This semester yet another generational transition of electrical engineering (EE) PhD students takes place in the SPARK Lab, which is affiliated with the Power and Energy Institute of Kentucky (PEIK) at the University of Kentucky (UK) Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering. The photographs feature five National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research (GR) Fellows from the SPARK Lab: Rosemary Alden from Nicholasville, KY; Donovin Lewis from Paducah, KY; Steven Poore from Middlesboro, KY; Lucas Gastineau from Louisville, KY; and David Stewart from Flat Lick, KY.
Rosemary and Donovin, who have been awarded the NSF GR fellowships in 2021, have recently graduated and joined different departments of the Raleigh, NC, based US corporate R&D center of ABB, a global industrial technology leader in electrification and automation and a Fortune 500 company. Steven, who was awarded the NSF GRF in 2023, as well as Lucas, and David, who were awarded in 2025, continue their PhD studies at UK.
All five students completed their BS in EE at UK and continued directly for PhD having received the highly competitive and prestigious NSF Graduate Research (GR) Fellowship. Since 1952, the NSF GR Fellowship program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students who are pursuing full-time research-based graduate degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.
The two SPARK Lab newest NSF GR Fellows, Lucas and David, were among the only 33 who were selected from all US universities for Electrical and Electronics Engineering in 2025, when approximately 1,500 fellowships were awarded nationwide for all topics following a very highly selective review process. Each fellowship provides support over a five-year period, to include a stipend and cost of education allowance to cover all tuition and mandatory fees at the graduate degree-granting university. The fellowship is portable and can be transferred to a different institution of higher education, but all the SPARK Lab students decided to stay at UK, where they found an ideal academic home.
While at UK, the students have collaborated and contributed to advanced research projects sponsored by NSF, DOE, and NASA, and directly by industry and utilities on topics of electric power components and systems. Their research experience included summer visits and remote collaboration in the US with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and in England with University of Oxford, Bath University, and University College London (UCL).
The students have also regularly participated in very large IEEE conferences, and received paper and poster awards, as separately reported in different SPARK and PEIK news. Their main research is covered in the many journal and conference papers available online in authors’ manuscript versions accepted for publication from the UKnowledge repository or the SPARK Lab website, which also includes the students’ short bios.
During their undergraduate and graduate studies, the students benefited of additional support, such as that provided through UK's President's and Provost's scholarships, Lighthouse Beacon Foundation fellowships, the Pigman Scholars Program, and the IEEE PES Scholarship Plus Program. The students' undergraduate research sponsorship included NSF and NASA REUs, UK Undergraduate Research Fellowships, support through the L. Stanley Pigman Chair in Power endowment at UK, and research projects federally or industrially sponsored. Rosemary and Donovin received the Pigman College of Engineering Outstanding PhD Student award in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
The five students were executive members of the IEEE PES and IAS student chapter at UK, and depending of their technical interests, participated in student teams such as the national champion UK Solar Car, the electric boat, and the IEEE robotics, for which they made significant contributions and held leadership positions.
The students started early the research in the SPARK Lab, as sophomore or juniors, and continued through the USP and more recently the AMP programs, that enable the integration of the BS and PhD program and accelerated completion of the coursework. The SPARK group typically includes around ten members, mostly PhD national and international students, who benefit of close faculty advising, as well as of friendly support and mentoring by more senior students. Often the students continue collaboration after graduation, as is the case with Rosemary and Donovin, who currently work on joint papers with UK colleagues on topics of AI applied to data centers and electric machines, special drives and wireless power transfer. In the SPARK Lab, the students are all directly advised by Dan M. Ionel, PhD, FIEEE, ECE Professor and L. Stanley Pigman Chair in Power.
