Yang Cao
Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Director, Electrical Insulation Research Center, Institute of Materials Science
Site Director, NSF Center on High Voltage/Temperature Materials & Structures
Email: yang.cao@uconn.edu
Tel: (860) 486-0915
http://www.ee.uconn.edu/yang-cao
Dr. Cao’s research has been focused on high voltage engineering and energy materials for power and medical devices. His main research interests include: (1) High electric field phenomena and devices; (2) Polymeric nanostructured materials with game changing characteristics for energy efficient power conversion and renewables integrations; (3) High voltage engineering in power and medical; (4) Grid asset management: diagnosis and prognosis of electrical degradation.
JoAnne Ronzello
Research Assistant, Lab Manager
Tel: (860)486-5594
Email: joanne.ronzello@uconn.edu
Graduate Students
Hiep Nguyen
Ph.D Candidate
E-mail: hiep.nguyen@uconn.edu
Past Institute: Tomsk Polytechnic University, Russia, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Vietnam
Research Interest: Hiep received the B.S and M.S degree, both in Electrical Engineering from Tomsk Polytechnic University in 2009 and 2011 respectively. Since then, he has been a faculty member in Department of Power Systems, Hanoi University of Science and Technology. His research interests focus on electrical insulation materials.
Tohid Shahsavarian
Ph.D Student
E-mail: shahsavarian@uconn.edu
Past Institute: Iran University of Science and Technology, Iran
Research Interest: High voltage engineering, Partial discharge analysis and risk assessment of power cables, Power system stability, Reliability analysis of HVDC grids.
Mohamadreza Arab
Ph.D Student
E-mail: mohamadreza.arab_baferani@uconn.edu
Past Institute: University of Tehran, Iran
Research Interest: High voltage engineering, Partial discharge analysis and detection, Test, analysis and life assessment of insulators in harsh conditions, Insulation of HVDC grids, and Fault current limiters.
Wenqiang Gao
Ph.D Student
E-mail: wenqiang.gao@uconn.edu
Past Institute: Tsinghua University/Sichuan University, China
Research Interest:
Peinan Zhou
Ph.D Student
E-mail: peinan.zhou@uconn.edu
Past Institute: University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania; Shandong University, China
Research Interest:
Jierui Zhou
Ph.D. Student
Email: jierui.zhou@uconn.edu
Past Institute: Xi’an Jiaotong University, China
Research Interest:
Kerry Davis
Ph.D. Candidate
Email: kerry.l.davis@uconn.edu
Past Institute: University of Connecticut
Kerry received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Chemistry from the University of Connecticut in 2016. Her research focuses on synthesis and characterization of polymer nanocomposites for dielectric energy storage applications.
Antigoni Konstantinou
Email: antigoni.konstantinou@uconn.edu
Past Institute: University of Delaware, USA; University of Patras, Greece
Antigoni’s work was focused on polymer nanocomposite materials, as smart systems. Studying the electrical, mechanical and thermal properties of the composites in her master and bachelor thesis. Her research in Epps research group involved synthesis and thermal characterization of bio-based polymers. Her research interest focuses on materials for dielectric energy storage applications and flexible polymer dielectrics.
Postdoctoral Fellows
Yifei Wang
Email: y.wang@uconn.edu
Past Institute: Xi’an Jiaotong University, China
Research Interest: received his Ph.D. and B.E. degree both in electronic science and technology from Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China, in 2018 and 2013, respectively. His research focuses on polymer nanocomposites for dielectric energy storage applications.
Chao Wu
Email: chao.2.wu@uconn.edu
Past Institute: Tsinghua University, China
Research Interest: Chao Wu received the B.Sc. degree in 2013 and Ph.D. degree in 2018 from the Department of Electrical Engineering at Tsinghua University, China. He was a Ph.D. visiting student in the University of Leicester, UK, in 2017. His research focuses on dielectric response and breakdown of polymer composites.
Chuanyang Li
Email: chuanyang.li@uconn.edu
Past Institute: University of Bologna, Italy; Tsinghua University, China
Chuanyang Li received his PhD from Tsinghua University in 2018. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Bologna in 2019. His research interests include partial discharge, space/surface charge, HVDC GIL, and monitoring of nuclear power cable insulation. Chuanyang Li serves as an associate editor for High Voltage.
Ningzhen Wang
Email: ningzhen.wang@uconn.edu
Past Institute: Technische Universität Berlin, Germany; Tsinghua University, China; Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China
Ningzhen Wang received her B.E. degree in 2013 from School of Materials Science and Engineering at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and Ph.D. degree in 2018 at Tsinghua University, China. She was a Ph.D. visiting student at Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon, France, in 2017. She was a postdoctoral fellow at Technische Universität Berlin, Germany, from 2018 to 2019. Her research focuses on the characterization and properties study of foam materials.
Undergraduate Students
Previous Members
25. Michael Sotzing, ME Undergraduate Research Assistant, 2018 – 2021, currently with Purdue University.
24. Liam Connelly, BME/EE Undergraduate Research Assistant, 2019-2021
23. Jindog Huo, PhD Graduate, Graduated in 2020, currently with SLAC.
22. Zongze Li, PhD Graduate, Graduated in 2020, currently with ASML.
21. Qian Wang, Visiting scholar, Sep 2019 – Oct 2020, currently with Tsinghua University.
20. Alex Rontey, EE Undergraduate Research Assistant, June 2018 – May 2020, currently with Eversource Energy.
19. Makoto Chiba, Visiting scholar, April 2018 – Sept. 2019, currently with Komatsu Ltd.
18. Mattewos Tefferi, PhD Graduate, Graduated in 2019, currently with G&W Electric.
17. Shamima Nasreen: Postdoctoral fellow, Feb. 2018 – Jan. 2019, currently with Intel.
16. Reimund Gerhard: Visiting scholar, July 2018 – Sept. 2018, currently with Potsdam University (Professor).
15. Boya Zhang: Visiting scholar, Aug. 2016 – Sept. 2017, currently with Xi’an Jiaotong University (Associate Professor).
14. Zhengyu Li: Visiting scholar, Mar. 2016 – Sept. 2017, currently with Komatsu Ltd.
13. Justin Delarm, ME Undergraduate Research Assistant, 2017 – 2018, currently with Pratt Whitney.
12. Roberto Gambuti : Visiting scholar, Mar. 2017 – Aug. 2017, currently with University of Bologna.
11. Mona Ghassemi, Postdoctoral fellow, Nov. 2015 – Jul. 2017, currently with Virginia Tech (Assistant Professor).
10. Dan Wilbanks, EE Undergraduate Research Assistant, 2016 – 2018, currently with MITRE.
9. Shilei Ma: Postdoctoral fellow, Feb. 2012- Aug. 2016, currently with Dwyer Instruments.
8. Ming Ren: Visiting scholar, June 2015 – June. 2016, currently with Xi’an Jiaotong University (Associate Professor).
7. Huamao Zhan: Visiting scholar, May 2015 – May. 2016, currently with North China Electric Power University (Professor).
6. Jingfang Yu: Postdoctoral fellow, Sept. 2015 – May. 2016, currently with Oxford University.
5. Thinh H. Pham: Visiting scholar, Jan. 2014 – Dec. 2015, currently with USi.
4. Benjamin Barthier: Summer intern, Apr. 2015- June 2015, Ecole Supérieure d’Ingénieurs de Recherche en Matériaux, France.
3. Qiuwei Yang: Summer intern, May 2015- July 2015, Cornell University/UMass Medical School.
2. Hiroaki Uehara: Visiting scholar, Mar. 2014- April 2015, currently with Kanto Gakuin University, Japan (Professor).
1. Thomas Crollet: Summer intern, Apr. 2014- June 2014, Ecole Supérieure d’Ingénieurs de Recherche en Matériaux, France.
