Nicole Okamoto
Associate Professor and Joint Director of the Electronics
Cooling Laboratory
Program Coordinator, MSE program
at Applied Materials, thermal/fluid/plasma focus
Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
San José State University
One Washington Square
San José, California 95192-0087
Office: Engineering 310A
Telephone: (408) 924-4054
Fax: (408) 924-3995
E-mail:
Nicole.Okamoto at
sjsu.edu
Biography
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January 1999 |
Ph.D |
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January 1996 |
MSME |
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May 1993 |
B.S. |
Nicole
graduated from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI, in 1993 with a BS. She
continued on at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she worked on
both an MSME and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering under the advisement of Dr.
Tony Jacobi. Her
Ph.D. thesis was entitled “Flow, Heat Transfer, and Pressure-Drop Interactions
in Louvered-Fin Arrays.” This work involved analyzing local convective heat
transfer in low-Reynolds number flow and how the heat transfer behavior is
affected by the fluid dynamics throughout the array. During her years at the
University of Illinois, she worked as a research assistant at the Air
Conditioning and Refrigeration Center, a joint National Science Foundation and
Industry collaborative center.
Upon completion of her dissertation, in January 1999 Nicole began to teach at
Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where she taught Thermodynamics, Advanced
Thermodynamics, Heat Transfer, Introduction to Engineering, and Introduction to
Engineering Fundamentals and learned to enjoy barbeque and hot weather. In
August 2001 she moved to
San Jose State University where she is currently teaching classes in the
thermal sciences, advising senior design teams and masters students, working on
laboratory development, and enjoying the great weather. She is married to Glenn
Okamoto, and they have two young daughters, Erin and Evelyn.
Classes Taught at SJSU
| ME
211 Advanced Heat Transfer ME 200 Thermal/Fluids Engineering ME 182 Thermal System Design ME 146 Thermal Management of Electronics ME 115 Thermal Engineering Lab ME 114 Heat Transfer Section 1 Section 2 Please note that you will need to a password for the Blackboard Learning System to access these sites. ME 113 Thermodynamics |
Office Hours
In the summer I am often in my office on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Appointments can be made via email or telephone.
Research Interests
 | Thermal Management of Electronics. Dr. Okamoto is the joint director of the electronics cooling lab at SJSU. Click here to see the homepage for this lab. |
| Experimental convective heat transfer in complex geometries |
| Thermal system modeling |
| Microchannel heat transfer |
| Novel uses of liquid crystal thermography |
| HVAC component and system analysis, including air-side heat exchanger analysis |
MS Theses Supervised
Click here for descriptions of these projects
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Optimal micro heat pipe configuration on high performance heat spreaders. Seema Singh, May 2009 |
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Thermal characterization of a new generation of PoP Packages. Nandini Nagendrappa, May 2009 |
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Heat sink test apparatus. Sudeep Gonsalves, August 2009 |
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Energy and exergy analysis of data center economizer systems. Mike Meakins, August. 2009 |
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Evaluate and improve the design of heat flux measurement on a slug calorimeter. Stephen Szekin Chan, December 2008 |
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Thermal stress analysis of a heat spreader and high heat flux source. Swapnil Mehta, May 2008 |
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Optimization of heat sink geometry for high-powered LEDs. Suriyapong Seekao |
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Cooling optimization of high density raised floor data centers. Mehrdad Gholamalipour, Dec. 2007 |
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Eliminating the raised floor configuration in a data center by implementing a single cooling coil. Ricardo Morales, Dec. 2007 |
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Development of a curricula in thermal management of electronics. Widah Saied, June 2007 |
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Modeling noncoplanarity effects on thermal performance of computer chips. Ninad Bhave, June 2007 |
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Test fixture for heat sink performance evaluation. Jonathan Lee, May 2007 |
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Thermal control of a low-earth orbit three-axis stabilized micro-satellite using microchannel heat sink. Amaury Heresztyn, May 2005 |
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Determination of heat transfer coefficient using liquid crystal thermography technique. Sarange Deshpande, May 2005 |
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Using CFD to analyze the effect of fluid properties on micro-channel heat exchanger behavior. Mina Fazelpour, December 2003 |
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CFD method to determine heat transfer coefficients in offset-strip fin arrays. Aki Chui, December 2003 |
Engineering Society Involvement
Member of ASME, ASHRAE, ASEE
Nicole served as the 2001-2002 Program Chair and 2002-2003 Division Chair for
the New Engineering Educator’s Division of the American Society of Engineering
Educators.
She is also a Corresponding Member of ASHRAE Technical Committees 8.4 Air-to-Refrigerant Heat Exchangers and 1.1 Thermodynamics and Psychrometrics.
Faculty Advisor
Nicole is the faculty advisor for the SJSU chapter of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. For more information on the SJSU chapter, anyone can join their Facebook page (search for SJSU InterVarsity).
Grants and Awards
| California Energy Grant, Novel Heat Exchanger Fin Surface Design for Improved Condensate Management, with A. Sommers, Miami University (2009-2010) |
| Rockwell Collins research grant, Cooling of High Power LED's, with J. Rhee (2006-2007) |
| Applied Materials Award for Excellence in Teaching (2005) |
| Best paper award, 8th UICEE Annual Conference on Engineering Education, Kingston, Jamaica (2005). |
| National Science Foundation
$105,757 CCLI grant (2003) "Development of a Laboratory Curriculum Devoted to
the Thermal Management of Electronics" Click here to see the homepage for this project. |
| SJSU LLP Grant (2003 and 2004) "Increasing Learning Effectiveness in the Undergraduate Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer Courses in the Mechanical Engineering Curriculum" |
| Lockheed Martin $10,000 research grant (2003) |
| ASHRAE senior design grant (2003) |
| SJSU Teaching Excellence Fund Award (2002) |
| SJSU $4200 Mini-Grant (2002) |
| SJSU Junior Faculty Career Development Grant (2002) |
| SJSU Professional Development Grant (2001) |
| Baylor University $2000 University Research Council grant (2000) |
| National Science Foundation $50,000 Research at Undergraduate Institutions grant (1999) |
| Baylor University Summer Sabbatical Award recipient (1999) |
Peer-Reviewed Journal Publications and Conference Proceedings
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Meakins, M., Okamoto, N.C., and Bash, C., 2009, "An Energy and Exergy Analysis of Economizer- Based Data Centers, " accepted for the Proceedings of the ASME International Energy Sustainability Conference, San Francisco, CA. |
| Okamoto, N.C., Hsu, T-R, and Bash, C., 2009, "A Thermal Management of Electronics Course and Laboratory for Undergraduates," Advances in Engineering Education, Vol. 1, No. 3. |
| Bhave, N., and Okamoto, N.C., 2007, "Modeling Noncoplanarity Effects on Thermal Performance of Computer Chips," IEEE Advanced Packaging Materials Symposium, San Jose, CA, Oct. 3-5. |
| Heresztyn, A.J.H., and DeJong Okamoto, N.C., 2005, "Thermal Design of Microchannel Heat Sinks for Low-Orbit Micro-Satellites," Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Microchannels and Minichannels, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Toronto. |
| DeJong Okamoto, N., Rhee, J., and Mourtos, N.J., 2005, Incorporating the Impact of Engineering Solutions on Society into Technical Engineering Courses, Global Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 77-88. |
| Okamoto, N.C., Rhee, J. and Mourtos, N.J., 2005, Educating Students to Understand the Impact of Engineering Solutions in a Global / Societal Context, Proceedings of the 8th UICEE Annual Conference on Engineering Education, Kingston, Jamaica. |
| Mourtos, N.J., DeJong Okamoto, N.C., and J. Rhee, 2004, "Open-Ended Problem-Solving Skills in Thermal-Fluids Engineering," Global Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 189-200. Invited Paper |
| DeJong Okamoto, N.C., and Hsu, T-R, 2004, "Development of a Laboratory Curriculum Devoted to the Thermal Management of Electronics," Proceedings of the ASEE Annual Conference, Salt Lake City. Invited Presentation |
| DeJong Okamoto, N.C., 2004, "Getting Started with an Adaptation and Implementation Grant," Proceedings of the ASEE Annual Conference, Salt Lake City. Invited Presentation |
| Mourtos, N.J., DeJong Okamoto, N.C., and J. Rhee, 2004, "Defining, Teaching, and Assessing Problem-Solving Skills," Proceedings of the 7th UICEE Annual Conference on Engineering Education, Mumbai, India. |
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DeJong, N.C., and A.M. Jacobi, 2003, "Localized Flow and Heat Transfer Interactions in Louvered-Fin Arrays," International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, Vol. 46, pp. 443-455. |
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DeJong, N.C., and A.M. Jacobi, 2003, "Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop for Flow through Bounded Louvered-Fin Arrays," Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science, Vol. 27, pp. 237-250. |
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DeJong, N.C., 2002, "Teaching Cycle Optimization in Introductory Thermodynamics Courses," Proceedings of the ASEE National Conference, Montreal. |
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Van Treuren, K.W., and N.C. DeJong, 2001, “Using Design to Teach Thermodynamic Cycles: Designing a 250 MW Steam Power Plant Using the Rankine Cycle” ASME TurboExpo, New Orleans. |
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DeJong, N.C., K.W. Van Treuren, D.R. Farris, and C.C. Fry, 2000, “Using Design to Teach Freshman Engineering,” 2000 ASEE National Conference, St. Louis. |
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Van Treuren, K.W., and N.C. DeJong, 2000, “Assessment in Freshman Engineering,” Gulf-Southwest 2000 Regional ASEE Conference. |
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DeJong, N.C., and A.M. Jacobi, 1999, “Local Flow Structures and Heat Transfer in Convex-Louver Fin Arrays,” Journal of Heat Transfer, Vol. 121, pp. 136-141. |
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DeJong, N.C., L.W. Zhang, A.M. Jacobi, S. Balachandar, and D.K. Tafti, 1998, “A Complementary Experimental and Numerical Study of the Flow and Heat Transfer in Offset Strip-Fin Heat Exchangers,” Journal of Heat Transfer, Vol. 120, pp. 690-698. |
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DeJong, N.C., and A.M. Jacobi, 1997, “An Experimental Study of Flow and Heat Transfer in Parallel-Plate Arrays: Local, Row-by-Row and Surface Average Behavior,” International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, Vol. 40, pp.1365-1378. |
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DeJong, N.C., M.C. Gentry, and A.M. Jacobi, 1997, “An Entropy-Based, Air-Side Heat Exchanger Performance Evaluation Method: Application to a Condenser,” International Journal of HVAC&R Research, Vol. 3(3), pp. 185-195. |
| Gentry, M.C., N.C. DeJong, and A.M. Jacobi, 1995, “Evaluating the Potential
of Vortex-Enhanced Evaporator Performance for Refrigeration Applications,” ASHRAE Transaction, Vol. 102(2), pp. 361-366. |