Suhas Rao Tamvada
suhas@tamvada.me | LinkedIn | Google Scholar | San Jose, CA
Mechanical Design Engineer focused on thermal–fluid systems, electronics cooling, and hardware development across power electronics and data center cooling. Blend of applied research (multiphase heat transfer + CHF physics), product-minded engineering, and hands-on design/validation.
Experience
Tesla — Palo Alto, CA
Mechanical Design Engineer — Jan 2025 – Present
- Own mechanical design and integration for hardware components, balancing thermal, structural, manufacturability, and reliability constraints.
- Drive design from concept → CAD → tolerance/GD&T → release, partnering with cross-functional teams (EE, thermal, manufacturing, test).
- Support validation via test/bring-up, root-cause analysis, and iterative design improvements.
University of Florida, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering — Gainesville, FL
Postdoctoral Associate — May 2024 – Jan 2025
- Led a team of 5 graduate students and a Post-Doctoral researcher to develop direct-to-chip phase change cooling technology for data centers, successfully bringing technology readiness level (TRL) from 3 to 6.
- Collaborated with engineering, manufacturing, and reliability teams to develop scalable packaging processes.
- Performed techno-economic analyses (TEA) to assess commercialization feasibility of heat sinks.
Graduate Research Assistant — Aug 2020 – May 2024
- Demonstrated a proof-of-concept (TRL 3) phase change heat sink for data center environments.
- Achieved a 5× improvement in heat transfer coefficient (HTC) compared to state-of-the-art technologies.
- Conceptualized, investigated, and explained physics of critical heat flux (CHF) during pool boiling.
- Achieved a 6× increase in CHF through flow stabilization and developed force-balance-based correlations.
- Developed heat pipes for thermal management in low gravity environments and confined spaces.
Airity Technologies (Advanced Energy) — Redwood City, CA
Mechanical Engineering Intern — May 2023 – Aug 2023
- Led a team of 3 interns towards product development of a high voltage module, bringing technology to market.
- Created bill of materials (BOM) for high-volume manufacturing and contributed towards patent applications.
- Designed, fabricated, and tested mechanical components for high-voltage power electronic systems.
- Procured thermal interface materials and heat sinks based on electrical, thermal, and mechanical requirements.
University of Illinois at Chicago, Mechanical & Industrial Engineering — Chicago, IL
Graduate Research Assistant — Jan 2018 – Mar 2020
- Investigated oil drop interaction with water-air interfaces in context of oil spills.
- Designed and conducted experiments, and established scaling laws to predict coalescence and spreading of oils.
- Investigated freezing and rebound of drops on sublimating surfaces to aid the design of self-cleaning surfaces.
- Leveraged principles of solid mechanics, heat transfer, and fluid mechanics to conduct experiments and formulate models that predict the freezing and rebound characteristics of drops.
Satyam Venture Engineering Services, BMW Division — Hyderabad, India
Design Intern — Nov 2016 – May 2017
- Created CAD models of guide rods of an automotive head restraint using design and GD&T specifications.
- Performed structural analysis simulating a rear end collision on a BMW sedan.
- Improved passenger safety by 8% by optimizing design to minimize severity of whiplash effect.
Education
Ph.D, Mechanical Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL — May 2024
Thesis: Physics of Critical Heat Flux — Answers to Century Old Questions and New Discoveries
M.S, Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL — Jan 2020
Thesis: Partial Coalescence of Oil and Water: Spreading Behavior and Material Synthesis
B.Tech, Mechanical Engineering, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, India — May 2017
Senior Design: Design and analysis of guide rods of an automotive head restraint
Skills
- Laboratory — Photolithography; Deposition (sputtering, PECVD, E-beam); Etching (wet, DRIE); Electroplating; SEM; High-speed imaging; Confocal microscopy; Tensiometry; Interferometry; Prototyping; CNC; cold welding
- Design & Analysis — SolidWorks; AutoCAD; GD&T; Fusion 360; COMSOL; ANSYS Mechanical, Fluent; Python (SciPy, NumPy, OpenCV, TensorFlow, Matplotlib, scikit-learn); MATLAB; Fortran; C; ImageJ; OriginPro; KLayout
- Mathematics — Numerical methods; Scaling analysis; Linear ODEs; Asymptotic analysis
- Documentation — MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint; Adobe Illustrator, Premiere Pro; LaTeX
Volunteer/Leadership Activities
- Reviewer for IEEE Access and IEEE iTherm.
- Mentored 10+ graduate students towards their MS research work.
- Conducted summer workshops for high-school students interested in STEM degrees.
- Evaluated research as judge at the Chicago Area Undergraduate Research Symposium (CAURS) 2019.
- Led a team of 15 graduate students in organizing semi-annual cultural festivals as president of Indian Graduate Student Association (IGSA) at University of Illinois at Chicago from June 2018 to August 2019.
- Led a team of 5 volunteers in developing teaching modules and conducting co-curricular workshops for middle school students as project coordinator at Becoming I Foundation, India, from January 2016 to July 2017.