Members
Principal Investigator
Dr. Matt Woongkul Lee
Assistant Professor, Elmore Family School of ECE, Purdue University
Matt has a comprehensive interest in cutting-edge motor drive systems, power electronics, electric machines, and the integration of distributed energy resources, focusing on the critical role of efficient energy conversion in fostering a sustainable future. After his M.S. and Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a postdoctoral appointment at WEMPEC, he was an assistant professor at Michigan State University from 2020 to 2024 before joining Purdue in 2024. His work has been recognized with the NSF CAREER award and ARPA-E IGNIITE Early Career Award (2024), the IEEE IAS Industrial Drives Committee Transactions First Paper Award (2025), the ASME Rising Star of Mechanical Engineering (2025), and the ARPA-E Director's Award (2026).
B.S. Yonsei University M.S. UW-Madison Ph.D. UW-Madison
Postdoctoral Research Associates
Dr. Hyunwoo Kim
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea, in 2017, 2019, and 2022. He was a Postdoctoral Researcher and later a Research Assistant Professor at Hanyang University before joining Purdue in September 2024. His research interests include the design, analysis, and control of electrical machines applied in mechanical and electrical systems.
Dr. Junhyuk Im
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Received the bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. degrees from Incheon National University, South Korea, in 2017, 2019, and 2022. He spent one year as a Research Professor at Incheon National University and worked as a Senior Researcher at Daegu Mechatronics and Materials Institute before joining Purdue in 2024, where he continues to contribute to the field of electric machines.
Dr. Yuming Yan
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Received the B.Eng. degree in electrical engineering from Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China, in 2017, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, in 2024. He was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, North Carolina State University, before joining Purdue. His research interests include permanent magnet machines and drives, rare-earth-free electric machines, and their applications for AI data centers, robotic systems, and electrified mobility.
Dr. Juwon Lee
Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow
Received the B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Seoul National University, South Korea, in 2020 and 2026. His research interests include grid-connected converters, high-power density motor drives, and leakage current suppression of transformerless AC-DC and DC-DC converters. He received the Distinguished Ph.D. Dissertation Award from the Department of ECE at Seoul National University in 2026, and his work was recognized as outstanding Ph.D. research by Springer Nature.
Dr. Taehoon Chin
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Received the B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea, in 2019 and 2025, and was a Postdoctoral Researcher at Konkuk University before joining Purdue in May 2026. His research interests include digital control of electric propulsion drives for electric vehicles and urban air mobility, focusing on open-end winding topologies, torque ripple reduction, and fault-tolerant operation.
Graduate Students
Mostafa Fereydoonian
Ph.D. Student
Received his B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran, in 2012. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Purdue University. His research interests include rare-earth magnet-free electric machines, integrated motor drives, and high-power density drive design.
Avinash Dornala
Ph.D. Student
Completed a bachelor's degree in electrical and electronics engineering and a master's degree in power systems in 2016 in India, then worked in the power generation industry on maintenance and commissioning of hydel and thermal power plants. Since 2023 he has been working toward the Ph.D., currently at Purdue University, with research interests in matrix converters and V2G applications.
Ali Halawa
Ph.D. Student
Received his bachelor's degree from Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan, in 2022. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University. His research interests include characterization of WBG devices and multilevel and multiphase inverters for EV applications.
Karen Reyes
Ph.D. Student
Received her B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Purdue University in 2018 and 2021, then joined ROHM Semiconductor as an Applications Engineer supporting testing and evaluation of SiC power MOSFETs. She is now pursuing a Ph.D. at Purdue, focusing on wide bandgap (WBG) and ultra-wide bandgap (UWBG) devices.
Jun (Junghoon) Kim
Ph.D. Student
Jun's research interests are optical power transfer, gate drivers, WBG power devices, and quantum computing for power electronics. He has worked on high-voltage, high-power inverter design at GE Aerospace, General Motors, and Ford. He earned an M.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a B.S. from Hanyang University.
Benjamin Schuchardt
Ph.D. Student
Ben received his B.S.E.E. in 2024 from Michigan State University, starting at MIT Lincoln Laboratory in January 2025 as a co-op student in the Electronics for Contested Space group, then as a Summer Research Intern in the Energy Systems group, before joining the research group in August 2025. His research interests include integrated DC-DC converters, HBM/GPU power delivery, and other microelectronics/power electronics intersections.
Mohammed Thushar Imran
Ph.D. Student
Mohammed Thushar Imran is a Ph.D. student at Purdue University, where he began his studies in Fall 2025. He received his B.Sc. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from BRAC University in 2022 and later served there as a lecturer. His current research interests include power electronic converter design, wide-bandgap semiconductor devices, and motor control.
Fahmy Navid Rahman
M.S. Student
Fahmy received his B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Cincinnati, and worked on battery-powered outdoor tools as a new product development engineer at Milwaukee Tool afterward. He is currently an M.S. student at Purdue University focusing on motor drives.
Undergraduate Researchers
Valentino Angel Cattaneo
Undergraduate Researcher
Purdue University
Sia Gupta
Undergraduate Researcher
Purdue University
Visiting Scholars
Tae-hu Kim
Visiting Scholar
Ph.D. program, Incheon National University · Jul. 2026 - Jan. 2027
Donghyeok Jang
Visiting Scholar
Ph.D. program, Incheon National University · Jul. 2026 - Jan. 2027
Dongin Lee
Visiting Scholar
Ph.D. program, Incheon National University · Aug. 2025 - Feb. 2026
Junhyuk Heo
Visiting Scholar
Ph.D. program, Incheon National University · Aug. 2025 - Feb. 2026
Daheon Hong
Visiting Scholar
Ph.D. program, Kyungpook National University · Jul. 2025 - Aug. 2025
Alumni
Dr. Kangbeen Lee
Ph.D. 2026
Siemens
Dr. Taewoo Kim
Postdoc 2025-2026
Faculty, Kyungpook National University
Dr. Haitao Sun
Postdoc 2024-2026
Faculty, Taiyuan University of Technology
Mikayla Benson
Ph.D. 2025
Williams International
Mikhail Lopes
M.S. 2026
Redwood Materials
Arjun Gupta
M.S. 2025
Apple
Gavin Gardner
M.S. 2025
AG3 Lab
Roshan Varadharajan
M.S. 2025
Caterpillar
Saurabh Shah
M.S. 2022
MPS
Yuchen Wang
B.S. 2021
Bosch
Undergraduate Research Teams
Purdue Drone Team
2024 GoAERO Prize winner of the US University Innovation Awards, supported by NASA.
