PI: Jun Liu, PhD
Jun is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, The State University of New York at Buffalo. He is also an adjunct faculty in UB RENEW (Research and Education in eNergy, Environment and Water) Institute. He is also an Associate Editor of Energy Technology (Wiley). Jun received his PhD (2018) in Materials Engineering from the University of Alberta, Canada with expertise on advanced materials and nanomechanics for energy harvesting. He was a Postdoc Fellow in Chemical and Biological Engineering at SUNY Buffalo (2018-2020). Jun is passionate about understanding and manipulating fundamental physics at materials surface and interfaces for energy and sensing applications. He has 40+ refereed publications in high-profile journals such as Nature Nanotechnology, Science Advances, Matter, Nano Letters, Advanced Functional Materials, Nano Energy, etc. and multiple US/PCT patents. He is the recipient of many awards such as 2022 SONY Faculty Innovation Award, 2020 Young Scientist Award (Microsystem and Nanoengineering, Springer Nature), 2019 Best Scientific Research Award (Nanosymposium on Scanning Probe Microscopy), 2018 National Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Overseas, 2015 Alberta Innovates–Technology Futures (AITF) Graduate Student Award. He has been invited for talk in many professional conferences such as MRS, SPIE, and NENS. Jun enjoys basketball and dance when he has spare time.
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Jun Liu, PhD,
Assistant Professor
jliu238 (at) buffalo.edu
611 Furnas Hall, UB North Campus
(716)603-3052 (cell)
Graduate Student
Vashin Gautham Nanjangud Thyagaraja (PhD Student, Mechanical Engineering, UB)
Vashin Gautham is a PhD Student in Mechanical Engineering supervised by Dr. Jun Liu. He received his MS of Mechanical Engineering from UB in 2023 and Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical engineering from R.N.S Institute of Technology, Bangalore in 2020. His research interests includes energy materials, energy generation and storage, nanomaterials. He has a diploma in product design (Catia V5, Ansys, GD&T) from CADD Centre. He has worked on building a Solar Electric Vehicle for a competition and his undergraduate project was on Cross sectional analysis of a composite main rotor blade and its influence on natural frequencies with and without damage. He enjoys watching motorsport racing and is a astronomy enthusiast.
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Aayush Nayyar (PhD Student, Engineering Science (Focus on Clean Energy), UB)
Aayush is a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at UB. He earned his master' degree at UB in Clean Energy supervised by Dr. Jun Liu. He completed his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering in 2022 with a specialization in computational techniques and a minor in management studies. He received the Dean's List Award of Academic Excellence and graduated with the highest distinction. He has previously worked on developing parabolic trough-integrated solar water purifier technology. Aayush has also worked on other design and research projects, such as the analysis of toroidal blades for future wind turbines and hydrogen production using renewable energy. He is passionate about exploring the field of physics and energy engineering to develop sustainable technologies and clean energy solutions. Aayush is a cosmophile and enjoys reading books in his free time.
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Vinoop Anil (MS Student, Mechanical Engineering, UB)
Vinoop Anil is a master’s student at UB in Mechanical Engineering supervised by Dr. Jun Liu. He completed his Bachelor of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering from Sapthagiri College of Engineering, Bengaluru in 2021. For his undergraduate project, he has worked on building an automatic solar-based microcontroller using light-dependent resistors as sensors. Also, he has worked on designing a folding bicycle that enables convenient storage and portability in various transportation modes. He has worked on Fabrication of Microfluidic channel for Bio-medical applications. He is passionate about exploring the field of Design, Manufacturing, Microfluidics, energy materials. He enjoys watching Formula 1, Cricket and supports RCB.
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Ashutosh Panpalia (MS Student, Mechanical Engineering, UB)
Ashutosh Panpalia is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Engineering Science(course focus - Robotics) at UB under the supervision of Dr. Jun Liu. His research interests include Robot control systems, wearable electronics, mechatronics, and automation. He has completed his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 2020 from Delhi Technological University (formerly DCE). Following his undergraduate studies, he worked at Hero MotoCorp Ltd. at the world’s largest two-wheeler Manufacturing facility for 2.5 years. Before joining UB he also worked for 6 months as a Research Engineer at IIT Kanpur in the Machine Tool and Dynamics Lab. He has worked on robotic arms (industrial and prototypes), inspection automation in industry, implementing AI for surface finish measurement etc. He also worked on different design and research projects in his undergraduate studies. Ashutosh also enjoys running, reading books and watching Formula 1.
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Rohit Ratnakar Thakar (MS Student, Mechanical Engineering, UB)
Rohit is a master's student at UB in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department. He completed his bachelor's in mechanical engineering in 2021 from Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, India. Being keenly interested in design, after completing his bachelor's Rohit worked for one and a half year in the industry as a Mechanical Design Engineer. He has worked on automotive seating sheet metal and automotive interior plastic parts. He has also worked on an Electric Tiller project, an agricultural equipment aimed at replacing the conventional equipment which uses non-renewable resources as fuel. Rohit has experience in system design projects as well. During his working period, he extensively used Catia V5 and SolidWorks for designing. Rohit is passionate about exploring the field of design and manufacturing in the energy engineering domain and learn more about clean energy technology. As an avid amateur astronomer, in his free time, he does stargazing and loves to observe celestial objects through a telescope and read about them. He plays soccer and badminton as a hobby as well.
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Sri Shakunthala Yerneni (MS Student, Engineering Science(Focus in Robotics), UB)
She is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Engineering Science(course focus - Robotics) at UB under the supervision of Dr. Jun Liu. Shakunthala is a robotics enthusiast with a strong focus on sensor integration and automation. She is interested in exploring the latest advancements in MEMS, Bio-MEMS and various other sensors.
She holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from IIT Tirupati, where her passion for robotics and sensors first took root. Shakunthala has done an internship at Central Manufacturing Institute of India(CMTI) at Bangalore, India, where she worked on developing an HMI interface for a Loom Machine. She has done a project on Automated lane changing maneuver. She also has corporate work experience in ICICI Bank Pvt ltd as Product Manager in Mumbai, India. Shakunthala enjoys reading books and playing badminton.
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Undergraduate Student
Emily Jorgensen (BS Student, Mechanical Engineering, UB)
Emily Jorgensen is currently a second year aerospace and mechanical engineering undergraduate student. She is participating in research in mechanical engineering and plans to attend graduate school in the future.
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Thaw Dar San (BS Student, Mechanical Engineering, UB)
Thaw Dar San is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Sciences in Mechanical Engineering at SUNY, University at Buffalo. She has worked in research at Stony Brook University and Brookhaven National Laboratory regarding TiO2 and SiO2 nanoparticles adhesion on nano-structured surfaces. Currently, she is participating in research relating to TiO2 deposition at UB under the guidance of Dr. Jun Liu. She has plans to pursue a PhD in the future and develops a career in the research and development industry. She has participated in national and international robotic competitions (FIRST Global 2019, Dubai UAE) and won championships and judges’ awards. Thaw enjoys doing digital arts and watching movies in her free time.
Alumni
Ruizhe Yang (PhD, Mechanical Engineering, UB)
Graduated with Dean's Award for Research Excellence
Current: Postdoc at University of Chicago
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Matthew Benner (MS, 2021, Mechanical Engineering, UB)
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Current: Mechanical Design Engineer at Plug Power at Schenectady, NY.
Lalith Mulukala (MS Student, Engineering Science (Focus on Clean Energy), UB)
Current: Electrical Engineer at Mortenson
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Leqi Lin (MS, 2023, Mechanical Engineering, UB)
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