Lili Cai

Lili Cai
Lili Cai
Assistant Professor
(217) 300-9673
2138 Mechanical Engineering Lab

For More Information

Education

  • Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, 2016
  • M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, 2012
  • B.S., Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, 2009

Academic Positions

  • Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2019 - date
  • Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2018
  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, 2016 - 2018

Research Interests

  • Flame synthesis, nanomaterials, energy conversion and storage, smart wearables

Research Areas

  • Applied Physics
  • Chemistry
  • Energy
  • Environment
  • Manufacturing
  • Solid Mechanics and Materials
  • Thermo and Heat Transfer
  • Transportation

Selected Articles in Journals

Articles in Conference Proceedings

Professional Societies

  • American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2022
  • Member, Society of Manufacturing Engineers, 2022
  • Member, Materials Research Society, 2022

Teaching Honors

  • Engineering Council Outstanding Advisor Award (Spring 2023)
  • List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent By Their Students (Fall 2022 )

Research Honors

  • ONR Young Investigator Program Award (2024)
  • SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award (2023)
  • NSF CAREER Award (2022)
  • ACS Petroleum Research Fund Doctoral New Investigator (2022)
  • MIT Technology Review Innovators 35 under 35 (2020)
  • Rising Stars in Mechanical Engineering (2018)
  • Sustainable Energy & Fuels Poster Award, Materials Research Society Fall Meeting (2017)

Recent Courses Taught

  • ME 330 AL1 (ME 330 AL2, ME 330 AL3, ME 330 ZJ1, ME 330 ZJ2, ME 330 ZJE, ME 330 ZJU) - Engineering Materials
  • ME 498 LC3 (ME 498 LC4) - NanoMFG for Sustainable Energy