Dr. Hao Huang is a Distinguished Adjunct Professor in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Houston. After 33 years of working in Aviation and Land Vehicle Electrification industries, he retired as the Technology Chief of General Electric Aviation – Electrical Power. He was responsible for generating the technical directions, innovation strategies, and multi-generation product roadmaps for the GE Aviation and Smiths Aerospace electrical power division for 20 years. He has been constantly contributing innovations and inventions of aircraft electrical power technologies to the industry. He has had 80 US patents including several that are pending, and he also has a number of conference and Journal publications. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) with citation “for contributions to advances in electric machines and power electronics technologies for aerospace electrical systems,” a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) with citation of “contributions to electric power generation, conversion, and control in aircraft,” and a Fellow of the Society of Automotive and Aerospace Engineers (SAE) with citation of “contributions to more electric aircraft and electric vehicle power systems.” He is the recipient of IEEE Transportation Technologies Award. Dr. Huang received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA in 1987.

Dr. Hao Huang’s main technical interests are in aircraft and land vehicle electrical power systems for conventional aircraft, more electric aircraft (MAE), and hybrid electric propulsion (HEP) including electric machines, power generations, engine starting, power electronics, and motor drives.

His main technical contributions and industrial expertise include aircraft main engine starter/generator (S/G) having regenerative and sensorless commutation capabilities; megawatt dual spool electrical power extraction from turbo-engine; megawatt power, high voltage, high altitude electric motor for aircraft propulsive propeller; Silicon Carbide (SiC) based aircraft electric power system; +/-270V DC aircraft electrical system and subsystems for next generation narrow body aircraft; aerospace ADDITIVE manufacturing technology based aircraft synchronous electric generator; the establishment of the advanced electrical power integrated systems center (EPISCenter) in GE Aviation in Dayton, Ohio.

Yan Yao is Cullen Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and co-Director of Power Electronics, Microgrids & Subsea Electrical Systems Center at the University of Houston. Yao is a Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), a Senior Member of National Academy of Inventors and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He received his Ph.D. degree in materials science and engineering from UCLA in 2008. After working as a senior scientist at Polyera Corporation and a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University with Prof. Yi Cui, he became a faculty member of the University of Houston in 2012. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2017 and Full Professor in 2020. Yao has been leading research on the fundamental study of energy storage materials and devices, spanning from solid-state batteries for electric vehicles to multivalent-ion batteries and aqueous batteries for grid energy storage. He has authored more than 110 journal articles with 25,000 citations, and holds 10 US patents. He received the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award (2013), UH Teaching Excellence Award (2016), UH Research Excellence Award (2018), Top 1% Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher (2018), Scialog Collaborative Innovation Award (2018 and 2020), and Cullen College of Engineering Professorship (2020).

Dr. Kaushik Rajashekara received his B.Eng., M.Eng, and Ph.D (1984) degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and MBA (1992) from Indiana Wesleyan University. He is presently a Distinguished Professor of Engineering and Professor of subsea power systems at the University of Houston. Prior to this, he was the Distinguished Professor of Engineering and Endowed Chair at the University of Texas, Dallas. He was also a Chief Technologist in Rolls-Royce Corporation, Indianapolis working on Electric Aircraft architectures and power conversion/control technologies for More Electric and Hybrid Electric aircrafts. From 1989-2006, he held various lead technical and managerial positions in Delphi and General Motors, and managed a team responsible for developing electric machines, controllers, and power electronics systems for electric, hybrid, and fuel cell vehicles. He was also Technical Fellow and Chief Scientist for Advanced Power Conversion and Drive systems. From 1994 to 2006, he was also an Adjunct Professor at the Purdue School of Engineering at Indianapolis, IN.

Prof. Rajashekara has published more than 250 papers in international journals and conferences, and has totally 45 patents on power electronics & drives, electric/hybrid vehicle propulsion, fuel cell power conversion systems, and more electric aircraft. He has given more than 150 invited presentations (in over 50 countries) in international conferences and universities. He has co-authored one IEEE Press book on sensorless control of ac motor drives and contributed individual chapters to eight published books. His research interests are in the area of power conversion, control in the areas of electrification of transportation and renewable energy systems and subsea electrical systems.

Prof. Rajashekara was elected as Member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering (NAE) for contributions to electric power conversion systems in transportation (2012) and as Foreign Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (2012). He is the recipient of the IEEE Medal on Environment & Safety Technologies (2021), IEEE Richard Harold Kaufmann award (2013), IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS) Outstanding Achievement Award for outstanding contribution for the application of electricity to industry (2009), and IEEE IAS Gerald Kliman award (2006) for contributions to the advancement of power conversion technologies through innovations and their applications to industry. He is a Fellow of IEEE (1999) and a Fellow of SAE International (2006) for contributions to the advancement of power conversion and propulsion systems. He was a Distinguished Lecturer of IEEE IAS (2006-2007) and Prominent Lecturer (2008-2011), and presently a Distinguished lecturer of IEEE Vehicular Technology Society. He was inducted into the Delphi Innovation Hall of Fame in 1999 and received the Delphi President’s Award. He was recognized as short term scholar under UNDP China program and China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchange in 2004 He is also a recipient of the 2012 SAE Charles M. Manly Memorial Medal for outstanding technical paper. He received the 2013 Distinguished Alumnus Award of the Indian Institute of Science.