Atharva Nagarkar

• Designed and fabricated a Phase Change Material (PCM) embedded aluminium heat spreader, including machining a custom slot for PCM insertion to improve transient thermal response in high-power GaN devices. • Applied fin theory and conduction analysis to estimate heat flow into the PCM, determine required PCM capacity, and guide the design of the heat spreader geometry. • Performed experimental thermal testing using LabVIEW-based data acquisition to capture high-resolution temperature–time profiles under transient current loading. • Post-processed experimental data in Python to quantify temperature reduction, fluctuation, and time-dependent cooling behavior for PCM-cooled vs natural-convection-cooled configurations. • Demonstrated that PCM-enabled two-phase cooling can suppresses temperature spikes and stabilize junction temperatures during rapid thermal cycling in GaN electronics.

• Calibrated a Cavitation Susceptibility Meter (CSM) to characterize nuclei populations in cavitating flows, combining hands-on experimental setup (valve fittings, piping, pressure manifolds) with ultrasonic flowmeter calibration and sensor uncertainty analysis. • Developed an integrated LabVIEW-based data acquisition and control system to automate experiments, including VFD motor control (MODBUS), flowmeter communication (VISA), pressure measurement via NI DAQ, and synchronized data logging. • Built Python data-processing pipelines to analyze experimental pressure and velocity data, compute coefficient of pressure (Cp) distributions, and identify cavitation inception conditions. • Extended cavitation research through high-speed video analysis (1000–3000 fps), developing a computer-vision–based Python framework (NumPy, OpenCV, Matplotlib) to generate Y–t diagrams and automatically detect re-entrant jet dynamics. • Designed a physics-informed streak detection and clustering algorithm to extract time-resolved re-entrant jet velocities (3–9 m/s) from image data, enabling quantitative analysis of cavitation shedding, cavity closure, and upstream jet intermittency.

• Lead hands-on engineering design sessions using Ansys Discovery, guiding students through CAD modeling, technical drawings, and structural/thermal simulations. • Help students interpret simulation results and make informed feasibility–performance–cost trade-offs, reflecting real-world engineering decision-making. • Mentor student teams through end-to-end design projects, supporting problem definition, iterative CAD refinement, material selection, prototyping, and physical assembly. • Guide students in technical communication, reviewing engineering memos, progress and final reports, and presentations, and helping them clearly articulate design decisions, assumptions, and results to different audiences. • Design and evaluate lab activities, reports, and assignments, and provide individualized support during office hours to address both technical and conceptual challenges.

• Developed end-to-end CFD workflow for a Formula SAE car — from CAD repair/prep and meshing to solver setup and post-processing with a special focus on boundary-layer meshing (y+), local refinement regions, as well as creating surfaces, contours, pathlines, and force reports to evaluate aerodynamic performance. • Performed thermal analysis of a pharmaceutical cold storage box for vaccine transport, modeling icepack phase-change effects and analyzing temperature distribution over time. • Performed CFD simulation of fluids mixing in a static mixer using UDF-based scalar transport and Discrete Phase Model (DPM), including mesh generation, solver setup, and post-processing of flow dynamics, and checked the mixing quality through the evaluation of uniformity index. • Simulated gas sparging using the Discrete Phase Model (DPM) on remote HPC clusters, tracking particle pathlines to analyze oxygen removal and visualizing gas escape at the liquid surface. • Simulated transitional flow over a high-lift 3-element airfoil using the 4-equation γ–θ SST model; verified laminar-to-turbulent transition, weak shock formation, and validated pressure, lift, and drag coefficients within 3% of experimental data. • Provided technical support to Ansys users in domains such as Meshing and User Defined Functions (UDFs) with a customer satisfaction rate of more than 96%.

• Developed a Python package based on theories established by classification societies such as American Bureau of Shipping, Llyod’s Register, Bureau Veritas etc. to calculate the noise attenuation across a duct system. • Created a harmonic acoustic model in ANSYS Workbench to replicate the actual noise and vibration scenario onboard ships and validated the simulation with the Python package with an error less than 10%.

• Designed transfer chutes used in conveyor systems like conveyor belts, bucket elevators, apron feeders etc. and performed a ‘DEM Simulation’ to ensure proper flow and avoid issues like jamming, belt off-tracking, dust spillage etc for different materials like bauxite and limestone.

• Completed an exchange program consisting of the following modules: Supply Chain Management, Sustainable Project Management, Investment and Financing, Negotiation Skills, German as a foreign Language (A1 Level)

• Studied the basic concepts of steam engineering like steam flow measurement, steam distribution, boiler basics and combustion. • Performed calculations and applied theory to understand how to select piping accessories, steam traps and optimize the process by condensate recovery.

• Completed an internship on ‘Urban Solutions and Sustainability: A Singapore Case Study’. • Analyzed various constructions in Singapore to understand their automation systems, application of active and passive designs and use of green technology. • Visited various industries such as NEW Water treatment plant to understand how sustainable systems function in practice.