UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND

Meet our Team

Faculty & Staff

Dr. Michael Ohadi

Director

Professor of Mechanical Engineering

CEEE Founding Faculty Member

Dr. Ohadi is a CEEE founding faculty member and founder of the Advanced Heat Exchangers and Process Intensification Consortium. He is internationally recognized for his research in heat and mass transfer and smart energy systems . He is the inventor/co-inventor of eight issued U.S. patents and has published more than 150 refereed technical publications. Dr. Ohadi has actively participated in promoting the support for fostering technological innovation and entrepreneurship. In 2002, he was featured in Washington Post for his efforts involving innovation and technology transfer. From 2003 to 2010 he was on leave assignment to the Petroleum Institute (Abu Dhabi) where served as Director of Mechanical Engineering (2003-2006) and Provost and Acting President (2006 to 2010). He is a fellow member of both ASME and ASHRAE and has won numerous awards from both societies.

Dr. Amir Shooshtari​

Research Professor

Amir H. Shooshtari is an Associate Research Professor in the Advanced Heat Exchangers and Process Intensification Lab at the University of Maryland, College Park. He received his Ph.D. in 2004 in Mechanical Engineering. Since 2005, he has been a member of research faculty at the University of Maryland. His research interests include design and development of advanced thermofluid processes, electronic cooling, two-phase flow and fluid flow in porous media. Dr. Shooshtari is the author or co-author of over 20 publications in international journals and conferences. He is a member of ASHARE and ASME. He is recipient of ASHRAE Grant-in-aid Fellowship (2003–2004) and ASHRAE National Capital Chapter Scholarship Award (2003).

Dr. Andres Sarmiento

Postdoctoral Faculty Research Associate
Dr. Andres Sarmiento is a Postdoctoral Faculty Research Associate in the Advanced Heat Exchangers and Process Intensification Lab at the University of Maryland. He earned his Ph.D. and Master’s in Mechanical Engineering from the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil, and his undergraduate degree from Salesian Polytechnic University, Ecuador. His research focuses on novel heat exchanger designs, electronics cooling, two-phase flow, and renewable energy systems. Before joining UMD, he worked on compact heat exchangers for the oil and gas industry and renewable energy projects at INER.

Dr. Felipe De Castro

Senior Research Associate
Dr. de Castro earned a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Genova, Italy, in 2022. He holds a Master’s in Thermal Sciences (2018) and a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering (2013). Specializing in heat pipes and compact heat exchangers, his work focuses on reliable, cost-effective solutions for electronics cooling and renewable energy systems, leveraging computational analysis and hands-on testing to enhance thermal efficiency and advance sustainable technologies.

Shwe Htet Htet Aung​

Lab Manager

Shwe Htet Htet Aung is a lab manager, in the Smart and Small Thermal System (S2TS) lab, University of Maryland. She finished her master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Maryland in December, 2024. She holds Bachelor of Engineering and Bachelor of Technology in Electronic and Communication Engineering from Technological University (Kalay) in Myanmar. While involved in many projects, her responsibilities include managing the lab, assisting faculties in any dimensions, and liaising with AHXPI consortium. She also contributes to the current software the lab is developing called Rapid Energy Auditor, REA software.

Kyle Martin​

Lab Engineer
Kyle Martin is a graduate student and lab engineer in the Advanced Heat Exchangers and Process Intensification Lab at the University of Maryland, College Park. He received his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from UMD in 2022. He leads efforts on numerous projects including the energy audit and decarbonization of commercial buildings, heat exchanger performance testing, and the fabrication of advanced microelectronics cooling systems.

Omar Pervez Khan

Software Engineer

Omar Khan is a Full Stack Software Engineer at the Smart and Small Thermal Systems Lab, where he leads the development of the Rapid Energy Auditor application under the supervision of Prof. Ohadi and Prof. Shooshtari. He holds a Master’s in Software Engineering from the University of Maryland and embraces the T-shaped developer philosophy—building a strong technical foundation across various facets of software engineering while specializing in scalable backend development using distributed cloud architectures.

Dr. Ratnesh Tiwari​

Advisor

Dr. Ratnesh Tiwari earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland in 2015 and his undergraduate degree from IIT Kanpur in 2006. With over six years of industry experience in heat exchanger design and process development, he specializes in thermo-fluidic systems, microchannel heat exchangers, and building energy modeling. Currently, he focuses on developing low-cost microchannel heat exchangers and conducting techno-economic and market analyses for research projects.

Students

Aditya

Aditya Ramnarayan

Ph.D. Student

Amir Hossein Zabihi Tari

Ph.D. Student
Person

Joshua B. Pearlman

Ph.D. Student

Miriam Malaika Dixon

Ph.D. Student

Murilo Nicoluzzi

Ph.D. Student

Namir Bruk

Masters Student
Person

Shohreh Soltani

Ph.D. Student
Shruti

Shruti Menon

Ph.D. Student
Person

Tahir Mahmud

Ph.D. Student
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Veeresh Ayyagari

Ph.D. Student

Zhengda Yao

Ph.D. Student
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