Dr. Mehrdad (Mark) Ehsani, Professor
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Dr. Mehrdad (Mark) Ehsani received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Texas at Austin in 1973 and 1974, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1981, all in electrical engineering. He is the Robert M. Kennedy Professor of Electrical Engineering at Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA, where he founded the Power Electronics and Motor Drives Program in 1981, the Advanced Vehicle System Research Program in 1992, and the Sustainable Energy Research Program in 2000. His research interests include power electronics, motor drives, hybrid electric vehicles, and systems. He has coauthored more than 400 technical papers, 17 books, an IEEE standards book, and 23 patents. Prof. Ehsani is a Fellow of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), a Distinguished Speaker of several IEEE Societies, and a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of Texas. He has also been honored by numerous organizations, including Texas A&M University as Halliburton Professor and Dresser Industries Professor and by the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society with the Avant Garde Award for his contributions to the hybrid electric vehicle technology. He is the founder of IEEE VTS Vehicle Power and Propulsion Conference (VPPC). He is the founder and past Chairman of IEEE’s Vehicular Technology Society Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Committee. He has lead several international conferences and has served on the governing bodies of the IEEE Power Electronics Society, IEEE Industry Applications Society, and IEEE Vehicular Technology Society. He has also served as Chairman and member of several technical committees in these societies. He received the IEEE Field Award in Undergraduate Teaching in 2003. He was the recipient of several prize paper awards from the IEEE. |
Dr. Karen L. Butler-Purry, Professor
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Dr. Karen L. Butler received a B.S. degree from Southern University – Baton Rouge in 1985, a M.S. degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1987, and a Ph.D. degree from Howard University in 1994, all in electrical engineering. In 1988-1989, Dr. Butler was a Member of Technical Staff at Hughes Aircraft Co. in Culver City, California. She was a recipient of a 1996 Faculty Early Career Award and a 1999 Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award. She is also a 1998-99 Center for Teaching Excellence Montague Scholar. Her research focuses on the areas of computer and intelligent systems applications in power distribution automation, and modeling and simulation of vehicles and power systems. She is an author of several publications in the areas of power system protection and intelligent systems and has made invited presentations in Nigeria and India. She is the Assistant Director of the Power System Automation Laboratory at Texas A&M University. She is a registered professional engineer in the States of Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi. |
Dr. Ramesh Talreja, Professor
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Dr. Ramesh Talreja is currently Tenneco Endowed Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University. Prior to that, 1991-2001, he was a professor of aerospace engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. His early research career was at The Technical University of Denmark, where he received his PhD (1974) and Doctor of Technical Sciences (1985). Dr. Talreja has published extensively in the composite materials field, including a monograph, Fatigue of Composite Materials (1987), Damage Mechanics of Composite Materials (editor, 1994), Polymer Matrix Composites (editor, 2000), and his latest book, Damage and Failure of Composite Materials (with C.V. Singh, Cambridge University Press, 2012). He has written 25 book chapters, given over 230 invited presentations at conferences, universities and industry R&D organizations, taught over 20 short courses, and is or has been on Editorial Boards of 15 international journals. He is the recipient of the 2013 ICCM Scala Award and World Fellow and Life Member of ICCM. His current interests are in cost-effective and sustainable design of composite structures. |
Dr. Mark T. Holtzapple, Professor
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In 1978, Mark Holtzapple received his B.S. in chemical engineering from Cornell University. In 1981, he received his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. From 1981 to 1985, Mark served in the U.S. Army and rose to the rank of captain. While in the Army, he performed research on water desalination and microclimate cooling, a method for cooling soldiers encapsulated in chemical protective clothing. In 1986, Mark joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, College Station, TX. Mark has authored over 140 peer-reviewed journal articles, a widely used engineering textbook, and 48 issued US patents. His research interests include fuels and chemicals from biomass, food and feed processing, water desalination, air conditioning, high-efficiency engines, jet engines, and vertical-lift aircraft. |
Dr. Reza Langari, Professor
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Dr. Reza Langari received his B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the UC Berkeley in 1981, 1983 and 1991 respectively. He worked for Measurex (Honeywell), Integrated Systems, and Insight Development Corp. prior to starting his academic career at Texas A&M University in September 1991. He has since held research positions at NASA Ames Research Center, Rockwell International Science Center (RISC), United Technologies Research Center (UTRC) as well as the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). Dr. Langari’s expertise is in the area of computational intelligence with application to mechatronic systems, industrial automation and autonomous and hybrid vehicles. He is the co-author of the textbook, Fuzzy Logic: Intelligence, Control and Information, Prentice Hall, 1999, Measurement and Instrumentation, Elsevier, 2011, 2015 (2nd edition), and co-editor of Fuzzy Control: Synthesis and Analysis, Wiley, 2000 as well Industrial Applications of Fuzzy Systems (IEEE Press, 1995.) He has served as associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technologies as well as the ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control. |
Dr. Muneer Mohammad, Research Associate
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Dr. Muneer Mohammad received the B.S. degree from Jordan University of Science and Technology in 2006, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Texas A&M University in 2009 and 2014, respectively, all in electrical engineering. His research interests are in energy dynamics, sustainable energy, renewable energy, and hybrid electric vehicles. He has over three years of experience as a teaching assistant for undergraduate and graduate courses that covered a wide spectrum of topics in sustainable energy, electronic motor drives, electric circuit, and foundation of engineering. He was selected to receive the first Outstanding Teaching Assistant award given by the Electrical and Computer Engineering department for his dedication to teaching and the outstanding work he has performed. |
Dr. Hussein M. K. Al-Masri (S’14, M’16)
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Dr. Al-Masri received the B.Sc. and M.S. degrees in electrical power engineering from Yarmouk University, Jordan, in 2010 and 2012, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University, College Station, USA in 2016. He is also currently a Lab Manager and Researcher with the Sustainable Energy and Vehicle Engineering Program, Power Electronics and Motor Drives Laboratory, Texas A&M University. His research interests include renewable retrofitting energy systems, power electronics and PV applications, and the applications of artificial intelligence techniques to solve power system problems. Dr. Al-Masri was awarded the outstanding graduate teaching fellowship at the department of electrical engineering in Texas A&M University for his excellent academic standing. |
Abdullah A Almehizia, PhD Student
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Abdullah Almehizia received his B.Eng. degree from King Saud University. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 2010, and the MEng degree form University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada in 2014. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. degree at Texas A&M University in, College Station, USA. His main research interests are related to renewable energy resources integration and optimization, Power system planning, reliability and economics. |
Ahmad Bashaireh, PhD Student
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Ahmad Bashaireh received the B.S. degree from the university of Jordan in 2009, and the M.S. degree from Texas A&M University in 2014, all in electrical engineering. He is currently pursuing his PhD in the area of power electronics. His current research interests include: analysis and design of power electronics systems, energy management, and sustainable energy. |
Nima Ershad, PhD student
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Nima Ershad was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1982. He received his B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Shahed University, Tehran, Iran, in 2005 and M.S degree in electrical engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology (Center of Excellence in Power Systems, Tehran, Iran) in 2008. He then started working in both academia, as a research associate, and in industry for about four years. He has published 5 ISI journal papers, 4 conference papers, in the area of machine design and energy management. He also has some Iranian national patents. He is now working towards his Ph.D. degree at Texas A&M University. His main interests are: analysis, design and manufacturing of electrical machines, fault detection, non-intrusive load monitoring, energy management and renewable energy. |
Babak Rahrovi, PhD student
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Babak Rahrovi received his B.Sc. degree from Sharif University of Technology, and his M.Sc. degree from University of Tehran both in Electrical Engineering in 2007 and 2010, respectively; and then he joined the industry for five years. He holds a M.Eng. degree in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University as well, and he is currently working toward his PhD at the Texas A&M University Power Electronics and Motor Drives laboratory. He has experience working in the electric vehicle industry and in the ABB Inc. Research Corporate Center as an intern and he has honored the Thomas W. Powell ’62 and Powell Industries Inc. Fellowship and the 2019 IEEE Texas Power and Energy Conference Best Paper award. His research interests are power electronics, motor drives, electrification of the transportation, and DC distribution systems. |
Ahmet Yasin Yeksan, PhD student
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Ahmet Yasin Yeksan was born in Konya, Turkey, in 1989. He received his B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey, in 2011 and M.S degree in electrical engineering from the same university in 2014. He worked as a research assistant for about four years. He has published 3 conference papers, in the area of electric drive systems. He joined advanced power electronics and drive systems group in 2014 and is pursuing his Ph.D. degree at Texas A\&M University. His main interests are analysis, design and implementation of electric drive systems, ac-dc and dc-dc power converters, electric and hybrid vehicles and flywheel-equipped energy transfer systems. |
Billy Yancey, PhD student
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Billy Yancey received his B.S. in Engineering from Arkansas State University and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University in 2005 and 2010 respectively. Throughout his M.S. and Ph.D he has held various internships in the area of electric vehicle design and renewable energy integration into the utility. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D in the area of sustainable energy and life cycle assessment. His current research interests include sustainable energy, power electronics, machines, and hybrid vehicles. |
Wang, Yiqi, PhD student
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Wang received a bachelor degree in Control &Measurement from Huazhong University of Sci. & Tech in Jun 2011. He is now pursuing his PhD degree at Texas A&M starting Sep 2011.His field of interests are mainly in electrical vehicle and its control. |
Owen Golden, M.Sc student
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Owen Golden received his B.S. degree in Engineering Physics (with a focus in Electrical Engineering) from the University of Colorado in 2012. He has four years of experience in the industry. He is currently working towards his M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering in the Power Systems group at A&M. He is studying the effects of semi-still loads on the dynamic controls of the induction motor. This research topic includes hybrid/electric vehicles and motor control methods. |
William Harris, M.Sc student
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William Harris received his BS degree in May 2015 in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University University, College Station, TX, USA. Mr. Harris is currently working toward MS degree in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University, starting Fall 2015. His research interests include microgrids, multi-disciplinary optimization, renewable energy systems, energy storage, and complex energy system interactions. |
Andre de Morais, M.Sc student
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Andre de Morais was born in Brazil on April 17 of 1981. He got a first bachelor’s in Physics in 2005 from the Community College of Formiga, Brazil , and a second bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Federal University of Minas Gerais, also in Brazil. In 2014 he joined the Power Electronics and Motor Drives group for a two years master’s program and since then he has been studying power electronics application for renewable sources of energy. He is interested in power electronics converters for PV applications. |
