CEEE's Yiyuan Qiao receives Ph.D.

Yiyuan Qiao completed her Ph.D. this summer after spending four years with CEEE researching in the EEHP consortium group. Her thesis is titled, “Personal Cooling System with Phase Change Material.” This thesis overlaps with her research for RoCo, the Roving Comforter, a robotic personal cooling device.

Before attending University of Maryland, Qiao received her master’s degree in power engineering and her bachelor’s degree in energy, power system and automation. She received both degrees from Xi'an Jiaotong University in China.

After graduation Qiao plans to stay in the United States for another three to five years working in research. After that, she wishes to return back home to China as she says she misses her family and friends. In the long run she says she could see herself working both in industry and possibly academia; the only thing she knows for certain is that she wants to continue doing research.

Qiao says that she appreciates her experience at CEEE not only because she gained a lot of professional knowledge and skills, but also, she feels she became more mature and confident to face any challenges in her future life and career.

“I remember when I just started my study here, I was shy, and not confident or professional when I made a presentation to others. Dr. Hwang encouraged me many times and said: Yiyuan, your English is not bad, so you can speak loudly,” she said. “I want to thank Dr. Hwang for his broad knowledge on thermal engineering and for his advice in many ways.”

She went on to add that her experience in CEEE from the consortium meetings, lab tours, group meetings and some other campus events, such as Maryland Day, also helped her improve her communication skills, and encouraged her to think about how to let other people understand her research in a very short time and prepared her for a successful career.

Published August 25, 2020