Research
To keep up with the transition from conventional energy to renewables being performed all over the world, Dr. Eklas has obtained three professional certifications including Professional Engineer (PE), Renewable Energy Professional (REP) and Certified Energy Manager (CEM), and looks forward to maintaining the affiliations while adding more to his wheelhouse. He has been associated with more than 30 educational institutions from different continents, and more than 20 local industries to conduct research with, unifying several researchers and students on his topic of interest from all over the world.
In his long 12 years of research experience with power electronics, control systems, mechatronics, energy storages and renewable energies, he has published 1 book chapters, about 50 journals and 35 conference papers, with more than 10 publications awaiting in several esteemed organizations including IEEE Access and MDPI. He has accumulated more than 1250 citations to date.
He has maintained a constant growth in his endeavor, achieving a Researchgate score of 35.74 and an h-index of 18 as of April 2020 and his cooperation with OREC has brought forth numerous innovations for the energy and renewable researchers. As an associate researcher in the organization, he has performed the feasibility analysis of grid connected solar plants and wind turbines of several areas, analyzed the performances of different energy storages, and has worked on electrical vehicles and microgrid technologies. Most of his works further incorporated machine learning and artificial intelligence based algorithms and Big Data analytics to improve the electronics behind the growth of renewables.
The two times ‘Best Paper Award’ winner is continuously participating in distinctive conferences, symposiums and seminars worldwide, and during the course, is taking his students to teach them how to do research and how to make their ideas and findings in the light to be represented to the world. He has been in the organizing committee of two international conferences in Vietnam and USA with global research collaborators. He has been the session chair at the International Conference of Renewable Energy Research and Applications (ICRERA) in San Diego, California, in two special sessions on the development of electric vehicles and the integration of electric vehicles in smart grids and microgrids. His experience in his participation in various conferences and meetings worldwide such as IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition and IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting in 2018 have greatly aided him with his leadership and management in organizing different events.
To add to his contribution, he is currently working as the lead associate editor in one of the special sections of IEEE, entitled as ‘Evolving Technologies in Energy Storage Systems for Energy Systems Applications’. The section is especially designed to encourage the community to investigate energy storage systems to escalate its usage in renewables. His exploration in the highly demanding fields such as the Big Data and Machine Learning technologies are recognizable through his work with MDPI’s Electronics journal on a special issue, which will be available soon for paper submission.
Dr. Hossain has been granted with research funds from several renowned organizations for his impactful works. He has a long history of collaboration with Portland General Electric (PGE) on fascinating energy projects. The pioneer of clean energy for the Oregonians has supported him on his feasibility study on the Biglow Canyon energy storage project. Moreover, with the support from Electric Power Research Institute, he worked on the design of three phase variable frequency motor controller and inverter. He won the Oregon Best NW energy XP grant for his research on the game theory design. He is currently involved in the development of second life battery, an idea to utilize the existing batteries after their initial usage funded by PGE. The organization has further funded his project on his investigation on Microgrid islanding.
The researcher has secured two equipment grants from Oregon Tech, and the Commission on College Teaching (CCT) grant from Oregon Tech Foundation for facilitating hands-on training on robotics and energy systems for students. He arranged a workshop on MATLAB and Simulink software for the Oregon Tech students with the grant he received from CCT. He has also received a significant financial support from William M. Keck foundation for the establishment of the smart grid laboratory at the university. And for such outstanding contributions to the institution, he was rewarded with the Rising Faculty Scholar Award in 2019.
