Home

Thanks for stopping by! I’m Kevin Kircher (kircher@purdue.edu), an assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering and (by courtesy) Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue, a public land-grant university. I’m part of the Center for High Performance Buildings in Herrick Laboratories and the Institute for Control, Optimization and Networks. Before joining Purdue in 2022, I did a postdoc in electrical engineering at MIT and a PhD in mechanical engineering at Cornell.

My research aims to reduce the human suffering caused by energy infrastructure, which can change the climate, make people ill via air and water pollution, and burden disadvantaged people with high energy bills. I work on optimization and control strategies for distributed energy resources (heating and cooling equipment, energy storage, electric vehicles, solar photovoltaics, etc.), focusing on their interactions with the power grid. I also like energy system modeling that can inform decisions in business and government.

I’m always open to mentoring graduate students who are excited about energy and climate; who like writing, coding, and math; and who have strong backgrounds in optimization, control, data science, or thermal sciences. I’m particularly interested in mentoring students of color and female students. If you might like to work with me, please mention me in your ME or ECE application.

Check out my new class on Distributed Energy Resources! All materials free online.

News

  • March, 2026 – Kevin talks with Dan Gearino for Inside Climate News: Texas seizes the solar crown from California, and other key points from the latest electricity data.
  • February, 2026 – Alex presents on “Data-driven methods for building load estimation in retrofits” and passes his MS defense!
  • February, 2026 – Kevin talks with Dr. Jaime Palter and Dr. Jennifer Francis about Causes and Responses to Extreme Winter Weather, hosted by the Solutions Journalism Network and the Metcalf Institute at the University of Rhode Island.
  • January, 2026 – Priyadarshan receives the Bilsland Dissertation Fellowship, which will support him for the final year of his PhD studies!
  • December, 2025 – Aaron receives the Lambert Graduate Teaching Fellowship, which will fund him to act as the professor for an undergraduate course this fall!
  • November, 2025 – Arash wins runner-up in the Best PhD Forum competition for his presentation on “Field Demonstration of Advanced Commercial HVAC Control for Scalable Deployment” at ACM BuildSys! (The Association for Computing Machinery’s International Conference on Systems for Energy-Efficient Buildings, Cities, and Transportation.)
  • October, 2024 – Arash passes his PhD area exams!
  • September, 2024 – Riley Barta and Kevin discuss “Cold climate heat pumps in the US: Updates from the refrigerant to the electrical grid” in IEA Heat Pumping Technologies Magazine.
  • August, 2024 – Panagiotis wins third place in the Setty Family Foundation Net Zero Energy Design competition through the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers!
  • August, 2024 – Panagiotis receives a four-year scholarship from the Onassis Foundation!
  • July, 2024 – Elias wins second place in the Best Student Paper competition at the International Conference on High Performance Buildings!
  • July, 2024 – Aaron, Arash, Elias, Levi, Lokesh, and Kevin present at the International Conference on High Performance Buildings.
  • July, 2024 – Kevin talks with Chris Baraniuk for Wired: “The hunt for the most efficient heat pump in the world.”
  • May, 2024 – Nadah and Levi each win the $11,500 Graduate Student Grant-in-Aid Award from the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers!
  • April, 2024 – Levi receives three years of support through the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program!
  • March, 2024 – Priyadarshan receives one year of support through the William Uffman Fellowship for academic and research achievements in Herrick Labs!
  • March, 2024 – Elias and Kevin talk with Jared Pike for Purdue’s School of Mechanical Engineering: “Let go of the thermostat: Predictive heating control system demonstrates huge energy savings.”
  • March, 2024 – Kevin talks with Emily Pontecorvo for Heatmap News about a new study from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory: “Where heat pumps win – And where they lose.”
  • February, 2024 – Liam receives the H. William Bottomley Scholarship for undergraduate research in Purdue ME!
  • February, 2024 – Kevin talks with Emily Pontecorvo for Heatmap News: “A market for 24/7 clean power might look something like this.”
  • January, 2024 – Elias presents on “Latent and Sensible Model Predictive Controller Demonstration in a House during Cooling Operation” at the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers Winter Conference.
  • January, 2024 – Kevin talks with Jason Deign for Latitude Media: “Can this city’s microgrid plan skirt the traditional utility model?“
  • January, 2024 – Priyadarshan and Kevin present on “EDGIE: A Matlab toolbox for Emulating the Distribution Grid Impacts of Electrification” at the Hawai’i International Conference on System Sciences.
  • December, 2023 – Aaron and Nadah pass their PhD area exams!
  • December, 2023 – Aaron and Levi win 2nd place in the Department of Energy’s Jump Into Stem competition!
  • November, 2023 – Kevin chats about heat pumps with Amy Wicker on the Her House, Her Home podcast.
  • November, 2023 – Elias presents on “Practical Model Predictive Control for Residential Buildings” and passes his PhD preliminary exam!
  • October, 2023 – Nadah presents on “Improving Air-Source Heat Pump Thermal Comfort by Modifying Equipment and Controls” at Purdue’s Women in Mechanical Engineering symposium.
  • October, 2023 – Kevin presents at the INFORMS Annual Meeting on “Equity Benefits of Strategic Home Electrification.”
  • September, 2023 – Kevin co-organizes the Intelligent Building Operations Workshop in Boulder, Colorado.
  • August, 2023 – Levi wins first place in the Purdue Graduate Bridge Program‘s poster competition and third place in the oral presentation competition!
  • August, 2023 – Elias receives an MS degree in mechanical engineering. Next step, PhD!
  • June, 2023 – Nadah presents at the American Society of Engineering Education on “What Challenges Affect Arab Women’s Engagement in STEM Fields, Particularly Engineering?”
  • May, 2023 – Elias wins the $11,500 Graduate Student Grant-in-Aid Award from the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers!
  • May, 2023 – Elias wins Best Poster for “Innovative High-Temperature Heat Pump Cycle” at the International Energy Agency’s 14th Heat Pump Conference!
  • April, 2023 – Priyadarshan passes his PhD area exams!
  • April, 2023 – Priyadarshan wins the People’s Choice award at Purdue’s Say It In 6 event!
  • November, 2022 – Elias passes his PhD area exams!