The UH Cullen College of Engineering’s Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department is proud to welcome Kaushik Rajashekara as its first National Academy of Engineering (NAE) faculty member.
Rajashekara, who became an NAE member in 2012 for his contributions to electric power conversion systems in transportation, joins the Cullen College as a Distinguished Professor of electrical and computer engineering.
As a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the U.S. National Academy of Inventors, Rajashekara comes to Houston from the University of Texas at Dallas where he served as Distinguished Professor and Endowed Chair in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Erik Jonssen School of Engineering and Computer Science.
In 1984, Rajashekara received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India and, in 1992, he completed a master’s of business administration from Indiana Wesleyan University in Indianapolis.
From 1989 to 2006, Rajashekara held various technical and managerial positions at Delphi Corporation/General Motors and was a technical fellow and chief scientist for advanced energy systems. There he worked in the area of propulsion and power conversion systems for electric, hybrid, fuel cell vehicles, and provided a vision for future technologies. He was also heavily involved in the organization’s electrical vehicle (EV) program, which developed technology that led to the first commercial version of EVs called GM EV1. From 2006 to 2012, he was a Chief Technologist for electric power and control systems at Rolls-Royce Corporation.
Over the course of his career, Rajashekara has received several awards for his contributions to transportation electrification. He has also published more than 150 papers in international journals, holds over 40 patents and co-authored the book “Sensorless Control of AC Motor Drives,” published by IEEE Press.