Carbon nanofibers (CNFs) were incorporated into nylon 11 to form nylon 11-carbon nanofiber nanocomposites via twin screw extrusion. Injection molding has been employed to fabricate specimens that possess enhanced mechanical strength and fire retardancy. The thermal conductivity of these polymer nanocomposites was measured using a guarded hot plate method. The measurement results show that the room temperature thermal conductivity increases with the CNF loading from 0.24±0.01 W/m K for pure Nylon 11 to 0.30±0.02 W/m K at 7.5 wt % CNF loading. The effective medium theory has been used to determine the interface thermal resistance between the CNFs and the matrix to be in the range of 2.5–5.0×10−6 m2 K/W from the measured thermal conductivity of the nanocomposite.

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He is currently on an academic leave from his role as an instructor of engineering at Harding University. His research interests include professional socialization of engineers, social cognition in engineering, community-driven design, and interpretive phenomenology.

is a doctoral candidate of Engineering Education at Purdue University. She was an electrical engineer working on semiconductor devices before stepping into the realm of education research. Her current research explores and characterizes learning experiences in engineering such as design and interdisciplinary learning.

School of Engineering Education with courtesy appointments in Mechanical, Environmental and Ecological Engineering as well as Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education. He has received numerous awards for his efforts at Purdue including being elected as a fellow of the Teaching Academy and listed in the Book of Great Teachers. He was the first engineer to receive the U.S. Campus Compact Thomas Ehrlich Faculty Award for Service-Learning. He was a co-recipient of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering's Bernard Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education and the recipient of the ASEE Chester Carlson Award for Innovation in Engineering Education. He is a fellow of ASEE and the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE).