The Quest for Clean Water Overpopulation and Lack of Rainfall Are Fueling a Crisis-Level Quest to Provide Affordable Drinking Water in Rural India

Spring/Summer 2016 Vol. 6, No. 2 Published twice a year Massachusetts Institute of Technology

In This Issue: Alum Prakash PhD student Jai Professor John MechEConnects Govindan is helping Swaminathan is Lienhard talks to protect the developing a water shop about the water News from the MIT environment with recovery system crisis and why it’s Department of Mechanical Engineering his water purification for dyeing mills in everyone’s problem... tech... | > p. 12 | India... | > p. 15 | | > p. 22 |

The Quest for Clean Water Overpopulation and lack of rainfall are fueling a crisis-level quest to provide affordable drinking water in rural India. 2 MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering

Our most Dear Alumni, Students, Faculty, and Friends, At the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering, we focus on many things – from fundamental important job science and experimentation to making and prototyping. But one of our most important jobs as is to create mechanical engineers is to create technology that can eventually exit the lab and make a positive impact on people’s lives, whether that be improving an everyday struggle or solving a major global challenge. technology Our faculty and students are solving challenges big and small every day in the areas of health care, that can innovation, energy, environment, and security. In this issue of MechE Connects, we are highlighting the global water crisis and some of the solutions we are developing in MechE. We are lucky to have eventually some of the best minds in the field on the problem, such as Professor John Lienhard, who was recently exit the lab named the founding director of the Abdul Latif Jameel World Water and Food Security Laboratory, and who has served as the director of the Center for Clean Water and Clean Energy at MIT and KFUPM and make since 2008.

a positive In areas like the Middle East and India, where the rainfall is minimal and the population is high, water is scarce and often unhealthy to drink. In developed countries like the US, tragedies like that in Flint, impact on Michigan, have illustrated our own water infrastructure and health problems.

people’s lives. In the issue’s feature story, we travel to rural India with PhD student Natasha Wright to join her as she tests her electrodialysis photovoltaic water desalination system with villagers and learns more about their needs. We meet another PhD student Jaichander Swaminathan, who is optimizing a small-scale membrane distillation system for the Indian textile industry and enabling zero-liquid discharge. We reconnect with alum Prakash Govindan, who co-founded the water technology company Gradiant based on the desalination system he developed as a PhD student in MechE.

You will also read about natural water filters being designed from sapwood by Professor Rohit Karnik, as well as hear Professor John Lienhard talk shop about his extensive experience researching clean water technologies.

As always, thank you for your ongoing support and friendship.

Sincerely

Gang Chen, Carl Richard Soderberg Professor of Power Engineering and Department Head Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Spring/Summer 2016 Vol. 6, No. 2 Published twice a year

News from the MIT MechEConnects Department of Mechanical Engineering

> mecheconnects.mit.edu

About MechE Table of Contents

Mechanical engineering was one 4-10 Feature: The Quest for Clean Water

of the original courses of study 11 2.500: Desalination offered when classes began at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 12-13 Alumni Spotlight: Prakash Govindan PhD ‘12, CEO, Gradiant in 1865. Today, the Department of 14 Faculty Research: Professor Rohit Karnik Mechanical Engineering (MechE) 15-16 Student Spotlight: Jaichander Swaminathan SM ‘14, PhD Candidate comprises seven principal research areas: 17 Faculty Awards and Promotions

18-19 Student Awards • Mechanics: modeling, experimentation, and 20-21 Department News

computation 22-23 Talking Shop with Professor John H. Lienhard V

• Design, manufacturing, and product development On the cover: A woman who lives in Chellur, India, walks home with the reverse-osmosis-treated water she just bought at Chellur’s community desalination system. Photo by John Freidah. • Controls, instrumentation, and robotics

• Energy science and engineering

• Ocean science and engineering Contact MechE Newsletter Staff

• Bioengineering Department of Mechanical Engineering Alissa Mallinson Massachusetts Institute of Technology Managing Editor 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 3-174 • Micro and nano science and Cambridge, MA 02139 Professor Thomas Peacock technology Faculty Advisor E-mail: [email protected] B. Harris Crist Each of these disciplines encompasses Webmaster facebook.com/mitmeche several laboratories and academic twitter.com/mitmeche John Freidah programs that foster modeling, youtube.com/mitmeche Multimedia Specialist analysis, computation, and Wing Ngan experimentation. MechE educational Designer

programs remain at the leading edge John Freidah, Tony Pulsone by providing in-depth instruction Photography Credit in engineering principles and unparalleled opportunities for students to apply their knowledge. 4 MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering

TheSolar-Powered Quest Desalination for inClean Rural India Water

Story by Alissa Mallinson Photography by John Freidah > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Spring/Summer 2016 6 MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering

The air was hot and gritty. In fact, on the West Coast, many people Not Much Water Anywhere, and Shehazvi had to squint to see past the get their drinking water from the Pacific Not a Drop to Drink sun into the edge of town, past the cars Ocean, or from brackish groundwater, Shehazvi is a teacher and resident of and motorcycles whizzing by, past the because of the lack of rainfall. But Mhasawad, a village of about 8,400 scorched earth, to where old buildings seawater and groundwater, which people that flanks the Girna River in stood beautiful in their own way, muted becomes salty from salt molecules Maharashtra, India. It’s high noon, and pinks and oranges still curving and seeping out of rocks and minerals, is she’s expecting her water delivery today. curling in all the right places. No rain unhealthy to drink. again today. “The water that was supplied is “Excessive salt intake can be quite contaminated, and my daughter was She and her daughter climbed out of detrimental to one’s health, both in always in pain,” she says. “I had to the rickshaw and walked down the alley the short and long term,” says Dr. repeatedly take her to the doctor in that leads to their home, 200 rupees Maulik D. Majmudar, a cardiologist at Jalgaon, and it was very expensive. So lighter than when they left for Jalgaon Massachusetts General Hospital. “It can I started buying filtered water for the city earlier that day. That’s how much it cause diarrhea and dehydration in the health of my daughter and myself. Now cost every time she took her daughter short term, and continued ingestion of the stomachaches and the illnesses are to the doctor for stomach pains. The water with high salt content can lead to gone. And I don’t have to boil the water culprit? The salty drinking water. severe dehydration and development anymore.” of kidney stones, as well as confusion, But there is no grocery store to stock seizures, and death in extreme cases.” Shehazvi pays 30% of her monthly up on bottled water. There is no on- income for the treated water. But with demand tap of drinking water that’s Because of this health detriment, many an average salinity 75% lower than that already been prepared for her safety and state governments on the West Coast of the untreated town water, to her, it’s comfort. There is no reliable electricity. utilize desalination systems such as worth the cost for the health benefits reverse osmosis (RO) to remove the that come with it. Everyone’s Problem salt and other impurities. In fact, the largest seaweater desalination plant It’s hard to imagine the reality of this But despite its benefits, most of the in the Western hemisphere was just situation in the US, where we take residents of Mhasawad can’t afford RO completed in Carlsbad, California, this 10-minute showers in water better water, which filters out bacteria and past December. It produces 50 million than what many people in developing desalinates salty water, and thousands gallons of potable water every day. countries drink on a daily basis. But in of people in the village regularly drink water with a salinity level above India, particularly rural villages, where That’s the solution in the United States, 1,200ppm. To put that into perspective, 73% of the population is drinking a wealthy, industrialized country. But the World Health Organization completely untreated water, clean water what happens in a developing country? is more than a luxury – it’s non-existent. recommends levels under 600ppm, “It takes more than just simplifying and the water in Cambridge, Mass., And yet in the past few years we have a solution that exists in a developed usually doesn’t get above 350ppm at its uncovered many of our own frightening country to solve the problems of worst. water problems in the US that have developing countries,” says Assistant “Everyone wants to drink the clean opened our eyes to the fact that this Professor Amos Winter, director of water,” continues Shehazvi. “But what problem isn’t limited to developing the Global Engineering and Research do they do if they can’t afford it? I only countries as much as we had thought. (GEAR) Lab at the MIT Department get paid 2,000 rupees per month and The crisis in Flint, Michigan, of Mechanical Engineering. “They buying this water has been difficult.” for example, has revealed a toxic don’t map over, because when you start shortcoming in our worn and outdated looking into the requirements, they If the lower-income households can’t infrastructure, and we’ve experienced might have to be 10 or 1,000 times afford the RO-treated water, they several consecutive years of significant cheaper than what we have in the definitely can’t afford the health costs drought in California. Western world but still deliver the same associated with drinking salty water. level of performance.” > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Spring/Summer 2016

One man living in Mhasawad says he of all those perspectives that disruptive She also discovered that the salt had spends around 20,000 rupees a year new solutions come together.” a negative effect on the cooking time on his kidney stone problem, and other of rice, a staple of Indian dinners. In August 2012, Wright travelled to residents say that stone removal costs Many women were frustrated with the Jalgaon, India, to meet with engineers about 50,000 rupees. Mhasawad’s amount of time it took to cook their rice at Jain Irrigation Systems and partner town leader, an older woman named using the salty water, turning what is on the development of a system that Vimalbai Chinchore, has had two normally a 20-minute cooking process would set the dream of the company’s surgeries to remove kidney stones that into a 2.5-hour one. founder, Bhavarlal H. Jain, in motion. the doctors have told her are due to salt Himself having grown up in a poor On a logistical level, Wright points out, in her drinking water. rural village outside of Jalgaon, that 500% increase in time is also a The townspeople of Mhasawad are Bhavarlal’s dream was to provide poor 500% increase in fuel needed to cook particularly concerned about the health villages in India access to affordable their rice – and a proportional increase of their children, who, according to potable water. in the associated costs. the teachers in the village, including “Water is life,” said Jain. “It is essential “As outsiders, our motivations are often Shehazvi, have continuous digestive to environmental balance. There is no fueled solely by health concerns,” says problems and stomach pains that often life without water.” Winter. “And of course that is crucial, distract them during school lessons. but you have to remember that villagers When the pain gets bad enough, The company’s plan was to develop have almost always gotten their water the teachers send the children to the affordable home water systems for free. So to go to a person and say we hospital during school. that would remove the biological want you to pay for water that basically contaminants from the water, and “They don’t feel well,” says Shehazvi. looks and tastes the same – what’s the Wright’s first two trips to Jalgaon were “Their stomachs are always hurting. value added to them? It’s our job to spent researching which systems were They are always crying.” figure outwhy people would choose to already on the market and how they buy clean water and include it in our “Water is Life” were working. solution.” In order to design a desalination system “I went to villages and interviewed Wright and Winter believe that by that actually works in the context of women’s groups, men’s groups, and providing desalinated water that tastes rural Indian villages, Professor Winter individual families,” she says. “I was good at a price everyone can afford, and PhD candidate Natasha Wright, focused on the removal of biological all villagers – especially those who are a researcher in Winter’s GEAR Lab contaminants and was hearing that a poorer and tend to drink contaminated, and a fellow of the MIT Tata Center lot of villagers had filters but weren’t high-saline water on a regular basis – for Technology and Design – which using them regularly, only during the will be more likely to consistently drink supports this and other GEAR Lab monsoon season when the water was water that’s clean and healthy, even if projects for the developing world – brown and visibly dirty. I wanted to they have to pay for it. knew they first had to develop an in- figure out how to improve the water depth understanding of the problem by and increase the likelihood of filter use More People, More Salt visiting the villages and talking directly to prevent sickness. But it goes so much deeper than taste. to the residents themselves. “When I reviewed my survey results,” About 50 to 70 meters deeper, in fact. “We are in the field every six months she continues, “I realized that everyone That is the depth at which many villages trying to figure out how socioeconomic was complaining about salt, even in India have to dig new wells to access factors influence technical factors,” says though I never even asked about it. any water at all. Professor Winter. “We walk the lines They said it tastes bad, leaves marks on India’s climate is hot and dry for most between product designers, machine their pots and pans, and makes their of the year, and the country as a whole designers, ethnographers, and social stomachs hurt.” is overcrowded. With almost 1.3 billion scientists, and it’s at the convergence 8 MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering

people and counting, it has the second- So it’s an understatement to say that And now that it’s more concentrated, highest population in the world, with water is precious and can’t be wasted. it requires proportionally more power a rainfall that is for the most part And yet that’s exactly what happens to move it through the membrane reserved for the three-month monsoon with RO systems that are used with the – so much more that the cost of the season. So while the demand for water water in these areas. power outweighs the benefits, and increases with population, the water manufacturers forgo a second pass to RO systems work by utilizing a high- remains scarce, and many places like keep the costs down. pressure pump to push water through Mhasawad are forced to dig into the a membrane; the saltier it is, the more As a result, many RO systems in ground for water. energy required to move the water this area have enormous water reject But as water is removed from the through. Great, you might think: RO rates. For example, in Chellur, a city ground, the water table – which is should pair perfectly with the brackish outside of Hyderabad, the reject rate is dependent on the amount of rainfall – groundwater of rural India. approximately 70%. Meaning that 70% lowers as it becomes overdrawn but not of potential drinking water is wasted The problem is that after the first pass replenished. The aquifers get deeper before it ever gets desalinated. through an RO membrane, the now- and deeper to access more water, and pure water is removed, and what’s left To make matters worse, many of these the salinity level of the water often is concentrated saltwater. rural villages often don’t have reliable naturally increases with depth. access to the electric grid, if they have

In Mhasawad, India, a group of teachers from the local school, including Shehazvi on the left, sat front and center at a meeting with PhD student Natasha Wright this past January to share their concern for the schoolchildren’s health as a result of the town’s salty water. Photo by John Freidah. > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Spring/Summer 2016

it at all. During the summer months in Mhasawad – which are also the driest – villagers have only three hours of electricity in the morning and three in the evening, and many times they don’t know which six hours those will be. Any potential desalination solution that needs electricity for power will only work for a quarter of each day, or will be oversized in order to produce the same amount of water in six hours that would normally be produced in 24. But that doesn’t come cheap.

The Cost of Clean Water

The way Wright and Winter see it, alongside alternating cation and grid altogether, decreasing operational they have to engineer a system for anion exchange membranes, unlike and capital costs at the same time. low cost, low waste, and low energy RO systems, which push the water Because EDR uses stacks of exchange consumption. A mighty tall order through membranes. When a voltage membranes that only have to be indeed, and certainly one that can’t be is applied across the stack, anions in replaced every 10 years, and that don’t fulfilled just by simplifying a solution the water are pushed toward the anode require any filters, they cut down on the that already exists in a developed but are blocked by the cation exchange maintenance costs by eliminating the country. membranes, which only allow cations need to replace membranes or filters to cross, and the opposite is true for the often. As product designers, they are looking cations. In this way, the salt is separated The capital costs of their photovoltaic for new ways to improve the efficiencies from the feed water and the resulting (PV)-EDR system will depend on in all of these areas. concentrate concentrate stream is whether they’re able to manufacture recirculated until it is too salty to They started by identifying a system their own stacks, but they are targeting continue and is pumped into a nearby that would work best for the salinity of a one-time investment of around evaporation pond. Wright’s system brackish groundwater in these areas. 755,000 rupees, which is equivalent to utilizes UV light to kill biological They chose electrodialysis reversal the cost of current community on-grid contaminants in the water as well. (EDR), because at the area’s typical level reverse osmosis systems. of 500ppm to 2,000ppm, it requires Because water is not being forced In Bahdupet, India, outside of 25% to 70% less energy than RO and through a membrane, the required Hyderabad, the local government pays can recover more than 90% of the feed pressure and relative pumping power approximately 7,600 rupees per month water. Theoretically, it’s also a method is much lower than in RO systems, and to power its village RO system, pay that could be used to treat seawater with Winter and Wright can save energy as the plant operator, and replace filters salinity levels above 30,000ppm, but a result. This energy gain also opens and cartridges, incurring no loss but the cost and energy consumption with the door to affordable solar-powered making no profit. Switching to Wright’s current designs are too high (Wright is desalination systems, because now they system could save them approximately working on that). don’t need as many solar panels. 3,600 rupees per month, which they EDR, which has been commercially So they replaced grid electricity with could then reinvest back into their available since the 1960s, works by solar power and can bypass the people. pumping feed water through a stack unreliability of the Indian electrical Continued on next page 10 MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering

Clockwise: A woman washes her dishes in front of her home in a rural village outside of Jalgaon, India. A farmer listens to Natasha Wright describe her desalination system. Wright poses with Shehazri. An employee at Jain Irrigation Systems in Jalgaon, India, cleans a solar panel that powers Wright’s on- site prototype. A man in Chellur, India, gathers RO-treated water from the village’s community desalination system. Photos by John Freidah.

Solving the Solar Power Problem Meanwhile, Wright is looking into ways EDR stack while maintaining a steady Wright and Winter have designed, built, to make the system more efficient – distribution of power throughout 24 and tested their prototype system, and for example, she’s exploring alternate hours. their next step is to implement it in a architectures for the EDR stack. At the “If we can solve that problem,” says village outside of Hyderabad, India, same time, she is working with GEAR Wright, “we can potentially provide where the people are currently using Lab graduate students David Bian and about 250 million people in India who a village-scale RO system that was Sterling Watson to cost-optimize the currently drink salty groundwater a safe originally sold to them on loan from combined solar power and EDR system. and affordable source of water.” a local company called Tata Projects. Currently, the solar panels are equipped Wright and Winter have partnered up with batteries to store extra solar power The MIT Tata Center catalyzed GEAR with Tata Projects to help the company and distribute it evenly throughout Lab’s desal work and, along with Jain improve their village-scale water the day to account for varying levels Irrigation, enabled them to enter and win desalinations systems and potentially of sunlight, but they are investigating last year’s USAid Desal Prize. GEAR Lab transition from their current RO systems alternative designs that may allow the has also received funding from USAID to the PV-EDR systems Wright is solar panels to connect directly to the and UNICEF for this work. designing. > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Spring/Summer 2016

2.500: Desalination A Delicate Balance of Efficiency and Cost

By Alissa Mallinson

Desalination – the process of re- “When you get to the point where desalination systems. For example, a moving salt and other contaminants you’re using all of your available well designed thermodynamic power from water for human consumption renewable water supply, you have cycle might run at a 60% exergetic ef- – provides almost 90 billion liters of water scarcity. And at that point, water ficiency, while a well designed desali- water per day worldwide. And though recycling and water conservation nation system typical reaches 20-30% large-scale desalination technology become very important. Desalination exergetic efficiency at best, and often has been in development since the can help to provide resilience in the much less. But many of the poten- 1800s, questions regarding energy water supply and help to meet some tial solutions for improving energy and cost efficiencies still abound. Yet of the base demand.” efficiency, such as enlarging a surface only a handful of courses are being area for heat exchange, also increase taught around the world – and very It’s for this reason that, in 2008, Pro- the total cost of the system. Suddenly few in the US – to prepare engineers fessor Lienhard created class 2.500: you’ve got an energy-efficient device to address these shortcomings. Desalination. With the help of Miriam that’s not at all cost effective. The Balaban, who founded the journal De- issues of cost are particularly chal- With roughly 7.6 billion people in the salination and edited it for more than lenging in impoverished areas such as world today, the global population has 40 years, and who has long served as parts of India, where the need is dire increased by almost 200% since 1927, the general secretary of the European but the ability to pay is low. and another 2 billion increase is pro- Desalination Association, Professor jected by 2050. But simultaneously, Lienhard built the class’s framework In the US, recent events, such as rainfall over land remains about the and teaching materials from scratch. drought in California, infrastructural same year over year. In fact, rainfall failures in Flint, Michigan, and arse- could become more extreme with cli- 2.500, which is offered to graduate nic in New England well water, have mate change, with more intense peri- students studying mechanical engi- revealed that concerns about water ods of rain at some times and intense neering, chemical engineering, civil aren’t just for developing countries. In droughts at others. We have increased engineering, and materials science, fact, in Carlsbad, California, the larg- demands on water but a stagnant and covers everything from the basic est reverse-osmosis desalination plant increasingly unstable supply. chemistry of seawater and ground- in the Western hemisphere recently water, to what makes water unsafe came online, providing water to San “Over a period of a little more than to drink, from the thermodynamics Diego County. 120 years,” explains John H. Lienhard of electrolytes to the Gibbs energy V, the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor changes in separating freshwater “The students who take this class,” of Water and director of the Abdul from saltwater. Professor Lienhard says Professor Lienhard, “are very mo- Latif Jameel World Water and Food is particularly focused on teaching tivated by a desire to help address the Security Lab (J-WAFS), “the world students how to understand the sep- world’s biggest challenges. They want population will have gone up by a aration process in a given technology to make a difference, and they come factor of five, which means 8 billion and what makes each of them more into the class eager to learn the tools additional people being supplied from or less energy efficient. that will allow them to go out and be the same renewable source of fresh useful in the world.” water: precipitation. That, he says, is where there is a major opportunity for improvement in Not a moment too soon. 12 MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering

Alumni Spotlight: Prakash Govindan PhD ’12 Water Treatment with a Twist by Alissa Mallinson

From left to right: Simon Choong SM ‘11 PhD ‘15, Prakash Govindan PhD ‘12, Conor Wilson, Steven Lam SB ’12, Maximus St. John SB ’12.

Prakash Govindan, co-founder and monsoon’,” Govindan explains. “The Because Chennai is on the coast, he CTO of water technology company problem is that, unlike the direct says, the ingress of seawater infiltrates Gradiant, remembers walking down monsoon, the return monsoon is very the groundwater table, and all the to his town center as a young man finicky. In some years, there is so much borewells in the region turn brackish. in Chennai, India, with his brother, rain that there is massive flooding, The people can no longer drink it Srinivas. The hot sun on their backs, and in other years it doesn’t rain at all. because of its high salt content. they were on their way to pick up And when the rain doesn’t come, we It was this personal experience with buckets of water that were being don’t have any water. In middle class the realities of the global water crisis delivered by truck to Chennai and haul neighborhoods, you get semi-treated that inspired Govindan – who received them back to their apartment until the water delivered by truck, but for poorer a master’s degree in mechanical next shipment came. neighborhoods, they might not get any engineering from the Indian Institute at all.” “Chennai has a monsoonal climate, of Technology at Madras and his PhD getting what is called the ‘return > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Spring/Summer 2016 in mechanical engineering at MIT – to They named it Carrier Gas Extraction cheaply reuse the water that has been do his part to find a solution. (CGE) because it takes a carrier gas, partially purified instead of wasting it. such as air, and humidifies it to produce “Having grown up in Chennai, where “If a company can reuse the water after a cloud-like vapor-gas mixture. Then the we had this massive water problem,” he a low-cost partial purification, then not “cloud” is condensed to produce rain. says, “I knew for a fact that there was only are they saving water and making a The unit operations that perform the a big opportunity in the water space, positive environmental impact but they humidification (cloud generation) and and I wanted to work in an area where I are also saving themselves the disposal the dehumidification (rain generation) could make a societal impact. I realized costs,” says Govindan. are both direct contact mass exchangers very quickly that, with 1.5 billion people made using inexpensive, non-metallic “And water that would otherwise be around the world lacking fresh water, surfaces. The energy recovery from sourced from fresh water sources, this was a way I could do that. And the dehumidification process to the which could be used for drinking or many people weren’t looking at smaller- humidification process is very efficient agriculture, is being saved for those scale desalination as a solution yet.” in the CGE system. This is facilitated by uses. Our technology allows the oil When he joined Professor John a thermodynamic concept that was one company to reuse the water they already Lienhard’s lab as a PhD candidate in of the main foci of the R&D performed own. We are closing that loop and 2008, Govindan wasn’t necessarily at MIT and Gradiant. eliminating the disposal and sourcing looking at small-scale desalination issues.” CGE is considerably less expensive yet either. But when he received a and less complex than comparative Gradiant, which employs more than fellowship from the Legatum Center technologies, especially for water with 30 researchers and operators – most at MIT to develop a technology- salinities around 70,000 ppm or of which are MIT graduates, says based business in India, he proposed higher, about two times that of seawater Govindan – also designed, built, and the creation of small-scale mobile – which is just right for water produced runs three water treatment plants, desalination systems for brackish as a result of oil production and other two in Texas and one in New Mexico, borewells in rural and suburban industrial processes like mining, textile providing a full-service option for oil areas. Professor Lienhard had himself dyeing, and leather tanning. production companies who want to just begun a major research project treat their byproduct water. investigating water purification. In fact, the salinity is often so high for these wastewaters that it is extremely “There are many business models you “We started developing technology costly and in some cases hazardous can follow,” says Govindan, “but when based on the desalination concept to dispose of it. Gradiant’s system you have a new technology within a of humidification/dehumidification can continue to remove fresh water service model, there is a lot of learning (HDH), which mimics nature’s rain from this increasingly high-salinity that needs to happen between the lab, cycle. As this technology progressed, I water until there is almost nothing left the point when you pilot in the field, met Anurag Bajpayee, my partner and (known as “zero liquid discharge”). and the point when you commercially co-founder at Gradiant. He had this operate. There’s a lot that still needs to beautiful application for my technology At the same time, Gradiant has be optimized and perfected.” in the oil field that could make a developed a second, complementary massive environmental and societal technology called Selective Chemical impact, and the HDH technology was Extraction (SCE) that allows for targeted at a price point that fit very well with ion removal. Instead of producing this application.” 100% purified water, which is often not necessary for the oil industry, this Prakash turned this new application technology targets specific types of ions into his PhD focus, and, together for removal. SCE allows for a treatment with Bajpayee, a PhD student under process that is considerably less costly – Professor Gang Chen, it became and one in which the oil company can Gradiant’s flagship technology. 14 MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering

Faculty Research: Professor Rohit Karnik Need a Water Filter? Peel a Tree Branch by Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office(edited for MechE Connects)

If you’ve run out of drinking water today, although each has its own during a lakeside camping trip, there’s benefits and drawbacks. For people at a simple solution: Break off a branch the bottom of the economic pyramid, from the nearest pine tree, peel away high upfront cost is a major deterrent to the bark, and slowly pour lake water using water purifiers. through the stick. The improvised filter Sapwood may offer a low-cost, should trap any bacteria, producing small-scale alternative. The wood is fresh, uncontaminated water. comprised of xylem, porous tissue that In a paper published in the journal conducts sap from a tree’s roots to its PLoS ONE, co-author Associate crown through a system of vessels and Professor Rohit Karnik and a team of pores. Each vessel wall is pockmarked researchers demonstrate that a small with tiny pores called pit membranes, piece of sapwood can filter out more through which sap can essentially than 99 percent of the bacteria E. coli hopscotch, flowing from one vessel from water to produce up to four liters to another as it feeds structures along The team flowed inactivated, E. coli- of drinking water a day – enough to a tree’s length. The pores also limit contaminated water through the wood quench the thirst of a typical person. cavitation, a process by which air filter. When they examined the xylem They say the size of the pores in bubbles can grow and spread in xylem, under a fluorescent microscope, they sapwood – which contains xylem tissue eventually killing a tree. The xylem’s saw that bacteria had accumulated evolved to transport sap up the length tiny pores can trap bubbles, preventing around pit membranes in the first few of a tree – allows water through while them from spreading in the wood. millimeters of the wood. Counting the blocking most types of bacteria. “Plants have had to figure out how to bacterial cells in the filtered water, the Karnik says sapwood is a promising, filter out bubbles but allow easy flow researchers found that the sapwood was low-cost, and efficient material for of sap,” Karnik observes. “It’s the able to filter out more than 99 percent water filtration, particularly for rural same problem with water filtration of E. coli from water. communities where more advanced where we want to filter out microbes Karnik says sapwood likely can filter filtration systems are not readily but maintain a high flow rate. So it’s a most types of bacteria, the smallest of accessible. nice coincidence that the problems are which measure about 200 nanometers. similar.” “Today’s filtration membranes have However, the filter probably cannot trap nanoscale pores that are not something The Size is Right most viruses, which are much smaller you can manufacture in a garage in size, or salt. To study sapwood’s water-filtering very easily,” Karnik says. “The idea potential, the researchers collected Making Filtration Devices here is that we don’t need to fabricate branches of white pine and stripped a membrane, because it’s easily Building upon these results, Krithika off the outer bark. They cut small available.” Ramchander, an MIT Tata Center fellow sections of sapwood measuring about and student in Mechanical Engineering, Tapping the Flow of Sap an inch long and half an inch wide, and is working with Karnik to figure out mounted each in plastic tubing, sealed There are a number of water- how to make filtration devices from with epoxy and secured with clamps. purification technologies on the market xylem. “The properties of xylem as a

Continued on page 16 > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Spring/Summer 2016 Student Spotlight: PhD Candidate Jaichander Swaminathan SM ‘14 Recover and Reuse

By Alissa Mallinson

Despite having two which have already forced some mills energy-efficient way, and has found a degrees in mechanical to close their doors. great match in this application. engineering, a passion for “The problem with textile byproduct thermodynamics, and a love Zero-liquid discharge is the idea that, instead of being discharged back into water,” says Swaminathan, “is that it for math, PhD candidate a body of water, such as the Ganges can have heavy metals that are toxic Jaichander Swaminathan River, potentially contaminated in lower concentrations. An average spends most of his time water can be cleaned up and reused. dyeing unit can produce up to 0.5 these days fixing leaks. Textile mills in India use water and million liters of water that need to be salts in their dyeing process, and the treated each day.” An MIT Tata Center fellow and byproduct is both contaminated and Deshpande Center grantee, salty. It Starts with Math Swaminathan is developing a Having earned his undergraduate modular desalination system for Swaminathan, who grew up mechanical engineering degree small textile dyeing mills in India that in Chennai, India, has been from Indian Institute of Technology are struggling to comply with India’s investigating ways to desalinate in Madras and his master’s degree zero-liquid discharge regulations, extremely high-salinity water in an Continued on next page 16 MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering

in mechanical engineering at MIT, researching, and the other is energy same configuration multiple times. Swaminathan has always loved math. efficiency. Because it’s smaller and One configuration of his system made of plastic instead of steel, it’s can produce two to four liters of “It feels good to solve math affordable to purchase and operate, desalinated water per square meter problems,” says the former Indian but unfortunately, in its current per hour. National Mathematical Olympiad iteration, it’s also less energy efficient. finalist. “I try to solve them with Now that Swaminathan has shown simple, straightforward logic, but But even during his master’s degree the viability of his idea, he’s started you can still get a lot of answers research on membrane fouling, working on new designs, such as around that. You try all these potential Swaminathan had his eye on solving spiral membranes, that will help to solutions and then you see patterns. the energy efficiency problem. reduce heat loss even further. That’s the thing that interests me most.” “My idea is to replace the air gap, “As I do more experiments,” he says, which is usually present between “I learn useful things I wouldn’t have As a PhD student under Professor the membrane and the condensing otherwise learned, such as how to Lienhard, Swaminathan is interested surface to prevent heat loss, with prevent leaks. For example, right now in applying his math skills to the a more conductive gap to increase I am testing a new spiral membrane problems of energy efficiency with efficiency. design, and I’ve spent a lot of time membrane distillation, which utilizes just trying to make it leak proof.” heat to distill salty water. “The conventional wisdom is that if you make this gap more conductive, In the end, when the leaks are fixed For his PhD thesis, he is developing you end up losing more heat from and the energy efficiency is fully a cheaper, miniature version of a very the hot site to the cold site, but we’ve optimized, Swaminathan’s work will large desalination system that uses been able to show that it’s actually an save water, money, and energy, and a vacuum to move water through advantage. In fact, it can lead to two could enable dyeing mills in India to multiple boiling chambers, a system times higher energy efficiency than stay in business. known as multi-effect distillation. the conventional configuration.” (Karnik, continued from page 14) Swaminathan’s mini version will Swaminathan produced a numerical filter are not well known,” says Karnik. provide smaller enterprises, such model to show that his idea could “We have conducted several studies as a dyeing mill, with an affordable, work, then conducted several to advance our understanding of this on-site method of desalination and experiments to prove its viability. material, with the goal of being able to zero-liquid discharge. It also reduces design filtration devices.” the overall power consumption “After coming to MIT, I’ve done a lot that normally goes hand in hand more experimental work,” he says. Ramchander has already developed with the full-scale version, opening “It’s been very useful to me and a simple process to dry xylem filters up the possibility of utilizing solar has helped me become more well without blocking them – a critical or geothermal power instead of rounded. As a researcher, I can now problem identified early on in the study electricity. do both theory and experiments.” – and has demonstrated gravity-driven filtration.

There are only two problems with The system he’s developing can This research was supported by the MIT the mini version. One is membrane take advantage of the small-scale Tata Center and the James H. Ferry fouling, which Swaminathan spent benefits, but it can also be scaled up Jr. Fund for Innovation in Research most of his time as a master’s student quite easily, simply by repeating the Education. > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Spring/Summer 2016 Faculty Awards

Professor Emeritus Associate Professor Associate Professor Ali S. Argon is the Pedro Reis has been Evelyn Wang has been winner of the 2015 selected to receive the elected as an ASME MSEA Journal Prize. Thomas J.R. Hughes Fellow. She was also Young Investigator recently appointed the Associate Professors Award from the American Mechanics Gail E. Kendall Professor. Tonio Buonassisi and Cullen Buie Division of ASME. were two of only 106 researchers who Associate Professors Evelyn were recently recognized with the Professor Emanuel Wang and Tonio Buonassisi were prestigious Presidential Early Career Sachs was elected to appointed Singapore Research Award for Scientists and Engineers the National Academy Professors for 2016 for their (PECASE). of Engineering. commitment to the mission and objectives of the SMART Program. Assistant Professor Themis Sapsis Assistant Professor received the 2016 Amos Winter’s article Young Investigator on how to engineer Award from the Air reverse innovation for Force Office of Scientific Research, as emerging markets has Professor Ahmed well as the 2015 Young Investigator been selected for this year’s Harvard Ghoniem was selected Award from the Army Research Business Review McKinsey Award for to receive the American Office. best article. Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Professor Jean- Associate Professor Propellants and Combustion Award Jacques Slotine will Maria Yang received for his contributions to aeronautical receive the 2016 Rufus this year’s Bose Award and astronautical combustion Oldenburger Medal. for excellence in engineering. teaching. Professor Yang Shao-

Professor Emeritus Horn was recently Associate Professor John Heywood has appointed the W.M. Xuanhe Zhao received been elected as an Keck Professor of the 2015 Extreme ASME Fellow. Energy. Mechanics Letters Young Investigator Professor Kim Assistant Professor Award. Ken Kamrin is the Vandiver was selected recipient of this year’s for a 2016 CES Faculty Promotions Innovation Award Journal of Applied and Chairs Mechanics Award. honoring outstanding design and engineering in consumer Kostya Turitsyn and Kenneth Kamrin were Professor Seth technology products. promoted to Associate Professor. Associate Professor Sangbae Kim received tenure. Lloyd was recently Thomas Peacock was promoted to Full appointed the Nam Associate Professor Professor. Alberto Rodriguez received P. Suh Professor Kripa Varanasi was the Walter Henry Gale professorship, Betar Gallant received the Edgerton of Mechanical selected as one of professorship, Jeewhan Kim received the Engineering. Boston Business Class ‘47 professorship, and Ming Gao and Irmgard Bischoffberger each received a Journal’s 40 under 40 d’Arbeloff Career Development Chair. for 2015. 18 MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering

Student Awards

Undergraduate Louis N. Tuomala Award 2016 Tau Beta (Outstanding Performance in Alfred A. H. Keil Ocean Engineering Thermal Fluids Engineering) Pi Inductees Development Award (For Excellence Martin M. Rencken, Colin M. Poler in Broad-Based Research in Ocean Cyndia Cao Engineering) Luis de Florez Award (Outstanding John Drago Brian K. Gilligan, Jorlyn M. Le Garrec Ingenuity and Creativity) Jason Zachary Fischman Benjamin G. Katz, Moses T. Ort AMP Inc. Award (Outstanding Elizabeth Mae Glista Performance in Course 2.002) Brittany Bautista Mechanical Engineering SuperUROP Valerie Peng, Daniel E. Rigobon Award (Outstanding Performance in Anuj Khandelwal SuperUROP Program) Carl G. Sontheimer Prize (Creativity Melody Grace Liu Bailey R. Montaño and Innovation in Design) Colleen McCoy Tyler D. Wortman Henry Merrow MIT-Lincoln Lab Beaver Works Barbara P. James Memorial Award Jialin Shi John C. and Elizabeth J. Chato Award (Excellence in Project-Based Camille Henrot Krithika Swaminathan Engineering) Daniel Vignon Nicholas W. Fine, Camille Henrot, Department Service Award Lara Markey Lauren S. Herring, Laura Jarin- Sina Booeshaghi, Nicholas W. Kwok, Lipschitz Aishwarya Narayan

Park Award (Outstanding Ernest Cravalho Award (Outstanding Performance in Manufacturing) Performance in Thermal Fluids 2016 Phi Beta Gordon Moseley P. Andrews, Cody L. Engineering) Kappa Inductees Jacobucci John H. Bell, Patrick F. Everett, Elliot D. Owen Camille Henrot Peter Griffith Prize (Outstanding Braden Knight Experimental Project) International Design Competition Connie Liu Brian P. Wilcox (Outstanding Performance in Course Andre Wallentin 2.007) Robert Bruce Wallace Academic Prize Austin R. Brown Kathleen Xu Trevor R. Day

Lauren Tsai Memorial Award Whitelaw Prize (Originality in 2.007 (Academic Excellence by a Graduating Design and Contest) Senior) Beatriz A. Gonzalez, Samuel A. Morgan K. Moroi Resnick, James V. Roggeveen, Kerrie Wu > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Spring/Summer 2016

Student Snapshots

Wunsch Foundation Silent Hoist and Crane Awards 2016 Pi Tau Kathleen L. Xu Sigma Inductees

Natalie Alper Graduate Joseph Babcock Carl G. Sontheimer Prize (Creativity Brittany Bautista and Innovation in Design) Michael Stern Noam Buckman Julia Canning Luis de Florez Award (Outstanding Matthew Cavuto Ingenuity and Creativity) Justine Cheng Kathryn M. Olesnavage, Tyler D. Wortman Matthew Chun Beckett Colson Meredith Kamm Memorial Award Tate DeWeese (Excellence in a Woman Graduate Isabella DiDio Student) Michelle B. Chen John Drago Jason Fischman Thomas Sheridan Prize (Creativity in Brian Gilligan Man-Machine Integration) Noor Hartono Kathryn M. Olesnavage Sophia Jaffe Wunsch Foundation Silent Hoist and Rebecca Kurfess Crane Awards Lucia Liu Riley E. Brandt, Rupak Chakraborty, Lucille Hosford, Julieth Ochoa, Bolin Melody Liu Liao, Katherine M. Ong, David G. Joseph Lowman Kwabi, Florian J. Feppon, Karim S. Henry Merrow Khalil, Leah R. Mendelson Marie Elimbi Moudio Maximilian Tang Lampros Tsontzos From top to bottom: A student explains her DeFlorez Design Competition entry to Professor Dan Frey; the top winners of the 2.007 Robot Competition pose with Professors Sangbae Kim and Amos Winter; Professor Ioannis Yannas shares a laugh with Department Head Gang Chen at an event honoring his invention of organ regeneration; and graduating senior Kathleen Xu accepts an award for outstanding undergraduate research from Senior Lecturer Dawn Wendell SB ‘04, SM ‘06, PhD ‘11. 20 MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering

Department News

PhD Student Daniel Dorsch this year’s de Florez Competition In the Undergraduate Design Wins Lemelson-MIT Student pitted 25 applicants against each other category, Benjamin Katz won first Prize for Invention to compete for a total of $20,000 in place for Cheap Actuators for The Lemelson-MIT Student Prize prize money. Entrants do their best to Dynamic Robots; Matthew Cavuto is a nationwide search for the most pitch the gizmos and products they’ve won second place for Low-Cost inventive undergraduate and graduate designed to a team of judges, who Transfemoral Rotator for Use in students. This year, PhD student look at each entry’s level of creativity, the Developing World; and Samuel Daniel Dorsch was a winner of the innovation, practical application, Resnick and Jacob Rothman tied prestigious award in the “Drive it!” scientific basis, and design skill. The for third place for Curved Scissor category for his invention of the purpose of the competition is to give first high-performance, lightweight students a chance to strut their skills clutchless hybrid transmission. and gain school-wide recognition for Dan designed a way to achieve their ideas and prototypes. both efficiency and performance by This year’s winners in the category using an electric motor to fill the of Graduate Design were: Tyler acceleration lag between gears for Wortman, for Tissue Characterization seamless shifting. The electric motor for Skin Cancer Detection and can also be used for efficient city Mapping; tied for second place were driving. Dan received $15,000 for his Alexandre Girard, for Lightweight invention. In the “Eat it!” category, Truss and ProForm Power Rack, Robotic Arms Using Dual-Speed a team of three MechE undergrads respectively. In the Undergraduate Actuators, and Sahil Shah for and one grad student – Kale Rogers, Science category, Teddy Ort won first Clutchless Dual-Shift Hybrid Michael Farid, Braden Knight, and place for A Robotic Helping Hand Transmission Architecture for Luke Schlueter – won for their that Utilizes Visual Feedback to Performance Applications; and tied invention of the first fully automated Optimize Human Robot Interaction for third place were Mark Jeunnette restaurant. in Soldering Applications. for High-Speed Multispectral Camera Array and Peter Chamberlain for the Automated Walker. In the category of In Memoriam: Dr. A. Douglas Carmichael and Dr. Koichi Graduate Science, Katie Olesnavage Masubuchi won first place for her Development of a Novel Optimization Objective for Professor Emeritus A. Douglas Passive Prosthetic Feet. Jerry Wang Carmichael passed away peacefully tied for second place with Nanofluidic following a brief illness on November Adventures in Extreme Confinement 9, 2015, at the age of 86. He was a along with Rachel Kurchin for Next- highly regarded thermodynamicist De Florez Competition Winners Generation Photovoltaics through with a specialty in steam and Split $20K in Prize Money Advanced Probabilistic Modeling. gas turbines for ship power and With an impressive array of Pulkit Shamshery won third place for propulsion. A Professor of Power some of the best gadget and A Low-Activation Pressure Online Engineering in the Department of product developments mechanical Pressure Compensating Drop Emitter. Ocean Engineering at MIT from 1970 engineering students have to offer, to 1996, he was a lead developer of > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Spring/Summer 2016

the first autonomous underwater year, the team of 30 MIT graduate may sound like an episode of Game of vehicle. He was also well known students, 14 of which are in MechE, Thrones, it’s something much better. at MIT for his mentorship and spent much of their free time over the It’s Battlebots! A reboot of the original dedication to undergraduate students. past two months building their pod. TV show from the early 2000s The team, which is also comprised premieres on ABC this summer of students from the Department starting at the end of June. The new of Aeronautics and Astronautics, show features more than 10 MechE Electrical Engineering and Computer students and alumni who have joined Science, and Sloan School of forces to fight gladiator-style with a Management, is organized into five twist against heavy-duty bots they’ve sub teams, focused on aerodynamics built from scratch. “Overhaul” was and structures, levitation, vehicle built by Charles Guan SB ’11 and dynamics, electronics and software, Dr. Koichi Masubuchi, Professor and business and marketing. Emeritus of Ocean Engineering, Employing magnets for braking, passed away on April 1, 2016, at levitation, and lateral control, the the age of 92 years old, in Concord, team’s main goal, in addition to Mass. Professor Masubuchi was a proving their design’s viability, is to leading expert in welding science and demonstrate the scalability of the fabrication technology whose work technology. Along with their advisor, helped to progress the understanding Professor Doug Hart, the team of of welding and the important role students will travel to Los Angeles at Paige Reiter SB ’16. “Sawblaze” was it plays in marine and aerospace the end of the summer to showcase built by Jamison Go SM ’13, Lucy Du structures. He spent his first 10 years their pod on the Hyperloop track at SB ’14, SM ‘16, Chris Merian SM at MIT focused on solving welding SpaceX for the ultimate phase of the ’16, John Mayo SM ’16, and PhD problems NASA was having with competition. candidate Joao Ramos. “Dentist” was its Apollo project. His main areas of built by Rebecca Li SB ’17 and Austin expertise were in heat flow, residual Brown SB ’18. “RoadRash” was built stresses, and distortion in weldments; by Frederick Moore SB ’14, Julian the fracture of welded structures; and Merrick SB ’13, and Cheetiri Smith welding technologies for underwater ‘SB 14. Catch the unveiling of their and space applications. “be-ot-iful” creations on ABC June 23, at 8pm EST.

MIT Hyperloop Team Unveils its Prototype

The MIT Hyperloop team unveiled Calling all Battlebots! its pod on Friday, May 13, to a large What is it called when multiple crowd at the MIT Museum in 250-pounders battle each other in an Cambridge. After winning the first arena with hammers, flamethrowers, round of Elon Musk’s Hyperloop and spinning blades for the general design competition in March of this public’s entertainment? Although it 22 MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering

Talking Shop: Professor John H. Lienhard V A Resource in Crisis

What are some of the most important years ago are overtaxed problems to solve when it comes to all around the world. providing clean water globally? And our environment is suffering as we Depending on where you are, the suck up rivers, lakes, challenges around water are different. and other supplies for In some places where you have a human use. good infrastructure but still have water shortages, you may want to look These are big problems. at the way water is being used and How does MIT’s School focus on conservation as the first step. of Engineering, and California has made progress this way MechE in particular, fit in dealing with the current drought. in to solving them? In other places, the challenge is a Great question! lack of infrastructure. For example, Technology has a big in many parts of Africa, there is no How does your research fit in? role to play in solving these problems. pipe distribution system or water We can do a lot more to recycle and My own group’s work is focused treatment plant and there’s not much reuse water, by advanced membrane on how we can reduce the energy of an economy to build on. People processes, by advanced biological consumption of desalination systems, use relatively little water because they processes, and by other separation and how we can make those systems lack easy access, and the approach and purification processes. We can robust. We’ve been interested in is often to purify water at the point find environmentally benign means both drinking water production of use or to provide some very basic to convert salt water to fresh water, by and wastewater treatment. We’ve infrastructure to aid water collection driving desalination with solar power developed a number of technologies, and distribution. Costs for water have and by safely designing the exchange and in the last few years my to be kept extremely low. In other of water with the coastal oceans. former students have gone on to cases, you may have dysfunctional We can use information technology form two companies based on the governance and no effective – data and sensors – to better developments. We’ve also done a regulation of pollutants that spoil manage water consumption and to lot of research on the theoretical fresh water resource: India and China prevent pollutants from reaching underpinnings of energy efficiency in both have problems of this sort. So, our fresh water resources. And we desalination. the challenges – and the solutions – can make agricultural use of water are different in each situation. Is energy efficiency the key to getting far more efficient, for example with these technologies used? The one problem that is universal inexpensive soil moisture sensors and is that rising population and higher low-pressure drip irrigation. Amazing No, not entirely. What determines standards of living are straining things are being done at MIT in all of the selection of a water treatment water supplies around the world. these areas, and the Department of system is how much water costs in Fresh water resources that seemed Mechanical Engineering in particular the end. Energy is part of the cost, adequate, or even abundant, 100 is working on almost every one of these issues. but even for seawater desalination In your role as director of MIT’s water up with people outside who can help it’s only about one third. Capital and and food initiative, J-WAFS, what do us innovate in ways that are effective operating costs also matter a lot. And you see as the Institute’s contribution in and transferrable to other localities these trade off against one another to world water security? – whether overseas or here at home. in the engineering process. Usually Water is everybody’s problem. A key question is whether with if you have more area, bigger heat today’s knowledge and technology, exchangers, more membrane area, we can take another look at our larger humidifiers or dehumidifiers, means of obtaining water and come you can raise the energy efficiency up with approaches that are not so – but your capital costs go up negative environmentally. If we did proportionally. There’s a point beyond more with recycling wastewater, which the increase in capital cost adds Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Water for instance, that would reduce the so much to the price of water that John H. Lienhard V is the director of the amount of fresh water that needs the savings in energy just don’t make Rohsenow Heat Transfer Lab and the to be transferred by aqueduct, or sense. That tradeoff is really intrinsic director of the Center for Clean Water and pumped out of an aquifer or river. to the decision-making that happens Clean Energy. In 2014, he also became the If we could find alternative ways to in systems engineering. founding director of the Abdul Latif Jameel make plants grow, other than using World Water and Food Security Laboratory. You have a similar kind of tradeoff if current chemical fertilizers, we you are looking at using renewable could end the damage done to our Professor Lienhard earned a BS in thermal energy. Solar energy is not free waterways by the run-off of those engineering and an MS in heat transfer energy: The sun comes up and chemicals. If we can find inexpensive from the University of California at Los irradiates your collector for free, but and scalable technologies for rural Angeles (UCLA), as well as a PhD in fluid you pay for the collector. The more water purification, we improve the dynamics from the University of California energy your system consumes, the health of millions of people in the at San Diego. His research is focused on more collector area you need. If you developing world. If we can make desalination and heat and mass transfer. He have high energy efficiency in the desalination cheap and environmental has received a number of awards over the desalination plant, then you reduce neutral, we can provide coastal cities course of his career, including a Presidential the cost for solar collectors. But at with the water they need and give Young Investigator Award from the National some point, by getting the energy them resilience against droughts, Science Foundation, an R&D 100 Award, consumption down, you are making especially in the face of an increasing the Den Hartog Distinguished Educator the desalination plant larger and variable climate. And we can look at Award from MIT, the 2012 ASME Technical larger, so you are paying less for a how to make agriculture as a whole Communities Globalization Medal, and the solar collector, but you are paying more water efficient. 2015 ASME Heat Transfer Award. more for desalination equipment. And all of these ideas are important in He is a fellow of ASME, and a member Again, there’s a tradeoff between the US, but they all have a worldwide of the American Association for the the two, and a lot of our focus is on reach. What we’d like to do through Advancement of Science and the finding the optimum. J-WAFS is to take the things we’re International Desalination Association, uniquely good at here at MIT and pair among others. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Non-Profit Org. Department of Mechanical Engineering U.S. Postage 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 3-173 PAID Cambridge, MA 02139 Brockton, MA Permit No. 301

Coming in the > Nanotechnology in MechE next issue:

Spyce, a team of three MechE undergrads and one grad student – Kale Rogers, Michael Farid, Braden Knight, and Luke Schlueter – won the $5,000 Audience Choice Award at this year’s MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition for their invention of the first fully automated kitchen, which utilizes a tumbler-type machine stocked with raw ingredients to autonomously cook and serve meals in bowls to customers.