Faculty Editorial: 30 Years of CEEE

by Dr. Reinhard Radermacher

This year CEEE will celebrate 30 years of service to the thermal management and HVAC research communities. Having graduated 237 PhD and MS students and raised over $74 million, the center is one of the leading research organizations on this topic worldwide. CEEE is a well-recognized and respected brand.

A big reason for this success is the unwavering support from an industry consortium of over 30 organizations from around the globe, providing crucial funding for full time research staff, cost share for government projects, seed funds for new initiatives and a consistent source of funds for the development of the leading heat pump design software suite for the HVAC industry.

In addition to traditional research in heat pumping technology, such as vapor compression, absorption and adsorption technologies, the Center has successfully demonstrated the ability to develop novel research areas with support from faculty from across the A. James Clark School. Some of these partnerships include electrochemical compression with Dr. Chunsheng Wang, Chemical Engineering, microemulsion technology for absorption systems, Dr. Bao Yang, Mechanical Engineering and thermoelastic cooling technology with Dr. Ichiro Takeuchi, Materials Engineering. Finally, the personal cooling technology RoCo invented in CEEE lead to a start-up company and was supported by human comfort studies lead by Dr. Jelena Srebric, of CITY@UMD. CEEE corralled a breadth of expertise that is not matched in one location worldwide.

New research areas include a software framework for inventing new heat exchangers, and to develop shape conforming heat exchangers, an area of research that eventually will warrant a center of its own. This combined cross-disciplinary effort culminated in the creation of the Carrier Center of Excellence, leading to additional research funds and involvement of faculty from Fire Protection Engineering, Drs. Stoliarov and Sunderland and from Mechanical Engineering, Dr. DeVoe. And with the generous support from Daikin, we established the Daikin Energy Innovation Laboratory. With that and also the establishment CEEE’s first endowed Graduate Student Fellowship, the Center is preparing for a thriving future!

Published December 2, 2021