Elvis Cao's Profile - Experience

[1] Research Experience

2022-2023 Schmidt Science Fellow (SSF), MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

Project: Integrated Carbon Capture and Utilization at the Nexus of Technology, Business, and Policy

2021-2022 Impact Fellow, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

MIT Climate & Sustainability Consortium (MCSC)

Project: Benchmarking and Evaluating Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR)

2016-2021 Graduate Research Assistant, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

Integrated Micro & Nano-Fluidic Systems Laboratory (Erickson Lab)

Principal Investigator: Prof. David Erickson

Committee Members: Prof. Emmanuel Giannelis; Prof. Saurabh Mehta; Prof. Tobias Hanrath

Project 1: HI-Light – A Solar-thermocatalytic Reactor for CO2 Reduction [Link]

Project 2: FeverPhone – Fever Diagnosis with a Mobile Device [Link]

2015-2016 Visiting Graduate Research Assistant, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

Mesoscale Nuclear Materials Laboratory (Short Lab)

Inviter: Prof. Mujid Kazimi (Member of National Academy of Engineering)

Principal Investigator: Prof. Michael Short

Project: Multilayer Composite Fuel Cladding & Oxidation Experiments [Link 1] [Link 2]

2014-2015 Graduate Research Assistant, McGill University, Montréal, Quebec, Canada

McGill Metals Processing Centre

Principal Investigator: Prof. Roderick Guthrie (FRSC, FCAE, FCIM)

Project: An in-situ, on-line Aqueous Particle Sensor (APS) for Micro-bubble Detection [Link]

2013-2014 Research Assistant, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China

MOE Key Laboratory of Thermal-Fluid Science and Engineering

Principal Investigator: Prof. Yaling He (Member of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Project: Microbial Fuel Cells (MFC) with Bio-cathodes

[2] Teaching Experience

In Fall 2021, I was one of the teaching staff members for MIT Energy & Climate Ventures (Course 15.366), a multidisciplinary, team-based course that teaches the skillsets required to launch new ventures in the energy and climate space at MIT.

In Fall 2017, I was one of the three Graduate Teaching Assistants for Thermodynamics (MAE 2210) at Cornell University. I was a teaching staff member for Combustion Processes (MAE 5430).

In Winter 2015, I was the only Teaching Assistant for Advanced Process Engineering (MIME 455) at McGill University. I was also a teaching staff member for Applied Fluid Dynamics/Heat, Mass and Fluid Flow (MIME 340 & MIME 356), and Fluid Mechanics (MECH 331).

[3] Mentoring Experience

I was fortunate to have the chance to mentor several wonderful undergraduate students at MIT, Cornell, and McGill. The collaboration led to co-authored journal publications and conference presentations. It also earned external recognitions for my undergraduate mentees. These include:

Patrick Xinyi Liu. "Additive Manufacturing for Direct Air Capture." Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), MIT, Summer 2022
Simeng Cheng. "Integrating Carbon Capture and Utilization." Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), MIT, Summer 2022
Jianna Liu. "Machine Learning for MOF-based Carbon Capture." Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), MIT, Spring & Summer 2022
Jason Garcia. "Negative Emissions Technologies (NETs) - CO2 in Urban Areas." Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), MIT, Spring & Summer 2022
Helen Chen. "NETs - CO2 in Rivers and Oceans." Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), MIT, Spring & Summer 2022
Andrea Aude. "Benchmarking Photocatalytic Materials for CO2 Reduction." Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), MIT, IAP 2022 & Spring 2022
Claire A Kim. "Life-cycle Analysis of Carbontech." Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), MIT, Fall 2021 & IAP 2022 & Spring 2022
Alfonso D Restrepo. "Techno-economic Assessment of Carbontech; Benchmarking Photocatalytic Devices for CH3OH Production from CO2 Reduction." Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), MIT, Fall 2021 & IAP 2022 & Spring 2022
Alexander Freedline. "Review on Optofluidic Reactor Design." Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), MIT, IAP 2022
Tingwei Liu. "A 3D Numerical Simulation of CO2 Photothermal Catalytic Conversion." Undergraduate & M.Eng. Research, Cornell University, Summer & Fall 2019 & Spring 2020, Now an engineer at Goldman Sachs, Austin, TX. (Bill Nye '77 Award in Undergrad Research, Co-authored journal publications & conference presentations in Nature Conference on Solar Fuels'19, SPIE OPTO'20)
Tao Hong. "Controlled Etching of Glass Waveguides in Photocatalytic Reactors." Undergraduate Research Project, Cornell University, Summer & Fall 2019, Now a Russell G. Hamilton Scholar and Ph.D. Student at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN. (Bill Nye '77 Award in Undergrad Research, $75,000 Cooke Graduate Scholarship Winner, Co-authored journal publications & conference presentations in Nature Conference on Solar Fuels'19, SPIE OPTO'20)
Spencer Hong. "Gradient Coating of Glass Waveguides in Photocatalytic Reactors." Undergraduate Research Project, Cornell University, Fall 2019, Now a Ph.D. Student at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA. (Ryan Graduate Fellowship Winner, Co-authored journal publications & conference presentations in Nature Conference on Solar Fuels'19)
Cheng-Hung (Jason) Hsin. "An in-situ Particle Detection Sensor." Undergraduate Co-op Research Project, McGill University, Spring 2015, Now an engineer at Pratt & Whitney, Montreal, QC, Canada. (Co-authored journal publication on ISIJ International, Admitted to McGill MSE's fully funded thesis-based M.Eng. program)