Nick Brown is a Fellow in the WESEP IGERT program at Iowa State University, and is in the Electric Power and Energy Systems Group of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His research is focused on the integration of wind power at increasing penetration levels, and the coordination of conventional and renewable power plants in the operational time-frame to supply energy and operating reserves across the transmission grid reliably. He has conducted probabilistic production cost studies for utilities, regulators and ISOs involving reliability based on potential generation expansion futures, and analyzed generators’ participation in energy and ancillary services markets.
Michael S. Czahor received his B.A. in mathematics from Rowan University in May 2013. During his time at Rowan he focused heavily on statistical methods and theory. He is currently an IGERT Fellow pursuing a co-major PhD in Wind Energy Science Engineering Policy and Statistics. During his senior year at Rowan, Michael interned as a junior level statistician with Comcast Spectacor in Philadelphia. His research at ISU is focused on modern systems (wind turbines) that are providing large amounts of system-use and environmental data .While using this data, with appropriate statistical modeling; he hopes to provide improved predictions of component and system lifetimes. The benefits from this research will include, but not be limited to providing important prognostic information on maintenance and replacement needs for individual units.
Austin R.J. Downey is a Ph.D. student and IGERT fellow at Iowa State University’s Wind Energy Science, Engineering, and Policy program (WESEP). He received his B.S. from Iowa State University in Civil Engineering in 2014. His area of interest is in structural health monitoring of turbine blades and components in real time, practically in remote and extreme locations.
Patrick Edmonds comes from the University of Kansas Medical Center with an M.Sc. in Biostatistics. There he established interest in epidemiological and environmental problems, and statistical ways to address them. He moved to Iowa State to pursue a Co-Major Ph.D. in WESEP and Statistics. His primary interest is how statistics can be used as a methodological tool for empirical skepticism, and how it lays the foundation for rigorous and pragmatic scientific understanding. He applies this ideology in developing and using appropriate statistical methods for modeling physical dependency in meteorological data. In particular, he focuses on modeling wind speed and wind direction at wind turbine hub height.
Armando Figueroa is an Electrical Engineering graduate student at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus and a current IGERT “Wind Energy Science, Engineering and Policy” fellow. He has worked as an intern at the Electric Power Utility of Puerto Rico during the summer of 2003 and 2005, at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals throughout the summer of 2006 and at Lockheed Martin during the summer of 2008. He is also a licensed engineer in Puerto Rico. His main research interests involve investigating the impact of variable generation on the operational requirements of a power system.
Matthew Fischels is an IGERT Fellow and Ph.D. candidate at Iowa State University with co-majors in WESEP and Aerospace Engineering. He received his B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Iowa State University in May 2013 and joined the WESEP program in August 2013. His research interests include optimization and run-time acceleration techniques of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) as well as the application of CFD in the wind energy industry.
Austin Herrema is an IGERT fellow and is pursuing a co-major Ph.D. in Iowa State University’s Wind Energy Science, Engineering, and Policy Program and Mechanical Engineering. He received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Dordt College in May of 2014. His current research is in the field of computational mechanics and fluid-structure interaction with an emphasis on potential applications to the industrial design process.
David Jahn earned an M.S. in E.E. from the Univ. of Colorado in 1991 and M.S. in meteorology in 1995 from the Univ. of Oklahoma. He has 11 years professional experience as a research administrator and scientist in both a university research center and industry. His focus in meteorological research concentrates on numerical weather prediction on the storm-scale. In 2012 he joined the Wind Energy Science, Engineering, and Policy doctoral program at Iowa State University. His research focus is in the short-term forecasting of ramp events.
Helena Khazdozian received a B.A in Physics and a B.A. in Art History from Hartwick College in 2010, then earned her M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Virginia in 2013. She is an IGERT fellow and Ph.D. candidate in Wind Energy Science, Engineering and Policy. In her home department of Electrical Engineering, she is currently researching the design of permanent magnet synchronous generators for wind turbines, with an emphasis on magnetic materials.
Morteza Khosavi is a PhD student in Aerospace Engineering and an IGERT fellow in WESEP. Morteza’s research is mostly focused on experimental aerodynamics and flow diagnostics specifically as it relates to floating offshore wind turbines. Morteza finished his bachelor degree in Aerospace Engineering and co-majored in Mathematics at Iowa State University. He started his graduate studies in January 2012 and he is anticipated to finish his PhD by May 2016.
Patrick Maloney is an IGERT fellow at ISU co-majoring in WESEP and Electrical Engineering. He received his BA in physics from Carleton College in 2007 and MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2010. He is licensed professional engineer (power) in the state of Oregon with 5 years of experience working in the public and private sectors on industrial and utility scale energy management and control systems. Patrick’s research interests include infrastructure/power systems planning.
Benjamin Peaden is an IGERT fellow at ISU co-majoring in WESEP and Statistics. He received his BS in Statistics at Brigham Young University in April 2015. His research interests are in the reliability of different systems of wind energy.
Robert Peggar is an IGERT Fellow and pursuing a co-major Ph. D. in Civil Engineering and WESEP. He received his B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville in 2012 and his M.S. in Civil Engineering from Iowa State University in 2014. His current research focuses on the design and constructability of concrete wind towers for harvesting wind at heights above 80 meters.
Aaron Rosenberg received his B.S. in aerospace engineering from Iowa State University in May 2013. He is an IGERT Fellow pursuing a PhD in WESEP and Aerospace Engineering. As an undergrad, Aaron spent two summers participating in wind energy related research experiences in both the Department of Atmospheric Sciences and the Department of Aerospace Engineering at ISU. He spent a year studying aerospace engineering and wind energy at TU Delft in the Netherlands. His research is focused on using high fidelity computational fluid dynamics to research wind farm aerodynamics.
Heather Sauder is a graduate student and IGERT fellow at Iowa State University with a co-major in the IGERT Wind Energy Science, Engineering, and Policy program and Engineering Mechanics. She received a B.S. in Physics and Spanish from Furman University in 2011 and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering with an emphasis on Fluid Mechanics and Atmospheric Dynamics from the University of Wyoming in December 2012. Heather joined the WESEP program in January 2013. Her research relates to the aeroelastic properties of wind turbine blades. Heather is also on the committee for Iowa State University’s Graduate Society of Women Engineers and an alumni member of Delta Gamma Fraternity.
Mat Wymore is a Ph.D. candidate in the WESEP program. His home department is Electrical and Computer Engineering, and he is researching wireless sensor networks and their application to health monitoring of wind turbine structures and machinery. Originally from Oskaloosa, IA, he received a B.S. in Computer Engineering and a B.A. in Performing Arts from Iowa State in 2011, then worked for a healthcare software company in Madison, WI, before returning to Iowa State for graduate school in 2013.
Huiyi Zhang is a Ph.D. Candidate and IGERT fellow at Iowa State University’s Wind Energy Science, Engineering, and Policy program. Her fellowship is funded by the National Science Foundation. She has more than five years of work experience at ABB and a major Chinese engineering research institute. She has also interned with Exelon Wind. Huiyi has a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Iowa and a B.E. in Automation from Yanshan University, China. She will receive her M.S. in Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering soon from Iowa State.