Professor Robert Pilawa-Podgurski's Research Group at UC Berkeley
Graduate student Rahul Iyer received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences on May 24th, 2025. His dissertation was titled “Dynamical Modeling and Control of the Flying Capacitor Multilevel Converter.” Post-graduation, Rahul will begin working at Tesla, Inc. on the Power Electronics Controls for Energy Products team. Congratulations!
Having spent the past four years with UC Berkeley, Dr. Ellis is moving to the University of California Santa Cruz — Baskin School of Engineering. Here his research group will be hosted at UCSC’s Westside Research Park, a stone’s throw from Natural Bridges State Beach.
During his time at UC Berkeley, Dr. Ellis collaborated extensively with BPEC researchers, contributing to the development of high-density power electronics and renewable energy systems. His teaching contributions have also earned him UC Berkeley’s recognition for “teaching effectiveness that greatly exceeds the departmental average”.
The Pilawa-Group would like to wish him the best of luck in his continuing academic career!
Graduate student Yicheng Zhu received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences on May 18th, 2024. His dissertation was titled “High-Performance Hybrid Switched-Capacitor Power Converters: Circuit Topologies, Control Techniques, and Analytical Models.” Congratulations!
Graduate student Rose Abramson received her Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences on May 18th, 2024. Her dissertation was titled “Split-Phase and Multi-Resonant Operation of Hybrid Switched-Capacitor Converters.”
Rose Abramson at hooding ceremony with advisor Prof. Robert Pilawa-Podgurski.
Graduate student Sahana Krishnan received her Master of Science degree on May 14th, 2024. Her master’s thesis is titled “An EMI-Compliant and Automotive-Rated 48 V to Point-of-Load Dickson-Based Hybrid Switched-Capacitor DC-DC Converter.” Congratulations!
EE researcher Ben Liao, working with Professor Robert Pilawa-Podgurski, has received the Best Presentation Award at the 2024 IEEE Power and Energy Conference at Illinois (PECI) – a student-directed power and energy conference held annually at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The PECI Best Presentation Award is determined both by conference directors and input from attendees.
Ben received the Best Presentation Award for his work on designing and building a high-power, electronically-controlled, modular resistive load bank. The proposed design overcomes testing limitations in commercial solutions when characterizing state-of-the-art converters. The architecture can easily be extended and modified to suit various other applications where an electronically-controlled resistive load is desired. For more information, please consult the full paper, available at this link.
Graduate students Kelly Fernandez and Maggie Blackwell successfully delivered their dissertation talks and graduated this December. Kelly’s talk was titled “High-Performance Grid-Tied Single-Phase Power Converter Design with Applications in Electric Vehicle Charging and Residential Photovoltaic Systems”, and Maggie’s talk was titled “Switching Strategies for Hybrid Switched-Capacitor DC-DC Power Converters.” Congratulations to our BPEC graduates!
Dr. Coday will be joining MIT as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, as part of the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE). The Coday Research group will focus on high-performance power converters and systems to enable future electric aircraft, space travel, and renewable integration. In addition, Dr. Coday is interested in the modeling, design, and control of high-efficiency and lightweight converters utilizing the advantages of capacitor-based and multilevel topologies.
While at UC Berkeley, Dr. Coday worked on several hybrid switched-capacitor designs for aerospace applications, and was a highly valued mentor, teaching assistant (receiving the Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award), and IEEE PELS founding member and organizer.
The Pilawa group will miss Dr. Coday, and wishes her all the best with her research and future endeavors!