The Berkeley Power and Energy Center is very pleased to introduce the 2025 cohort of Ph.D. students! Xi Zhao and Hubert Lin will be joining Professor Jessica Boles’ research group, and Harry Choi and Khalid Durani will be joining Professor Robert Pilawa’s research group. Each of these students comes from a strong research background in their respective fields, and we are delighted to see what problems they tackle over the course of their graduate careers. Please see each member’s bio below:
Xi Zhao received her B.S. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from National University of Singapore in 2025. Her research interests focus on the design and fabrication of piezoelectric passive components to improve performance and enable miniaturization in power converters.
Chia-Hao (Hubert) Lin received his B.S. in Power Mechanical Engineering (2022) and his M.S. in NanoEngineering and MicroSystems (2025), both from National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan. His research focuses on MEMS microspeaker design, piezoelectric transducers, the electromechanical properties of thin-film materials, and piezoelectric components for power conversion. He was honored with the Best Student Paper Award (2nd Place) at the IEEE SENSORS Council 2024.
Seokwon (Harry) Choi received his B.S. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Seoul National University, South Korea, in 2025. Before joining BPEC, he was a graduate student researcher in the Electric Energy Conversion Lab at Seoul National University. His research interests include the design and control of switched-capacitor converters and high-frequency power conversion. Harry is a recipient of the Berkeley Fellowship and the KFAS Overseas PhD Scholarship.
Khalid Durani received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley in December 2023. His research interests include the dynamic modeling and control of power converters.
Once again, a very warm welcome to our new students!