Q3 Project 1: Charging Stations of the Future

July ’25 Updates

Project leads: Hongjie Wang, Utah State University, & Scott Trimboli, University of Colorado-Colorado Springs

Fariba Soltani presenting at the International Conference on Transportation & Development.

Events:

International Conference on Transportation & Development

ASCE, in partnership with the Arizona Department of Transportation, hosted the International Conference on Transportation & Development, held June 8-11 in Glendale, Arizona. At this conference, ASPIRE Student Leadership Council President Fariba Soltani presented hers and ASPIRE faculty member Patrick Singleton’s research, “Spatial Proximity to Public Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure: A Case Study of Utah.”

Utah AI Summit

Held at the University of Utah on June 18, the Utah AI Summit showcased many of the advancements in AI and application of AI taking place right here in Utah. A variety of academic disciplines and areas of research from mathematics to medicine were represented. The event intended to enable Utah to be at the front of the every-changing wave of AI technology. Paul Bradford presented a poster titled, “Enabling EV Charger Lifetime Modeling and Prediction with Simple AI Methods”.

Publications

  • 6 technical papers published
    • Abdelmaksoud, R, Diebold, J, Hota, SK, Lee, K, Sinha, S, & Maksimovic, D. “Development of Ceramic Pulsating Heat Pipes for Medium-Voltage Power Electronics.” Proceedings of the ASME 2023 International Technical Conference and Exhibition on Packaging and Integration of Electronic and Photonic Microsystems. ASME 2023 International Technical Conference and Exhibition on Packaging and Integration of Electronic and Photonic Microsystems. San Diego, California, USA. October 24–26, 2023. V001T06A008. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/IPACK2023-111917
    • Paul, S., Singh, A., Bhuse, T., Martin, T., Nguyen, H., Vedula, I., Milivojevic, N., Maksimovic, N., & Corradini, L. “A Universal DC Fast Charging Front-End with Optimized Film Capacitor Design.” 2025 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC). Atlanta, Georgia, USA. March 16-20, 2025. IEEE. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10977436
    • Singh, A., Paul, S., Bhuse, T., Martin, T., Nguyen, H., Vedula, I., Milivojevic, N., Maksimovic, D., & Corradini, L. “Versatile Controller Architecture for a Universal DC Fast Charging Front-End.” 2025 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC). Atlanta, Georgia, USA. March 16-20, 2025. IEEE. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10977448
    • Serrano, R.; Sultana, A.; Kavanaugh, D.; Wang, H. Increasing Electric Vehicle Charger Availability with a Mobile, Self-Contained Charging Station. Sustainability 2025, 17, 2767. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17062767
    • D. Goodrich, A. Zade, S. Gurudiwan, M. Mansour, R. Zane and H. Wang, “Small-Signal Modeling and Damping Design of Unfolding-Based Single Stage AC-DC Converter Using the Extra Element Theorem,” 2025 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC), Atlanta, GA, USA, 2025, pp. 719-726, doi: 10.1109/APEC48143.2025.10977164.
    • P. Bradford, C. Deppe and H. Wang, “Novel Approach of Determining and Predicting SiC MOSFET’s On Resistance From Device Case Temperature Using Machine Learning,” 2025 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC), Atlanta, GA, USA, 2025, pp. 2393-2399, doi: 10.1109/APEC48143.2025.10977206.

Tools & Technology Developments:

This quarter, the Charging Systems of the Future team developed simulation models and collected simulation results to demonstrate the load of large-scale EV charging infrastructure on the distribution grid, demonstrating the operation of a multiport power converter system based on unfolding technology.

Additionally, the team has implemented a composite NARXNN forecasting model that improves PV power prediction accuracy under varying weather conditions, and a hybrid simulation framework with a digital twin to optimize energy management and infrastructure planning for EV charging stations. These solutions collectively advance workforce training, predictive reliability, and system-level decision-making.

Student Highlights

  • ASPIRE student Jorge Hernandez Ramiro successfully defended his thesis on Monday, March 24.
  • Internships
    • Josh Christiansen, undergraduate at USU in ECE, internship at EP Systems.
    • Abdullah Al Mehadi, PhD at USU in ECE, internship at WSP USA.
    • Travis Newbolt, PhD at UTEP, internship at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.