Staff Directory

Mark is currently a PhD student in Electrical Engineering at Columbia University. He completed his M.S. and B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the National Chung Cheng University in Taiwan, where he earned first place in his department’s undergraduate school. In 2023, he received the Best Master Thesis Award from the IEEE Tainan Section for his outstanding research and academic performance. His undergraduate research project also won first place in his department’s project competition, which resulted in him receiving the Best Paper Award at IEEE 2020 IS3C.

Mark’s research interests include VSC-HVDC, battery energy storage systems, wind farms, and their applications in frequency regulation. He intends to focus his future research on power electronic converters and smart grid controls.

Zhuoxuan is currently a PhD student at MPLab, Columbia University. He was born and grew up in Xi’an, China and received the bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and automation and the minor degree in economics in 2021 from Xi’an Jiaotong University. Later in 2022, he received the MSc degree in future power networks from Imperial College London, London, UK. Supervised by Dr. Fei Teng at Imperial, he worked on data-driven approaches to model and solve power system scheduling problems.

Prior to joining Columbia University in 2025, Zhuoxuan worked 2.5 years as a software engineer focusing on modulation strategies, harmonic performances, weak-gird stability, and other controller functions in PV inverters, power conversion systems (PCS) for battery energy storages, and plant-level controllers. During his undergraduate studies, Zhuoxuan interned as a product and a development engineer respectively in the electricity market and the power equipment manufacturing sector.

Zhuoxuan’s research includes design, control, topology innovation, and partial power processing for high-performance power converters, along with general interests in both hardware and software issues of power electronics. He is committed to advancement in power electronics technologies that benefit our society and the planet.

In his spare time, Zhuoxuan loves music, board games, and learning history and philosophy.

Youssef Fahmy received a B.Sc. in Physics from Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, and a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University, New York, NY through a joint program in 2020. He was a research associate at the Fraden MRSEC Group, Brandeis University, from 2017-2018. Youssef has worked on high voltage systems with the Columbia University FSAE electric racing vehicle team since 2018. He is currently a MS/PhD track student at Columbia University in the Motor Drives and Power Electronics Laboratory.

His research interests include electric vehicles, power electronics, and alternative energy resources.

Yousef S. Al-Qattan is a graduate student at Columbia University pursuing an M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering. He was inducted into the MS Honors Program in Spring 2025. Yousef graduated Magna Cum Laude with a dual B.Sc. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2018.
Prior to joining Columbia, he was a research associate at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR), where he collaborated with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to analyze Kuwait’s energy system, develop data-driven demand forecasting models, and create optimization models to assess long-term energy infrastructure expansion pathways.
Outside of the lab, Yousef is interested in history, geopolitics, social and economic systems, and the larger forces shaping energy transitions.
At MPlab, his primary research interests are power electronics, renewable energy, and controls, specifically focusing on multi-grid power converters with decentralized per-phase control.

Winston Qin is a B.S. student in Electrical Engineering at Columbia University and an undergraduate researcher in Columbia’s Motor Drives & Power Electronics Lab (MPLab). His current work centers on designing PCBs to interface various C2000 microcontrollers with PLECS RT Box for hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing of distributed control schemes. He experiments with mixed-signal design, ethernet communication and DC-DC converter circuitry in his investigations and uses various laboratory instruments at the MPLab to perform meticulous testing and validation.

Apart from scalable HIL infrastructure, Winston is also broadly interested in electric traction, battery systems, and power converter topology in railway and EV applications. Having grown up in New York City, he is especially fond of the SPWM sounds made by the multi-megawatt inverters of accelerating subway trains. As an undergraduate student, he is the project lead of Columbia Locomotives, a 1/6th-scale electric locomotive engineering team competing at the International iMechE Railway Challenge. Winston is also Technical Team Co-Lead for Columbia's Engineers Without Borders—Ghana chapter and the Conservation Lead for Columbia Birding Troupe. In his free time, he is also an avid soccer player, trail runner, professional photographer and volunteer bird rescuer. You can find his best photography work at WinstonPX.com.

Weizong received the B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the Harbin Institute of Technology, Weihai, Shandong, China in 2014, the M.A.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada in 2016, and the Ph.D. degree from Columbia University, New York, NY in 2020. He is currently a Senior Engineer at Amogy in Brooklyn, NY and has previously held an engineering position at Lucid Motors in Newark, California.

Steyn Guelen earned his Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in 2023, with his thesis on power line communication. He is currently pursuing a Master's in the Electromechanics and Power Electronics track at TU/e, and is a visiting student at Columbia University’s MPlab.

Alongside his academic pursuits, Steyn has gained practical experience in the Eindhoven region through various part-time roles, contributing to the design and manufacturing of PCBAs for power and digital applications.

His primary research interests are power electronics with a focus on electrified transportation and energy-storage. Other research interests include battery management and smart grid applications.

Ms. Reanna Orzechowski is a PhD student and Tesla Scholar at Columbia University. Her research focus is power electronics and motor drives for EV applications.  

Reanna completed her Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering at the University of Michigan. While at the University of Michigan, Reanna studied embedded systems, advanced control theory, electric machinery and drives, and digital signal processing. She also participated in the Formula SAE team MRacing as an Electrical Powertrain leading member. While on MRacing she designed the software for the custom inverter using both Simulink and Embedded-C programming. 

During her two internships at Stellantis, the international automotive conglomerate, Reanna worked on electrified powertrain systems. She created simulations of electrical power systems and made key comparisons to experimental results. She also created a product line engineering (PLE) model for controls software applications to increase the reusability of code. 

Reanna worked at May Mobility, a start-up autonomous vehicle company in Ann Arbor, MI. While at May Mobility, Reanna researched and pinpointed 20 software faults that affected the vehicle platform’s reliability and safety. She developed a website to track software faults over specified dates, sites, software versions, routes, and vehicle types. 

Most recently, Reanna interned at Northrop Grumman, working on magnetics design and analysis for power converters. She did magnetics analysis in ANSYS for an interleaved inductor in a dual-buck converter circuit combining the magnetic and electrical domain into a single simulation. Reanna also designed three common-mode inductor filter options for EMI and voltage ripple suppression in a 3-phase AC/DC converter.

Research interests include advanced controls, modern mobility, and renewable energy.

Po Yen Lin is a Master's student from Columbia and graduating December of 2022. He received his
B.S. degree from the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology in 2020. At MPlab, Po 
worked on the converters’ current and voltage sensors calibration and CAN communication.

His current research involves calculating the switching losses of different MOSFETs and applying methods to increase the efficiency of the power electronics.

Po held an internship at the UPS department from Delta Electronics for executing thermal testing
and EMC testing for two months. He participated the 2021 IEEE/AIAA Aerospace Student
Design Challenge and used space vector models to provide stable three-phases source for the
PMSM, and the team received fourth place in the competition.

His research interests are in power electronics and functional integrations.

Dr. Peng Wang (Senior Member, IEEE) is a postdoctoral research scientist at Columbia University, New York, USA. He received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Sheffield, Sheffield, U.K., in 2025, under the supervision of Prof. Ziqiang Zhu (IEEE Fellow). From 2025 to 2026, he was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Manchester, Manchester, U.K. He also serves as a Guest Editor for IET Electric Power Applications and Energies, and has been involved in organizing special sessions as a chair for CIEEC 2026.

His current research interests include constrained optimal control, online parameter estimation, sensorless control, and multi-three-phase drive systems for permanent magnet synchronous machines.
 

Oliver grew up in Sydney, Australia and graduated from Rice University in 2023, completing degrees in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. He worked on communications and control of MPlab inverters while a Masters student at Columbia. Oliver is now a Software Engineer on the Power Conversion and Charging team at Tesla.

Noah received academic training, specializing in power electronics, at MIT (SB, Jun.'10) and Colorado Boulder (MS, Dec.'21). He worked alongside top PhD-trained Principal Engineers & President at Diversified Technologies, a power electronics engineering firm based in Bedford, MA, with a global footprint (SBIRs, government initiatives, and academic institutions).

He is currently a PhD student with a keen interest in high-voltage power electronics applications. He is a teaching assistant for Columbia's electrical engineering programs (undergrad & grad).

Navid Rahbariasr received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA, in 2015. He earned his M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran, in 2011, and his B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Tabriz University, Tabriz, Iran, in 2008, specializing in Control Systems.

He is currently an Associate Research Scientist at Columbia University, where he develops advanced control and optimization techniques for energy and power management in AC and DC microgrids. Additionally, he is an Adjunct Faculty member, teaching a graduate course on Model Predictive Control.

Before joining Columbia University, he was a Principal Engineer and Senior Team Lead at MathWorks, where he led a team providing advanced technical support and consulting for MATLAB/Simulink applications in Model-Based Design (MBD), Embedded Code Generation, and AUTOSAR. Prior to that, he worked as a Control Systems Engineer at Ford Motor Company, focusing on high-voltage energy storage control for electric vehicles, including Model-Based Design, threat modeling, and vehicle-to-grid interactions.

He has also served as an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, teaching graduate-level courses on sustainable energy systems and energy storage devices.

His research interests include advanced optimization and control with applications to renewable energy systems, electric vehicles, and smart grids. He has authored multiple peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers and holds several patents related to battery management, electric vehicle energy optimization, and grid interactions.

Musaed Albaghdadi graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.Sc in Electrical Engineering from San Diego State University in 2021. He, then, joined Columbia University as an M.S. student pursuing a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering with specialization in Smart Electric Energy in 2022. Musaed, also, has previous experience working on projects in the construction industry while interning at Agility, a company that engineers world-class structures and complexes with sustainable design features in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia.

Musaed’s interest in sustainable energy solutions and renewable sources is the drive behind his most recent research work. He is currently working to maximize batteries’ performance and health using cost-effective techniques at MPLab.

Michael received the B.Eng.Mgt. and MASc degrees from McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada and the PhD degree in 2021 from Columbia University, New York, NY, USA, all in electrical engineering. He is currently a Research and Development Engineer in power electronics at the Power Networks Demonstration Centre, University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom, and is serving as the Treasurer for the 2022 IEEE/AIAA ITEC+EATS conference.

His research interests are in estimation and control of power electronics and motor drives for transportation electrification.

Max is a MS/PhD track student. He received his BS in electrical engineering from Columbia University in 2023. He joined the lab as an MS track student in summer 2023 doing research in WRSM optimization.Research interests include control optimization and wound rotor synchronous machines (WRSM).

Matt was a PhD student and Columbia Tesla Scholar who successfully defended his PhD thesis in Fall 2024.  He received his B.S in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2017 and joined Columbia in 2018.  He has held internships at Sikorsky, Pratt & Whitney, Bose, and MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Matt successfully defended his PhD thesis in Fall 2024.

His primary research interests are in power electronics for electric vehicles.

Martha is a MS/PhD track student from Connecticut who grew up in Shanghai, China, finished high school in Massachusetts, and went to California to receive her B.S. in Engineering from Harvey Mudd College in 2021. While at Mudd, she worked in a lab designing and performing research on an acoustically powered autonomous fish tracker. Since graduating, she has been in New York City building transit tech as an Electrical/Computer Engineer with Boyce Technologies. 

Her research interests include alternative energy sources, smart grid integration, and energy storage systems.

Manfredi is a Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University. He holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Catania, which he earned in 2020. In 2023, he completed his M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Milan. During his master's studies, Manfredi was actively involved in the Physis PEB (POLIMI Energy Boat Team), contributing to their participation in the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge. He played a significant role in the construction of a zero-emission hybrid propelled catamaran dealing with the energy sources and electrical safety. During his master’s thesis, Manfredi worked as a Visiting Student at the MIT Senseable City Lab, where he focused on investigating the impact of thermal storage for urban development. Manfredi's roots lie in Catania, Italy, where he was born and raised.

His primary research interests include battery management, power electronics and energy storage systems.

Luca is a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University’s MPlab in New York City. He holds a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, awarded with highest honors, from the University of Naples Federico II in 2023, where he is currently pursuing his M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering. During his academic path, Luca focused on power electronics, renewable energy systems, and motor drives, developing a strong background in the design and control of energy conversion systems.

During his master’s studies, Luca carried out research in the field of power electronics on the Comparison Between Instantaneous Values Model, Averaged Model, and Tangent Model of the Ćuk Converter, and in the field of motor drives on advanced control of electric machines.

At Columbia’s MPlab, Luca’s primary research centers on innovative control strategies for dual-fed inverter topologies applied to open-winding permanent magnet synchronous machines, with the aim of improving performance, efficiency, and resilience in next-generation electric drive systems.

Liwei Zhou received the B.E. and the M.E. degrees both in electrical engineering from Shandong University, Jinan, China, in 2014 and 2017, respectively. He obtained the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University, New York City, in 2022. 

His current research interests include soft-switching techniques for modular power converter, model predictive control, state estimation and other advanced control technologies, grid-connected converter, electric vehicle battery charging control, and inductor design. He serves as the Session Chair in 2022 IEEE/AIAA ITEC+EATS, Tutorial/Short Course Chair in ITEC 2023 and the Guest Editor for the journal Energies. He won the best paper award in the International Conference on Applied Energy, MIT A+B 2022. He was the recipient of the IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Expo 2018 Student Travel Award. He was also the co-recipient of the Best Student Paper Award of the IEEE Transportation Electrification Conference and Expo 2021.

Liwei Zhou received the B.E. and the M.E. degrees both in electrical engineering from Shandong University, Jinan, China, in 2014 and 2017, respectively. He obtained the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University, New York City, in 2022. 

His current research interests include soft-switching techniques for modular power converter, model predictive control, state estimation and other advanced control technologies, grid-connected converter, electric vehicle battery charging control, and inductor design. He serves as the Session Chair in 2022 IEEE/AIAA ITEC+EATS, Tutorial/Short Course Chair in ITEC 2023 and the Guest Editor for the journal Energies. He won the best paper award in the International Conference on Applied Energy, MIT A+B 2022. He was the recipient of the IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Expo 2018 Student Travel Award. He was also the co-recipient of the Best Student Paper Award of the IEEE Transportation Electrification Conference and Expo 2021.

Zhixuan Yu, or Kevin Yu, received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Computer Science from Tufts University (cum laude) at Medford, MA in 2021. He joined Columbia University as a Tesla Scholar to pursue a M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering in the same year.

His current research focus is investigating the scaling of rotor sizes and numbers on conventional small scale rotorcrafts and its impact on power consumption.

Kamil is a MS/PhD track student. He received his BS in Electrical Engineering and a minor in Computer Science from Columbia University in 2024. He has internship experience as a Test Engineer at Texas Instruments (Summer 2023, 2024). His research interests include electric vehicles, power electronics, and alternative energy resources.

Jingping Nie is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Columbia University, studying under the supervision of Dr. Xiaofan Jiang and Dr. Matthias Preindl. She received her Master of Science degree (Honor Student) in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University (2018), and the Bachelor of Science degree (Magna cum Laude with High Honors) in Engineering Science from Smith Collge (2017).

Jingping's research lies at the intersection of artificial intelligence, machine learning, cyber-physical systems, and data analytics. She is focusing on designing the next generation of Internet of Things platforms to improve our lives by sensing the physical world in its many forms.

Haoyu Wang received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering and automation from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China, in 2020, and the M.S. degree in electrical engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 2023. He is a recipient of the Best Master’s Thesis Award at Tsinghua University and an outstanding graduate of Beijing.

His current research interests include dc-dc converters, high-efficiency power converters, and artificial-intelligence-based design and control of power converters.

Francesco is now the CEO and founder of Newtwen.

Federico is a Ph.D student at Columbia University with particular interest in electromechanical energy conversion and power electronics. He was previously at the Wisconsin Electric Machines and Power Electronics Consortium (WEMPEC) where he completed a research master’s in electrical engineering with a focus on electric machines and drives. His MS work focused on the development of a novel bladeless turbine with increased efficiency.

Federico has accrued more than a year of industry experience while interning at Tesla on the electric motor design team where he worked on high voltage motor design, with a focus on characterizing winding insulation. At Tesla, he developed automated testing systems and designed advanced mechanical testing setups for life-cycle tests and prototype motor builds.

Originally from Milan, Italy, he came to the US in 2017 to attend Boston University, where he graduated with a double major in mechanical engineering and electrical engineering.

Etornam, is an MS in Electrical Engineering Alumni at Columbia University, excels in melding fields like signals, information, data, learning and control, and smart electric energy. His involvement in graduate research and teaching roles enhances his academic career by fostering synergy between knowledge creation and education.

He received his BS degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology (KNUST), Ghana, where he was recognized as the university valedictorian. At Columbia, his innovative work includes the development of a reduction algorithm for Piecewise Affine (PWA) models for real-time motor control and the utilization of Model Predictive Control (MPC) for Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM) control—a blend of theoretical insight and practical application.

Etornam's research interests lie in the nexus of optimization, control, and machine learning, especially their transformative applications in power systems.

Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Elliott graduated from Temple University in Philadelphia with a BS in 2020 and MS in 2022, both in Electrical Engineering. His prior research experience concerned the control and stability of grid-connected power electronics inverters for renewable energy applications and the black start of inverter-based microgrid power systems. With MPlab, he investigates electromagnetic compliance of variable-frequency, soft-switching inverters via mathematical modeling, simulation, and hardware experiments. By eliminating conducted electromagnetic interference before inverters are developed into hardware, his work increases the probability of passing electromagnetic compliance tests the first time. 

He would like to find himself one day working for the U.S. Department of Energy or, because he firmly believes that there are not enough scientists or engineers in politics, as a member of the House Representatives or Senate for Pennsylvania.
He enjoys listening to reggaeton, bachata, and punk rock when traveling between New York, Philadelphia, and his hometown.

Cyril is a M.S. student and Tesla Scholar at Columbia University. He received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering (First Class Honors) from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology in Ghana (2017).

Prior to attending Columbia, he worked with General Electric in the energy sector in sub-Saharan Africa. During his time at GE, he worked on a variety of gas turbine configurations and modifications, market tariffs and PPAs.

In his spare time, he loves to play chess and is a member of the Columbia University Formula Racing Team.

Research areas are in power systems, energy policy and electric vehicles.

Boya is now a Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University. He received the M.S degree at Tsinghua University and the B.S. degree at China University of Mining and Technology, all in Electrical Engineering.

His Ph.D. research field is the system-level control of (power) grid-connected power converter systems, with specific focus on renewable energy and energy storage.

Bert received his Ph.D. (2026), an M.Phil. (2023), M.S. (2022), and a B.S. (2020), from Columbia University in Electrical Engineering. He also holds a B.A. in Pre-Engineering with a minor in Computer Science from Ursinus College (summa cum laude, salutatorian, 2019, joint B.S. program). He participated in Columbia University Formula Racing (CUFR) in a variety of roles from 2018–2023. He held an internship at Comcast Corporation (2019) and worked at L3Harris Technologies (2020–2021). Bert was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and grew up in Pottstown, Pennsylvania.

Benjamin Drillings is a Electrical Engineering Master’s Alumni at Columbia working in research at the MPLab with supervision from Dr. Matthias Preindl. He is currently a member of the Columbia FSAE team and is looking to follow the Smart Electric Energy master’s concentration in hopes of pursuing his interest in control systems and power electronics. Benjamin previously graduated cum laude from SUNY New Paltz in May of 2022 where he received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering.

Ariana is a Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University. She holds a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell University, which she earned in 2023. As an undergraduate, Ariana led the Cornell Cup Robotics Electrical Subteam where she designed and tested hardware for an R2D2-inspired robot. Ariana has also completed internships as a Hardware Engineer at various satellite communication companies including Astranis Space Technologies, MITRE, and ViaSat.

Her research interests include Optimization, Power Systems, Smart Grids, Renewable Energy, and Controls.

Andrea Zilio received the B.S. and M.S. (Hons.) degrees in Mechatronics engineering from the University of Padova, Vicenza, Italy, in 2018 and 2020, respectively. During his master's thesis, Andrea studied the state of health estimation through impedance analysis and the active balancing in lithium-ion battery packs. He is currently a PhD student in Mechatronics at the Department of Management and Engineering at the University of Padova, and a visiting-scholar at Columbia University's MPlab in New York City.

His research interests are oriented to the applications of artificial intelligence in power electronics.

Ananda is an M.S. alumni from Columbia University. He received his Bachelor of Engineering from The University of Indonesia (Indonesia) in 2021, focusing on AI-based control systems. He worked as a project manager for BTS construction in rural areas of Indonesia (2021) overseeing over 430 towers across 2 islands. He then worked for Ernst & Young (EY) as a Technology Consultant in Digital and Emerging Technologies (2021-2022) where he specialized in industrial automation and IT/OT integration.

He is worked at MPLab, researching permanent magnet motors (PMSM) flux maps and controls using dSPACE Real-Time Systems. His research interests include motor drive controls, inverter technologies, grid modeling and simulation, smart grids & renewable integrations, and energy economics & policies.

Alexandre focuses on electric motors and power electronics, tackling design and control for applications in the automotive field. He earned his master's degree in Mechanical Engineering and propulsion systems at Centrale Nantes, a top French engineering school, before coming to Columbia to pursue his MS in Electrical Engineering as a Tesla Scholar. His main interests are in both conventional and electric automotive propulsion.

Alan is a PhD candidate in Electrical Engineering at Columbia University in the City of New York. In 2022-23, he was a Chateaubriand STEM fellow at CentraleSupélec, Université Paris-Saclay, France, and a Belgian American Educational Foundation fellow at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.

Alan grew up in Germantown, MD. He received his BEng Electronic and Electrical Engineering degree from University College London, UK, in 2019, and joined Columbia later that year.

His research interests include battery management systems, battery diagnostics using machine learning, and renewable energy in the grid and islanded systems.