SESIT Sustainable Energy Systems Integration & Transitions Group

Dr. Madeleine McPherson is an Assistant Professor in the Civil Engineering department at the University of Victoria and principal investigator of the Sustainable Energy Systems Integration & Transitions Group. Previously, McPherson worked as a Post-Doctoral researcher in the Grid Systems Analysis group at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado. McPherson obtained her PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Toronto in 2017. Her research focuses on integrating high penetrations of wind and solar PV onto electricity systems around the world. She has explored questions ranging from the impact of renewable resource characteristics on integration strategies, storage assets remuneration and integration in electricity system markets, and the interaction between electric vehicle charging profiles and grid decentralization. More recently, McPherson has developed and applied a methodology for exploring the role of demand response for facilitating increasing renewable penetrations. McPherson is the lead-author on numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, conference proceedings, reports, and presentations. Currently, McPherson is developing an integrated modelling framework to explore the sustainable energy transition in Canada.

Jacob completed his B.Sc. in Environmental Engineering and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering at North Carolina State University in the United States in 2016 and 2020, respectively. His Ph.D. dissertation was on simulating evolution of low-voltage electric grids with distributed energy technology adoption using agent-based modeling techniques. His dissertation was funded by the United States National Science Foundation through the Graduate Research Fellowship Program. Jacob's research applies sociotechnical modeling techniques to simulate water and energy networks as complex adaptive systems. His work has developed an array of agent-based modeling frameworks to analyze critical infrastructure protection, ecotourism, solar PV technology diffusion, decentralized water systems, and peer-to-peer energy markets. He is currently a Research Analyst at the Institute and performs energy system modeling and optimization research to analyze electrification and decarbonization pathways for the Canadian economy.

Muhammad Awais is a PhD student in the Civil Engineering Department at the University of Victoria. He is also associated with International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) as a Research Assistant in Energy program. His doctoral research focus on developing a multi-scale water, energy, land integrated assessment model to support multi-sectoral policy analysis ranging from national to regional scales. His main research interests include integrated assessment modeling for accessing sustainable pathways for water-energy-land challenges to support policy analysis from national to regional scales focusing on climate adaptation and mitigation pathways. His MS Thesis was about quantifying costs of environmental flows in Indus River Basin using Nexus Solutions Tool (NEST) model developed by IIASA. He obtained his master's degree in Hydro Science & Engineering from the Technical University Dresden, Germany (August 2019) and his bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from the National University of Computer & Emerging Sciences, Pakistan (May 2016). Along with this, he has one year of experience working with an engineering consultancy firm on designing electricity transmission lines and reviewing hydraulic structures for different national and international projects.

Zahra began her studies as a PhD candidate and member of the SESIT team at the University of Victoria in May 2020. Prior to joining UVic, she received her M.Sc and bachelor's degrees from the University of Tehran in Mechanical Engineering (2020) and Computational Engineering Science (2017). Her main research background includes optimization, machine learning, renewable energy systems, modeling, data science, and optimization, which she hopes to expand by working on sector in M3 Modeling project. Zahra particularly enjoys multidisciplinary and collaborative research. She believes that the research on multi-scaled, multi-sector, and multi-vector energy systems modeling at the SESIT group would give her the opportunity to pursue her intellectual goals and interests.

A link to Zahra's machine learning inputs from her work can be found below

Holding an M.Sc in energy systems engineering and having a background in integrated assessment modeling, optimization and energy systems analysis. Being a SESIT member and working on M3 Modeling project, enables me reach my goals on the way to expand my knowledge in newly emerging modeling and optimization methodologies, such as machine learning and data science.

Madeleine completed her undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering with a Minor in Sustainability from McMaster University. Her interest areas include climate change mitigation and sustainable urban development. She served as a Civil Engineering Ambassador for two years, as well as a teaching assistant for a third-year engineering economics course and a first-year sustainability course. Outside of the classroom, she's worked in industry as a water treatment operator and as a construction inspector on linear infrastructure and water resource projects

Tamara completed her BEng at Reutlingen University, Germany in International Project Engineering with a semester abroad at San Diego State University, US, and an internship aborad in production planning at Mercedes-Benz in Juiz de Fora, Brazil. Her final research project at Mercedes-Benz focused on optimizing the production processes of lithium-ion batteries for EV production. She went on to complete a MSc at Warwick University, UK, in Engineering Business Management. Tamara's MSc project expanded her work on lithium-ion batteries by creating a circular economy for LIBs used in EVs, focusing on end-of-life and recycling processes to create more sustainable battery life cycles. Resulting from this work, she developed a research interest in batteries and their potential to increase a systems' sustainability, i.e. by integrating them to the electricity grid in addition to other renewable energies.

Aaron is a PhD student in the School of Public Administration working under the supervision of Dr. Katya Rhodes. He is an energy and climate policy researcher with a background in engineering and energy economics. Before joining IESVic Aaron worked for the Canada Energy Regulator on climate and energy policy analysis to support long-term energy demand projections. Aaron has also worked in climate policy consulting and in engineering roles in industry. His master's research evaluated the effect of federal government climate policy on Canada's greenhouse gas emissions, with a focus on policy interactions. Aaron is passionate about climate change mitigation and aims to apply his analytical background and interdisciplinary training to contribute to informed discussions around energy and climate policy. His doctoral research involves assessing and explaining the effectiveness and acceptability of alternative climate policy pathways that are likely to hit Canada's greenhouse gas emissions targets.

Mackenzie Judson is a PhD candidate in the SESIT group and a member of IESVic at the UVic. Previously, she completed her BASc in Mechanical Engineering at Queen's University, where she developed an interest in research methods, energy systems modelling, and hydrogen technology. Since 2021, she has been working with SESIT to improve models using novel computational methods. Her thesis work is focused on producing rapid models to explore pressing issues in Canadian decarbonization, and this work is currently funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Mackenzie is passionate about research, teaching and learning, and fighting climate change through promoting sustainability and equity.

Evan graduated from the University of Victoria with a Bachelor's in Software Engineering in 2022. While there he served as the Vice President of Academics for the Engineering Student Society and was the president of the UVic Surf Club. Through the engineering department's co-op program, he has acquired extensive experience with massive datasets, energy system models, and requirements engineering. Currently, he is interested in creating illustrative data visualizations of complex energy systems, full-stack development, and facilitating teamwork within software projects. Outside of work, Evan loves the outdoors and the preservation of our natural habitats here in BC. You can find him organizing a beach cleanup, hiking, biking, diving, fishing, or surfing at least one day of the week.

Truzaar Dordi is an award-winning researcher and post-doctoral fellow at the University of Victoria, working in the fields of climate finance, energy policy, and sustainability transitions. Truzaar holds a Doctorate in Sustainability Management from the University of Waterloo, where he examined the role of capital markets in low-carbon transitions. Truzaar currently serves as the Vice President for the Canadian Society for Ecological Economics and served as a member and author for the University of Waterloo's Responsible Investing Advisory Group. He is recognized as a 2020 Corporate Knights' Top 30 Under 30 Sustainability Leader and a 2023 Clean50 Emerging Leader, awarded for his work on climate action and financial stability.

Erica graduated from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) with a Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering in 2022. While there, she was the Team Captain and Engineering Lead of the Toronto Metropolitan Formula Racing (TMFR) team and lead the team to compete their first electric vehicle in the 2022 FSAE Michigan Competition. She also participated in two research assistantships focused on geothermal energy and human factors integration. Through these positions, she gained extensive knowledge in engineering design, manufacturing methods, data post-processing, inclusive design, interdisciplinary collaboration, and leadership. Currently, she is interested in improving data communication via enhanced data visualization techniques. Outside of research, she enjoys hiking, baking and traveling.

Nathan graduated in 2022 from Queens University with a Bachelor of Engineering Physics. His previous work experience includes a 16-month work term at Calian LTD, working as a project analyst in the nuclear engineering group.

Ahnaf graduated from the University of Victoria in 2022 with a Bachelor's in Software Engineering and specialization in Data Mining and AI/ML. While attending, he was a member of the Engineering Student Society serving as Director of IT for a year. He represented UVic in the programming division at the Western Engineering Competition in 2020, achieving first place. Through the Engineering department's co-op program Ahnaf has worked on various projects from low level hardware to cloud systems. Ahnaf is currently a member of the Sustainable Energy Systems Integration & Transition group (SESIT). Ahnaf is currently the lead developer of the CODERS database and API.

Leveraging lessons from nature, Zachary strives to instill the intelligence of ecosystems into modern built environments. Since receiving his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University, Zachary has lived and worked in New York, Brazil, Germany, Portugal, Myanmar, and Tanzania on a variety of bio-inspired, sustainable development and renewable energy projects. He recently completed his PhD in Environmental Design and Planning from Virginia Tech as part of the BioBuild Interdisciplinary Graduate Education Program. His academic ambitions encompass the research and teaching of themes related to ecological networks, energy infrastructure, machine learning, blockchain, horticulture, and regenerative community development.

Jonas Kraasch, a skilled software engineer and deep learning. With a diverse background, he is passionate about AI and climate crisis research, volunteers with 2SLGBTQIA+ organizations, and excels in interdisciplinary projects. He is currently the lead developer of the IDEA platform.

Electrical engineer with a specialization in digital and embedded systems. Passionate about engineering problems and problem solving, I have mainly worked in the energy research field, applying operations research and mathematical programming skills to model the energy sector in Canada. When spending time on my own, or with friends, I usually like to play the piano, read, or practice a sport.

Brendan graduated from the University of Guelph with a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering, specializing in sustainable energy technologies, in 2023. His previous work experience includes multiple work terms at both MEDATech Engineering Services and Melitron Corporation, where he worked as a Product Design Intern and Product Development Intern, respectively. Brendan is working towards a Master of Applied Science focusing on investigating decarbonisation pathways of the Canadian electrical system. In his spare time, Brendan enjoys spending time outdoors and mountain biking.

Deven is Project Director of the Open Insights project, a collaboration between SESIT and partnering organizations focused on developing open-source energy-economy datasets, models and visualization tools for the Canadian modelling and climate policy community. Prior to SESIT, Deven worked in environmental economic consulting in the United Kingdom, where he led model development teams focusing on climate & nature transition and physical risk modelling for financial institutions. Deven received his Master's in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science and Bachelor's in Economics from Simon Fraser University. Through his academic work, Deven has publications on climate science as well as environmental economics topics. In his spare time, Deven can be found trail running, road cycling, kiteboarding or being made fun of by his friends for still calling his apartment his “flat”.

I grew up in Alberta, and am a recent graduate from the University of Alberta in Civil Engineering. For a long time I have wanted to work in sustainability and contribute to a greener society, and joining this project with Dr. McPherson was the perfect opportunity. I have previous research experience working with transportation network modelling which I hope to apply to this project. I am looking forward to making the world a cleaner place to live while being on the beautiful west coast!

Reza Arjmand is a PhD student in the Civil Engineering Department at the University of Victoria. His doctoral research focuses on creating power system scenarios in order to channel Canada's electricity system into a clean system with no carbon emission. After obtaining his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in electrical engineering at Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran, he worked as an operation expert for more than 2 years. A substantial portion of his work at the graduate level has involved researching on the impact of renewable energy sources uncertainty on power market outcomes. Novel results extracted from his researches have been published in high impact international journals (Applied energy and Renewable Energy journals). His research interests center around the power system operation and planning studies, classic and heuristic optimization of power system problems, Renewable energy integration into the grid and deregulation in power industry studies.

Lauren is originally from the US and graduated from Scripps College in Claremont, CA with a Bachelor's degree in mathematics. After graduation, she spent a year working as a researcher on two chemical modeling projects with applications in renewable energy and materials. First, at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, she used COMSOL to model the performance of an electrolyzer, which uses an electrochemical reaction to split water and produce hydrogen without any pollutant byproducts. Then, at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, she worked on a machine learning project to facilitate the discovery of new polymers with desirable properties. At UVic, Lauren joined the SESIT team so that she could use her modeling and coding skills to explore energy-related issues from a higher-level perspective. She will be working on both the modeling of buildings, and model integration.

Mohammadali Saffari received the M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering (Management, Control and Navigation of Power Systems) from Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran. During his M.Sc. program, he worked on Optimal Bidding Strategy of an Active Microgrid for Participating in Wholesale Electricity Market. Apart from the academic environment, he was a researcher at Niroo Research Institute (NRI) and working on multiple industrial projects. He was with the Center for the Development of Bulk Power Transmission Systems, NRI, where he firstly worked on investigating the strategy of using bulk power transmission technology in the electrical connection of Iran's grid to its neighboring countries. Afterward, he worked on calculating optimal range of loss in Iran's distribution system based on inherent features of network. Mohammadali's research interest lies at power systems optimization, microgrids, demand response programs, energy management, and flexibility in the power system.

Lia graduated from the University of Toronto in 2020 with a BASc in Engineering Science and a minor in Environmental Engineering. Lia's focus during her undergraduate degree was energy efficient housing design, particularly for remote Indigenous communities. She has completed work terms at the National Research Council's Flight Research Lab and Construction portfolio, and she spent a summer in Accra, Ghana, as an Engineers Without Borders Junior Fellow. Lia also has experience in the structural design industry from her co-op with RJC Engineers in Toronto.

Keegan Griffiths is a 3rd year software engineering student at the University of Victoria in his second co-op work term with SESIT. His interests are data visualization and data management. Keegan's current work is focused on creating visualization tools to help display data from the models used by SESIT so that the data is more clear and more useful for users, and new data is also faster and easier to visualize. He has also worked with the copper and silver models and helped to build a linking tool between them.

Tim joined IESVic in January 2022. He completed his PhD at McGill University in 2021, focussing on stochastic dynamic modelling of energy transition pathways under uncertainty. Prior to this he worked in electricity system operations in New Zealand. Tim has collaborated in a variety of research projects related to renewable energy and emerging technologies, including identifying distributed generation hosting capacity in low-voltage distribution networks and the integration of rising intermittent generation into power system operations. Tim holds a Master of Energy degree and a Graduate Diploma in Engineering from the University of Auckland, and a Bachelor of Science in physics and mathematics from the University of Otago. His primary research interests involve non-renewable energy dependency in industrial societies, quantitative modelling approaches including system dynamics and stochastic optimization, Post-Normal Science, Energy Return on Investment (EROI), exergy economics, degrowth theory, and societal metabolism. Tim has published several peer-reviewed articles on topics including the potential political ramifications of declining energy supplies, reconsidering possible futures given the limits to economic growth, and the potential for global environment-economy decoupling via a shift towards knowledge-based economies.