We are proud to share that Vivek Manepalli has successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park, marking an important milestone for both him and the NEIT Lab.

Vivek’s research focused on advanced cooling technologies for high-power electronics, with an emphasis on direct-to-chip two-phase liquid cooling and data center thermal management. As part of the ARPA-E COOLERCHIPS program, he designed, fabricated, and experimentally tested hollow micropillar membrane evaporators for next-generation electronic systems.

His work connected device-level cooling technology with the broader needs of high-density servers, GPUs, and data center infrastructure. By bringing together thermal design, experimental characterization, system integration, and performance evaluation, his research advanced cooling approaches for demanding electronics applications.

Throughout his Ph.D. journey, Vivek worked under the guidance of his advisor, Prof. Damena Agonafer, and co-advisor, Prof. Samuel Graham, with support from his committee members, collaborators, and labmates.

Congratulations, Dr. Manepalli, on this outstanding achievement! We wish him continued success in the next chapter of his career.