People – Intelligent Power Electronics and Electric Machine Laboratory

Faculty

Jin Ye

Associate Professor

Jin Ye (IEEE S’13-M’14-SM’16) received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China, in 2008 and 2011, respectively. She also received her Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 2014. She is currently an associate professor of electrical engineering at the University of Georgia. She is the director of the Intelligent Power Electronics and Electric Machine Laboratory and serves as the associate director of Center for Cyber-Physical Systems at the University of Georgia. She has received a creative research medal for her significant contributions to power electronics security field and received a best paper award from IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference. She is a general chair of 2019 IEEE Transportation Electrification Conference and Expo (ITEC). She has served in the organizing committee of IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Expo (ECCE) since 2019 as a publication chair and\or woman in engineering (WIE) chair. She is a secretary for IEEE power electronics society (PELS) Technical Committee on Transportation Electrification (TC 4). She is an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, IEEE Open Journal of Power Electronics, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology and IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications. She was an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification 2017-2020. Her main research areas include power electronics, electric machines, smart grids, electrified transportation, and cyber-physical security.

Postdoctoral Associates

LuLu Guo

Assistant Professor at TongJi University

Lulu Guo received the B.S. degree in vehicle engineering from Jilin University, Changchun, China, in 2014, and the Ph.D. degree in control engineering from Jilin University in 2019. He is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate with the IPEM Laboratory at the University of Georgia. His current research interests include advanced automotive control, intelligent energy management of electric vehicles, and cyber-physical security of connected and automated vehicles.

Fangyu Li

Professor with Beijing University of Technology , China

Fangyu Li (Member, IEEE; POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATE (2018 - 2020)) received the B.S. degree in automation from Beihang University, Beijing, China, in 2009, the M.E. degree in control engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, in 2013, and the Ph.D. degree in geophysics from the University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA, in 2017.,From 2017 to 2020, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow with the College of Engineering, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA. From 2020 to 2021, he was a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Kennesaw State University, Marietta, GA, USA. He is currently a Full Professor and a Ph.D. Supervisor with the Faculty of Information Technology, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing. His research interests include complex signal processing, quantitative interpretation, machine learning, deep learning, distributed computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), and cyber-physical systems (CPS).

Students

Abolfazl Najar

PH.D. STUDENT (2025-Current)

I received the B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran, in 2019, and the M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering–Power Systems from the Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran, in 2021. After gaining three years of industry experience and contributing to major projects in Iran, I decided to pursue a Ph.D. as a Graduate Research Assistant in the Intelligent Power Electronics and Electric Machines (IPEM) Laboratory at the University of Georgia. My current research focuses on developing deep learning models for state estimation and anomaly detection, and I am building secure, real-time IoT pipelines using ESP32, MQTT, InfluxDB, and FastAPI. I am passionate about power system state estimation and fault detection, edge deployment, and applying machine learning to improve the intelligence and reliability of modern power systems.

He Yang

PH.D. STUDENT (Current)

He Yang received the B.S. degree from Tianjin University, Tianjin, China, in 2018 and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, in 2023. Currently he is pursuing a Ph.D. degree with the IPEM Laboratory at the University of Georgia. His current research focuses on cyber-physical security of power electronics and electric drive systems.

Shushan Wu

PH.D. STUDENT (Current)

Shushan Wu received the B.S. degree in mathematics from Nankai University, Tianjin, China, in 2020. She is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree with the University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.,She is a Research Assistant with the University of Georgia. Her current research interests include cyber–physical security, network data analysis, and network sampling.

Stephen James Coshatt

PH.D. STUDENT (Current)

Stephen Coshatt received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in computer engineering from Mercer University. He also received a MS in Management Information Systems from Georgia College State University. He is currently a civil service employee with Robins AFB. He is attending UGA to pursue a PhD in Engineering as a DoD SMART Scholar. Before his current role as a student, he spent over 10 years as an engineer with Robins AFB. He has worked in software engineering, process management, and cyber-security positions. He currently holds CISSP and CISM certifications in cyber-security.

Bryan Cooper Hammond

Master

Bryan received the B.S. degree from UGA in 2022. He is currently pursuing his master degree with the IPEM Laboratory at the University of Georgia. His research interests include CPS and the control of power electronics and electric machines.

Kun Hu

Assistant Professor at Shenzhen Technology University

Kun Hu received the B.S. degree and M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China in 2016 and 2018, respectively. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. degree with the IPEM Laboratory at the University of Georgia. Her research interests include modeling, control and condition monitoring of power electronics and electric machines.

Bowen Yang

Postdoc at National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Bowen Yang received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, in 2018. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree with the IPEM Laboratory at the University of Georgia, Athens, USA. His current research interests include advanced control for power electronics and electric machines, energy management systems and cyber-physical security of intelligent electric drives.

Jinan Zhang

Lead Engineer at Eaton

Jinan Zhang received the B.S. degree from North China Electric Power University, Beijing, China, in 2012 and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Tianjin University, Tianjin, China, in 2015. After graduated from Tianjin University, He worked at the State Grid Corporation of China from 2015 to 2019, responsible for distribution grid dispatch and operation. Currently he is pursuing a Ph.D. degree with the IPEM Laboratory at the University of Georgia. His current research focuses on security and resilience in power-electronics-based power systems.

Qi Li

Lead Engineer at Eaton

Qi Li received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from Chongqing University, Chongqing, China, in 2014 and 2019, respectively. Currently he is pursuing a Ph.D. degree with the IPEM and SensorWeb Laboratories at the University of Georgia. His current research focuses on data analytics, and cyber-physical security in smart grids and IoT applications.

Undergraduate and high school student researchers

Nicholas James Walker

senior undergraduate student

Nicholas James Walker is a senior undergraduate student with the IPEM Laboratory at the University of Georgia. He is working toward his B.S. degree in electrical and electronics engineering. His current research focuses on advanced modeling of switched reluctance machines.

Promyce Johnson

Promyce Johnson is an undergraduate student with the IPEM Laboratory at the University of Georgia, Athens, USA. She is working toward her B.S. degree in electrical and electronics engineering. Her current research focuses on simulation and validation of electric machines.

Ashleigh Sayles

Ashleigh Sayles is a senior student from North Oconee high School, GA. She was a summer intern with the IPEM Laboratory at the University of Georgia, co-sponsored by UGA Young Dawgs program. She was working on control of LEGO electric vehicles.

Mayah Booker

Mayah Booker is an undergraduate student with the IPEM Laboratory at the University of Georgia, Athens, USA. She was raised in Fayetteville, GA. She is a senior Mechanical Engineering student ad has been co-oping for Georgia Power since January of 2018. She has worked in both Power Distribution and Metering Corporate Services, completing 4 rotations with Georgia Power. Her current research focuses on microgrid design and optimization.

Jack McElhannon

Jack McElhannon is an undergraduate student with the IPEM Laboratory at the University of Georgia, Athens, USA. He is an Athens, Ga native and a senior Mechanical Engineering student. He has been co-oping with Georgia Power since 2017. He has had the opportunity to work in both Power Distribution and Protection and Control (Substation Test). He is planning on starting his career with Georgia power in distribution after graduation. His current research focuses on microgrid design and optimization.

Alex Ponts

Alex Ponts is an undergraduate student with the IPEM Laboratory at the University of Georgia, Athens, USA. He was born and raised in Santa Rosa, CA. He is a Senior Mechanical Engineering student and current president of the UGA chapter of the American Society of Engineers. He is interested in mechanical design and hope to pursue a career in this field when he graduates. His current research focuses on battery management systems.

Blake Salter

Blake Salter is an undergraduate student with the IPEM Laboratory at the University of Georgia, Athens, USA. He was raised in Loganville, Ga. He is a senior Electrical Engineering student at the University of Georgia. He has completed three co-op rotations with Georgia Power and one internship with Oglethorpe Power. During his time working in the power industry, he has gained a lot of knowledge in Power Distribution, Transmission, and Generation Planning and Loading. His current research focuses on microgrid design and optimization.

Kenneth Thomas

Kenneth Thomas is an undergraduate student with the IPEM Laboratory at the University of Georgia, Athens, USA. He was born in the small town of Lithia Springs, GA. He is a junior electrical engineering student here at the University of Georgia. He is most interested in power systems and analog electronics, dedicating my efforts and study towards those areas. His current research focuses on microgrid design and optimization.

Fengwei Shan

Fengwei is an undergraduate student with the IPEM Laboratory at the University of Georgia, Athens, USA, majoring in Computer Science. As a research assistant, he developed a smartplug management dashboard for UGA Facilities Management Division, which manages electric vehicle charging, offering features such as real-time monitoring, controlling, scheduling, and map visualization. He also developed a control dashboard on ThingsBoard to handle device control, OTA updates, and system functions. He is passionate about applying computer science principles to real-world problems.