Tianyu Yang

Tianyu Yang is joining the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, part of Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University, as an assistant professor of mechanical engineering. 

“There are great innovative resources and excellent students and colleagues at ASU,” says Yang, commenting on why she decided to come to ASU.

Most recently, Yang was a postgraduate researcher working with Professor John Rogers, a director at Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics at Northwestern University, to develop autonomous and self-powered thermal safety systems and skin-integrated wearable devices. 

Guided by her advisors, Yang decided to pursue research in thermal engineering — a subset of mechanical engineering — focusing on studies of heat energy and how to control it for effective thermal management of electronics. She also works on heat transfer in flexible electronics, a novel class of electronics that can conform to any shape, creating opportunities for wearable products with new biomedical applications. 

“I have an intuitive love of engineering,” Yang says. “Having versatile skills in the fundamentals and applications of heat transfer makes me feel valued.”

She has published multiple research papers on thermal energy systems in major scientific journals, including in Nature Communications. In 2019, she filed a patent to develop methods to achieve device-to-device isothermalization in collaboration with other researchers, including Beomjin Kwon, also an assistant professor in the School of Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy. 

Yang will draw from her experience and deep expertise in thermal energy transfer to teach the MAE 241 Introduction to Thermodynamics course. She hopes to utilize demos to equip students with practical knowledge and skills that will enable them to make a difference in the world during their careers.

She emphasizes that she is excited to be part of the Fulton Schools faculty and looks forward to contributing to valuable advances in her field.

“I would like to research thermal energy transfer and its application in semiconductor thermal management as well as the biomedical field,” Yang says. “I am passionate about creating knowledge and training students.”

Meet the newest faculty members of the Fulton Schools of Engineering here.

Written by Roger Ndayisaba