CALCE Reliability Science for Electronics Symposium

The Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE) held its Fall Reliability Science for Electronics Symposium on October 14, 2026, in a hybrid format.

The symposium featured an overview of CALCE’s research activities and presentations on several ongoing research projects. The event provided an opportunity to share recent research developments and bring together researchers, members, and guests for discussions on electronics reliability and related topics. The presentations are available for CALCE Consortium Members to view and download.

The Spring symposium will be held on March 31, 2027.

CALCE Webinar - MOSTCOOL: Digital Twin for Data Center Cooling Systems

CALCE at the University of Maryland will host a webinar on November 17, 2026, featuring Professor Patrick McCluskey, Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park.

The webinar will introduce MOSTCOOL, a unified digital twin framework for designing and operating data center cooling systems. The framework integrates thermal and energy simulation, cost analysis, and reliability modeling to evaluate cooling architectures and workload profiles.

Tuesday, November 17, 2026

11:00 am to 12:00 pm US Eastern Time

CALCE/SMTA Counterfeit Symposium 2027: Abstract Submission is  Now Open

The Symposium on Counterfeit Parts and Materials, organized by SMTA in conjunction with the Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE) at the University of Maryland, will return to College Park, Maryland, June 22–24, 2027. The symposium will bring together industry experts, researchers, and professionals to address emerging challenges in counterfeit parts and materials, supply-chain risk, detection, authentication, and mitigation.

Mark your calendar and stay tuned for program details and opportunities to participate.

ICSRS 2026 Conference to Highlight Advances in System Reliability and Safety

The 10^th International Conference on System Reliability and Safety (ICSRS 2026) will take place November 23-25, 2026, in Rome, Italy. The conference will bring together researchers, academics, and industry professionals to exchange knowledge and discuss recent advances in system reliability, safety, risk analysis, fault diagnosis, and maintenance.

The technical program will also highlight emerging areas, including AI-driven safety, predictive maintenance, and reliability analysis under limited data. ICSRS 2026 will provide a forum for sharing research and exploring new approaches to improving the reliability and safety of complex systems.

Prof. Michael Pecht will give a plenary talk at this conference on “Reliability and Safety-related Challenges of Using and Reusing Lithium-ion Batteries.”

Roshith Mittakolu Wins Best Paper and Best E-Poster Awards at ITherm 2026

Roshith Mittakolu, a doctoral candidate, and his collaborator received two awards at ITherm 2026 in Orlando, Florida. Their work received the Prof. Avram Bar-Cohen Best Paper Award in the System Level Thermal Management track and the Best E-Poster Award in the System Level and Data Center Thermal Management track. The research brings together researchers from the University of Maryland and the University of Florida to explore cooling solutions for high-power data center racks.

At UMD, Roshith has been working on developing MOSTCOOL, a two-phase flow network modeling framework for rack-level cooling, under the guidance of Professors Damena Agonafer and Patrick McCluskey.

Prof. Han Appointed IEEE EPS Distinguished Lecturer  

Prof. Bongtae Han, Keystone Professor in the University of Maryland’s (UMD) Department of Mechanical Engineering, has been appointed a Distinguished Lecturer by the Electronics Packaging Society (EPS) of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for a four-year term beginning January 1, 2027.

The IEEE-EPS Distinguished Lecturer Program brings internationally recognized experts to IEEE chapters, universities, and professional communities to share advances in electronics packaging and related technologies. During his term, Professor Han will present lectures on his areas of expertise to audiences worldwide, supporting the program’s mission of disseminating technical knowledge and promoting professional engagement across the global electronics packaging community.

Sanjeev Sathyamoorthy wins EPS Undergraduate Hands-on Experience Program

Sanjeev Sathyamoorthy, a sophomore in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland, has been selected for the IEEE Electronics Packaging Society (EPS) Undergraduate Hands-on Experience (UHE) Program and has received a scholarship to support his research experience at CALCE.

Under the guidance of Dr. Diganta Das, Sanjeev is conducting research on High-Density Interconnect (HDI) laminates as component substrates, focusing on implementation, supply chain, and reliability considerations.

Failure Analysis of Electronics Short Course is Rescheduled

This intensive 4-day course consists of classroom instruction, demonstrations, and hands-on laboratory training. The course will cover analysis techniques applicable to electronic assemblies, components, and devices. Lecture topics include physics-of-failure root cause analysis, guidelines for selecting analytical tools, and practical instruction in laboratory techniques.

Registrations will open in January 2027

April 27 - April 30, 2027

Probabilistic Reliability Modeling of Delayed Degradation Systems With Mixed Random Shocks and Discontinuous State Jumps

Many engineering components experience a degradation delay period before observable deterioration becomes dominant. In random shock environments, this delay period may be shortened by external shocks, and the subsequent degradation process can involve discontinuous jumps among damage states. To characterize these coupled effects, this paper develops a two-stage probabilistic reliability model for delayed degradation systems subject to mixed random shocks. The first stage describes the degradation delay period, whose termination can be accelerated by shock-induced damage accumulation or run-shock events. …

Low Thermal Resistance Architectures for AlGaN-Based Semiconductor Devices

Next-generation high-power radio-frequency (RF) devices increasingly demand transistors that operate efficiently with high gainat high frequencies. High-aluminum-content ultrawide-bandgap (UWBG) AlGaN alloys have shown great potential for enablingsuch high-frequency RF technologies. However, the widespread adoption of AlGaN-based RF devices is limited by thermal-management challenges arising from the intrinsically low thermal conductivity of AlGaN, which leads to higher device thermalresistance for a given geometry compared to GaN RF devices. …

Experimental Investigation of Direct-to-Chip Evaporative Cooling Using Hollow Micropillar Arrays for High-Power AI Accelerators

The rapid growth of data center rack power density driven by artificial intelligence (AI) workloads requires cooling solutions beyond conventional air and single-phase liquid cooling. Traditional approaches rely on very low inlet temperatures to maintain acceptable junction temperatures. This places significant strain on cooling infrastructure, leading to higher cooling energy consumption and increased power usage effectiveness. Two-phase direct-to-chip evaporative cooling (DCEC) provides a promising alternative, utilizing phase-change heat transfer to achieve high heat-flux dissipation while reducing dependence on inlet temperature. …

3D Printed Wideband Flexible Carbon-Nanotube and Graphene-Oxide Based Rectangular Patch Antennas Deployable on Deformable Surfaces

Microstrip patch antennas are widely used in wireless systems due to their low profile, lightweight structure, and compatibility with planar and conformal electronics. In this work, we report the fabrication and characterization of carbon nanotube-graphene oxide (CNT-GO) based 3D-printed rectangular patch antennas that can be integrated onto curvilinear and deformable surfaces. The printed antennas are only a few micrometers thick and exhibit strong high-frequency performance. …