Power and Energy Faculty Spark New Innovation in Several Fields
Written by Ryley McGinnis, Engineering Communications
The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering has powerhouse research and teaching faculty. Still, a group of faculty members focused on power and energy research know that their potential can only be multiplied by coming together.
Professors Ali Bazzi, Sung Yeul Park, Zongjie Wang, Yang Cao, Junbo Zhao, and Ha Nguyen comprise the six core faculty members, with two affiliate members, Krishna Pattipati and Shan Zuo. Each member focuses on different research areas, but together, they represent the expanse of research in the power and energy space.
“In the past 14 years, the department has added faculty that show the breadth and depth of power and energy research,” said Bazzi, the group’s leader.
For Bazzi, the group is an essential step to position the department and UConn as a leader in the field. “Our expertise span the field, from power systems to micro-grids, to power components,” he said. With their combined knowledge, they hope to expand the knowledge they can teach their students and access to more significant and impactful grants.
“The power and energy group focuses on new opportunities and conducts diverse research activities and education from various perspectives, including power systems and power electronics,” said Wang, assistant professor in the department.
Wang hopes the group and collaboration of the faculty members’ research interests will lead to further innovations to improve power grids’ efficiency and stability.
“Security, especially, is an emerging need in power and energy,” said Bazzi. “Successfully securing power grids requires people who understand the power system, power components, grid protection, and more. Collectively, our group has the knowledge to tackle these emerging issues.”
Another main area of interest for the group is renewable energy. Wang, Nguyen, Zhao, and Park focus on renewable energy in their research, but with collaboration among the rest of the team, they see even more possibilities for expanding renewable energy.
Several of the faculty members, including Bazzi, Cao, and Nguyen, are also team members at the Eversource Energy Center, a dynamic research partnership between Eversource and UConn faculty to tackle topics from storm preparedness, electric grid reinforcement, and renewable energy.
The group plans to leverage each of their existing partnerships to create curriculum and research innovations, said Bazzi. “We are positioning ourselves to offer cutting-edge coursework and research for undergraduate and graduate students.
Core Faculty Profiles:
Ali Bazzi
Sung Yeul Park
Zongjie Wang
Yang Cao
Ha Nguyen
Junbo Zhao
Ali Bazzi is an associate professor, the leader of the Power and Energy Group, and a faculty member of UConn’s Center for Clean Energy Engineering (C2E2). He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and his research interests are design, control, and optimization of power electronic systems. Bazzi is also the leader of the Power Electronics and Drives Advanced Research Laboratory (PEARL) as part of the Center for Clean Energy Engineering at UConn.
Sung-Yeul Park is an associate professor and a faculty member of UConn’s Center for Clean Energy Engineering (C2E2) and received his Ph.D. from Virginia Tech. His main research interests are in power electronics, energy conversion, renewable energy, and smart grids.
Zongjie Wang is an assistant professor and received her Ph.D. from Harbin Institute of Technology. Her research interests are in modern power systems, including transmission and distribution systems, renewable energy, optimization, and distributed energy resources.
Yang Cao is a professor and UConn alumnus. He received his Ph.D. in materials science from UConn in 2002. His research focuses on grid protection, flexible electronics, and high-voltage engineering. He is also a team member at the Eversource Energy Center.
Ha Nguyen is an assistant research professor and received her Ph.D. from the Technical University of Denmark. She previously worked with the Center for Energy Research at the University of California. Her research interests are power system modeling, operation and control, simulations, frequency stability and control, and renewable energy integration.
Junbo Zhao is an assistant professor and earned his Ph.D. from Virginia Tech. His research interests include cyber-physical power system modeling, monitoring, uncertainty quantification, dynamics, stability control, and security with renewable energy.
