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Pilawa Research Group

Professor Robert Pilawa-Podgurski's Research Group at UC Berkeley

Alumni News

Dr. Rahul Iyer and Dr. Yicheng Zhu receive the 2025 PELS Ph.D. Thesis Talk Award!

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Recent Pilawa Group graduates Dr. Rahul Iyer and current postdoctoral scholar Dr. Yicheng Zhu have each been awarded the 2025 PELS Ph.D. Thesis Talk Award! This award is granted yearly to outstanding graduates who have defended their thesis and submit an additional video submission to the IEEE Power Electronics Society. Participants are judged based on the achieved outcomes of their work in power electronics, the rigor of their design methodology, net contribution to the progress of the field, and quality of presentation. Dr. Iyer and Dr. Zhu are among a total of five worldwide winners for the current academic year.

Dr. Iyer’s talk can be viewed below:

Dr. Zhu’s talk can be viewed below:

The Berkeley Power and Energy Center’s very own Professor Jessica Boles was a past recipient of this award in 2023. Pilawa Group alumnus Dr. Zichao Ye was a past recipient of this award in 2021.

Read more about the 2025 winners–and past winners–of the award here: https://www.ieee-pels.org/awards/pels-ph-d-thesis-talk-p3-talk/.

Dr. Nathan Ellis to Join Faculty at UC Santa Cruz

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Newly appointed Assistant Professor Nathan Ellis.
Nestled against redwood forests, UC Santa Cruz boasts panoramic views of the Monterey Bay. (photo credit: James Clifford)

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!

Dr. Samantha Coday to Join Faculty at MIT

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Newly appointed Assistant Professor Sam Coday.
MIT’s Building 10 and Great Dome overlooking Killian Court.

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!