Bio
Nishanth is a Distinguished Staff Fellow with the Energy Science and Technology Directorate (ESTD) at ORNL and affiliated with the Electric Drives Research Group within the Buildings and Transportation Sciences Division (BTSD).
Dr. Nishanth’s ongoing research develops high-performance and sustainable electro-mechanical systems for energy conversion and motion control. His research has applications to electric cars and trucks, off-highway vehicles, airplanes and ships, manufacturing industries, HVAC equipment, semiconductor manufacturing, energy storage using flywheels, and power generation.
Dr. Nishanth is a native of Mangalore, India. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he was advised by Prof. Eric Severson. His dissertation research focused on developing torque-dense and power-dense axial flux electric machines to electrify off-highway vehicles, and led to the development of:
- One of the first high-power, high-speed integrated electro-hydraulic machines to electrify off-highway vehicles.
- A multi-physics optimization technique for co-design of the integrated electro-hydraulic machine.
- One of the earliest additively manufactured electric machine stators with complex lamination-emulating geometry and 6.5% silicon steel, including experimental performance characterization.
- A technique to design electric machine windings capable of controlling any spatial harmonics in the airgap, including demonstration of the torque density improvements using these controlled harmonics.
Note: In Feb 2025, Dr. Nishanth changed his name from Fnu Nishanth and it's variants (Nishanth / Nishanth Nln etc) to Nishanth Gadiyar
Professional Experience
- Electric Machinery Design Research and Development Staff, ORNL, Oak Ridge, TN Oct 2024 - present
- Member of the Electric Drives Research Group in the BTSD division
- Electric machine and drive design for transportation and building equipment
- Research Engineer, GE Research, Niskayuna, NY, USA from Aug 2023 - Aug 2024
- Lunar power - ARCHES (NASA Contract)
- Aircraft Electrification under the following projects:
- Electric Flightworthy Lightweight Integrated Thermally-Enhanced powertrain System - e-FLITES (ARPA-E funded)
- Revolutionary Innovation for Sustainable Engines - RISE (CFM International funded)
- Research Associate (post-doc), WEMPEC, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA from Feb 2023 - Aug 2023
- Electrification of a compact-track loader (DOE VTO funded).
- Collaborators: Prof. Eric Severson (then with UW-Madison) and Prof. Perry Y. Li, University of Minnesota, Twin-cities.
- Solid high-speed SynR Rotor enabled by Multi-Material Additive Manufacturing
- Collaborators: Prof. Eric Severson, Prof. Frank Pfefferkorn, Prof. Dan Thoma, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
- Collaborators: Prof. Eric Severson, Prof. Frank Pfefferkorn, Prof. Dan Thoma, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
- Electrification of a compact-track loader (DOE VTO funded).
- Research Intern, Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs, Cambridge, MA, USA from June - August 2021
- Topology Optimization of Electric Machines
- Collaborator: Dr. Bingnan Wang, Sr. Principal Research Scientist.
- Collaborator: Dr. Bingnan Wang, Sr. Principal Research Scientist.
- Topology Optimization of Electric Machines
- Research Assistant, WEMPEC, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA from Jan 2020 - Feb 2023
- Axial Flux Machines for Off-highway Vehicle Electrification (Partially funded by DOE VTO)
- Collaborators: Prof. Eric Severson (then with UW-Madison), Prof. Perry Y. Li, and Prof. James Van de Ven, University of Minnesota, Twin-cities.
- Additively manufactured axial flux machine stator with Hilbert structure.
- Collaborators: Prof. Eric Severson (then with UW-Madison), Alex Goodall, and Prof. Iain Todd, The University of Sheffied, U.K.
- Collaborators: Prof. Eric Severson (then with UW-Madison), Alex Goodall, and Prof. Iain Todd, The University of Sheffied, U.K.
- Axial Flux Machines for Off-highway Vehicle Electrification (Partially funded by DOE VTO)
- Teaching Assistant, Dept. of ECE, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA from Aug 2018 - Dec 2021
- ECE 713: Electromagnetic Design of AC Machines
- ECE 412: Power Electronic Circuits
- ECE 353: Introduction to Microprocessor Systems
- ECE 210: Introductory Experience in Electrical Engineering
Awards
- Alvin M. Weinberg Distinguished Staff Fellowship, ORNL, 2024
- Wisconsin Power Engineering Award, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2022
- Project of the Year 2015 - Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology, Student Project Program (SPP), IISc Bangalore, India.
Education
University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, 2023
- M.S. in Electrical Engineering, 2020
Professional Service
Conference Organizing Committee Membership:
- IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Expo (ECCE), North America
- Topic Chair - Track D and Track H, ECCE 2024, Phoenix, AZ
- IEEE International Electric Machines and Drives Conference (IEMDC)
- Publicity Chair, IEMDC 2025, Houston, TX
- Track Chair, Track 3: Thermal, Materials and Efficiency Issues
- IEEE Transportation Electrification Conference (ITEC)
- Short Courses & Tutorials Chair, ITEC 2025, Anaheim, CA.
- Technical Track Chair: Electric Machines and Actuators, ITEC 2025, Anaheim, CA.
- Young Professional Activities Chair, ITEC 2024, Chicago, IL.
- Technical Track Chair: Electric Machines and Actuators, ITEC 2024, Chicago, IL.
- Young Professional Activities Chair, ITEC 2023, Detroit, MI.
- Session Chair: ITEC 2022, 2023.
Technical Journal Reviews
- IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications
- IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion
- IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics
- IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification
- IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics
- IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics
- IEEE Journal on Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics
- MDPI - Energies
- MDPI - Machines
Professional Affiliations
- Senior Member, IEEE
Specialized Equipment
- HBK Genesis DAQ system for multi-phase motor measurements - electrical, mechanical, and thermal.
- Oscilloscopes, voltage and current probes, power analyzers and other power electronic test & measurement equipment.
Trademarks and Patents
- Integrated electric-to-hydraulic conversion machine - US 12152572B2, granted 11/26/2024
Other Publications
- F. Nishanth, J. Van de Ven and E. L. Severson, "Evaluation of Torque-Dense Electric Machine Technology for Off-Highway Vehicle Electrification," in IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 60, no. 2, pp. 3062-3074, March-April 2024, doi: 10.1109/TIA.2023.3335890.
- F. Nishanth, A. Khamitov and E. L. Severson, "Design of Electric Machine Windings to Independently Control Multiple Airgap Harmonics," in IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 60, no. 2, pp. 3039-3050, March-April 2024, doi: 10.1109/TIA.2023.3331662.
- D. Newman, P. Faue, F. Nishanth, B. Rankouhi, F. Pfefferkorn, D. Thoma, E. Severson, "Solid High-Speed Synchronous Reluctance Rotor Enabled by Multi-Material Additive Manufacturing," 2023 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), Nashville, TN, USA, 2023, pp. 3965-3972, doi: 10.1109/ECCE53617.2023.10362787.
- P. Purohit, A. Chatterjee, F. Nishanth, P. Strampp, P. Y. Li and E. L. Severson, "Design and Optimization of a Fast-Switching Electromagnetic Valve Actuator for Off-highway Vehicle Hydraulic Systems," 2023 IEEE Transportation Electrification Conference & Expo (ITEC), Detroit, MI, USA, 2023, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/ITEC55900.2023.10187013.
- F. Nishanth, J. Van Verdeghem and E. L. Severson, "A Review of Axial Flux Permanent Magnet Machine Technology," in IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 59, no. 4, pp. 3920-3933, July-Aug. 2023, doi: 10.1109/TIA.2023.3258933.
- F. Nishanth, A. D. Goodall, I. Todd and E. L. Severson, "Characterization of an Axial Flux Machine With an Additively Manufactured Stator," in IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 2717-2729, Dec. 2023, doi: 10.1109/TEC.2023.3285539.
- V. Pendyala and F. Nishanth, "Development of a Machine Learning Technique to Accurately Estimate Battery State of Charge," 2022 IEEE 1st Industrial Electronics Society Annual On-Line Conference (ONCON), Kharagpur, India, 2022, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/ONCON56984.2022.10127051.
- F. Nishanth and B. Wang, "Topology Optimization of Electric Machines: A Review," 2022 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), Detroit, MI, USA, 2022, pp. 1-8, doi: 10.1109/ECCE50734.2022.9948073.
- F. Nishanth, G. Bohach, M. M. Nahin, J. Van de Ven and E. L. Severson, "Development of an Integrated Electro-Hydraulic Machine to Electrify Off-highway Vehicles," in IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 58, no. 5, pp. 6163-6174, Sept.-Oct. 2022, doi: 10.1109/TIA.2022.3189609.