Thermal Engineering

Michael Collins is an Associate Professor and Department Chair in Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo. 

Prior to his arrival at UW in January of 2002, Professor Collins spent 7 years at Queen's University – Solar Calorimetry Laboratory developing research in the area of passive solar control in windows. At UW, Professor Collins has become the Director of the Solar Thermal Research Laboratory (STRL) where his focus has moved towards the areas of solar-thermal analysis of active and passive solar devices, PV / Solar Thermal hybridization, heat pump assisted solar thermal systems, window shading, and grey water heat recovery. In recent years, he has upgraded the STRL material characterization facilities to make the STRL a unique regional facility for materials characterization for solar and thermal applications. 

In addition to his research work, Professor Collins has approximately 80 publications detailing his research activities. 

Kyle Daun is a Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering Professor at the University of Waterloo. 
His main research interests are heat conduction from aerosolized nanoparticles, laser-based combustion tomography, heat treatment in materials processing, and optimal design of industrial combustion devices. Professor Daun’s research group studies inverse problems that arise in combustion and heat transfer, including laser-based nanoparticle metrology, optical tomography, and design optimization of combustion devices and industrial furnaces. 

From 2004 to 2007, Professor Daun was an NSERC postdoctoral fellow and then a research officer at the Institute for Chemical Process and Environmental Technology at the National Research Council Canada (NRC-ICPET) in Ottawa. As a research officer, he investigated radiation heat transfer in solid oxide fuel cells with Dr. Steven Beale, and then helped develop and improve combustion diagnostics (line-of-sight-attenuation, laser-induced incandescence) with Dr. Greg Smallwood and Dr. Fengshan Liu. Amongst other accomplishments, he was one of the first to experimentally characterize the gas-surface scattering physics underlying thermal accommodation in LII, which he later validated through molecular dynamics simulations. 

Professor Daun is also a referee for the Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer (JQSRT), Applied Optics, and the ASME Journal of Heat Transfer. 
Professor Daun was awarded the JQSRT Young Scientist award (now called the Ray Viskanta award) that recognises the top international researcher in thermal radiation under 36 years of age in 2010, and the Alexander von Humboldt research fellowship in 2015. 

Roydon Fraser is the Teaching Chair and a Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering. He is also an investigator in the Green Intelligent Transportation Systems Group at the University of Waterloo. 

Professor Fraser is the past-President of the University of Waterloo Faculty Association and is serving in his eighth year as a Professional Engineers Ontario Councillor. He is also a life member of the Sandford Fleming Foundation, a member of the Ontario Engineering Competition Board, and a founding board member of Engineers without Borders. 

His research interests focus on energy conversion systems. Primarily, the characterization of spark ignition engine combustion, the integration and control of alternative fuels powertrains into vehicles, and the application of energy and the second law of thermodynamics to the characterization and optimization of complex thermodynamic systems. 

Professor Fraser has expertise in turbulent combustion and non-intrusive combustion diagnostics as applied to internal combustion engines, in alternative fuel vehicle development. He places a particular emphasis on natural gas, ethanol and hydrogen (fuel cells) fuels and hybrid vehicles. 

Professor Li's main research interests and activities are in the area of thermal fluid/science, including energy systems and energy storage, various energy conversion devices, propulsion and power generation systems, aerosol generation and applications, and transportation fuel cell and battery systems. These research projects involve thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, hydrodynamic stability, multiphase flow, heat and mass transfer, liquid atomization and sprays, combustion, power generation and propulsion systems. 
 
Professor Li is the Founding Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Green Energy, which established the International Green Energy Conference series and launched the annual review series Progress in Green Energy. He is also the Field Chief Editor, Frontiers in Thermal Engineering. He is currently serving on the editorial board of dozens of international scientific/technical journals, book series on fuel cells and energy systems, as well as an encyclopaedia on Energy Engineering and Technology. 
 
Professor Li is a fellow of Canadian Academy of Engineering (FCAE), a fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada (FEIC) and a fellow of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (CSME), and serves as VP Technical Program for CSME. Previously he served as the CSME Division Chair for the Advanced Energy Systems technical division. He also currently serves as the President of the International Association for Green Energy and President of the Fuel Cell Division, International Association for Hydrogen Energy and established the World Fuel Cell Conference series. 

David Mather, P.Eng., is a lecturer in mechanical engineering and architectural engineering. He has a background in the buildings industry with focus on energy performance and environmental sustainability. 

David has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Waterloo and is a part-time PhD student in the Sustainability Management program in the School of Environment, Enterprise, and Development in the Faculty of Environment. 

A thermo fluids specialist, with expertise in surface engineering and superhydrophobic surfaces. Seeking to advance engineering education and the understanding and implementation of engineered surfaces in real world applications.

Gerry Schneider is a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo. 

His research interests are in control volume-based finite element methods, speed flow prediction methods, phase change energy transportation, and machine vision. 

Professor Schneider teaches numerous upper year Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering courses at the university. He has published several articles such as “Applications of an All-Speed Flow Algorithm to Heat Transfer Problems and Numerical Heat Transfer”, and “Performance of an Analogy-Based All-Speed Procedure without Any Explicit Damping”, along with other authors. 

Peter Teertstra is a Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering as well as the Director of the Student Design Centre at the University of Waterloo. 

Dr. Teertstra’s research interests are in conduction and convection modeling for microelectronics and optoelectronics cooling and the experimental measurement of heat transfer in micro- and nano-scale applications using reduced pressure environment testing methods. He is also interested in predicting and modeling air cooling limits for applications in electronics. 

Peter Teertstra is the Director of the Sedra Student Design Centre at the University of Waterloo. As well as a Continuing Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering. 

As Director of the Sedra Student Design Centre, Dr. Teertstra helps new and existing teams access the resources they need, such as equipment and sponsorship, to succeed in their competitions. 

John Z. Wen is a Professor with the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering and is cross-appointed to the Chemical Engineering department at the University of Waterloo. He is also the Director of the Laboratory for Emerging Energy Research at the university and a member of the Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineering (CSME). Currently he serves as the CSME Technical Committee (TC) Chair on Microtechnology and Nanotechnology. 
Professor Wen’s areas of research expertise are in in-situ resources utilization, energetic nanomaterial, metal fuel, biofuel combustion, CO2 capture and storage, emission of particulate matters, energy utilization and storage, and nanotechnology-based energy devices. His research interests include processing lunar regolith, metal combustion, nanomaterial synthesis, development of nanothermite and energetic nanocomposites, and fabrication of nanotube and nanowire based energy devices. 
Professor Wen teaches several upper year and graduate Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering courses. 

Professor XiaoYu Wu’s research group, Greener Production @ Waterloo combines expertise in thermal science, material engineering and techno-economics to develop sustainable technologies for energy conversion and chemical production. Both experimental and numerical methods will be applied to develop a fundamental understanding of the thermodynamics and kinetics in the processes. Thermo-electro-chemical processes is of interest to maximize system versatility. The kinetics and reaction mechanisms can be obtained from high throughput benchtop reactors and physical models. System-scaled numerical analysis will be used to investigate the optimal operating conditions and the energy-chemical integration. Techno-economic assessment will also be explored to evaluate the costs. These findings will accelerate the material development and process optimization and facilitate the commercialization of these technologies. The goal is to utilize renewable resources and improve global living standards. 
 
Prior to joining the University of Waterloo, XiaoYu was a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he also obtained his Ph.D. degree. He has published papers in journals such as Progress in Energy and Combustion Science, the Proceedings of the Combustion Institute, AIChE Journal and ChemSusChem. He serves as the Guest Associate Editor in an open-access journal Frontiers in Energy Research for a theme collection of “Sustainable Hydrogen for Energy, Fuel and Commodity Applications.”