People
Principal Investigator
Robert Pilawa-Podgurski, Professor
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley
Ph.D. 2012, Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
M.Eng. 2007, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT
B.S. 2005, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT
B.S. 2005, Physics, MIT
Google Scholar Profile
UC Berkeley Faculty Profile
Phone: (510) 664-5171, E-mail: pilawa@berkeley.edu
Address: 573 Cory Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720
Robert Pilawa-Podgurski is currently a Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Department at the University of California, Berkeley. Previously, he was an Associate Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He received his BS, MEng, and PhD degrees from MIT. He performs research in the area of power electronics. His research interests include renewable energy applications, electric vehicles, energy harvesting, CMOS power management, high density and high efficiency power converters, and advanced control of power converters. Dr. Pilawa-Podgurski received the Chorafas Award for outstanding MIT EECS Master’s thesis, the Google Faculty Research Award in 2013, and the 2014 Richard M. Bass Outstanding Young Power Electronics Engineer Award of the IEEE Power Electronics Society, given annually to one individual for outstanding contributions to the field of power electronics before the age of 35. In 2015, he received the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Award, the UIUC Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research in 2016, the UIUC Campus Distinguished Promotion Award in 2017, and the UIUC ECE Ronald W. Pratt Faculty Outstanding Teaching Award in 2017. He was the 2018 recipient of the IEEE Education Society Mac E. Van Valkenburg Award given for outstanding contributions to teaching unusually early in ones career. In 2023, he received the UC Berkeley EECS department Electrical Engineering Outstanding Teaching Award. He is co-author of fifteen IEEE prize papers, and is a fellow of IEEE.
Graduate Student Researchers
Rod Bayliss III
Ph.D. Student
Rod Bayliss III is a Ph.D. candidate in the Pilawa Power Electronics Research Group at the University of California, Berkeley. He previously received his B.S. and M.Eng. degrees in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2020 and 2021. His research interests include multi-level power converter design and control and high performance power magnetics design. Rod is a recipient of the Hertz Fellowship and the UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Fellowship.
Nathan Biesterfeld
Ph.D. Student
Nathan received his B.S. degrees in electrical engineering and applied mathematics from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2022. His research is focused on dynamic modeling and high-performance control techniques for resonant and multilevel power converters.
Seokwon Harry Choi
Ph.D Student
Seokwon Harry Choi received his B.S. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Seoul National University, South Korea, in 2025. Before joining the Pilawa Group, he was a graduate research associate in the Electric Energy Conversion Lab at Seoul National University. His research interests include the design and control of switched-capacitor converters and high-frequency power conversion. Harry is a recipient of the Berkeley Fellowship.
Khalid Durani
Ph.D Student
Khalid Durani received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley in December 2023. His research interests include the dynamic modeling and control of power converters.
Francesca Giardine
Ph.D. Student
Francesca Giardine received a B.S. in Engineering Science and B.A. in Mathematics and Statistics from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts in May of 2020. Francesca is currently pursuing a Ph.D in Electrical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, funded by NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (awarded 2022). Francesca has a particular interest in single phase ac-dc converters with an emphasis on active buffering and control techniques. Outside of the lab Francesca enjoys running slowly, hiking, and trying local bakeries.
Logan Horowitz
Ph.D. Student
Logan received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY in 2018. Outside of power electronics, he enjoys bad jokes and bouldering.
Elisa Krause
Ph.D. Student
Elisa received her B.S. in electrical engineering from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests involve designing power dense solutions for space applications. In 2022, Elisa received the Chancellor’s fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2024, she was also awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
Sahana Krishnan
Ph.D. Student
Sahana Krishnan received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in May of 2018. After graduating, she spent three years working at Texas Instruments architecting power converter reference designs. She is currently pursuing graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley with a research emphasis on 48 V to point-of-load DC-DC hybrid switched-capacitor converters in automotive applications. This research has been motivated by her desire to utilize her industry experience to inform academic research direction and reduce the timeline from research investigation to industry adoption.
Tahmid Mahbub
Ph.D. Student
Tahmid Mahbub received his B.S. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) from Cornell University in 2017. He spent the next 6 years working at Apple, focused on EE hardware system integration and MCU hardware design. He is now a Ph.D. student in the Pilawa Power Electronics Research Group at the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on addressing practical challenges in multi-level converters. Tahmid is a recipient of the 2025 Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship.
Nagesh Patle
Ph.D. Student
Nagesh Patle received his B.Tech. and M.Tech. degrees in Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering from IIT Kharagpur, India, in 2021. He is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. He has work experiences at Apple, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm. His research focuses on high-density and high-efficiency power delivery, including integrated PMICs for modern data centers and EV subsystems. In 2021, he was the recipient of the Keshab K Parhi Endowment Prize for the best demonstrable Master’s thesis and also, the Institute Order of Merit Award for outstanding all-round performance with distinction in technology activities at IIT Kharagpur. In 2022, he was the recipient of the Berkeley Fellowship. In 2025, he received Timothy B. Campbell Innovation Award and H2H8 Research Grant.
Haifah Sambo
Ph.D. Student
Haifah Sambo earned her B.S. degree from the University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA, in 2021. She is currently working towards her PhD degree in electrical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research interests include the design, control, and optimization of hybrid switched-capacitor converters. In 2021, Haifah received the GEM fellowship and the Chancellor’s fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2023, she was also awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
Dennis Woo
Ph.D. Student
Dennis Woo received his B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 2023 and 2024, respectively. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D in Electrical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Dennis’s research interests include high density power converters for electrified transportation and control techniques for fault mitigation of hybrid switched capacitor converters. Outside of the lab, he is an avid photographer, outdoor explorer, and volunteer for cancer-related causes.
Emmi Wyttenbach
Ph.D. Student
Emmi Wyttenbach received both her B.S. and M.Eng. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell University in 2023, with her research focusing on active energy buffer control. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in the department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley.
Shuyu Zhang
Ph.D. Student
Shuyu received her bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, in 2023. Before joining the Pilawa group, she was a master’s student at Stanford University. Her research interests include the topology, modeling, and control for high-performance data center power delivery.
Post-Doctoral Researchers
Yicheng Zhu
Post-doctoral Researcher
Yicheng Zhu is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, advised by Professor Robert Pilawa-Podgurski. He received his B.Eng. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Tsinghua University in 2017 and 2020, respectively. His research interests include circuit topologies, control techniques, and analytical models of high-performance hybrid switched-capacitor converters with applications in data center power delivery. Yicheng was a recipient of the IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) Outstanding Student Scholarship, the Outstanding Master’s Thesis Award of Tsinghua University, the Berkeley Fellowship, in 2020, and the 2023 NVIDIA Graduate Fellowship, given annually to five Ph.D. students worldwide involved in research that spans all areas of computing innovation. In 2023, he received the Best Paper Award at the IEEE 24th Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics (COMPEL) and the Best Paper Award at the 2023 Open Compute Project (OCP) Future Technologies Symposium.
Fun fact: I was born on the first World Teachers’ Day, and my dream is to become a teacher : )
Junwei Huang
Post-doctoral Researcher
Junwei Huang is a visiting postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, advised by Prof. Robert Pilawa- Podgurski. He is also a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Microelectronics, University of Macau, where he is advised by Prof. Rui P. Martins and collaborates with Prof. Yan Lu (Tsinghua University). He received his B.Eng. in Microelectronics from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), Chengdu, in 2018, and his Ph.D. from the State Key Laboratory of Analog and Mixed-Signal VLSI (AMSV), University of Macau, in 2024. His research interests include power-management ICs (PMICs)—particularly high-voltage-conversion-ratio DC–DC converters and highly integrated on-chip and in-package voltage regulators (IVRs)—with an emphasis on high current density, high efficiency, and fast transient response.
LinkedIn | Google Scholar | Homepage
Undergraduate Student Researchers
Shirina Agrawal
Undergraduate Researcher
Shirina is currently working towards her B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). Her work includes multi-level power converter analysis and hardware prototyping for validation. She is a member of CalSol, UC Berkeley’s solar vehicle team, where she designs and builds high-voltage battery packs for the solar vehicle.
Jack Armstrong
Undergraduate Researcher
Jack Armstrong is currently working towards his B.A.’s in both Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and Applied Math.
Jessica Li
Undergraduate Researcher
Jessica is currently working towards her B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Marrin Nerenberg
Undergraduate Researcher
Marrin is currently working towards her B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Her work focuses on supporting multi-level inverter projects for electric aircraft applications. She is involved with Formula Electric at Berkeley (FSAE) where she works with the motor inverter for Berkeley’s first electric race car. Marrin is also a member of the Society of Women Engineers where she has mentored high school students through introductory circuitry projects.
Stephanie Schaupp
Undergraduate Researcher
Stephanie is currently working towards her B.S. in Energy Engineering.
Alumni
Ph.D. Alumni
Rahul Iyer (2025) – now at Tesla, Inc.
Rose Abramson (2024)
– now at NVIDIA
Maggie Blackwell (2023)
– now at Hanwha Q CELLS
Kelly Fernandez (2023) – now at Form Energy
Nathan Brooks (2023) – now Professor at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Samantha Coday (2023) – now Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Sophia Chou, PhD (2021) – Now at Enphase
Zitao Liao, PhD (2021) – Now at Tesla
Nathan Pallo, PhD (2021) – Now at Form Energy
Wen-Chuen Liu, PhD (2020) – Now at Cirrus Logic
Pourya Assem, PhD (2020) – Now at Texas Instruments
Zichao Ye, PhD (2020) – Now at Google
Christopher Barth, PhD (2019, UIUC) – Now at NASA
Andrew Stillwell, PhD (2019, UIUC) – Now an Assistant Professor at UIUC
Enver Candan, PhD (2019, UIUC) – Now at IBM
Yutian Lei, PhD (2017, UIUC) – Now at Tesla
Shibin Qin, PhD (2017, UIUC) – Now at Waymo
Post-Doc Alumni
Logan Horowitz (2025) – now Professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder
Nathan Miles Ellis (2024)
– now Professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz
Ting Ge (2022)
– now at MPS
Tomas Modéer (2017)
– now CEO at SCiBreak
Master’s Research Alumni
Yizhe Zhang, MS (2018, UIUC)
Pei Han Ng, MS (2018, UIUC)
Derek Heeger, MS (2016, UIUC)
Felix Hsiao, MS (2016, UIUC)
Joshua Garcia-Sheridan, MS studies (2015, UIUC)
Aaron Ho, MS (2015, UIUC)
Ben Macy, MS (2015, UIUC)
Yuqi Li, MS (2015, UIUC)
Roy Bell, MS (2014, UIUC)
Josiah McClurg, MS (2014, UIUC)
Marcel Schuck, MS (2013, UIUC)
Ryan May, MS (2013, UIUC)
Previous Visiting Researchers
Leheng Wang, Ph.D. Exchange (2025) from Tsinghua University
Yixuan Wu, Ph.D. Exchange (2023-2024) from KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Ivan Z Petric, PhD exchange (2021-2022) from University of Padova, Italy
Max Syu, PhD exchange (2019-2020) from National Taiwan University of Science and Technology
Mads Graungaard Taul, PhD exchange (2019-2020) from Aalborg University, Denmark
Juan Colmenares, PhD exchange (2016) from KTH – Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Undergraduate Thesis Research – Alumni
Intae Moon, BS (2016, UIUC)
Thomas Navidi, BS (2016, UIUC)
Benedict Foo, BS (2015, UIUC)
Rodrigo Serna, BS (2014, UIUC)
Jingyi Ma, BS (2014, UIUC)
Yujia Zhang, BS (2014, UIUC)
Felix Hsiao, BS (2014, UIUC)
Ziming Chen, BS (2013, UIUC)
Sutchaya Lertburapa, BS (2013, UIUC)
Sartaj Grewal, BS (2013, UIUC)
Christopher Barth, BS (2012, UIUC)
Undergraduate Researcher Alumni
Yayun Zhao (2025) – now at Cornell MEng Program!
Evan Sandoval (2023-2025)
- Khalid Durani (2023-2025) – now a PhD student in the Pilawa Group!
Ben Liao (2024)
– now at Cornell PhD Program
Anya Shah (2024)
– now at Blue Origin
Suhrith Belamkonda (2022-2024)
William Vavrik (2023)
– now at UIUC MS Program
Linshen Liu (2022-2023) – now at UT Austin MS program
Amanda Jackson (2019-2023) – now at MIT PhD program
Nicole Stokowski (2021-2022) – now at UIUC MS program
Raya Mahony (2020-2022) – now at UIUC MS program
Micki Rentauskas (2018, UIUC)
Eric Saathoff (2015-2018, UIUC)
Anika Manzo (2017-2018, UIUC)
Oscar Azofeifa Castillo (2017, UIUC)
Adwaita Dani (2017, UIUC)
Jihyun Lee (UIUC)
Sunyu Wang (UIUC)
Kelsey Levante (UIUC)
Won Ho Chung, undergraduate research (2016-2017, UIUC)
Carl Haken, undergraduate research (2015-2016, UIUC)
Mark Hirsbrunner, undergraduate research (2014-15, UIUC)
Corinne Cannavale, undergraduate research (2013-15, UIUC)
Brady Salz, undergraduate research (2014, UIUC)
Emma He, undergraduate research (2014, UIUC)
Chenyang Xu, undergraduate research (2013, UIUC)
Andrew Morrison, undergraduate research (2013-2014, UIUC)
Ruichen Zhao, undergraduate research (2013, UIUC)
Jeff Wheeler (2012-2013, UIUC)
Charles Wu (2012-2013, UIUC)