Electrification is rapidly expanding across transportation and industry at the same time that AI data centers are scaling at an unprecedented pace, creating urgent pressure for grid overhaul. Rather than competing for energy and infrastructure, these trends open opportunities for co-existence. Electrified transportation can be positioned as a flexible, grid-interactive asset through bidirectional power flow, fast power electronics, and coordinated control, while data centers can function as controllable, high-power loads. Framing electrification as an enabler of grid modernization through shared power conversion technologies, common DC architectures, and integrated power and thermal management allows both sectors to grow together. In this environment, innovation is more important than ever. As AI-assisted research and data-driven optimization increasingly commoditize conventional design approaches, incremental improvements alone are no longer sufficient. Impact comes from an innovative, system-level mindset that rethinks architectures and interactions across the grid, transportation, and emerging applications. The next major advances in electrification will be driven by multi-functional integration, including integrated motor drives, grid-interactive vehicles and chargers, co-designed power and cooling systems, and AI-enabled adaptive infrastructure, enabling electrification to scale efficiently and reliably alongside AI-driven energy demand. |
Woongkul Lee received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI, USA, in 2016 and 2019 respectively both in electrical engineering. He received the B.S. degree from Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea, in 2013. He was a postdoctoral research associate with the Wisconsin Electric Machines and Power Electronics Consortium (WEMPEC), University of Wisconsin-Madison from 2019 to 2020. In 2024, he joined Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University as an assistant professor. Prior to that, he was an assistant professor at Michigan State University. His research interests include high-performance motor drive, power electronics, electric machines, and distributed energy resources. |
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