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Exploring Thermoelectric Behavior at the Nanoscale

Zlatan Aksamija, an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, uses computers at the MGHPCC to carry out nanomolecular materials modeling experiments exploring the thermoelectric behavior of materials for use in energy applications.

Two-thirds of the energy generated by conventional power stations is lost as waste heat to cooling towers. A similar percentage of the energy locked up in the fuel you put in your car is lost the same way from the exhaust pipe. But what if that wasted heat could be mopped up and converted into usable electricity? Efficient thermoelectric devices are key to our ability to harvest thermal energy from many sources, among them waste heat lost in traditional electricity production and through automobile exhaust. In his work, Zlatan explores how exploiting temperature gradients across thermoelectric devices can convert heat energy directly into electrical energy without any need for moving parts like turbines.

Zlatan Aksamija
Assistant professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Research projects

Foldit
Dusty With a Chance of Star Formation
Checking the Medicine Cabinet to Interrupt COVID-19 at the Molecular Level
Not Too Hot, Not Too Cold But Still, Is It Just Right?​
Smashing Discoveries​
Microbiome Pattern Hunting
Modeling the Air we Breathe
Exploring Phytoplankton Diversity
The Computer Will See You Now
Computing the Toll of Trapped Diamondback Terrapins
Edging Towards a Greener Future
Physics-driven Drug Discovery
Modeling Plasma-Surface Interactions
Sensing Subduction Zones
Neural Networks & Earthquakes
Small Stars, Smaller Planets, Big Computing
Data Visualization using Climate Reanalyzer
Getting to Grips with Glassy Materials
Modeling Molecular Engines
Forest Mapping: When the Budworms come to Dinner
Exploring Thermoelectric Behavior at the Nanoscale
The Trickiness of Talking to Computers
A Genomic Take on Geobiology
From Grass to Gas
Teaching Computers to Identify Odors
From Games to Brains
The Trouble with Turbulence
A New Twist
A Little Bit of This… A Little Bit of That..
Looking Like an Alien!
Locking Up Computing
Modeling Supernovae
Sound Solution
Lessons in a Virtual Test Tube​
Crack Computing
Automated Real-time Medical Imaging Analysis
Towards a Smarter Greener Grid
Heading Off Head Blight
Organic Light-Harvesting Antennae
Art and AI
Excited by Photons
Tapping into an Ocean of Data
Computing Global Change
Star Power
Engineering the Human Microbiome
Computing Social Capital
Computers Diagnosing Disease
All Research Projects

Collaborative projects

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Outreach & Education Projects

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