Principal Investigator
Dr. Patricia Hidalgo-Gonzalez
Bio: Dr. Hidalgo-Gonzalez is an Assistant Professor in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and in the Center for Energy Research at UC San Diego. She holds a Ph.D. and two M.Sc. from the University of California, Berkeley in Energy and Resources and Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. She graduated as an Industrial and Electrical engineer from Pontificia Universidad Católica of Chile. For more info refer to her bio.
Research: She is generally interested in power dynamics, energy policy, electricity market redesign for the integration of renewable energy, microgrids, transmission and distribution systems, and learning for dynamical systems with safety guarantees. For more info refer to her bio and projects.
Fun fact: Professor Hidalgo-Gonzalez attends silent 10-day meditation courses.
Email: phidalgogonzalez [at] ucsd.edu
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Postdoctoral fellows
Rajni Bansal
Bio: Dr. Rajni Bansal is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Center for Energy Research, University of California San Diego. He holds a Ph.D. in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and an M.S.E in the Department of Applied Mathematics from Johns Hopkins University, where he worked with Dr. Dennice Gayme and Dr. Enrique Mallada. Before Hopkins, he graduated as a Mechanical Engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and has worked as a Market Analyst at Credit Suisse Investment Bank.
Research: Rajni’s research lies at the intersection of optimization, control, graph theory, and game theory, which assists with the market design of evolving multi-timescale markets. For more info on his work, refer to his website.
Personal website link: https://sites.google.com/view/rajnibansal/home
Fun fact: He likes playing squash and learning new languages in his spare time. He has been practicing his Deutsch for almost five years now.
Email: rabansal [at] ucsd.edu
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Ph.D. students
Manasa Muralidharan
Bio: Manasa Muralidharan (she/her) is a PhD Candidate in the Mechanical Engineering department at UCSD co-advised by Prof. Patricia Hidalgo-Gonzalez and Prof. Jan Kleissl. She graduated with a Bachelors in Aerospace Engineering with Distinction from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham (University), Coimbatore, India in 2017. She was a study-abroad student at UCSD for the last 3 semesters of her undergraduate study. Her undergraduate research project was on studying the impact of shading from rooftop solar photovoltaics on building heating and cooling energy use and costs.
Research: Manasa is broadly interested in distributed control, optimization and learning for power grids with a high share of renewable and distributed energy resources. Her earlier research work was on optimal control for battery energy storage systems. As a part of an ARPA-E OPEN project, she developed a system-level optimal controller for a novel heterogeneous unifying battery system that improves state-of-health uniformity, performance and reliability of 2nd-life electric vehicle batteries. Her current research focuses on frequency control. As a part of an ARPA-E NODES project, she developed a power flow model of the UCSD microgrid to test microgrid response to a secondary frequency regulation request from the grid operator. She also contributed to one of the first real-world, large-scale demonstrations of distributed secondary frequency control using heterogeneous distributed energy resources on the UCSD microgrid. Her current research includes distributed frequency control and safety-guaranteed learning-based frequency control for power grids with low and time-varying inertia.
Fun fact: Manasa is a classically-trained and passionate dancer. She is currently a part of an all-women Bachata dance team with a local dance company and performs at different Latin dancing events in San Diego
Natalia Gonzalez
Bio: Natalia (she/her) is a Ph.D. student at UC San Diego studying mechanical engineering with a focus on control theory, optimization, and modeling. She completed her MS in MAE at UC San Diego in March 2023. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Florida with an BS in MAE. Natalia also earned a minor in Sustainability and the Built Environment, which provided her with an alternative perspective on the challenges associated with developing a more sustainable built environment, as well as a top-level overview of the effects of climate change and the strategies being employed to mitigate it globally. Her undergraduate research project was a case study on the German energy transition. Her research provided a comprehensive review and discussion of the significant socio-technical roles that power production and the grid, buildings, and the public have played in the energy transition. She is extremely passionate about the environment and climate change mitigation, which motivates her to contribute to a more sustainable energy future through research.
Research: Natalia’s research focuses on renewable integration into power systems through optimization, control, and machine learning/AI. She believes that 100% renewable power capacity is possible through the optimized integration of distributed energy resources, strategic planning of electricity and energy markets, and the utilization of robust design that accounts for the uncertainties of climate change. Her most recent work explores the role that emerging technologies may play in a decarbonized grid using capacity expansion modeling. Natalia is also interested in energy policy, environmental justice implications of various decarbonization pathways, and the role of AI in sustainable development. Furthermore, she loves to teach and mentor students, and she is especially dedicated to uplifting historically underrepresented engineers through mentorship and education.
Fun fact: Natalia has worked on several off-grid permaculture farms to learn about sustainable agricultural practices and community living. “Chop wood, carry water.”
Email: n7gonzalez [at] ucsd.edu
Paul Serna-Torre
Bio: Paul focuses on the control of Distributed Energy Resources and the planning of power systems expansion. Before joining the Ph.D. program, Paul held appointments in industry for five years. He initially worked on designing power transformers in Delcrosa, an electromechanical firm. Then, Paul worked in Osinergmin, Tariff Regulatory Direction of the Peru Energy Commission. Paul, there, codeveloped the “Perseo 2.0” model, a midterm power system optimization model considering the vast hydro grid with reservoirs and rivers in Peru. Then, Paul worked in COES, Peru National Electricity Operator. Paul performed the nationwide short-term power generation scheduling and the security analysis of the national grid with stability and contingency analysis. With the guidance of Dr. Wilfredo Sifuentes, he teamed up with four engineers to develop the “Yupana” model, short-term power generation scheduling model currently used by the National Electricity Operator. Paul earned a Master of Arts degree in Applied Mathematics, focusing on numerical optimization and the theory of probabilities. Paul earned a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering, graduating with highest honors,from Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería, Peru.
Research: Paul is interested in controlling Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) using Machine Learning and Game Theory for frequency and voltage regulation. Paul is also working on analyzing the grid expansion of North American Western Interconnection towards 2050, considering zero emissions, the impact of storage costs declining and decreasing transmission capacity.
Fun fact: Paul enjoys playing soccer and having good meals.
Email: psernatorre [at] ucsd.edu / psernat [at] uni.pe
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Undergraduate students
Martin Staadecker
Bio: I’m an undergraduate student in the Engineering Science program at the University of Toronto planning to specialize in robotics. Most recently, I was a technical lead at Flatten, a Canadian non-profit where we built a data-collection platform to help governments respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Research: I’m interested in projects where I can learn something new while having a positive impact. Modelling the energy grid with the REAM Lab is perfect as our work directly impacts policy decisions and eventually carbon emissions.
Fun fact: Last year I went outdoor rock climbing in Mexico and I can’t wait to go back!
Email: martin.staadecker [at] mail.utoronto.ca
Lauren Streitmatter
Bio: Lauren graduated with high honors from the University of Toronto last June, receiving a BASc in Energy Systems Engineering. Her undergraduate thesis was on California residential microgrid optimization for vulnerable communities, and she helped design a sustainable heat recovery system for a northern Canadian high school greenhouse as her capstone project. She is now working in the Grid Planning and Analysis Center at the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, Colorado. Lauren is driven by her passion for sustainability and environmental justice. She hopes to eventually return to school to study control theory and renewable power system dynamics to facilitate the integration of inverter-based resources into electricity grids.
Research: Lauren’s research with the REAM lab is a continuation of her thesis work into the optimization of residential microgrid investment and operation strategies. She has also worked on modeling hydrogen storage in switch. Moving forward, she hopes to learn more about dynamic and transient stability analyses for electricity grids with high penetrations of variable renewable energy sources. She is interested in developing, and using energy modeling tools to help inform a reliable, resilient, and equitable transition to completely decarbonized electricity grids.
Fun fact: Lauren loves water sports - she played water polo in high school, competed on UofT’s dragon boat team, and swims weekly.
Email: lauren.streitmatter [at] mail.utoronto.ca
Rachel Wei
Bio: Rachel is an undergraduate student in the Computer Science and Engineering department at UCSD. She is interested in investigating how technology and applications of CS can aid renewable energy initiatives. As part of a pro-bono consulting club at UCSD, she has provided consulting services to Center for Community Energy on feasibility of using EV batteries to power homes.
Research: Rachel is interested in projects investigating the energy grid and energy markets to understand policies and strategies contributing to clean energy grids. She recently assisted Natalia in researching the integration of underutilized renewable energy sources. Currently, Rachel is researching new resources that have recent data and predictions on energy demand.
Fun fact: Rachel likes to bake and try out new recipes in her free time, especially cakes and cookies.
Email: rawei [at] ucsd.edu
Albert Chang
Bio: Albert is an undergraduate student at UC San Diego studying mechanical engineering with a focus on renewable energy and environmental flows. His interests in environmental justice, community-centered design, and social sciences have guided him to the intersection of engineering and public policy. Albert previously conducted a battery storage feasibility study for UCSD’s Carbon Neutrality Initiative and is now working at a startup seeking to repurpose end-of-life EV batteries into stationary energy storage systems.
Research: Albert is interested in exploring energy equity metrics and implications to reduce the energy burden of underserved communities. He is currently conducting sensitivity analyses on the India power grid to provide policy suggestions for the Multi-Country Electricity Transition project.
Fun fact: Albert enjoys hiking and hopes to complete trails in all fifty states!
Email: alc010 [at] ucsd.edu
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Alumni
Rahul Roy, MAE M.S., 2022
Mingyuan Wu, MAE M.S., 2021
Aditya Kulkarni, CSE M.S., 2021
Noah Sterngold, CSE M.S., 2021