesis, he worked on understanding the physics of boiling heat transfer on binary surfaces through experiments with application in thermal management of high heat-flux electronics. Before joining SIRE Lab, he worked as a research assistant at the Physical Science Laboratory of NMSU. He is currently employed as a mechanical engineer at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
 
Kartik Hariharan Mani (M.S. Thesis, Spring 2017)
 
Kartik completed his B.Tech. in Aerospace Engineering from JNTU, India. He previously worked on several projects involving design, database management, and simulations for Tech Mahindra Ltd., India with a client base of General Electric, Bombardier Aerospace, and Aston Martin. At SIRE Lab, he worked on analytical-based numerical design optimization of compact cryogenic heat exchanger channels for space applications. He will soon begin as an engineer at Hewlett-Packard.
 
Alvin Harvey (Undergraduate Research Assistant, 2016-2017)
 
Alvin worked on building a heat transfer experiment payload for launch in commercial flights including sounding rockets and high-altitude balloons. This work was previously funded by NASA/NMSGC and is currently being performed in collaboration with NMSGC.
 
Nick Cross (Undergraduate Research Assistant)
 
Nick worked on designing a flow channel and carrying out experiments involving forced convection on CO-LUB surfaces. This project was funded by NSF.
 
Angel Saenz (Undergraduate Research Assistant)
 
Angel worked on building a heat transfer experiment payload for launch in commercial flights including sounding rockets and high-altitude balloons. This work was previously funded by NASA/NMSGC and is currently being performed in collaboration with NMSGC.
 
Norann Coulhann (Undergraduate Research Assistant)
 
Norann worked on building a heat transfer experiment payload for launch in commercial flights including sounding rockets and high-altitude balloons. This work was previously funded by NASA/NMSGC and is currently being performed in collaboration with NMSGC. She is employed by Los Alamos National Laboratory.
 
Joshua Budish (M.S. Thesis, Fall 2018)
 
Joshua Budish graduated with a M.S. and a B.S., both in Mechanical Engineering from NMSU. He was an Undergraduate Research Assistant under the supervision of Drs. Hynes, Stochaj, and Kota; to lead and establish a NASA-funded undergraduate freshmen retention project on the NMSU campus. For his master’s thesis, he worked in the area of experimental pool boiling heat transfer on scalable, bulk micro-manufactured surfaces for ultra-high heat flux thermal management applications. He is currently employed as a mechanical engineer at Lockheed Martin.
 
Lazar Cvijovic (M.S. Thesis, Spring 2019)
 
Lazar began at SIRE Lab in Fall 2016. He holds a B.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering from the Northern New Mexico College. He previously worked on a variety of research topics in the areas of heat transfer, solar thermal, and sun tracking. He graduated with a master’s thesis aimed at understanding the physics of boiling heat transfer on binary surfaces.
 
Kevan Henry (Undergraduate Research Assistant, Spring 2018 – Summer 2019)
 
Kevan Henry worked on designing a flow loop to test micro-manufactured surfaces in experimental flow boiling applications. He previously worked on research in separating steel from copper.
 
Luis Tovar (Undergraduate Research Assistant)
 
Luis is pursued a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at NMSU and graduated in December 2020. He enjoys working on heat transfer and thermodynamic solutions to improve efficiency by reducing heat loss and is working on the directed energy weapon cooling project at the SIRE Lab.
  
Rafael Ivan Zarate Rodriguez (Undergraduate Research Assistant)
 
Rafael Zarate is an undergraduate student, pursued a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace and Mechanical engineering at NMSU, with graduation date in May 2021. He has internship experience in the aerospace industry field with Bell helicopter company. He has worked on three design and development car projects. The first one, Formula SAE, as a member of the power-train system, where he along with his teammates developed a High-Flow Catalytic Converter to increase torque and HP of the car. The second one, Formula SAE, as leader of the power-train system where he worked on the adaptation of a turbocharger to the engine. The last one as a member of SAE Mini Baja, on which he is currently working, with the suspension system. He enjoys heat transfer studies and its applications to solve and improve problems. He is currently working at SIRE Lab on a novel bulk micro/nano-manufacturing approach for the preparation of surfaces with enhanced heat transfer and fluid flow properties.
 
Hunter Reeves (Undergraduate Research Assistant)
 
Hunter began working at SIRE lab in spring 2020 while continuing work towards a degree in Aerospace Engineering. He has two years of design and manufacturing experience from Design/Build/Fly working on subsystems and general manufacturing of the plane. Hunter is now working on refining the production of micro surfaces with enhanced heat transfer properties at SIRE lab.
 
Daniel Alvídrez Lozano (Undergraduate Research Assistant)
 
Daniel is an international student from Mexico pursuing a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering and is expecting to graduate in December 2020. He has experience as an undergraduate research assistant in the CFD Lab lead by Dr. A. Gross, where he participated in writing the paper, “Numerical Investigation of Flow through a Small Turbine Cascade with Rotational Effects”. At SIRE Lab, he is working on the study of particulate suspension flows.
 
Manuel Velázquez García (Undergraduate Research Assistant)
 
Manuel Velázquez García is an undergraduate student, who is currently in the senior year, dual majoring in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, he is an international student from Mexico, who has worked in a team in the design of a turbocharger for Formula SAE´s Competition, more specifically, the Turbine and Impeller. He will be working at the SIRE lab on a novel bulk micro/nano-manufacturing approach for the preparation of surfaces with enhanced heat transfer and fluid flow properties.
 
Kayla Flores (Undergraduate Research Assistant)
 
Kayla began working at the SIRE Lab as an undergraduate research assistant in Fall 2019 and is currently pursuing a B.S in Mechanical Engineering, graduating in May 2020. She plans to continue as a graduate student at NMSU to keep pursuing her research at the SIRE Lab. She enjoys optimizing systems to increase efficiency, usually focusing her endeavors to improve even the smallest task, and is working on using novel surfaces for enhanced water desalination.
 
Kyle Brooks (Undergraduate Research Assistant)
 
Kyle is currently working on a bachelor’s degree in both Aerospace and Mechanical engineering along with a minor in Astronomy and Physics. He enjoys studying fluid flow and heat transfer problems with aerospace and mechanical engineering applications. He has graduated in  May 2021 and worked on the study of particulate suspension flows at the SIRE Lab.
 
Robert Clay (M.S. Student)
 
Rob began working at the SIRE Lab as an undergraduate research assistant in Fall 2017, and has a technical background in military and private aviation. He holds a Bachelor of Science with dual major in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering from New Mexico State University. He is currently continuing work towards a master’s thesis in mechanical engineering with research focused on the design and testing of a novel ultra-high heat flux cooling system for directed energy weapons.
 
Cory Paine (Undergraduate Research Assistant, Spring 2018 – Summer 2019)
 
George Sims (Undergraduate Research Assistant)
 
Pranav Sivakumar (Undergraduate Research Assistant)