Pramoth Varsan Madhavan

I am currently pursuing my PhD study in the department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo. My current research is on the design and structural analysis of metallic bipolar plates used in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells. I am currently working on the Ex-situ analysis of Metallic Bipolar Plates in which I am conducting experiments to analyze and understand the corrosion resistance, Electrical Conductivity and thermal conductivities of the bipolar plates. As the research progresses, the future steps are to perform the in-situ analysis of a single cell, through which the performance of a typical PEMFC can be studied, and to develop a structural model to model the effects of various parameters such as clamping pressure, membrane swelling, etc. on the performance degradation of metallic bipolar plates which in turn depicts the performance of the PEMFCs.

I did my undergraduate studies in Mechanical Engineering at Anna University, Chennai, India, during which I had the chance to attend a 3 month internship in Canada. I worked on the project “Airlift pumps - Design and manufacturing of energy efficient pumps for sustainable food systems” at the University of Guelph through which I gained immense knowledge and interest in pursuing a career in research. As a result of my internship, I decided to pursue my graduate studies in Canada and got into the University of Waterloo for my Master’s degree. I did my MASc in the department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo on the topic “FPGA based Ultrasound Non-destructive testing” in which I was responsible for developing an FPGA based system to capture and analyze the weld qualities of joints using Ultrasound. During my master’s, the field of Fuel Cell technology fascinated me, so I decided to gain in-depth knowledge about them and started my PhD study in PEMFCs which I am currently studying in the Fuel Cell and Green Energy lab.