Workshop Instructor Bios

Manohar Chamana, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, National Wind Institute, TTU

Dr. Chamana is an Assistant Professor and the Graduate Advisor for the Wind Energy Program at Texas Tech University - focused on renewable energy and energy storage integration in the electrical grid - Education and Research. Before joining NWI, he was with the smart grid department of an electrical distribution utility, ComEd, and a renewable energy development and testing company, GroupNIRE. He also interned in the power systems integration group at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. He received the M.S. degree from Texas Tech University in 2011 and the Ph.D. degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, in 2016, both in electrical engineering. He has several publications in leading power- and energy-related venues. His research interests include modeling and analyzing active distribution networks for grid-services and resiliency benefits, cyber-physical security, building energy management systems, and the economic impacts of distributed energy resources. He currently serves as the Principal Investigator on the Texas Workforce Commission, Department of Energy, and Department of Defense grants. He is actively involved in the Global Laboratory for Energy Asset Management and Manufacturing (GLEAMM) related activities to develop cyber-physical testbeds for research and education. As an instructor, he teaches the following courses: Wind Energy Grid Integration, Advance Technical Wind Energy, Critical Infrastructure, and Energy Storage in Grid in the Wind Energy program.

 

Argenis Bilbao, Ph.D.
Senior Director, GLEAMM, TTU

 Dr. Argenis Bilbao obtained his BS, MS and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering at Texas Tech University. He currently serves as the Senior Director of the Global Laboratory for Energy Asset Management and Manufacturing (GLEAMM) at Texas Tech University. His current research efforts include AI/ML-enabled grid/microgrid controllers, cyber-security, and grid integration of renewable power sources. Before this position he worked at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) where he performed research in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning-enabled Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) systems and smart power semiconductor modules. He worked at the Sandia National Laboratory on data acquisition software for the controls implemented in the research Wind Turbines currently installed at the Reese Air Force Base. In the area of power semiconductor devices, he has performed extensive research on ultra-high voltage silicon carbide power MOSFETs and IGBTs for the Department of Defense and Wolfspeed. Dr. Bilbao has performed research on synchro phasor and SCADA technologies and helped develop a set of low-cost phasor measurement units for educational purposes.

Vinitha Subbaraj, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Computer Science, WTAMU

Dr. Subburaj joined the College of Engineering at West Texas A&M University (WTAMU) in 2017. She is currently serving as the Associate Dean of the College of Engineering at WTAMU. She received a M.S. in Computer Science from Texas Tech University in 2010, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Texas Tech University in 2013. Prior to joining WTAMU, Dr. Subburaj was working as an Assistant professor for the Department of Computer Science at Baldwin Wallace University, Ohio from 2013. She is passionate about teaching software engineering courses and increasing women in computing disciplines. She has published more than 12 technical papers and has authored a textbook chapter. Dr. Subburaj research interests include software specification languages, reliable software development, software security, automated software systems, and machine learning/AI.

Anitha Subbaraj, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Electrical Engineering, WTAMU

Dr. Anitha Subburaj is an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at West Texas A&M University (WT) since 2016. She has been named the inaugural appointee to the McFather Professorship of Engineering, Computer Science and Mathematics at WT, 2022. Dr. Subburaj received her M.E. in Applied Electronics from the Anna University in 2007, India and her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at the Texas Tech University (TTU) in 2014. She was a post-doctoral research associate at TTU before coming to WT.  Dr. Subburaj is a Senior Member of the IEEE society. She teaches electrical circuits design, signals, control systems, renewables, and electric power systems. Dr. Subburaj has several publications in Renewable & Sustainable Energy Review Journal, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, and International Journal of Renewable Energy Research.  Her research interests include renewable energy, control systems, battery energy storage system, and battery connected to grid applications.

Josh Partheepan, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, System Engineering, WTAMU

Dr. Partheepan is originally from Coimbatore, India. He joined the College of Engineering faculty in fall 2017. He has bachelor's degrees in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Anna University, India, a master's degree in Power Plant Technologies from University of Strathclyde, UK and a Ph.D. in Agriculture and Systems from West Texas A&M University, USA. Dr. Partheepan teaches various mechanical, electrical, systems and general engineering topics such as fundamentals of programming, combustion, industrial automation, control systems, power systems, renewable energy systems, circuits and linear integrated circuits.

Joshua MacFie
Chief Executive Officer, Group NIRE

Joshua MacFie, CEO and Principal Electronics Engineer of Group NIRE has developed multiple iterations of energy management systems, numerous device and DER communications drivers, and has a patent pending on a load control algorithm used within this space. Mr. MacFie developed the network architecture, servers, and systems used to control and communicate GNIREs energy management systems as well as connection to TTUs GLEAMM Microgrid. Throughout this process, he has developed a Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification implementation plan for the Group NIRE network to ultimately serve the needs of the GNIRE and adjacent microgrids. His work within this space has contributed to several publications in the Renewable Energy field. Mr. MacFie has worked with computers and network architecture for over 25 years. He has a Bachelors in electrical & computer engineering with a minor in mathematics from Texas Tech University as well as an Associates in engineering from McClennan Community College.

Sanka Liyanage, Ph.D.
Lead Research Control Engineer

Dr. Sanka Liyanage is a control and robotic engineer specializing in industrial network control systems and building energy management systems

He earned his doctorate in mechanical engineering with a focus on dynamical systems and control from Texas Tech University and a bachelor's degree in mechanical and manufacturing engineering from the University of Rhuna, Srilanka. Throughout his studies and industrial internship, Sanka has obtained over seven years of experience studying industrial network control systems, SCADA, and mobile robots. Recently, he led the design engineering team to develop the SCADA system using Lab-view, Qt, and node-Red programming platforms for TTU, GLEAMM, 750kw, micro-grid, Lubbock, TX to facilitate the next generation micro-grid research. He also piloted the design engineering team to develop the data monitoring system using Lab-view, Qt, and node-Red programming platforms for TTU HUMS sustainable smart home project, Junction, TX, to enable high precision data collection and monitoring for sustainable living research at TTU. Apart from that, he also worked on developing SCADA systems for lab-scale microgrid testbeds at Texas Tech University. Currently he is working on building energy management system for critical infrastructures.