Engineering PhD

PhD

Advanced Analysis Facility (AAF) is a user-based research instrumentation facility within the College that provides an alternative to private analysis laboratories and fosters collaboration with students and faculty.

The BioRobotics Lab, led by Professor Mohammad “Habib” Rahman, focuses on the design, development, and control of wearable robots that can rehabilitate and assist physically disabled individuals whose upper and lower extremities are impaired. These wearable robots are designed for the individual to use them to rehabilitate, and ultimately, be able to leave the wearable robot behind.

Center for Sustainable Electrical Energy Systems led by Professor Adel Nasiri is exploring methods to make electric power systems more sustainable, cost-effective, and secure through research on energy storage, microgrid systems, and renewable energy sources.

Research Focus:

• Synchronous Generator Modeling Under Unbalanced Conditions
• Hybrid Battery Life Testing
• Cost Effective Uninterruptible Power Supply
• Efficient Integrated Power System for Higher Power and Improved Survivability
• Hybrid Energy Module Development for High Efficiency Buildings

Connected Systems Institute (CSI) is a center of excellence at UWM that develops manufacturing domain specialists through education, state-of-the-art lab facilities and collaborative research opportunities.

Research Focus:

• Accelerating innovation by bringing together industry and academic researchers
• Facilitating digital transformation for small and medium-sized manufacturers
• Developing an educational curriculum to better prepare the workforce of the future

Energy Storage Research Lab, led by Professor Deyang Qu, is a collaboration between UWM, the Wisconsin Energy Institute (WEI) at UW-Madison and Johnson Controls. The lab links academic research with industrial product innovation to develop a new generation of energy products with longer and stronger storage abilities, increasing energy security and improving our environment by reducing carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere.

Research Focus:

• Metal air (Li-air and Zn-air)
• Li-Sulfur
• Li-ion
• Advanced Lead-Acid Batteries (AGM and EFB)
• Supercapacitors
• Fuel Cells
• System diagnostics
• Hydrogen Storage Materials
• Alkaline Batteries

GRid-connected Advanced Power Electronic Systems (GRAPES) is a National Science Foundation- Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) with a mission to accelerate the adoption and insertion of power electronics into the grid in order to improve system stability, flexibility, robustness, and economy. Together with our partners we hope to make electric power systems more sustainable, cost-effective, and secure.

Research Focus

• Energy storage systems: inverter topology and controls, integrated compact systems, hybrid storage systems, high frequency inverters, wide band gap (WBG) devices for storage inverters, high voltage and high-power inverters, grid support functions
• Distributed generation (DG): inverters and interface for DG including wind and solar Photovoltaic (PV), controls for DG systems, integration of DG systems into grid
• Microgrids: grid-tie and island microgrids, controls for microgrids, microgrid-tie inverters, energy management
• Reliability for power electronics converters: low-frequency and high-frequency inverters, components, systems, and systems of systems
• High-frequency and high-power converters: converters with WBG power semiconductor switches, electromagnetic interference, cooling, and packaging
• Fault protection for AC and DC microgrids

Industrial Assessment Center (UWM IAC) helps manufacturers and utilities to increase their productivity and competitiveness by reducing energy and water consumption, enhancing cybersecurity, and adopting smart manufacturing technology. The UWM IAC provides assessment services on electric power consumption, waste material removal, water treatment studies, reclamation of energy in the process of heating, power, and water processes with the implementation of biofuel production, renewable energy technology, recuperation, and reheating methods.

To date, over 600 companies and water treatment plants have utilized the UWM IAC’s multidisciplinary energy assessment services, with average recommended savings of about $150,000 per facility and an average implementation rate of 40%. 

Water Equipment and Policy Center (WEP) is a National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) which provides innovative water technologies and processes to promote advancement of the water industry, and conducts research to inform water policy makers. During the past 10 years, WEP has completed nearly 100 pre-competitive research projects in four thrust areas: water sensors, novel materials, innovative treatment systems and water policy research. Through research, WEP has addressed industrial partners’ unmet/underserved needs in point-of-use technologies, emerging contaminants, sustainability and energy conservation.