Professors Kiruba Haran and Hao Zhu Joined the Power and Energy Group
Of the three new faculty members who joined ECE ILLINOIS in January 2014, two are in the Power and Energy group. Associate Professor Kiruba Sivasubramaniam Haran is the new Associate Director of the CEME. He spent thirteen years leading a research group in electric machines at GE’s Global Resources Center in upstate New York as preparation for teaching and working with student researchers. His research focus is electric machines applied to cost-effective off-shore wind turbines and electric airplanes. Kiruba’s background in electric machines is a perfect match for the Grainger Center for Electric Machinery and Electromechanics. Assistant Professor Hao Zhu completed post-doc research with Professor Tom Overbye before joining the ECE department. She applies statistical modeling and its implications to power and energy systems. One application would be to enable power grid operators to interpret in real time the huge volume of incoming data and thus improve their decision making.