Priam Pillai

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PhD Student in Mechanical Engineering


Contents

Research:

Academic Background

  • Graduate Education:
PhD Candidate: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Qualifying Exam Subjects: System Dynamics and Controls, Heat and Mass Transfer, Fluid Mechanics.
Thesis: System Identification of Conducting Polymer Actuators.
S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Courses: Advanced Fluid Mechanics, Advanced Mathematics for Engineers, Electrochemistry, Product Design, Macro to Nano Transport Processes, Modeling and Estimation in Heat Transfer, Design and Control of Feedback Systems, Signal Processing, Advanced Instrumentation and Measurement and Identification, Estimation and Learning.
  • Undergraduate Education:
B.S. University of California, Berkeley:
Highest Honors in Mechanical Engineering and Highest Honors in Material Science and Engineering.
General Courses: Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics, Mechanical Properties of Materials, Engineering Mechanics, Bonding, Crystallography and Crystal Defects, Phase transformation and Kinetics, Electronics, Mechatronics, Quantum Mechanics, Heat Transfer, Experimental Material Science.
Elective Courses: Composite Materials, Finite Element Analysis, New Product Development and Design, Micro-Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS), Corrosion of Materials, Advanced Mathematics for Engineers
Additional Lab work: Fluid mechanics, acoustics, mechanical vibrations, chemical mechanical planarization, heat transfer, mechatronics, injection molding, corrosion, metallurgy, semiconducting materials, phase transformations, photovoltaic (Solar Cells). All lab work performed as a member of a multidisciplinary team.

Publications

  1. Keng, Y., Pillai, P. V. and Hunter, I. W., "Characterizing the Effect of Temperature Increase on Polypyrrole Active Strength and Stress Rate." in Active Materials, Mechanics and Behavior, ASME Conference on Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures & Intelligent Systems, Oxnard, CA, 2009, SMASIS2009-1258.
  2. Pillai, P. V. and Hunter, I. W., "Stochastic System Identification of the Compliance of Conducting Polymers." in Polymer-Based Smart Materials—Processes, Properties and Application, edited by Z. Cheng, Q. Zhang, S. Bauer, D.A. Wrobleski (Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Volume 1134, Warrendale, PA, 2009),BB07-03. [1]
  3. Pillai, P. V. and Hunter,I.W., "Thermo-Mechanical Characterization of Polypyrrole Compliance using Stochastic System Identification." in Hybrid Organic Synthetic Biomaterials for Sensing and Actuation, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Conference, Minneapolis, MN, 2009 ,pp 6834-6837.
  4. Priam Pillai S.M. Thesis 2007, “Conducting Polymer Actuator Enhancement through Microstructuring.” Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  5. Priam Pillai and Daryl Chrzan. (Oct 11, 2004). Anomalous Hall-Petch Behavior of Ni3Al: A Model Based on the Statistics of Weak Links. Ed. N, Ghoniem. Second International Conference on Multiscale Materials Modeling. (191-193). Los Angeles. CA.

Patents

  1. Provisional patent application: “A 3-axis machine for characterizing running shoe performance: Design and Testing.” Gawlik, A., Gilbertson, M., Pillai, P., Folkers,R., Slocum, A.,, and Wahab, A. Submitted (Feb 16 2009)


Conference Talks

  1. Materials Research Society meeting Fall 2006. “Actuation of Nanostructure Self Assembled Poly(3-hexylthiophne) films.”
  2. Materials Research Society meeting Fall 2008. “Stochastic System Identification of the Compliance of Conducting Polymers”
  3. Invited Talk: IEEE: Engineering in Medicine and Biology Conference Fall 2009."Thermo-Mechanical Characterization of Polypyrrole Compliance using Stochastic System Identification." in Hybrid Organic Synthetic Biomaterials for Sensing and Actuation, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Conference, Minneapolis, MN.
  4. Materials Research Society meeting Fall 2009. "Fabrication and Characterization of High Aspect Ratio Conducting Polymer Fibers

Honors and Awards

  1. National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Winner (2006-2009)
  2. MIT Harrington Fellowship Winner (2005).
  3. Materials Science and Engineering Department Citation Winner (UC Berkeley)(2004)
  4. Intel Corporation Research Scholar (2004).
  5. Intel Student Research Contest Finalist (2004).
  6. Joseph Pask Memorial Award (2004).
  7. MK Fives Academic Scholarship (2002).
  8. Dean and Margaret Lesher Foundation Scholarship (2001).

Organizations and Honor Societies

  • Alpha Gamma Sigma (Permanent Honorary Member)
  • Pi Tau Sigma (Mechanical Engineering Honor Society) (Member)
  • Tau Beta Pi (Engineering Honor Society) (Member, Officer)
  • Golden Key Honor Society (Member)
  • American Society of Mechanical Engineers (Member)
  • The Metals, Minerals and Materials Society (Member)
  • Material Science and Engineering Association (Industrial Relations Officer)
  • Materials Research Society (Member)
  • Graduate Association of Mechanical Engineers (Secretary, Orientation Chair, President)
    • 2007-2008 Secretary
    • 2008-2009 Orientation Chair: Organized and ran orientation events for incoming mechanical engineering graduate students.
    • 2009-2010 President

Skills and Abilities

  • Bilingual (English and Hindi)
  • Expertise in Microsoft Office, LATEX
  • Programming Languages: FORTRAN, C, MATLAB, Visual Basic, Visual Studio.NET
  • Software: FEMLAB (Finite Element Analysis tool), ANSYS, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator
  • Drawing: CAD, Solidworks, Solidedge, Feature CAM
  • Data Acquisition: HPVEE, Pspice, Lab View
  • Special Equipment: Thermal Imaging, High Speed Imaging, Chemical Mechanical Planarization, Injection Molding, Hardness Testers, Cluster Computing, Scanning Electron Microscopy, X-Ray Scattering.
  • Machine Shop Trained (CNC milling, Electric Discharge Machining, Rapid Prototyping)
  • Expertise in LINUX, UNIX.


Work Experience

01/2001-06/2002 Diablo Valley College Pleasant Hill, CA

Instructional Assistant
  • Tutored students in lower division physics, chemistry and mathematics.
  • Counseled students about developing learning skills.
  • Instructed students on use of mathematics software (Derive, Mathematica).

05/2000 – 01/2001 Paynet Transaction Services Concord, CA

Customer Service Representative and Technical Support
  • Programmed and Repaired customer credit card terminals.
  • Troubleshot credit machines and assisted merchants in installation and maintenance.

Consulting

Boston Police Department and District Attorney’s Office, Boston, MA

Expert Witness and Consultant
  • Testified in Boston court on behalf of Boston D.A.’s office in a case involving thermal imaging.
  • Assisted the Boston P.D in refining their techniques in thermal image acquisition of crime scenes.

SkelScan (MIT Ventureships Project), Cambridge, MA

  • Conducted market research for SkelScan in the use of portable Magnetic Resonance Imaging machines in different settings.
  • Conducted phone interviews with doctors, engineers and scientists in athletics, oil and gas, ceramics and polymeric industries.
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