Robert Pilawa-Podgurski

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573 Cory Hall

tel: 510-664-5171

pilawa@berkeley.edu

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Christina Hamilton
cchamilton@berkeley.edu

Biography

Robert Pilawa-Podgurski is currently a Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Department at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the founding director of the Berkeley Power and Energy Center (BPEC). Previously, he was an Associate Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He received his BS, MEng, and PhD degrees from MIT. He performs research in the area of power electronics. His research interests include renewable energy applications, electric vehicles, energy harvesting, CMOS power management, high density and high efficiency power converters, and advanced control of power converters. Dr. Pilawa-Podgurski received the Chorafas Award for outstanding MIT EECS Master’s thesis, the Google Faculty Research Award in 2013, and the 2014 Richard M. Bass Outstanding Young Power Electronics Engineer Award of the IEEE Power Electronics Society, given annually to one individual for outstanding contributions to the field of power electronics before the age of 35. In 2015, he received the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Award, the UIUC Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research in 2016, the UIUC Campus Distinguished Promotion Award in 2017, and the UIUC ECE Ronald W. Pratt Faculty Outstanding Teaching Award in 2017. He was the 2018 recipient of the IEEE Education Society Mac E. Van Valkenburg Award given for outstanding contributions to teaching unusually early in ones career. In 2023, he received the UC Berkeley EECS department Electrical Engineering Outstanding Teaching Award. He is co-author of seventeen IEEE prize papers, and is a fellow of IEEE.

Education

2012, PhD, EECS, MIT

2007, MEng, EECS, MIT

2005, BS, Physics, MIT

2005, BS, EECS, MIT

Y. Zhu, J. Zou, and R. Pilawa-Podgurski, "Design-Oriented Modeling and Multi-Objective Optimization of Two-Phase Coupled Inductors in Multiphase PWM Converters," in 2025 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC), 2025, pp. 558-565.
R. Bayliss, N. Brooks, and R. Pilawa-Podgurski, "On the Role of Switch Output Capacitance on Passive Balancing Within the Flying Capacitor Multilevel Converter," IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 3275-3285, Feb. 2025.
Y. Zhu, J. Zou, N. M. Ellis, S. Kudva, M. Mosa, C. T. Gray, and R. Pilawa-Podgurski, "A Compact 48-V-to-Sub-1-V Switching Bus Converter with 4.7-mm Height for Processor Vertical Power Delivery," in 2024 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), 2024, pp. 2596-2603.
Y. Zhu, N. Ellis, and R. Pilawa-Podgurski, "Comparative Performance Analysis of Regulated Hybrid Switched-Capacitor Topologies for Direct 48 V to Point-of-Load Conversion," IEEE Open Journal of Power Electronics, vol. 5, pp. 1735-1755, Oct. 2024.
Y. Zhu, J. Zou, and R. Pilawa-Podgurski, "A 1500-A/48-V-to-1-V Switching Bus Converter for Next-Generation Ultra-High-Power Processors," IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 39, no. 9, pp. 11340 - 11355, Sep. 2024.
Y. Zhu, T. Ge, N. M. Ellis, L. Horowitz, and R. Pilawa-Podgurski, "The Switching Bus Converter: A High-Performance 48-V-to-1-V Architecture With Increased Switched-Capacitor Conversion Ratio," IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 39, no. 7, pp. 8384-8403, July 2024.
R. Bayliss and R. Pilawa-Podgurski, "An Input Inductor Flying Capacitor Multilevel Converter Utilizing a Combined Power Factor Correcting and Active Voltage Balancing Control Technique for Buck-Type AC/DC Grid-Tied Applications," in 2024 IEEE Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics (COMPEL), 2024, pp. 1-7.
Y. Zhu, Z. Ye, and R. Pilawa-Podgurski, "Modeling and Analysis of Switched-Capacitor Converters With Finite Terminal Capacitances," IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 39, no. 6, pp. 6640-6653, June 2024.
Y. Zhu, J. Zou, and R. Pilawa-Podgurski, "A 1500-A/48-V-to-1-V Switching Bus Converter for Next-Generation Ultra-High-Power Microprocessors," in 2024 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC), 2024, pp. 890-897.
Y. Zhu, N. M. Ellis, and R. Pilawa-Podgurski, "Comparative Performance Analysis of Regulated Hybrid Switched-Capacitor Topologies for Direct 48 V to Point-of-Load Conversion," in 2023 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), 2023, pp. 3313-3320.
R. S. Bayliss III, N. C. Brooks, and R. Pilawa-Podgurski, "A Combined Power Factor Correcting and Active Voltage Balancing Control Technique for Buck-Type AC/DC Grid-Tied Flying Capacitor Multilevel Converters," in 2023 IEEE 24th Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics (COMPEL), 2023, pp. 1-5.
Y. Zhu, T. Ge, N. Ellis, J. Zou, and R. Pilawa-Podgurski, "A 48-V-to-1-V Switching Bus Converter for Ultra-High-Current Applications," in 2023 IEEE 24th Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics (COMPEL), 2023, pp. 1-8.
Y. Zhu, T. Ge, N. Ellis, L. Horowitz, and R. Pilawa-Podgurski, "A 500-A/48-to-1-V Switching Bus Converter: A Hybrid Switched-Capacitor Voltage Regulator with 94.7% Peak Efficiency and 464-W/in3 Power Density," in 2023 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC), 2023, pp. 1989-1996.
R. Bayliss, N. Brooks, and R. Pilawa-Podgurski, "On the Role of Switch Output Capacitance on Passive Balancing within the Flying Capacitor Multilevel Converter," in 2022 IEEE 23rd Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics (COMPEL), IEEE, 2022, pp. 1--6.
J. Zou, N. C. Brooks, S. Coday, N. M. Ellis, and R. C. N. Pilawa-Podgurski, "On the Size and Weight of Passive Components: Scaling Trends for High-Density Power Converter Designs," in 2022 IEEE 23rd Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics (COMPEL), 2022, pp. 1-7.
N. C. Brooks, S. Coday, M. E. Blackwell, R. A. Abramson, N. M. Ellis, and R. C. N. Pilawa-Podgurski, "Operation of Flying Capacitor Multilevel Converters At and Above Resonance," in 2022 IEEE 23rd Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics (COMPEL), 2022, pp. 1-7.
N. C. Brooks, R. K. Iyer, R. S. Bayliss, and R. C. Pilawa-Podgurski, "Fundamental State-Space Modeling Methodology for the Flying Capacitor Multilevel Converter," in 2022 IEEE 23rd Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics (COMPEL), 2022, pp. 1-7.
I. Z. Petric, R. K. Iyer, N. C. Brooks, and R. Pilawa-Podgurski, "A Real-Time Estimator for Capacitor Voltages in the Flying Capacitor Multilevel Converter," in 2022 IEEE 23rd Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics (COMPEL), 2022, pp. 1-8.
Z. Liao, R. Pilawa-Podgurski, S. R. Sanders, D. Callaway, and M. Chen, "Circuits and Control for High-Performance Grid-tied Ac-Dc Conversion Systems," EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley, Tech. Rep. UCB/EECS-2022-22, May 2022.
Y. Zhu, T. Ge, Z. Ye, and R. Pilawa-Podgurski, "A Dickson-Squared Hybrid Switched-Capacitor Converter for Direct 48 V to Point-of-Load Conversion," in 2022 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC), 2022, pp. 1272-1278.

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