Students

Cláudio de Andrade Lima
Cláudio de Andrade Lima, Ph.D. Candidate, Electrical & Computer Engineering Department
Cláudio’s research is in power-electronic drives, focusing on non-linear control strategies for aerospace electrification. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department at Federal Center for Technological Education of Mines Gerias (CEFET-MG), Brazil. He earned his BSEE at CEFET-MG (2012) and MSEE from Federal University of São João del-Rei, Brazil (2015). Selected publications: 
  • C. Lima and Cale, J., “Control design for position synchronization in central converter multi-machine actuators,” in Proc. of the International Conference on Electrical, Computer, Communications and Mechatronics Engineering (ICECCME 2023), Tenerife, Spain, July 19–21, 2023.
  • C. Lima, Z. Miller, A. Riley, Cale, J.and et al., “A novel electromechanical actuation testbed for emulation of aerospace actuation systems,” in Proc. of the 33rd Aerospace Testing Seminar, El Segundo, CA (USA), May 15, 2023.
  • C. Lima and Cale, J., “Rotor position synchronization control in central-converter multi-motor topologies,” in IEEE Power and Energy Systems General Meeting, 2022, Denver, CO (USA), July 17–21 (abstract and poster session).
  • C. Lima, J. Cale, and K. Shahroudi, “Rotor position synchronization in central-converter multi-motor electric actuation systems,” Energies 2021, 7485(14), Nov. 2021.
Avpreet Othee, Ph.D.
Dr. Avpreet Othee, Former Doctoral Student, Systems Engineering Department
Avpreet’s doctoral research was in modeling and simulation of power-electronic devices, their nonlinear behavior and harmonic injection in electrical distribution systems. His primary research project focused on developing a new modeling toolkit for the Department of Energy for comparing AC, DC and hybrid AC/DC power distribution in modern buildings. He is currently employed by Canon, an EV vehicle company. He earned his Ph.D. from CSU (2021). Selected publications:
  • A. Othee, Cale, J., A. Santos, S. Frank, D. Zimmerle, O. Ghatpande, G. Duggan, and D. Gerber, “A modeling toolkit for comparing AC versus DC electrical distribution efficiency in buildings,” Energies 2023, 16(7), Mar., 2023.
  • S. Frank, B. Ball, D. L. Gerber, K. Cu, A. Othee, J. Shackelford, O. Ghatpande, R. Brown, and Cale, J., “Advances in the co-simulation of detailed electrical and whole-building energy performance,” Energies, vol. 16, no. 17, 2023.
  • J. Cale, C. Lute, G. Ross, and A. Othee, “Characterization procedure for unsymmetrical split-phase capacitor-start induction machines,” IEEE Open Access Journal on Power and Energy, vol. 8, Oct. 2020.
  • Building Electrical Efficiency Analysis Model (BEEAM). Available online: https://github.com/NREL/BEEAM/.
Scott Baron
Scott Baron, Former Master’s Student, Systems Engineering Department
Scott’s research was in risk-constrained optimized control for microgrids with high penetration of renewables. He also performed research on statistical modeling and prediction of uncertain electrical resource and load characteristics. He spent over 10 years as a systems engineer in the aerospace and defense industry. where he developed model-based design approaches for microgrid power systems. He currently works at Raytheon. He earned his MSSE from CSU (2023) and BSEE from Lehigh University (2009). Selected Selected publications:
  • S. Baron, J. Cale, B. Polly, and R. Meyer, “Method for statistical resampling of time-series electrical generation and load data,” (in process).
Zane Miller, Former Master’s Student, Electrical Engineering Department
Zane’s research was in simulation and hardware validation of methods for synchronization of central-converter multi-motor electric actuation systems. He earned his MSEE (2023) and BSEE (2022) from CSU. Selected publications:
  • C. Lima, Z. Miller, A. Riley, Cale, J.and et al., “A novel electromechanical actuation testbed for emulation of aerospace actuation systems,” in Proc. of the 33rd Aerospace Testing Seminar, El Segundo, CA (USA), May 15, 2023.
  • C. Lima, Z. Miller, R. Bushue, and et al., “Testbed for emulation of aerospace actuation systems,” in Pipeline Research Council International (PRCI) Meeting, Fort Collins, CO (USA), May 10, 2022 (poster).
Miles Brim, Former Master’s Student, Systems Engineering Department
Miles’s research was in remote and dynamic assessment of reliability in electromechanical actuator systems. Selected publications:
  • M. Brim and J. Cale, “Remote and dynamic assessment of reliability in electromechanical actuator systems,” in Proceedings of the 12th IEEE International Systems Conference, 2018, Vancouver, Canada, 2018, pp. 1–8.
Rudy Pirani, Ph.D.
Dr. Badruddin (Rudy) Pirani, Former Doctoral Student, Systems Engineering Department
Rudy’s doctoral research was in machine learning for pattern recognition and classification of enhanced battery storage system performance and reliability for shipboard power systems. He is currently employed by the U.S. Navy. He earned his Ph.D. from CSU (2022), BSEE from Purdue University (2000), MSEM from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (2006), and MSCE from Purdue University (2014). Selected publications:
  • R. Pirani and J. Cale, “Comparison of pattern recognition approaches for identification of failure-prone battery cells,” in Proc. of the 2022 IEEE Systems Engineering Conference (SYSCON), 2022, Montreal, Canada, April 25–28, 2022.
  • R. Pirani and J. Cale, “A pattern recognition approach for enhancing lifecycle maintainability of battery systems,” in Proc. of the 2019 International Symposium on Systems Engineering (ISSE), 2019, Edinburgh, Scotland, 2019, pp. 1–8.
Megan Younes
Megan Younes, Ph.D. Candidate, Systems Engineering Department
Megan’s research is in renewable energy based microgrids and systems engineering approaches for optimizing resiliency and cost tradeoffs for hydroelectric power systems. She is funded under the DoD SMART Scholarship program. She is currently employed by Toyota and formerly worked for the US Army Corps of Engineers. She earned her BSEE and MS in Engineering Management (thesis: Asset Management Framework for the United Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Lock and Dam Electrical Equipment), both from Marshall University. Selected publications:
  • J. Warner. T. Vernick. M. Bates. C. Richards, and T. Masaud. “Optimal Penetration of Combined Wind DG and VAR Compensation for Voltage Stability Improvement.” in 2018 IEEE Conference on Technologies for Sustainability (SusTech). Nov. 11-13. Long Beach, CA (USA).
Rasel Mahmud
Rasel Mahmud, Ph.D. Student, Systems Engineering Department
Rasels’s research focuses on coupled distributed energy resources (DERs) and their impact on the distribution grid, such as fault contribution and power quality. He currently works at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). He earned his BSEE from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (2008) and MSEE from University of North Dakota (2016). Selected publications:
  • R. Mahmud, A. Hoke, and J. White, “Impact of aggregated PV on sub-synchronous torsional interaction” in Proc. of the IEEE Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC). Calaarv. AB. Canada. 2020.
  • R. Mahmud. A. Hoke, and D. Narang. ‘Fault response of distributed energy resources considering the requirements of IEEE 1547-2018.” IEEE PES General Meeting. Montreal, QC. Canada.
Jarrett Wendell
Jarrett Wendell, Ph.D. Student, Systems Engineering Department
Jarrett’s research is in deep reinforcement learning approaches for the control of microgrid systems and design for reliability of power-electronic systems. He has worked in several areas of electrical engineering for the defense industry including wireless communications, electronic warfare. additive manufacturing for electronics, power and energy management. and engineering management. He currently works for the Department of Energy’s Hanford site. He earned his BSEE from South Dakota School of Mines & Technology (2009). and MSEE from Purdue University-Indianapolis campus (2016).

Undergrad Research Interns

  • Austin Bostwick (2023-present)
  • Brian Chan (2022-2023)
  • David Neitenbach (2022)
  • Ryan Bushue (2021-2022)
  • Garrett Ross (2020-2021)
  • Kori Eliaz (2022)
  • Vani Kapoor (2022)
  • Grant Gaub (2022)
  • Ethan Schultz (2022)
  • Dylan Gaub (2022)
  • Jake Dorsett (2022)
  • Shavauntay Dukes (2019)
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