Professional Development Courses Offered by CALCE

CALCE offers over 20 professional development courses for the industry. In 2025, it delivered numerous courses covering topics such as the Physics of Failure, Counterfeit Electronics, Prognostics and Health Management, and others. The students came from across the industry and government, including the US Army, L3 Harris, Lockheed Martin, Honeywell, Medtronic, U.S. Air Force, Raytheon, Teledyne, Elbit Sys and more.

Your company can benefit from the actionable knowledge these courses offer, taught by an instructional team of researchers with deep experience.

Prof. Michael Pecht Recognized as a 2025 Highly Cited Researcher

Prof. Michael Pecht, Director of the Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE) at the University of Maryland, has been named a Highly Cited Researcher for 2025 by Clarivate. This prestigious recognition highlights researchers whose work ranks in the top 1% by citations for their field and publication year in the Web of Science Core Collection over the past 11 years, reflecting exceptional influence and broad impact in their discipline. Prof. Pecht’s inclusion underscores his leadership in reliability engineering, prognostics, and life cycle management, with research that has advanced both academic and industrial practices worldwide.

Hierarchical Hollow Silica Shells For Scalable And Passive Superinsulation

Porous silica materials are highly valued for their thermal management potential, with their high porosity and large surface area making them ideal for insulation. However, challenges persist in their practical manufacturing and in establishing clear relationships between their structure and insulation performance. Here, we report a rapid 10-minute gelation process under ambient temperature and pressure conditions to enable scalable manufacturing of tunable SiO₂ hollow spheres. …

The Impact of C-Rate, Float Charging, and Temperature on Pouch Lithium-Ion Battery Swelling

Swelling in pouch batteries poses reliability issues and safety hazards, resulting in product damage, fires, and explosions. This study examines swelling based on the impact of C-rate and temperature during charge–discharge tests, and upper voltage limit and temperature during constant voltage/float charging tests. Internal cell dynamics related to swelling are analyzed using equivalent circuit model parameters from electrochemical impedance spectroscopy tests, and correlations with thickness are established. …

Modeling and Validation of an Additively-Manufactured Multi-Pass Microchannel Heat Exchanger for High Power Density Applications

Supercritical CO₂ (sCO₂) has attracted considerable attention in multiple thermal applications, such as power generation systems, aerospace, and electronics, due to its high energy density. Its unique properties facilitate the development of high-performance, cost-effective, and compact metal heat exchangers. In addition, innovative designs enabled by additive manufacturing can further enhance thermal performance by increasing surface area density while regulating the pressure drop. …

A Novel Air-Cooled Heat Sink for High-Powered Cylindrical Heat Sources

As electronic and electromechanical devices continue to shrink while delivering higher power outputs, managing the resulting heat becomes increasingly critical. Applications involving cylindrical heat sources, such as high-power lasers, LEDs, batteries, and DC motors, have often been overlooked in this context. This study investigates the potential of using manifold minichannel heat sinks (MMHS) for cylindrical applications, specifically focusing on their thermal and hydraulic performance in an electrical propulsion motor. A preliminary parametric analysis, based on literature-derived unit cell correlations, was conducted to determine optimal channel and manifold dimensions. …

Improving Machine Calibration Performance through Systematic Feature Design in Semiconductor Manufacturing

In semiconductor manufacturing, discrepancies between the golden and target machines can lead to inconsistencies in product quality and reduced yield, highlighting the need for more effective calibration methods. Traditionally, machine calibration relies on using basic statistical features during the feature extraction step, which limits the ability to fully capture the complex characteristics of machine dynamics. …