Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Associate Director of Research, Manufacturing Futures Institute
Courtesy Appointments, Biomedical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Robotics Institute
Rahul Panat is a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. He received his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and his Ph.D. in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). After his Ph.D., Panat worked at Intel Corporation, Chandler, AZ, for a decade in the area of microprocessor manufacturing research and development (2004-2014). His work at Intel included research on next generation high density interconnects, thinning of Si, 3-D packaging, and lead-free and halogen-free ICs. He won several awards for his work at Intel, including an award for developing manufacturing processes for the world's first fully green IC chip in 2007. He moved to academics in 2014 and joined the Washington State University, Pullman, before moving to Carnegie Mellon in 2017.
At Carnegie Mellon, Panat works on micro-scale additive manufacturing and its applications to biomedical devices and energy materials. Specifically, his group works on high performance biosensors, biomonitoring devices, and brain-computer interfaces. The process development side focuses on using fundamentals of mechanics to enable new manufacturing processes that lead to structures with enhanced functionality. The application side focuses on bringing the advances in microfabrication to the field of biomedical engineering in order to create devices that can benefit the public health. He recently developed the fastest known COVID-19 antibody test with high sensitivity due to a unique, 3D printing technology and an electrochemical reaction.
Awards
2004 Ph.D., Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1999 MS, Mechanical Engineering, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
1997 BS, Mechanical Engineering, Pune University
CMU Engineering
When faculty and students in the College of Engineering create intellectual property, our culture supports their efforts to form startups.
CMU Engineering
For the first time, researchers have arranged 2D MXene nanosheets into a 3D structure without compromising performance—a technology with the potential to have a tremendous impact on energy storage devices for applications like electric vehicles.
CMU Engineering
ARPA-H has awarded $45 million to a multi-institutional team of researchers to rapidly develop sense-and-respond implant technology that could slash U.S. cancer-related deaths.
CMU Engineering
By identifying its root cause, Carnegie Mellon engineers have found a way to control distortion in additive manufacturing.
Scott Institute
Three CMU-led energy projects have been awarded seed grants from the Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation.
Lifewire
MechE’s Rahul Panat tells Lifewire, “Brain research aims to understand the communication between individual neurons or groups of neurons and can help us understand natural intelligence.”
CMU Engineering
Researchers pioneer the CMU Array—a customizable, 3D nano-printed, ultra-high-density microelectrode array platform for next-generation brain-computer interfaces to treat neurological disorders.
CMU Engineering
3D architectures of MXene can increase the energy storage density of lithium-ion batteries and supercapacitors, but there hasn’t been a reliable manufacturing method to build these configurations.
CMU Engineering
A team of mechanical engineering researchers has used additive manufacturing and nanotechnology to detect increasingly tiny levels of biomarkers.
CMU Engineering
Mihir Lovalekar found a way to combine his interest in neurology with his major in mechanical engineering by getting involved with undergraduate research and the CMU Array.
Engineering faculty Peter Adams, Elizabeth Dickey, Carlee Joe-Wong, Pulkit Grover, Alan McGaughey, Rahul Panat, and Douglas Weber were awarded professorship titles in February and March 2021.
Materials Today
MechE’s Rahul Panat’s biosensing platform for rapid COVID-19 detection was featured in an article in Materials Today.