Dr. Al Avestruz’s research specialty is in the area of high-performance power electronics, with complementary interests in circuits and systems for sensing, electromagnetic systems, feedback and controls, renewable energy, automotive, biomedical devices, and wireless power transfer technology. He is the author of 7 U.S. patents. He has over a decade of industry and entrepreneurial experience and currently serves as a faculty member at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. 

Dr. Adedayo Aderibole received his Ph.D. from MIT in 2022. Prior to joining the Electromechanical Systems Group, he received his M.Sc. degree from Masdar Institute, Khalifa University of Science and Technology in 2017 and the B.Sc. degree from Obafemi Awolowo University in 2013. Adedayo has developed power line communication strategies that can facilitate the control of electrical loads for demand response purposes and has published papers in the areas of communication theory, signal processing, and power systems. He is joining Google LLC as a Cellular Systems Engineer.

Mariano Alvira received his M.Eng. degree from MIT in the Electromechanical Systems Group at MIT. He is a “serial entrepreneur” with skilled contributions in embedded control and circuit design. He founded the Redwire technology design firm that has supported various companies and startups. And he invented the SpinDude.

Arijit Banerjee received his Ph.D. in 2016. Prior to joining the Electromechanical Systems Group, he worked at Power Conversion Systems Group, General Electric (GE) Global Research Centre, India, where he was working on monitoring and diagnostics of electromechanical systems using electrical signatures. He was also a visiting student with the Institute for Power Electronics and Control of Drives, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany, under German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Fellowship. He holds twelve issued patents and several patent applications. He is joining the faculty at the University of  Illinois, Urbana-Champagne.

Dr. Cooley holds five (5) technical degrees from MIT including a Ph.D. as a member of the Electromechanical Systems Group, which he received in 2011. At MIT, he won both the David Adler Memorial Thesis Prize and the Morris Joseph Levin Award for his thesis work and was a Martin Family Fellow in 2009. Dr. Cooley has been issued several patents including four (4) for his thesis work. He has presented and published papers in the areas of power converter control and modeling, linearized circuit analysis, capacitive sensing, building energy management, and education. In 2009, Dr. Cooley co-founded FastCAP Systems, where he served as Director of Engineering, Vice President, Chief Technology Officer, and finally President. Dr. Cooley has also worked in the defense and medical devices industries and has consulted in IP litigation.

William Cotta is a US Coast Guard officer who earned his S.M. degree from MIT in the Electromechanical Systems Group in 2015. He is a Marine Safety Engineer who was named the 2018 US Coast Guard Engineer of the Year for his role as the USCG’s leading technical expert in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)-as-fuel technologies within the maritime industry. Additionally, he is a member of the US Coast Guard’s esteemed Salvage Engineering Response Team, where he provides naval architecture and salvage engineering assistance in support of the Coast Guard’s response to Hurricane Harvey.

Tim Denison is a Technical Fellow and Vice President of Research and Technology in the Implantables/Restorative Therapies Group at Medtronic PLC. Tim helps lead the design of next-generation neural engineering methods and technologies for the treatment of neurological disease. In 2012, he was awarded membership to the Bakken Society, Medtronic’s highest technical award, and in 2014, the Wallin award, Medtronic’s highest leadership achievement (becoming only the second person in Medtronic’s history to receive both awards). He serves as an assistant editor for the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems, the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, and on the editorial board of the Journal of Neural Engineering. Tim received his Ph.D. from MIT working in the Electromechanical Systems Group on nanopore gene sequencers.

John Donnal received his Ph.D. from MIT in the Electromechanical Systems Group in 2016. Prior to graduate school at MIT, he served as a US Army Signal Corps officer, deployed in Iraq.  He is an expert int he application and design of embedded systems and power electronics and has developed patented technology for identifying and characterizing the operation and health of electric loads on Coast Guard vessels, military bases, schools, and homes.  He is a Martin Fellow and a co-winner of the 2016 MIT Clean Energy Prize. He currently serves as a faculty member at the US Naval Academy.

Lizi George received the M.Eng. degree from MIT in the Electromechanical Systems Group in 2014, where she received the Graduate Excellence award from the MIT Dean for Graduate Education.  She currently serves as an Applications Engineer at Silicon Laboratories in Austin Texas.

Mark Gillman earned his S.M. degree from MIT in the Electromechanical Systems Group in 2014. He is a US Army Airborne Ranger with forward experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is an expert in energy and power systems and received a US Army Commendation for his thesis work at MIT, related to power monitoring for forward operating bases.

Dr. Daisy Green received her Ph.D. degree from MIT in 2022 as a member of the Electromechanical Systems Group. She has developed algorithms for nonintrusive load monitoring and has published papers in the areas of fault detection and condition monitoring of electronic and electromechanical systems. Prior to joining the Electromechanical Systems Group, she received her B.S. degree from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa in 2015.

Manuel Gutierrez received his S.M. and Ph.D. degrees from MIT in 2017 and 2021, respectively, as a member of the Electromechanical Systems Group. Before coming to MIT, he received his B.S. degree from Purdue University in 2015. At MIT, Manuel investigated stability methods for regulated loads in dc and ac systems and published work in the areas of power electronics, distribution system stability, and control methods. He was a TA for 6.131 Power Electronics Laboratory and 6.115 Microcomputer Project Laboratory. He joined the Analog, Power, & Instrumentation Electronics Group at Draper Laboratory in 2022.

Deron Jackson received his Ph.D. from MIT in the Electromechanical Systems Group in 1998. He currently serves as the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) of the robotics company Omron Adept Technologies, Inc.  He designs and manufactures robotic systems, motion control, and machine vision technology for global markets including automotive, consumer electronics, consumer goods, disk drives, food processing, industrial tooling, medical systems, and pharmaceutical production.

Dr. Kahyun Lee has worked at MIT as a postdoctoral associate in the Electromechanical Systems Group. She has developed new instruments and algorithms for nonintrusive load monitoring and has published papers in the areas of electric machine control, condition monitoring, signal processing, power control, and power electronics. Prior to joining Electromechanical System Group, she received her Ph.D. degree from Seoul Nation University in 2018 and was awarded a Global PhD Fellowship. She led the power and clock management of next-generation smart devices at Samsung Electronics Co. and currently serves as a faculty member of the Electronics and Electrical Engineering Department at Ewha Womans University in Korea.

Jinyeong Moon received a B.S. from KAIST in 2005, an M.S. from Stanford University in 2007, and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2016. Dr. Moon was with Hynix Semiconductor Inc. from 2007 to 2011. He was a postdoctoral associate at MIT from 2016 to 2017. He was with Maxim Integrated from 2017 to 2018. He is currently an assistant professor at Florida State University. His research interests include modeling, design, analysis, and measurement of circuits and systems in the fields of power conversion, energy harvesting, electromagnetics, and renewable energy. Dr. Moon received two grand prizes in the MIT Clean Energy Prize in 2014. He was also a recipient of the Kwanjeong Scholarship and the Hynix Strategic Patent Award. He holds 17+ registered U.S. and international patents.

Dr. Uzoma Orji received his Ph.D. degree with the Electromechanical Systems Group at MIT in 2013.  He has developed new algorithms for power systems diagnostics and monitoring and is bringing his skills as a system designer and programmer to startups in the e-commerce market. Also, he was named part of ESPN Magazine’s Academic All-America Team in 2005 and held both NCAA Division III  and MIT records in weight throw.

Candace Wilson received her M.Eng. degree from MIT  in 2006.  She was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for renewable energy research in 2011.  She has served as a development engineer with a focus on high-speed analog circuits and power electronics at Texas Instruments, Analog Devices, SolarMax, and Acuity Brands.

Dr. Steven R. Shaw joined the faculty of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Montana State University as an assistant professor in August 2000 and was promoted to Assoc. professor with tenure in September 2006. He is interested in system identification and controls, energy and fuel cell systems, and instrumentation. Dr. Shaw is a Montana State University 2001 Teaching and Learning Fellow, recipient of a 2001 M.I.T. Laboratory for Electronic and Electromagnetic Systems Grainger Foundation Award, and recipient of the 1997 M.I.T. David Adler Memorial Prize for Best Thesis in Electrical Engineering. In May 2002, Dr. Shaw received a Technology Review Magazine TR-100 award. The TR-100 is an international award recognizing young innovators “who will create the future.” In September 2003, Dr. Shaw was honored by the National Academy of Engineering in the ninth annual “Frontiers of Engineering” event. He was elected ECE Instructor of the Year from 2003 to 2005.

Dr. Christopher Schantz received the S.M. and Ph.D. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2011 and 2014, respectively, in the Electromechanical Systems Group,  all in mechanical engineering. He is a Martin Fellow. His research interest lies in signal processing for sensing and control systems. He has served as a Senior Systems Design Architecture Engineer with Tesla Motors.

Dr. James Paris received his Ph.D. from MIT in 2013. He is an engineering consultant with decades of experience in hardware and embedded systems development, cloud-based storage and monitoring, connectivity, and the design and control of electrical systems of many types. He is currently working as the embedded systems engineer at Bolt, a venture capital fund focused on early-stage startups at the intersection of hardware and software.

Ryan Zachar is a US Navy officer who received graduate degrees from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT while working in the Electromechanical Systems Group. He received the Naval Sea Systems Command award for Naval Construction and Engineering for his thesis work on new techniques for vibration monitoring in USN vessels.