Mechanical and aerospace engineering Ph.D. student Sajag Poudel and Professor Shalabh Maroo in the College of Engineering and Computer Science were awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) INTERN grant to support Poudel’s research internship at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the Fall 2021 semester.

Oak Ridge will provide Poudel with the opportunity to explore potential ways to reduce energy waste from power generators and improve thermal management in buildings.

“We are hoping to break the limit of where we can go,” said Poudel. “It will help us be able to solve different issues related to energy.”

Poudel will be researching new types of devices that can be used in heat transfer and energy management to enhance efficiency. Oak Ridge has some of the best facilities in the world for testing energy conversion devices up to 1500 degrees Celsius.

“We can go to the micron or nanometer scale to understand the physics of heat transfer as we develop new ideas,” said Poudel. “If we can reduce the associated losses, a lot of energy can be saved.”

“This is a wonderful opportunity for Sajag to further advance his skillset, knowledge base and experience before he graduates with his doctoral degree next year,” said Maroo. “He took the initiative in reaching out to national labs, NASA and industry for internship opportunities and I applaud his efforts. Sajag also had interest in collaborating from NASA AMES but did not pursue further as it was remote-only. I am thankful to NSF for supporting his internship at Oak Ridge.”