Title:

Bioinspired Thermal Fluids for Water, Energy, and Healthcare

Speaker:

Prof. Xianming (Simon) Dai

Affiliation:

The University of Texas at Dallas

When:

Tuesday, November 9, 2021 at 1:00:00 PM   Add to Calendar

Where:

https://bluejeans.com/619388218/3353?src=calendarLink Building, Room Virtual

Host:

Dr. Yogendra Joshi
yogendra.joshi@me.gatech.edu
404-385-2810

Abstract

Bioinspired materials have strongly influenced scientific discoveries and engineering applications. This presentation will focus on a couple of bioinspired materials for thermal fluid sciences and their applications in water, energy, and healthcare. There are unique material needs during different transport processes. For example, a super-repellent surface is favorable for water harvesting but a super-wetted surface is desirable for energy systems. Although lots of materials show interesting functionalities, their durability becomes a major concern and impedes engineering applications towards sustainable operations. While we are puzzled by these challenges, nature gives us some amazing inspirations. In this talk, I will introduce a few bioinspired interfacial materials and their potential impacts on water harvesting, energy transport, and healthcare. Particularly, the material durability in each application will be discussed.

Biography

Dr. Xianming (Simon) Dai is an assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering and Bioengineering at The University of Texas at Dallas. He is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2021 and the Army Research Office Young Investigator Award in 2019. He received the Outstanding Early Career Award at the 2021 micro Flow and Interfacial Phenomena Conference for outstanding and significant contributions to the fields of surface wettability, phase-change heat transfer, and water harvesting. His students won the ASME Best Poster Award in Micro and Nano Technology in 2019, and the 1st place prize in the STEM Bridge Summer Program in 2018. Dr. Dai earned his Ph.D. degree at the University of South Carolina, and his M.S. and B.S. degrees at Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Chongqing University. His research interests include bioinspired materials, wetting, and thermal fluid with applications in water, energy, and healthcare.