About

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, advised by Prof. Nenad Miljkovic in the Energy Transport Research Laboratory. I received my M.S. from Illinois in 2025 and my B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering, with honors and a minor in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in 2023.

My research is on advanced thermal management: single-phase liquid cooling of power electronics and AI accelerators, dynamic system-level thermal modeling of hyperscale data centers, and two-phase immersion cooling of Li-ion batteries. I am interested in connecting thermal management at the component level with thermal architecture at the system level, across IT hardware, power conversion and energy storage.

What drives me

Many of the technologies that will matter most over the next few decades are limited by heat.Artificial intelligence, power electronics, electric vehicles, and the wider move towardelectrification and decarbonization all depend on removing more heat from smaller spaces than has been possible before. I want to work on cooling technology that can dissipate the highest heat loads these systems demand, so that thermal limits are not what holds them back.

Removing the heat is only half of the problem. Cooling already takes a large share of the energy a data center uses, and that energy matters for cost, for the grid and for energy security. I want the technologies I work on to be the best-performing and also highly energy-efficient, and increasingly intelligent: designed, controlled and operated with the help of modeling and machine learning.

Above all, I want my work to have an impact on society: in technology that people use every day, and in an energy system that is cleaner and more secure.

How I work

I like to work on a problem from more than one side. Most of my projects combine modeling with experiments: I design a part or a system computationally, build it, test it, and use the measurements to check the model. I care about knowing how far a result can be trusted, so I spend time on validation and on uncertainty.

I also enjoy the engineering around the research: building test setups, working with manufacturers to get a design made, and writing tools that turn a slow manual workflow into a fast one. Much of my work is done with collaborators in other groups and in industry, and I value that.

Outside research

I sing and play the guitar, and I listen to a lot of pop, rock and classical music. I run, play tennis and enjoy hiking, and I grew up playing cricket.

Contact

Open to internships for summer and fall 2027, and to full-time industry roles from 2028. My interests are in data center, semiconductor and electric vehicle thermal management. The best way to reach me is by email at syjoshi2@illinois.edu.