Personnel
Dr. Mark Ehsani, Professor personal website
Dr.
Mark Ehsani received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the
University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1981. Since 1981, he has been at
Texas A&M University where he founded the power electronics program.
He is the co-author of more than 300 technical papers, 3 books, an
IEEE standards book, and 20 patents. Three of these papers have
received prize paper awards in IEEE-IAS. He has also been honored by
numerous organizations, including IEEE awards and Texas A&M
University as Halliburton Professor and Dresser Industries
Professor. His current research work is in power electronics, motor
drives, hybrid electric vehicles and systems. He has served on the
Ad Com of Power Electronics Society, Executive Council of Industry
Applications Society, elected member of the Board of Governors of
Vehicular Technology Society, and as chairman and member of several
technical committees, in several societies. He is a Fellow of IEEE,
a Distinguished Speaker of Industrial Electronics Society, Power
Engineering Society, and past Distinguished Lecturer of Industry
Application Society and a registered Professional engineer in the
state of Texas.
Dr. Karen L. Butler-Purry, Associate Professor
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. Mark T. Holtzapple, Professor
Dr.
Holtzapple received the Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in
1981 and the B.S. from Cornell University in 1978, both in chemical
engineering. He is now at Texas A&M University in the chemical
engineering department. His research interests include biomass
conversion for fuel and chemical manufacturing, environment-friendly
air conditioning systems, and advanced heat engines. He is the
inventor of the MixAlco biomass conversion process and the inventor
of the StarRotor engine. Dr. Holtzapple has received many awards,
including the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award in 1996,
McGraw-Hill Environmental Champion Award in 1997, and the Spirit of
Innovation Award for Ingenuity in 2003. He has been honored by Texas
A& M University as a Halliburton Professor. Prof. Holtzapple has
also created a company to develop and market the StarRotor engine.
He is a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Chemical
Society and the American Society for Engineering Education.
Dr. Reza Langari, Associate Professor
Dr.
Reza Langari received his Ph.D., M.S. and B.S. degrees in mechanical
engineering from the University of California at Berkeley in 1991,
1983 and 1980 respectively. He is an associate professor in the
Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University and
Associate Director of the Center for Fuzzy Logic, Robotics and
Intelligent Systems Research. Dr Langari is the co-author of the
textbook Fuzzy Logic: Intelligence, Control and Information, and
co-editor of Fuzzy Control: Synthesis and Analysis. He serves as
associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems as well as
ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control. His
current research interests include dynamic systems and control,
intelligent control systems, vehicle dynamics and control. real-time
control systems and mechatronics.
Dr. Thomas Lalk, Associate Professor
Dr.
Lalk received his Ph.D., M.S. and B.S. from the University of
Wisconsin at Madison in 1972, 1967, 1964 respectively. He joined
Texas A&M University in 1976 after having worked as a research
engineer for McDonnell-Douglas and DuPont, and as an Assistant
Professor at The Cooper Union, NYC. During the early portion of his
academic career he was primarily involved with teaching courses in
thermal sciences (thermodynamics-undergraduate and graduate, heat
transfer, internal combustion engines, graduate combustion, fluid
dynamics, instrumentation and measurement, and experimentation).
Since 1987 he has become extensively involved with the senior
capstone design courses teaching the lecture and design studios, and
contributing to the development of the system engineering approach
to teaching design. As a Ford Fellow he serves on a Committee to
integrate design throughout the engineering curriculum. He has
advised numerous graduate students conducting research in energy
conversion systems (combustion, engines, hybrid vehicles, fuel
cells, design and Alkali Metal Thermal to Electric Conversion). He
has done considerable consulting with industry, government and law
firms in the areas of engineering design, fire research, combustion,
internal combustion engines, heat transfer and fluid mechanics, and
automotive engineering. At the College and University level he has
served on numerous committees and served six years on the faculty
senate.
Dr. John M. Miller, Adjunct Professor
John
M. Miller received the B.S. from the University of Arkansas, the
M.S.E.E. degree from Southern Methodist University, TX, and the
Ph.D. from Michigan State University in 1976, 1979 and 1983
respectively, all in electrical engineering. He was a member of the
technical staff at Texas Instruments from 1976 to 1980 and joined
Ford Motor Company Research Laboratory in 1983 to work on electric
vehicle programs and vehicle electrical systems and simulation. He
was technical project leader for 42V Integrated Starter Alternator
product development program and later technical leader of hybrid
technology governance at Ford before his retirement. He is a charter
member of the MIT/Industry Consortium on Advanced Automotive
Electrical and Electronic Systems and Components. He became an
Adjunct Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Michigan
State University in 1998 and an Adjunct Professor of Electrical and
Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University in 2002. He is the
holder of 44 US patents, has authored or co-authored 106
publications and 3 books. Dr Miller retired from Ford Motor Co. in
August of 2002 to start up a private enterprise consulting in AC
drives, alternative energy, energy storage systems and propulsion
systems for transportation, J-N-J Miller design services, P.L.C. He
is a member of SAE, and a Fellow of IEEE. He is the recipient of the
Henry Ford Technology Award for the development of the
starter-alternator system for Hybrid Electric Vehicles and is
recipient of the Ford Directors Team Achievement Award.
Dr. Yimin Gao, Research Associate
Dr.
Yimin Gao received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical
engineering in 1982, 1986 and 1991 respectively, all from Jilin
University of Technology, PR of China. He specialized in the
development, design and manufacturing of automobiles. From 1991 to
1995, he was an associate professor and automotive design engineer
in the Automotive Engineering College of Jilin University of
Technology. He joined the Advanced Vehicle Systems Research Program
at Texas A&M University in 1995 as a visiting professor. Since then,
he has been working in this program as a research associate on the
research and development of electric and hybrid electric vehicles.
His research interests include the fundamentals, architecture,
control, modeling, and systematic design of electric and hybrid
electric vehicles.
Guadalupe González, PhD. Student
Guadalupe
Gonzalez was born in Panama. She received her B.S. degree in
electromechanical engineering from the Technological University of
Panama, where she also worked as a research assistant. In 2006, she
was awarded a scholarship from SENACYT-IFARHU to pursue M.S. and
Ph.D. studies in electrical engineering at Texas A&M University. Her
areas of interest include electric machines, motor drives, hybrid
vehicles, power systems and computer aided design.
Ronald Y. Barazarte, PhD. Student
Ronald
Barazarte was born in Venezuela in 1982 and raised in Panama since
then. He obtained his Bachelors degree in Electromechanical
Engineering from the Technological University of Panama in 2005,
where he has worked since then. His Master's and Doctoral studies
are sponsored by the "IFARHU-SENACYT Professional Excellence
Program" of the panamanian government. Ronald's currently interest
areas are electromagnetic design of non-conventional motion devices
and interaction of renewable energy systems and non-conventional
electrical machines with the power system.
Ali Eskandari, PhD. Student
Ali
Eskandari has got both his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Electrical
Engineering, Controls from the University of Tehran in 2003 and 2005
respectively. He then started his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at
Simon Fraser University, BC, Canada in 2006 and transferred to Texas
A&M University in the same year. His current research is on
Automotive Engineering and Hybrid Vehicles in specific.
Joshua Hawke, PhD. Student
Joshua
Hawke was born in Minneapolis/St. Paul,
Lin Lai, PhD. Student
Lin
Lai was born in
Billy Yancey, MSc. Student
Billy
Yancey received his B.S. in Engineering in December 2005 from
Arkansas State University. Upon graduation he attended University of
Missouri-Rolla, studying in the area of electromagnetics. He was
part of the Applied Microwave Nondestructive Testing (amntl)
research group, where his primary research project was detection of
skin cancer using an open ended coaxial probe. He decided to pursue
a M.S. at Texas A&M in power electronics and motor drives. His
current research interests include clean energy systems, power
electronics, and switched reluctance machines.
Hung-ming Chou, MSc. Student
Hung-ming
Chou received his B.S. degree in Electrical and Control Engineering
in National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan in 2004 and currently is
working on his master degree. His research interests include power
electronics, power systems and motor drives, multi-level inverters,
hybrid energy storage, doubly fed induction generators, and
high-frequency high-power DC-DC converter. His primary research is
on the modeling and control of advanced power converters.
Richard Smith, MSc. Student
Richard Smith received his BS in Electrical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. He is currently pursuing an MS degree at Texas A&M. He is interested in control of power electronics for renewable energy systems. He is currently working on a control strategy for a new power supply which could be used in electric vehicles.
Bo Chen, MSc. Student
Bo
Chen received her B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Wuhan
University, China, in June 2007. She is currently pursuing her
MSc.
at Texas A & M University. Her research interests include Power
electronics, Superconductive Magnetic Storage (SMES), and High
Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) power transmission.
Sriram Emani, MSc. Student
Sriram
Sarma Emani was born in
Yue Gao, MSc. Student
Yue
Gao was born in China. She received her bachelor's degree in
electrical engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology in July
2008. She is now working towards a MSc. degree at Texas A&M
University under Dr. M. Ehsani. Yue current research interests are
in the electric and hybrid electric vehicles area.