Introduction
Dr. Madhukar Rao Airineni is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of St. Thomas Center for Microgrid Research (CMR), where he conducts research on advanced microgrid control, operation, and real-time validation. He joined the Center in June 2025 and has been actively involved in the development and validation of microgrid control systems. In addition to his research activities, he mentors and supervises undergraduate and graduate students at the Center.
Dr. Airineni has nearly 10 years of experience in academic teaching and research. Prior to joining the University of St. Thomas, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Minnesota, where he worked on an ONR-funded project focused on developing a low-cost shipboard power system emulator. His research at the University of Minnesota also included developing three-phase grid-forming systems using droop-controlled single-phase permanent magnet synchronous generators and conducting experiments for a scaled microgrid project supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). He also contributed to undergraduate education by assisting with the EE 2701 and EE 2703 courses and taught EE 3115: Analog Electronics in Spring 2024. He has served as a faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Kakatiya Institute of Technology and Science Warangal in India.
His research interests include microgrid control and operation, secondary voltage and frequency control, renewable energy integration, controller hardware-in-the-loop (CHIL), power hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL), fault tolerant multilevel inverter topologies for solar PV application, digital twin technologies, and real-time simulation and experimental validation of power and energy systems.
Dr. Airineni is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and is affiliated with the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES), IEEE Young Professional and the IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS).