Iqbal Husain and Michael Kudenov Receive 2022 ALCOA Foundation Engineering Research Achievement Award

Congratulations to Iqbal Husain and Michael Kudenov for receiving the 2022 ALCOA Foundation Engineering Research Achievement Award!

Two faculty members of ECE Department, Iqbal Husain, ABB Distinguished Professor, and Micheal Kudenov, Associate Professor, have been awarded the 2022 ALCOA Foundation Engineering Research Achievement Award.

The annual ALCOA Foundation Engineering Research Achievement Awards program was established with support from the Alcoa Foundation in 1978 to encourage basic or applied research or research in the original design. The award is intended to recognize young faculty who have accomplished outstanding research achievements during the preceding three years.

Kudenov’s current research is focused on developing novel imaging systems, interferometers, detectors, and anisotropic materials related to polarization and spectral sensing, for wavelengths spanning ultraviolet through the thermal infrared. He is particularly interested in developing novel anisotropic materials and detector technologies that better enable snapshot systems, which are capable of maximizing the spatial, spectral, and/or polarimetric information contained within a single image. Applications include biomedical imaging, remote sensing, food safety, 3D Imaging, and atmospheric monitoring.

Dr. Kudenov completed his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2005. Upon graduation, his personal interest in astronomy and photography lead him to obtain his Ph.D. in Optical Sciences at The University of Arizona in 2009. Kudenov has authored 13 journal articles, 15 conference proceedings, 2 patents (pending), and 1 book contribution, and is in the process of writing a new book on instrumentation.

Husain’s research interests are in the areas of control and modeling of electrical drives, design of electric machines, development of power conditioning circuits, microinverters for distributed power generation, inverter controls for grid synchronization, and modeling of electric and hybrid vehicle systems. He has worked extensively on the development of SR and PM motor drives for various automotive and industrial applications. The research contributions to electric machines are in the areas of design optimizations, sensorless and high-performance controls, acoustic noise prediction, and parameter identification methods. The primary application of Husain’s work is in the transportation, automotive, and aerospace industries. As a result of this exposure, Husain has developed courses for graduate and undergraduate education in electric and hybrid vehicles and published the textbook Electric and Hybrid Vehicles: Design Fundamentals.

Husain joined the ECE department at North Carolina State University as a Distinguished Professor after serving as a faculty member at the University of Akron, Ohio for 17 years. He completed his Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka in 1987. He then obtained his Master’s and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University in 1989 and 1993, respectively.

Congratulations to both faculty members for receiving the 2022 ALCOA Foundation Engineering Research Achievement Award!