This semester, the SPARK Lab, which is organized at University of Kentucky (UK) within the Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering - ECE Department, and is affiliated with the Power and Energy Institute of Kentucky (PEIK), marks its 10th anniversary. The group was established by Dan M. Ionel, PhD, IEEE Fellow, shortly after starting at UK as ECE Professor and the inaugural L. Stanley Pigman Chair in Power, and welcomed its first postdoctoral researcher and PhD student in early 2016.
Since then, more than 20 research lab members, mostly PhD students, together with UGRF, USP, and MS students, and post docs, have already completed and graduated, and moved on to successful careers. In this academic year, the lab has been operating with 8 PhD students, one UGRF, and 2 USP/AMP for PhD students. Over the years, the SPARK Lab had student members, visiting faculty, and close collaborators from many Kentucky counties and from all the continents of the world, except Antarctica. The lab has included: 5 NSF Graduate Research Fellows, 2 NASA KY Graduate Fellows, and one Department of Education GAANN Fellow, 3 recipients of the Pigman College of Engineering Outstanding PhD Student Award, and many recipients of Pigman scholarships and Lighthouse Beacon Foundation fellowships, IEEE PES scholarships and international paper awards.
The SPARK group members have been regularly attending the series of major IEEE national and international conferences: ECCE, IEMDC, PES GM, PES T&D, and ICRERA, where they have received over the years many paper, poster, and technical demonstration awards, as separately reported in previous news. In 2020, Dr. Ionel received the IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) Veinott Award, the highest PES distinction for electromechanical energy conversion. In 2024, while on sabbatical in England, he was the recipient of a most prestigious Leverhulme Visiting Professorship at University of Bath, extended ongoing collaboration with University of Oxford, and was appointed Honorary Professor at University College London (UCL).
The SPARK Lab research projects have received multi-million-dollar funding from federal agencies, such as NSF, NASA, and DOE, and directly from industry and utilities. The development of advanced experimental and computational laboratory capabilities in the newly refurbished Grehan engineering building greatly benefited from most generous donations by Stanley and Karen Pigman. The research on electric power components and systems includes topics such as electric machines and power electronic drives, electric vehicles and aircraft, alternative energy systems, smart grid and buildings, integration of renewable energy systems, energy storage with batteries, and power system resilience, and has been documented in more than 225 peer reviewed journal and conference publications. Papers, theses, and dissertations are available from the UKnowledge online repository and from the SPARK Lab website.
The photograph, which was taken during the latest edition of the IEEE ECCE Conference, the largest joint technical event of the Power Electronics and Industry Applications IEEE Societies, includes current and former members of the SPARK Lab, from left to right: Ali Mohammadi, former PhD student now with Nidec Aerospace; Matteo Deponti, visiting PhD student from Politecnico di Millano; Diego Lopez-Guerrero, PhD student; Matin Vatani, PhD student/candidate; Abdullah Al Hadi, former postdoc now with Toyota Research Institute; Kwabena Kyeremeh, PhD student/candidate; Dan M. Ionel, PhD, FIEEE, ECE Professor and L. Stanley Pigman Chair in Power, Director of the SPARK Lab and PEIK Institute; Donovin Lewis, former PhD student now with ABB; Rosemary Alden, former PhD student and now with ABB; Steven Poore, PhD student/candidate; Lucas Gastineau, PhD student; David Stewart, PhD student; and Huangjie Gong, former PhD student now with ABB. Not in the photo, and fulfilling commitments for IEEE and ECCE were Vandana Rallabandi, the inaugural SPARK postdoc, now with Oak Ridge National Lab and General Chair for an upcoming IEEE IEMDC conference, and Narges Taran, the inaugural SPARK Lab PhD student, now with Ford and Vice Chair of the IEEE IAS EM Committee.
The SPARK lab continues its successful activity with three PhD students graduated in the last nine months and two expected to graduate with BS this May and to follow through the AMP program directly for PhD starting in the fall. The SPARK Lab looks forward to making further academic contributions for supporting students and fulfilling the mission of the University of Kentucky, and of the L. Stanley Pigman Chair in Power endowment. More information is available from the SPARK Lab website.
