The Grainger College of Engineering
Electrical & Computer Engineering

Timothy C O'Connell

Timothy C O'Connell
Timothy C O'Connell
Adjunct Research Assistant Professor

Education

  • Ph.D. Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008
  • M.S. Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2005
  • B.A. Physics, Summa Cum Laude, Carleton College, 2003

Biography

Tim O’Connell received a BA, summa cum laude, in Physics from Carleton College in Northfield, MN in 2003 and MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in 2005 and 2008, respectively. He is a Senior Lead Engineer at P.C. Krause & Associates (PCKA), where he has worked since 2009, and an Adjunct Research Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), where he has lectured on green electric energy technologies since 2012. He earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from UIUC in 2005 and 2008, respectively. From 2009 through 2017, Dr. O’Connell led a multi-member industry modeling and simulation team for the Air Force Integrated Vehicle Energy Technology (INVENT) next generation more electric aircraft program. For over twelve years he has supported numerous aircraft electrification-based projects and developed and taught short courses and webinars in this area. He has been included multiple times on the UIUC List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent, most recently in 2019. He has co-authored over 20 technical papers and three textbooks on electric machines and has co-edited a book on electrified aircraft propulsion, to be published in early 2022. He received the 2019 Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Premium Award and the 2010 Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Charles M. Manly Memorial Medal Award (both Best Paper awards for work in aircraft electrification). Dr. O’Connell is a member of IEEE (Senior), AIAA and SAE. He has served as Chair, Vice Chair, and Treasurer of the IEEE Central Illinois Section, and as Department of Defense Aerospace Industry Liaison to the IEEE Transportation Electrification Community. He is currently a Senior Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems.

Academic Positions

  • Adjunct Research Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Electrical and Computer Engineering, August 2015-Present
  • Visiting Lecturer, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Electrical and Computer Engineering, January-June 2014
  • Visiting Lecturer, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Electrical and Computer Engineering, January-June 2013
  • Visiting Lecturer, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Electrical and Computer Engineering, March-June 2012

Major Consulting Activities

  • Integris Consulting, East Peoria, IL, 2015

Other Professional Activities

  • Member, AIAA, 2020-Present
  • IEEE Central Illinois Section Young Professionals Affinity Group Chair, 2017-2019
  • IEEE Central Illinois Section Chair, 2015-2019
  • IEEE Transportation Electrification Committee (TEC), Industry Relations Committee Aerospace and Defense Liaison, 2015-2019
  • Senior Member, IEEE, 2014-Present
  • Member, SAE, 2010-Present
  • Member, IEEE, 2003-2014

Resident Instruction

  • ECE333: Green Electric Energy, Spring 2019
  • ECE 333: Green Electric Energy, Spring 2016
  • ECE 333: Green Electric Energy, Spring 2014
  • ECE 333: Green Electric Energy, Spring 2013
  • ECE 333: Green Electric Energy, Spring 2012

Short Courses

  • Short Course on Electromechanical System Design, Zodiac Aerospace, 15 June 2016

Research Interests

  • More Electric Aircraft (MEA) Design
  • Model Verification and Validation
  • Power Electronics
  • Modeling and Simulation of Power Systems
  • Electric Machines

Research Areas

  • Computational electromagnetics
  • Efficient energy management and conversion for lighting, communications, information technology, transportation, and appliances
  • Electric transportation
  • Electrical machines and drive systems
  • Energy storage conversion, management, and control
  • Power and Energy Systems
  • Power electronics

Books Authored or Co-Authored (Original Editions)

Books Authored or Co-Authored (Revisions)

Books Edited or Co-Edited (Original Editions)

Chapters in Books

Selected Articles in Journals

  • X. Zhang, C. L. Bowman, T. C. O'Connell and K. S. Haran, "Large electric machines for aircraft electric propulsion," IET Electr. Power Appl., vol. 12, no. 6, pp. 767-779, July 2018.
  • T. C. O’Connell and P. T. Krein, “A Schwarz-Christoffel-Based Analytical Method for Electric Machine Field Analysis,” IEEE Trans. Energy Convers., vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 565-577, Sept. 2009.
  • T. C. O’Connell and P. T. Krein, “A Time-Harmonic Three-Dimensional Vector Boundary Element Model for Electromechanical Devices,” IEEE Trans. Energy Convers., vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 606-618, Sept. 2010.
  • T. C. O’Connell, C. Lui, P. Walia, and J. Tschantz, “A Hybrid Economy Bleed, Electric Drive Adaptive Power and Thermal Management System for More Electric Aircraft,” SAE Int. J. Aerosp., vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 168-172, Dec. 2010.
  • T. C. O’Connell, J. R. Wells, P. T. Lamm, and L. B. DeWitt, “A Direct Torque-Controlled Induction Machine Bidirectional Power Architecture for More Electric Aircraft,” SAE Int. J. Aerosp., vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 65-73, Dec. 2010.
  • T. C. O’Connell, K. McCarthy, R. Yeu, P. Pigg, T. Bowman, and P. Lamm, “Software Tools for Efficient Model-Based Design of Energy Optimized Aircraft,” SAE Int. J. Aerosp. vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 386-397, Dec. 2012.
  • T. C. O’Connell, J. R. Wells, and O. A. Watts, “A lumped-parameter off-axis-capable dynamic switched reluctance machine model including unbalanced radial forces,” IEEE Trans. Energy Convers., vol. 30, no 1, pp. 161-174, March 2015.
  • P. C. Krause, O. Wasynczuk, T. C. O'Connell, and M. Hasan, "Tesla's contribution to electric machine analysis," IEEE Trans. Energy Convers., vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 591-598, Jun. 2017.

Articles in Conference Proceedings

  • T. C. O’Connell, P. T. Krein, and J. T. Mossoba, “Symbolic Analysis with Mathematica in Power Electronics and Electromechanical Systems, 9th IEEE Workshop on Computers in Power Electronics (COMPEL ’04), August 2004, pp. 133-139.
  • T. C. O’Connell and P. T. Krein, “Development of a First-Principles Design Method for Electromechanical Systems and a Linear Induction Machine,” Proceedings IEEE International Electric Machines and Drives Conference (IEMDC ’05), May 2005, pp. 474-480.
  • T. C. O’Connell and P. T. Krein, “A Preliminary Investigation of Computer-Aided Schwarz-Christoffel Transformation for Electric Machine Design and Analysis, 10th IEEE Workshop on Computers in Power Electronics (COMPEL ’06), July 2006, pp. 166-172.
  • T. C. O’Connell and P. T. Krein, “The Schwarz-Christoffel Analytical Method Applied to Electric Machine Slot Shape Optimization,” Proceedings IEEE International Electric Machines and Drives Conference (IEMDC ’07), May 2007, pp. 341-346.
  • T. C. O’Connell and P. T. Krein, “Calculating the Induced Currents in Induction Machines Using Schwarz-Christoffel Mapping,” Electrical Insulation Conference, October 2007, Nashville, TN.
  • T. C. O’Connell, P. T. Krein, M. Yilmaz, A. Friedl, “On the Feasibility of Using Large-Scale Numerical Electric Machine Field Analysis Software in Complex Electric Drive System Design Tools,” 11th IEEE Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics (COMPEL ’08), Zurich, Switzerland, August 18-20, 2008.
  • A. J. Adzima, P. T. Krein, and T. C. O’Connell, “Investigation of Accelerating Numerical-Field Analysis Methods for Electric Machines with the Incorporation of Graphic-Processor Based Parallel Processing Techniques,” in Proc. IEEE Electric Ship Technologies Symposium (ESTS ‘09), April 2009, pp. 59-64.
  • T. C. O’Connell, B. C. Raczkowski, M. Amrhein, J. R. Wells, M. J. Tavernini, P. T. Krein, and J. Banner, “A Modular Power System Architecture for Military and Commercial Electric Vehicles,” in Proc. SAE Power Systems Conf., SAE Technical Paper 2010-01-1756, 2010.
  • E. Walters, S. Iden, K. McCarthy, M. Amrhein, T. C. O'Connell, et al, "INVENT modeling, simulation, analysis, and optimization," in Proc. AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting, Orlando, USA, Jan. 2010, AIAA Technical Paper 2010-287.
  • J. Zumberge, M. Wolff, T. C. O’Connell, G. Russell, K. McCarthy, and E. Lucas, “Energy management of an aircraft electrical system,” in Proc. AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conf., Nashville, USA, July 2010, AIAA Technical Paper 2010-7092.
  • J. Zumberge, J. Wolff, K. McCarthy, T. C. O'Connell, et al, "Integrated aircraft electrical power system modeling and simulation analysis," in Proc. SAE Power Systems Conf., Fort Worth, USA, Nov. 2010, SAE Technical Paper 2010-01-1804.
  • M. Amrhein, T. C. O’Connell, and J. R. Wells, “An integrated design process for optimized high-performance electrical machines,” in Proc. IEEE Int’l Electric Machines and Drives Conf. (IEMDC ’13), Chicago, USA, May 2013, pp. 913-920.
  • T. C. O’Connell, K. McCarthy, A. Paquette, D. McCormick, P. Pigg, and P. T. Lamm, “Model validation planning and process on the INVENT program,” in Proc. SAE Aerospace Sys. Tech. Conf. (ASTC ’14), Cincinnati, USA, Oct. 2014, SAE Technical Paper 2014-01-2116.
  • T. C. O’Connell, K. McCarthy, A. Paquette, D. McCormick, P. Pigg, and P. T. Lamm, “Enhancements to software tools and progress in model-based design of EOA on the INVENT program,” in Proc. SAE Aerospace Sys. Tech. Conf. (ASTC ’14), Cincinnati, USA, Oct. 2014, SAE Technical Paper 2014-01-2118.

Journal Editorships

  • Senior Editor, IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, 2022-present.
  • Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, 2019-2021.

Other Scholarly Activities

  • Invited panelist, "Aircraft Electrification," IEEE PECI Conference, March 2022, Urbana, Illinois.
  • Invited panelist, "Power Electronics in Renewable Energy Systems - A Conversation with Experts", IEEE PECI Conference, March 2022, Urbana, Illinois.
  • Invited panelist, Alumni, IEEE PECI Conference, February 2020, Urbana, Illinois.
  • Organizer and Moderator of "More Electric Aircraft Technologies" panel session at IEEE International Transportation Electrification Conference (ITEC) 2017.
  • Session Chair, Power Electronics Conference at Illinois (PECI), 2013
  • Session Chair, Power Electronics Conference at Illinois (PECI), 2014

Professional Societies

  • AIAA, member, 2020-present
  • SAE, member, 2010-present
  • IEEE, member, 2003-2014
  • IEEE Senior Member, 2014-Present
  • Chair, IEEE Central Illinois Section, 2015-2019
  • IEEE Transportation Electrification Community (TEC) Industry Relations Committee, Aerospace and Defense Liaison, 2015-2019

Honors

  • IET Electric Power Applications Premium Award (best paper) for "Large Electric Machines for Aircraft Electric Propulsion", 2019. (October 2019)
  • SAE Excellence in Oral Presentation Award given for two papers presented at the 2014 SAE Aerospace Systems Technology Conference (ASTC): "Enhancements to Software Tools and Progress in Model-Based Design of EOA on the INVENT Program" and "Model Validation Planning and Process on the INVENT Program" (October 2014)
  • SAE Charles M. Manly Memorial Medal (November 2010)

Teaching Honors

  • List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent (July 2019)

Improvement Activities

  • "Heterogeneous Parallel Programming," Illinois Coursera (Online MOOC) Course, January-March, 2014
  • SAE "Design of Experiments (DOE) for Engineers" short course, October 2014

Recent Courses Taught

  • ECE 333 - Green Electric Energy