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Yang Cao
Professor
Office: GANT 105D
Phone: (860) 486-0915
Email: yang.cao@uconn.edu

EDUCATION

• PhD in Material Science, University of Connecticut, 2002
• MS in Condensed Matter Physics, Tongji University, 1995
• BS in Applied Physics, Tongji University, 1992

APPOINTMENTS

• Professor, University of Connecticut, 2019-
• Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation, 2018-
• Site Director of NSF Center for Novel High Voltage/Temperature Materials and Structures (NSF HVT) , 2017-
• Director of Electrical Insulation Research Center, Institute of Materials Science, University of Connecticut, 2013-
• Associate Professor, University of Connecticut, 2013-2019
• Senior Electrical Engineer, GE Global Research Center, 2002-2013

RESEARCH FOCUS

• High voltage engineering
• Flexible electronics
• HVDC/MVDC
• Grid Protection, hardening and asset management

MAJOR RESEARCH PROJECTS

• NASA/NPS, “Advanced Insulation System Design for Fast Light-weight Altitude-ready Solid-state Circuit Breaker for Hybrid Electric Propulsion (FLASH)” (N00244-20-1-008), PI, 8/1/2020-9/24/2022
• ONR “High Torque Density Motor Insulation” (N00014-19-1-2306), PI, 5/15/19 to 5/14/2022
• ONR “Accelerated Co-Designs of High K Polymer Dielectrics” (N00014-19-1-2304), PI, 5/01/19 to 4/30/2022
• G&W “DC Research Project”, PI, 3/25/19 to 3/24/2020
• G&W “SF6 Alternative Material Compatibility”, PI, 2/8/19 to 2/7/2020
• NASA HVDC Aerospace Electric System, UTRC/NASA, PI, 4/1/2018-12/30/2018
• Komatsu, Motor insulation, Komatsu, PI, 4/1/2018-3/30/2021
• Nextflex, Printing passive circuit, Nextflex/Boeing, Co-PI, 4/1/2018-3/30/2019
• MURI, Tracking, Diagnosing and Impeding Dielectric Breakdown in Polymers, Co-PI (N00014-17-1-2656), 8/1/2017-7/31/2022. https://muri.ims.uconn.edu
• NSF Phase I i/UCRC University of Connecticut Site: Center for Novel High Voltage/Temperature Materials and Structures (HVT) (NSF 1650544), Site Director, 2/1/2017 –   http://www.hvtcenter.org
• GE/ABB, Arc Interruption Gas Dynamics, PI, 9/1/2013-12/30/2019
• ONR DURIP (N00014-16-1-2885), PI, 7/15/2016-10/14/2018
• ONR “High Field Aging” (N00014-16-R-BA01), Co-PI, 7/1/2016-12/31/2018
• ARL “Nanocoating” (W911NF-16-2-0146), PI, 8/23/2016-12/22/2016
• ONR “Propulsion Insulation” (N00014-15-1-2413), PI, 5/15/2015-12/30/2019
• EPR Cable Consortium, PI, 1/1/1998-12/30/2025
• ONR MURI “Capacitors” (N00014-10-1-0944), Co-PI, 10/1/2010-9/30/2016
• DOE “Wet-Mate DC Connector”, Co-PI, 9/1/2014-6/30-2016
• DOE “DC Cabling” (DE-AR0000231), PI, 1/22/2012- 2/28/2014

HONORS & SERVICE ACTIVITIES

• Elected Member, Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering (CASE) (2020)
• Professional: IEEE Senior Member
• Research: UConn ECE Research Excellence (2018), GE Technical Career Award (2013), GE Technical Achievement Award (2011), GE Innovation Award (2010)
• Service: Member of Technical Program Committee, IEEE Dielectric and Electrical Insulation Society 2019, 2018, 2017

JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS & PATENTS

2020:

• Hiep Nguyen, Arshiah Mirza, Weiqiang Chen, Yiqi Liu, JoAnne Ronzello, Jack Chapman, Ali Bazzi and Yang Cao, “Investigation of 2D Nano-structured Winding Insulation for High Torque Density Medium-Voltage Motor“, IEEE ACCESS, accepted, Dec. 2020.
• Jindong Huo, Yifei Wang, Yang Cao, “3D computational study of arc splitting during power interruption: the influence of metal vapor enhanced radiation on arc dynamics”, Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, published online https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6463/abc64b, Oct.30, 2020.
• Chuanyang  Li, Tohid  Shahsavarian, Mohamadreza  Arab Baferani, Ningzhen  Wang, JoAnne  Ronzello, Yang  Cao, “High Temperature Insulation Materials for DC Cable Insulation-Part III: Degradation and Surface Breakdown”, IEEE Transactions on Dielectric and Electrical Insulation, accepted, Oct., 2020.
• Tohid  Shahsavarian, Chuanyang  Li, Mohamadreza  Arab Baferani, JoAnne   Ronzello, Xin  Wu, Di  Zhang, Yang  Cao, “High Temperature Insulation Materials for DC Cable Insulation-Part II: Partial Discharge Behavior at Elevated Altitudes”, IEEE Transactions on Dielectric and Electrical Insulation, accepted, Oct., 2020.
• Mohamadreza  Arab Baferani, Chuanyang  Li, Tohid  Shahsavarian, JoAnne  Ronzello, Yang  Cao, “High Temperature Insulation Materials for DC Cable Insulation-Part I: Space Charge”, IEEE Transactions on Dielectric and Electrical Insulation, accepted, Oct., 2020.
• Mattewos Tefferi, Mohamadreza Arab Baferani, Hiroaki Uehara, Yang Cao, “The Correlation and Balance of Material Properties for DC cable insulation at Design Field”, IEEE ACCESS, published online Oct. 12, 2020. DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3030005.
• Zhousheng Zhang, Zheming Wang, Gilbert Teyssedre, Tohid Shahsavarian, Mohamadreza Arab Baferani, Geng Chen, Chuanjie Lin, Bo Zhang, Uwe Riechert, Zhipeng Lei, Yang Cao, Chuanyang Li, “Gas-solid Interface Charge Tailoring Techniques: What We Grasped and Where to Go”, Nanotechnology, accepted, 2020.
• Chao  Wu, Mohamadreza  Arab, JoAnne  Ronzello, Yang  Cao, “Charge Transport Dynamics and Space Charge Accumulation in XLPE Composites with 2D Platelet Fillers for HVDC Cable Insulation”, IEEE Transactions on Dielectric and Electrical Insulation, in print, 2020.
• Jindong Huo, JoAnne Ronzello, Alex Rontey, Yifei Wang, Linda Jacobs, Timothy Sommerer, Yang Cao, “Development of an arc root model for studying the electrode vaporization and its influence on arc dynamics”, AIP Advances, Vol.10, No.8, Aug. 31, 2020. DOI: 10.1063/5.0012159
• Deepak Kamal, Yifei Wang, Huan Tran, Lihua Chen, Zongze Li, Chao Wu, Shamima Nasreen, Yang Cao, Rampi Ramprasad, “Computable Bulk and Interfacial Electronic Structure Features as Proxies for Dielectric Breakdown of Polymers”, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c09555, 12 (33) 37182-37187, July 24, 2020.
• Yifei Wang, Zongze Li, Chao Wu, Yang Cao, “High-Temperature Dielectric Polymer Nanocomposites with Interposed Montmorillonite Nanosheets”, Chemical Engineering Journal, Vol.401, 126093, 2020. DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2020.126093
• Tohid Shahsavarian, Yang Cao, Emmanouil Anagnostou, Roderick kalbfleisch, “Novel Modulated Equivalent Model of Point-to-Point LCC-based High Voltage AC/DC/AC System for Geomagnetic Storm-Induced Unbalanced Harmonic Studies”, International Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems, Vol.122, 106173, 2020. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijepes.2020.106173.
• Lihua Chen, Chiho Kim, Rohit Batra, Jordan Lightstone, Chao Wu, Zongze Li, Ajinkya A. Deshmukh, Yifei Wang, Tran Huan, Priya Vashishta, Gregory Sotzing, Yang Cao, Rampi Ramprasad, “Frequency-dependent Dielectric Constant Prediction of Polymers using Machine Learning”, npj Computational Materials, vol.6, article 61, pp.1-9, 2020. DOI: 10.1038/s41524-020-0333-6
• Chao Wu, Ajinkya A. Deshmukh, Zongze Li, Lihua Chen, Abdullah Alamri, Yifei Wang, Rampi Ramprasad, Gregory A. Sotzing, Yang Cao, “Flexible temperature-invariant polymer dielectrics with large bandgap”, Advanced Materials,Vol.32, 2000499, 2020. Cover highlight.jpg. DOI: 10.1002/adma.202000499

• Zongze Li, Sneh K. Sinha, Gregory M. Treich, Yifei Wang, Qiuwei Yang, Ajinkya A. Deshmukh, Gregory A. Sotzing, Yang Cao, “All-Organic Flexible Fabric Antenna for Wearable Electronics”, Journal of Materials Chemistry C, Vol. 8, pp.5662-5667, 2020. Cover highlight. doi: 10.1039/DOTC00691B.

2019:

• Chao Wu, Zongze Li, Gregory M. Treich, Mattewos Tefferi, Riccardo Casalini, Rampi Ramprasad, Gregory A. Sotzing, Yang Cao, “The Dynamics of Dipolar Relaxation of the Modified Polythiourea with High Dielectric Constant”, Applied Physics Letters, Vol.115, pp.163901, 2019. doi: 10.1063/1.5123484. 

• Jindong Huo , Svetlana Selezneva, Linda Jacobs, Yang Cao, “Study of Wall Ablation on Low-Voltage Arc Interruption: The effect of Stefan Flow”, Journal of Applied Physics, Vol.125, No.21, pp.213302(1-12), 2019. DOI: 10.1063/1.5090867

• Zongze Li, Gregory M. Treich, Mattewos Tefferi, Chao Wu, Shamima Nasreen, Sydney K. Scheirey, Ramamurthy Ramprasad, Gregory A. Sotzing , Yang Cao, “High Energy Density and High Efficiency All-Organic Polymers with Enhanced Dipolar Polarization”, Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Vol.7, pp.15026-15030, 2019. Front cover highlight. DOI: 10.1039/C9TA03601F

• Mattewos Tefferi, Zongze Li, Hiroaki Uehara, Qin Chen, Yang Cao, “Novel EPR Insulated DC Cables for Future Multi-terminal MVDC Integration”, IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine, Vol.35, No.5, pp.20-27, 2019. Featured article. 10.1109/MEI.2019.8804331

• Hiroaki Uehara, Shiya Iwata, Yasuo Sekii, Tatsuo Takada, Yang Cao ,  “Molecular Dynamics Simulation and Quantum Chemical Calculations of Surfactant Having Suppression Effect on Water Trees”, IEEJ Transactions on Fundamentals and Materials, Vol.139, pp.92-98, 2019. DOI: 10.1541/ieejfms.139.92