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With their multitude of components and energy-dense batteries, modern-day electronic devices are prolific heat producers. Ashutosh Giri, the newest faculty member at the University of Maryland’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, is studying how to keep those emissions in check, particularly in small devices containing nanometer-scale materials—that is, less than 1/10,000th the width of a human hair.
The physics of nanoscale heat transfer “isn’t well understood,” according to Giri, in part because quantum rather than Newtonian physics applies at that scale. Without clearer insights into the physics, manufacturers may find it increasingly hard to control temperatures as devices shrink in size, leading to risk of overheating and fire.
Incidents of dangerous overheating, in fact, already occur with troubling frequency. Just this past February, an Alaska Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing when a passenger’s cell phone and power bank burst into flame.
Giri seeks to map out the underlying dynamics. At his new lab in the Clark School’s Kim Engineering Building, he and his team use a mix of computational methods, experiments, and simulations to track how the kinetic energy of electrons—which, in an optimally efficient system, would be entirely directed towards a device’s tasks—becomes dissipated as heat.
Computationally, he applies calculations based on the Schrödinger equation, which describes the wave-like behavior of particles and can be used to predict a spectrum of possible paths. At the same time, he and his team conduct experiments using ultra-fast laser techniques with femtosecond pulses to time-resolve the interactions of energy carriers, such as coatings and films, and to measure their conductivity..
Sophisticated simulations running high-speed computers then allow the team to model an entire physical system and test improved ways of managing heat transfer.
Still an early-career researcher, Giri has quickly established himself as a leading expert in his field, first at the University of Rhode Island and now at UMD. In 2025, he received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), one of the most prestigious recognitions an engineer can achieve.
Collaboration with other researchers at the A. James Clark School of Engineering is high on his agenda as he takes up his new faculty position in College Park.
“There are many people here with research interests and specialties that align with what I’m doing,” he said. “Folks are working on different kinds of materials, for instance, and the energy transfer mechanisms for those materials have not yet been studied.”
“Everyone is very motivated and interested in collaboration,” he said. “I see many opportunities here.”
April 8, 2026
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