Students & Postdocs

Joshua Brooks received his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2021. Currently, he is pursuing a PhD at the University of Michigan with Professor Johanna Mathieu. His interest in Power Systems is mostly centered around optimization and control. Joshua was born and raised in Detroit, MI and that has greatly influenced his research goals. Research that sits at the intersection of how we transition to a cleaner energy infrastructure and ensures the transition is equitable to all is of great interest to him. Joshua is also a bass player who loves playing and listening to music, cycling and hanging out with his 3 dogs. 

Sunny Chen is pursuing his PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Michigan under Professors Johanna Mathieu and Peter Seiler. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 2020. During the summer of 2020, he worked with the Commercial Buildings Group at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory on using data science to assess the health of solar panels. His current research interests are in wind farm control for grid frequency support. He also enjoys listening to and playing music.

Sung Yul Chu grew up in Seoul, South Korea and received his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from Yonsei University in South Korea in 2009 and 2011, respectively. His master’s work focused on the design and manufacturing of superconducting magnets. Before joining University of Michigan, he was an assistant Engineer-HW for smart phones at Samsung Electronics, Suwon, South Korea (2013) and a junior research engineer for automotive sensor’s digital circuit at Hyundai Kefico, Gunpo, South Korea (2014-2016).

He is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Michigan working with Prof. Al-Thaddeus Avestruz. His current interests involve the wireless power transfer, power measurements and its coil design. 

To contact Sung Yul, please send an e-mail to sungyul@umich.edu

Xiaofan Cui was born in Xian, Shaanxi, China. He received his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Automation from Tsinghua University in 2016. His undergraduate work includes electromagnetic field measurement, mechanical design, and high performance power electronics circuits design. He is now in Professor Al Avestruz’s group and studying for a PhD degree at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. His main research interests involve solar energy circuits analysis. To contact Xiaofan, please email cuixf@umich.edu.

Sijia Geng received her bachelor’s degree in Automation from Harbin Institute of Technology in 2016. During her undergraduate studies, she worked as research assistant in the Research Institute of Intelligent Control and System. Sijia also did an exchange study to the Purdue University in her senior year. After graduation, she joined the Michigan Power and Energy Laboratory at the University of Michigan working with Prof. Ian Hiskens. Her research interests include nonlinear and hybrid system analysis, second-order trajectory sensitivity analysis, microgrids control and optimization, and renewable energy resources. Sijia desires to apply her research to the real world in the hope of uplifting the whole people. During her free time, she enjoys playing piano and traveling. Sijia is also the membership chair of GradSWE at UM since 2017. Contact: sgeng@umich.edu.

Hannah Moring received her Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Florida (UF). While at UF, she became interested in optimization and control methods. Her interest in energy systems was sparked during an internship in the Energy Technologies area at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.  Currently, she is pursuing a Ph.D. in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan with Professor Johanna Mathieu. Her current research interests include power system optimization and control, specifically in regards to renewable energy generation and energy storage system integration. Hannah’s other interests include running, traveling, and baking.

Ioanni Marios (Giannis) Granitsas grew up in Athens, Greece. He received his Diploma in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) in 2017. Afterwards, he worked for a year as a research assistant under the supervision of Prof. Costas Vournas at the Laboratory of Electric Power Systems (ECE NTUA), examining the effect of wind farm stochastic power variability on the voltage stability support to the Hellenic Interconnected System.  Before joining the University of Michigan, he took up a 5-month internship as an energy analyst at Eunice Energy Group located in Athens, where he contributed in the analysis of the energy market in order to find import or export opportunities. 

Giannis joined the University of Michigan in 2019 and is currently pursuing his PhD in Electrical Engineering, working as a Research Assistant at the Michigan Power and Energy Laboratory, under the supervision of Prof. Ian Hiskens and Prof. Johanna Mathieu. His research interests include the use of stochastic methods, optimization and data analysis in order to cope with the increasing uncertainty introduced by renewable energy sources in electric power systems and energy markets. To contact Giannis please email igran@umich.edu.

Sunho Jang grew up in Seoul, South Korea and earned his B.S. degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Seoul National University in 2019. In 2017, he worked as a research intern in Naver Labs Robotics Laboratory in which he participated in a project developing a social robot for children. During the last year of his undergraduate, he was an intern in the Control and Optimization Research Laboratory (CORE Lab) in Seoul National University, and conducted research on an optimization algorithm for dynamic programming to solve a stochastic optimal control problem. He is now pursuing his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan under Prof. Johanna Mathieu and Prof. Necmiye Ozay. His current research focuses on developing a scalable optimal control algorithm for a collection of many systems with constraints, especially for power systems.

Sebastian A. Nugroho was born and raised in the cultural city of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. After spending years attending primary and secondary school in his hometown, he moved to Bandung, Indonesia in 2008 to obtain his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering. He graduated with the BS degree in 2012 from Institut Teknologi Bandung and continued his education to the master’s level at the same university in 2013, where he graduated in 2014 with an MS degree specializing in control systems and robotics. After graduation, he joined Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta as a lecturer and a year later, he moved to Jakarta to work as a software engineer in a financial technology company. He moved to San Antonio, Texas in early 2017 to pursue his PhD degree in electrical engineering at the University of Texas at San Antonio under the guidance of Dr. Ahmad F. Taha. In the early summer of 2021, he joined the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Michigan Power and Energy Laboratory supervised by Prof. Johanna Mathieu and Prof. Ian Hiskens. His primary research interests are control theory and engineering optimization with applications to cyber-physical systems, particularly in smart grid technology.

Oluwagbemileke Oyefeso hails from Lagos, Nigeria where he obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of Lagos. His undergraduate thesis was on the “Local Production and Utilization of Solar Panels in Nigeria”. Prior to joining the University of Michigan, Gbemileke worked with Ariosh Limited as an Instrumentation and Control Engineer where he contributed greatly to the Front End and Detailed Engineering Design of various oil & gas projects.

He is currently pursuing his PhD at the University of Michigan, in Electrical and Computer Engineering, with Control Systems as his Major. His research interests span across Industrial Process Control and Automation, Renewable Energy and Load Control. Gbemileke currently works with Prof. Johanna Mathieu and Prof. Ian Hiskens on overcoming the technical challenges associated with load control at scale.

Read more about Oluwagbemileke’s professional background on LinkedIn. Reach out to Oluwagbemileke at ooyefeso@umich.edu

Jing Peng is from Yunnan, China. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Environmental System Engineering from Penn State University and a Master’s degree in Environmental Management and Economics from Johns Hopkins University (JHU). While at JHU, she became interested in energy system modeling and energy policies, and conducted research on the impacts of carbon policies on power system planning and the environment. Currently, Jing is pursuing her Ph.D. degree in the department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan with Prof. Johanna Mathieu. Her current research interests include power system optimization and power markets analysis. To contact Jing, please email jingpeng@umich.edu.

Ziyou Song’s interests include optimization, control, modeling, and estimation of electrical powertrain for electric, hybrid electric, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. In recent years, he mainly focused on the optimization and control of the battery-supercapacitor hybrid energy storage system (HESS), which has been widely used in PHEV applications. In previous publications, he showed that the energy management strategy and the component sizing of HESS should be optimized simultaneously to reduce the battery degradation and increase the system efficiency. Different HESS configurations were also compared based on the dynamic battery degradation model. Furthermore, a sliding-mode current controller and a Lyapunov function-based voltage controller were proposed to accurately control the battery/supercapacitor currents and bus voltage. For now, he works with Professor Heath Hofmann on the adaptive energy management strategy, which can be used in HESS when its parameters significantly change. In addition, he also cooperates with Professors Minggao Ouyang and Jianqiu Li in Tsinghua University to deal with the network time-delay problem in distributed electric vehicles. To contact Ziyou, please email ziyou@umich.edu.

Anna Stuhlmacher received her bachelors of science from Boston University in Electrical Engineering. Currently, she is pursuing a PhD degree at the University of Michigan with Prof. Johanna Mathieu. Anna’s current research focuses on creating an optimal urban water distribution algorithm that is spatio-temporally responsive to the electricity distribution network’s locational marginal prices, while meeting the consumers’ demands. By coupling these networks, the water distribution network would no longer be a passive load on the electricity network. She is originally from the western suburbs of Chicago. In her free-time, Anna likes hiking, biking, ice cream, and playing badminton. To contact Anna, please email  akstuhl@umich.edu.

Yuanying Wang is from Chengdu, China, the sweet home for giant pandas and hotpot. She received her bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Automation at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China in 2014, and master’s degree in Control and Signal Processing at University of Michigan in 2016. She is currently pursuing her PhD degree at University of Michigan in Prof. Heath Hofmann’ research group. Her research focuses on computational thermal analysis and thermal modeling of electric machines. Yuanying loves playing badminton and piano in her spare time. To contact:  yuanying@umich.edu.

Xin Zan grew up in Qinghai – Tibet Plateau, the Third Pole of the world. He received his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Automation from Tsinghua University, China in 2016. During his undergraduate studies, he made progress in the fields of electromagnetics and the application of information theory in power systems. He also focused on power electronics and his undergraduate thesis is Modeling of IEGT and Loss Simulation of Its Converters.Xin ZAN is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree with Prof. Al-Thaddeus Avestruz. His interests are power electronics, renewable energy, circuit design and control. Outside of work, Xin enjoys sports, travel, movies and cooking. To contact Xin, please email him at xinzan@umich.edu.