Robert Stevens

Background

About Robert Stevens

Robert Stevens is an associate professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Rochester Institute of Technology. He received a BS with distinction in Engineering from Swarthmore College (1992), MS from North Carolina State University in Mechanical Engineering (1998), and PhD from the University of Virginia (2005) where he was an NSF IGERT fellow. From 1992 through 1995, Stevens was involved with a series of research projects in the field of building science and energy efficiency in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Stevens managed the research and solar thermal programs at the NC Solar Center from 1998-2001. At the Solar Center, he conducted research on solar thermal and electric systems, conducted air-infiltration in new construction studies, and developed and taught several solar related courses to practicing engineers, contractors, and teachers. At UVA, Stevens conducted research in the areas of microscale heat transfer, ultrashort-pulsed laser heating, and characterization of microscale thermal properties of thin films and interfaces. His dissertation focused on using the transient thermoreflectance technique to measure thermal boundary resistances at room temperatures. He also developed molecular dynamics simulation experiments to systematically explore interface thermal transport. Understanding thermal boundary resistance is critical for thermal management of superlattice and nanoscale structures, where interface effects can dominate overall thermal resistances. At RIT, Stevens has developed energy-related courses including Contemporary Issues in Energy and the Environment and Renewable Energy Systems as well as updating and teaching a range of courses in experimentation, design, and thermofluids. He oversees the Sustainable Energy Lab where he has advised multiple students in modeling, designing, and measuring a range of alternative energy technologies including thermoelectric power generation, solar crop drying, improved cookstoves and solar pasteurization. He has published over 25 conference and journal papers on his theoretical, experimental, and modeling work.