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Khurram Khan Afridi

Director of Graduate Studies

Professor

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Khurram Khan Afridi
Khurram Khan Afridi
Graduate Field Affiliation
Electrical and Computer Engineering

Biography

Khurram Afridi is a professor of electrical and computer engineering. He received a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Caltech (1989), and S.M. (1992) and Ph.D. (1998) degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT. His research interests are in power electronics and energy systems incorporating power electronic controls. Prior to joining Cornell University, he was an Assistant Professor and the Goh Faculty Fellow at the University of Colorado (CU) Boulder (2014-2018), a visiting faculty at MIT’s EECS Department (2009-2014), and the Chief Operating Officer (2000-2010) and Chief Technology Officer (1997-2000) of Techlogix. From 2004 to 2008 he led the development of LUMS School of Science and Engineering (SSE) as Project Director. He has also worked for JPL, Lutron, Philips, and Schlumberger. He is a guest editor of the IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, a distinguished lecturer of IEEE Vehicular Technology Society, and was the general chair for the IEEE Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics (COMPEL) 2024, the Technical Program Committee (TPC) co-chair for the IEEE Workshop on Emerging Technologies: Wireless Power (WoW) 2021, the TPC co-chair for the IEEE Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices and Applications (WiPDA) 2018, and the TPC chair for the IEEE Wireless Power Transfer Conference (WPTC) 2015. He received the Carnation Merit Award from Caltech (1988), the BMW Scientific Award from BMW AG (1999), the Werner-von-Siemens Chair for Power Electronics from LUMS SSE (2008), the Dean’s Professional Progress Award from CU Boulder (2015), the ECEE Department Outstanding Overall Performance Award from CU Boulder (2016), the National Science Foundation CAREER Award from NSF (2016), the Engineering Research Excellence Award from Cornell (2021), and the Michael Tien ’72 Excellence in Teaching Award from Cornell (2023). He is co-author of eight IEEE prize papers.

Research Interests

Professor Afridi’s primary research interest is in high frequency power electronics and energy systems incorporating power electronic controls as a means to efficiently harness, store, process, transmit, distribute and use energy. While his work across this entire energy chain is centered on the design of advanced power electronic converters, his research also includes solutions at the system and component level that draw upon his broad academic and industrial experience and leverage collaborations with faculty members in allied disciplines. The vision of his high frequency power electronics research group is to develop electronic energy conversion technologies that are ultra efficient, extremely compact, more reliable, highly intelligent, less expensive, and enable the development of next-generation energy systems incorporating power electronic controls. He strives to achieve this vision through innovations in system architectures, circuit topologies and control appropriate for high frequency power electronics.

Teaching Interests

Circuits and Electronics, Power Electronics, and Advanced Power Electronics

Select Publications

Select Awards and Honors

  • Michael Tien '72 Excellence in Teaching Award, Cornell University 2023
  • First Place Prize Paper Award, IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics 2023
  • Distinguished Lecturer, IEEE Vehicular Technology Society 2022
  • Cornell Engineering Research Excellence Award, Cornell University 2021
  • First Place Prize Paper Award, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Transactions on Power Electronics 2017
  • Best Paper Award, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Control and Modeling for Power Electronics (COMPEL) 2017
  • NSF CAREER Award, National Science Foundation 2016

Education

  • B.S., Electrical Engineering, California Institute of Technology 1989
  • M.S., Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1992 1992
  • Ph.D., Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1998

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