Power and energy systems

Sahar Pirooz Azad received her PhD degree in Electrical Engineering, specialized in power systems, from the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, in 2013. During her doctoral research, she focused on designing various control schemes for DC-segmented AC systems to prevent grid instability and large-scale blackouts. She was a post-doctoral fellow at the Centre for Applied Power Electronics (CAPE) at the University of Toronto in 2014. During her post-doctoral research, she focused on designing controllers with low communication requirements to improve multi-infeed HVDC systems stability. In 2015, she worked as an experienced researcher in the field of DC grid protection at the Katholieke Universiteit (KU) Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. Her research was a part of the multi-terminal DC grid for offshore wind (MEDOW) project; a Marie Curie initial training network funded by the European Commission. She worked as an Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta from October 2015 until December 2017. She joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo in 2018. Dr. Azad's research focuses on protection and control of power systems with embedded HVDC lines.

Kankar Bhattacharya is a Professor and the Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo.

Claudio Cañizares is a University Professor and Hydro One Endowed Chair in the electrical and computer engineering (ECE) department at the University of Waterloo, where he has held various academic and administrative positions since 1993. In 2021, he was appointed the Executive Director of the Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Energy (WISE).

He received an electrical engineering degree from the Escuela Politécnica Nacional (EPN) in Quito, Ecuador in 1984, where he held different academic and administrative positions between 1983 and 1993, and his MSc (1988) and PhD (1991) degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the USA.

Dr. Cañizares’ research activities focus on the study of stability, control, optimization, modeling, simulation, and computational issues in bulk power systems, microgrids, and energy systems in the context of competitive energy markets and smart grids. In these areas, he has either led or been an integral part of securing many grants and contracts from government agencies and private companies worth close to $118 million. Dr. Cañizares has collaborated with multiple industry and university researchers in Canada and abroad and supervised/co-supervised nearly 180 research fellows and students. He has authored/co-authored more than 370 publications with over 29,000 citations and a 77 H index in Google Scholar, including journal and conference papers, several technical reports, book chapters, disclosures and patents, and has been invited to deliver over 225 keynote speeches, seminars, tutorials, and presentations at numerous institutions and conferences worldwide. He is the current Editor-In-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineering (IEEE), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the Chinese Society for Electrical Engineering (CSEE)

Dr. Cañizares is the recipient of the 2017 IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) Outstanding Power Engineering Educator Award, the 2016 IEEE Canada Electric Power Medal, and multiple IEEE PES Technical Council and Committee awards and recognitions, holding leadership positions in several IEEE-PES Committees, Working Groups, and Task Forces. In 2021 and 2022, he received the Award for Excellence in Graduate Supervision from the University of Waterloo.

Ramadan El-Shatshat is a continuing lecturer and the director of the electric power engineering program in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He is pursuing research in areas that contribute to distribution system engineering. His research focuses on distribution automation, smart grids, energy management, operation and control of distributed generation as well as conversion of power obtained from renewable energy sources to grid-quality ac power.

He is a registered professional engineer in the Province of Ontario, Canada, and has published a number of papers in refereed journals and conference proceedings, and presented several papers at national and international conferences.

Shesha H. Jayaram (S’87–M’91–SM’97–F’08) received the B.A.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from Bangalore University, Bangalore, India, the M.A.Sc. degree in high voltage engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada, in 1980, 1983, and 1990, respectively. She has held various academic positions at the University of Waterloo since 1992, where she is currently a Full Professor, the University Research Chair, and the Director of the High Voltage Engineering Laboratory. She is also an Adjunct Professor with the University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, and McMaster University, Hamilton, ON. Prior to joining the University of Waterloo, she served on the faculty with the University of Western Ontario, London, ON, as an Assistant Professor from 1990 to 1992 and as an Adjunct from 1992 to 2003.

Her current research interests include solution-based outputs, high-voltage engineering and insulation diagnostic, high-voltage engineering applied to environment, nanocomposite materials, and pulse power applied to biotechnology.

Dr. Jayaram has been an active member of the IEEE Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation and Industry Applications Societies and the Electrostatic Society of America. She is a Registered Professional Engineer in the Province of Ontario, Canada.

Dr. Mehrdad Kazerani is a Full Professor at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of the University of Waterloo. Since joining the University of Waterloo in 1997, he has been involved in teaching, theoretical and experimental research in the general field of power electronics, and administrative activities. Specific research areas include modeling and control of DC/DC, voltage-sourced and current-sourced converters, grid integration of renewable energy sources, plugin electric and hybrid electric vehicles, energy storage systems, smart battery chargers with V2G capabilities, energy access and microgrids. Dr. Kazerani's research program has been financially supported by various governmental agencies (such as NSERC, ESTAC, Railpower, OCE, CFI, OCE, Automotive Partnership Canada, and Natural Resources Canada) and industry partners (such as Hydro One, GM, First Solar, Rail Power, Magna and Hatch). He has actively participated in numerous multidisciplinary projects and has supervised/co-supervised numerous post-doctoral fellows, graduate students, visiting scholars, and undergraduate students in research projects and Capstone design projects. Beyond his regular teaching load, he regularly teaches online graduate courses to the power industry employees within University of Waterloo MEng in Power Engineering program. He holds several patents and has authored/co-authored numerous journal and conference papers, and technical reports. As a senior member of IEEE he has served on several IEEE technical sub-committees, organized several special Sessions in IEEE Conferences, and acted as an editor of several special sections and issues in IEEE Transactions. He has acted as an editor for the IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology. Dr. Kazerani has acted as the faculty advisor for the University of Waterloo Alternative Fuels Team (UWAFT) and Formula Electric Vehicle team, and had the role of an investigator for Association of Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO). Dr. Mehrdad Kazerani is a registered professional engineer in the province of Ontario. He has served on the review panels of national research foundations of several countries.

Magdy Salama is a Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at the University of Waterloo. He is also a registered professional engineer in the Province of Ontario (P.Eng.) and Egypt, and is associated with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
Professor Salama’s research interests include distribution system planning and performance analysis, distribution system automaton and load management, power quality analysis, smart grid analysis, renewable energy analysis, power system asset management and risk analysis, grounding system analysis, fault locator and system restoration, electric energy storage, medical image processing, sleep staging analysis, and neuromodulation systems. In addition, Professor Salama developed the Power Quality, Electric Vehicle Power Electronics, Ultrasound Imaging, and the Sleep Staging lab at UWaterloo.
He holds several patents, which are as follows: “High Voltage Power Supply”, European patent August 28, 2006; “High Voltage Power Supply for auto industry application”, US patent July 31, 2003; “High Voltage Power Supply for aerospace applications”, US patent November 1, 2002; and “High Voltage Power Supply”, US patent July 31, 2003.
In addition to his research work, Professor Salama has received several awards and has been listed in the National Encyclopaedia for Distinguished Egyptian Men of Science”, 1991 Edition, Cairo, Egypt (Who’s Who in Egypt). He is also the author or co-author of 215 Journal Publications, 245 International Conference Papers (a total of 460 publications) and 16 Technical Reports.

John W. Simpson-Porco received the B.Sc. degree in engineering physics from Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada in 2010, and the Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA in 2015. He is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada. He was previously a visiting scientist with the Automatic Control Laboratory at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. His research focuses on the control and optimization of multi-agent systems and networks, with applications in modernized power grids. Prof. Simpson-Porco is a recipient of the 2012--2014 IFAC Automatica Prize and the Center for Control, Dynamical Systems and Computation Best Thesis Award and Outstanding Scholar Fellowship.