While enduring a CT winter with historic snow fall, Dr. Pavlidis managed to keep busy with an invited talk at SEMI-THERM 2026 (San Jose, CA) and a virtual MRS workshop on Ultra Wide Bandgap Semiconductors. Over the past few months, the lab has been expanding their expertise in thermal packaging of power electronics with particular focus on thermal interface materials.

Alejandro and Dr. Pavlidis spent the day at the CT Science Center contributing to QuantumCT’s new event for CT middle and high schoolers! The students were able to look at microchips under microscope and electrically probe memristors.

November was a busy month full of exchanging research ideas. The lab had the honor to host their academic grandfather from the University of Maryland! The following week Dr. Pavlidis helped organize the Second Northeast Power Electronics Symposium (NEPES 2025) at UConn! Each lab member was able to present their latest work to the largest leaders in the power electronics industry.

Dr. Pavlidis was promoted to track chair for both the Power/RF Electronics and Photonics track and the Student Interactive Presentations at InterPACK 2025 in Anaheim, CA. Over 40 students participated in the poster competition! He also managed to get a nice view at the Griffith Observatory and learn about Joshua trees, which are not actually trees but giant yuccas.

The Big East made it down to the ACC! The lab had the opportunity to visit the beautiful campus of Duke University which was hosting the 2025 Electronic Materials Conference. Two contributed talks were presented by PhD candidates Dominic Myren and Francis Vasquez.

Both of their hard work was recognized university wide with paper accepted in APL and Nature Communications!

Making Electronic Devices Faster, More Powerful, and Better at Staying Cool

Dr. Pavlidis contributed to an UWBG Semiconductor Workshop at the IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium. He had fruitful conversations with industry and academia on the future of new semiconductors materials and thermal bottlenecks associated with it. The world is large and full of opportunities. Dr. Pavlidis successfully hiked up Half Dome and witness the vastness of the Yosemite valley.

Dr. Pavlidis delivered his first keynote speech at the XII International Congress on Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics and Automation (CIMM 2025) in Monteria, Colombia. Alongside Prof. Norato, he educated Colombian undergraduate students on the US graduate school system and how scientific research is performed in the United States. They were both humbled by interacting with students who travelled across Colombia on their own expense. The strongest force in science is not money, but motivation.

Dr. Pavlidis was invited to give an overview of the lab’s latest work on hyperspectral thermoreflectance imaging and in-situ gate resistance thermometry. The talk was part of the Symposium EL11-Wide and Ultrawide Bandgap Materials, Devices and Applications.

Dr. Pavlidis delivered an online seminar at the MIT Thermal Transport Cafè titled “Thermal Metrology for Emerging Semiconductor Devices”.

As 2024 comes to an end, NITL achieved many milestones this semester. Jamil successfully defended his MS thesis (Congrats!), and Francis presented for the first time on Phase Change Memory devices at Fall MRS in Boston, MA. NITL also welcomed Abigail who successfully completed her first ever research internship as a CAPS apprentice! The lab was able to celebrate these achievements at the end of the year social.