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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
2018:
- S. Nasreen, M. Baczkowski, G. Treich, M. Tefferi, C. Anastaia, R. Ramprasad, Y. Cao, G. Sotzing, “Sn‐Polyester/Polyimide Hybrid Flexible Free‐Standing Film as a Tunable Dielectric Material”, Macromolecular Rapid Communications, 1800679, Nov. 2018. DOI: 10.1002/marc.201800679
- L. Chen, R. Batra, R. Ranganathan, G. Sotzing, Y. Cao, R. Ramprasad, “Electronic Structure of Polymer Dielectrics: The Role of Chemical and Morphological Complexity”, Chemistry of Materials, Vol.30 (21), pp.7699-7706, 2018. DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.8b02997
- Shamima Nasreen, Gregory M. Treich, Matthew L. Baczkowski, Arun K. Mannodi- Kanakkithodi, Aaron Baldwin, Sydney K. Scheirey, Yang Cao, Ramamurthy Ramprasad, Gregory A. Sotzing, “A Material Genome Approach towards Exploration of Zn- and Cd-Coordination Complex Polyester as Dielectrics: Design, Synthesis and Characterization”, Polymer, Elsevier, Vol.159, pp.95-105, 2018. DOI: 10.1016/j.polymer.2018.10.017
- Mattewos Tefferi, Mona Ghassemi, Christopher Calebrese, Qin Chen, Yang Cao, “Characterizations of Solid-Liquid Interface in a Wet-Mate Subsea HVDC Connector”, Journal of Electrostatics, Elsevier, Vol.94, pp.51-59, 2018. DOI: 10.1016/j.elstat.2018.06.001
- Mattewos Tefferi, Mona Ghassemi, Christopher Calebrese, Qin Chen, Yang Cao, “Correlation between current-voltage characteristics and DC field grading for dielectric liquid used in Wet-Mate DC Connector”, IEEE Transactions on Dielectric and Electrical Insulation, Vol.25, pp.1668 – 1678, 2018. 10.1109/TDEI.2018.007015
- Boya Zhang, Nenad Uzelac, Yang Cao, “Fluoronitrile/CO2 Mixture as an eco-friendly alternative to SF6 for medium voltage switchgears”, IEEE Transactions on Dielectric and Electrical Insulation, Vol.25, pp.1340 – 1350, 2018. 10.1109/TDEI.2018.007146
- M. Ghassemi, Y. Cao, Q. Chen, “A Thermo-Electrodynamic Electric Field Dependent Molecular Ionization Model to Design Electrical Insulation System of HVDC Wet-Mate Connectors under Transient Conditions”, IEEE Transactions on Dielectric and Electrical Insulation, Vol.25, pp.476-485, 2018. 10.1109/TDEI.2018.006691
2017:
- Shamima Nasreen, Gregory M. Treich, Matthew L. Baczkowski, Arun K. Mannodi-Kanakkithodi, Yang Cao, Ramamurthy Ramprasad, Gregory Sotzing, “Polymer Dielectrics for Capacitor Application”, Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, Published Online: 15 DEC 2017, DOI: 10.1002/0471238961.koe00036
- S. Gupta, I. Offenbach, J. Ronzello, Y. Cao, S. Boggs, R.A. Weiss and M. Cakmak, “Evaluation of Poly(4-methyl-1-pentene) as a Dielectric Capacitor Film for High Temperature Energy Storage Applications”, Journal of Polymer Science, Part B: Polymer Physics, Vol.55, pp. 1497-1515, 2017.
- Hiroaki Uehara, Zongze Li, Qin Chen, Gian Carlo Montanari,and Yang Cao, “Space Charge Behavior under Thermal Gradient in Cross-linked Polyethylene and Ethylene-propylene Rubber”, Sensors and Materials, Vol.29, No (8), pp.1199-1212, 2017.
- M. Ghassemi, Q. Chen, Y. Cao, “The Influence of Magnitude and Rise Time of Applied Voltage and the Type of Oil on Streamer Growth in a Wet-Mate DC Connector”, IEEE Transactions on Dielectric and Electrical Insulation, Vol. 24, Issue 3, pp. 1646-1656, June 2017.
- M. Ghassemi, M.B. Tefferi, Q. Chen, Y. Cao, “A Thermo-Electrodynamic Electric Field Dependent Molecular Ionization Model to Realize Positive Streamer Propagation in a Wet-Mate DC Connector”, IEEE Transactions on Dielectric and Electrical Insulation, Vol. 24, Issue 2, pp. 901-914, April 2017.
- Gregory M. Treich, Mattewos Tefferi, Shamima Nasreen, Arun Mannodi-Kanakkithodi, Zongze Li, Rampi Ramprasad, Gregory A. Sotzing and Yang Cao, “A Rational Co-Design Approach to the Creation of New Dielectric Polymers with High Energy Density”, IEEE Transactions on Dielectric and Electrical Insulation, Vol. 24, Issue 2, pp. 732-743, April 2017.