Affiliated Faculty

Tim Pasang - Professor - Department Chair - Manufacturing & Mechanical Eng Tech – 3BOE

Dr. Pasang received his Ph.D. from Monash University, Australia in 2001. He spent a number of years as Research Engineer at the Indonesian Aircraft Industry. He worked as Senior Consultant at the PSB Corp, Singapore in 2001-2004 before moving to New Zealand. His research area covers various aspects of materials and manufacturing especially welding, metal forming, machining, biomaterials and metal additive manufacturing. He was the Head of Department of Mechanical Engineering at Auckland University of Technology - AUT (2012-2020), and also the Director - Engineering Research Institute (ERI: 2016-2020), Auckland - New Zealand.

Prof. Pasang was a Loewy Visiting Professor at the Materials Science and Engineering Department, Lehigh University between 2010 and 2015; Visiting Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Akita University Japan between 2009 to 2019, and also Honorary Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering/Institute of Mechatronic Engineering at National Taipei University of Technology (NTUT) - Taipei, Taiwan since 2019. Prof. Pasang was a recipient of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellow in 2013.

Arief Suriadi Budiman, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Manufacturing & Mechanical Engineering & Technology – CCAI & AGPV

Arief Suriadi Budiman received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Institute of Technology, Bandung (ITB), Indonesia, his M.EngSc in Materials Engineering from Monash Univ., Australia and his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University, CA, in 2008. During his doctoral candidacy at Stanford’s Department of Materials Science & Engineering under the supervision of Professor William D. Nix (MRS Von Hippel Award 2007), Dr. Budiman received several research awards (MRS Graduate Silver Award 2006, MRS Best Paper 2006) and contributed to several high-impact journal publications (Acta Materialia, Applied Physics Letters, Journal of Electronic Materials). Subsequently, Dr. Budiman was awarded the prestigious Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Director’s Research Fellowship in 2009 to conduct top strategic research for the energy and national security missions of the Los Alamos National Laboratorys. Dr. Budiman also has an international career in academics in Singapore and Indonesia as well as collaborating with researchers in Europe, China and Japan. He also served an academic stint at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in Boston, MA, in 2005. He has recently published a book, “Probing Crystal Plasticity at the Nanoscales – Synchrotron X-ray Microdiffraction” (Springer 2015). He has two U.S. Patents and one pending.

Rachel Edwards  - Assistant Professor in Natural Sciences - 3BOE 

Dr. Rachel Edwards received her BS in Biomedical Engineering Dr. Rachel Edwards Received her BS in Biomedical Engineering with a focus in biomolecules and materials from Northwestern University and her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. Her research has involved engineering isotropic and anisotropic 3D matrices.Dr. Edwards joined the Natural Sciences Department at Oregon Tech in 2021 and teaches courses in chemistry and biology as well as overseeing Senior Design projects through the Manufacturing, Mechanical Engineering, and Technology (MMET) Department. Her current research includes 3D matrix development to model normal and diseased tissue states and biomedical device design. 

Professor Feng Shi - Electrical Engineering and Renewable Energy - Associate Professor – AGPV

Dr. Feng Shi is holding a Ph.D. in physics, a Master’s in Electrical Engineering, and a Master’s in Solar Engineering. His research interests lie in photovoltaic materials such as porous silicon, photonic band gap materials such as photonic optical waveguide materials, energy storage materials such as hybrid electric and ionic conductor materials as electrode materials, solar concentrators such as non-imaging non-tracking high concentration ratio solar concentrator, hybrid photovoltaic and solar thermal panels with thermo-electric energy storage system, and fuel cell systems used for power generation and CO2 reduction by using H2. His research interests are also extended to electrochemical reduction of CO2 and methanol synthesis for long duration energy storage and solar fuel production. Recently, his research mainly focuses on Agrivoltaics including research and development of bifacial Photovoltaic (PV) panel based greenhouse systems for solar power generation and agricultural production, and high concentration ratio concentrating system based thermo-chemistry system for sustainable aviation fuel from CO2 and H2O. His effort also includes research and developing photonic crystal solar spectrum splitter based integrated circuitry solar cell system for ultra-high efficiency and extremely low cost of photovoltaic system. He also devotes to developing solar powered Electric Vehicles (EV) for mobile EV charging stations.

Professor Slobodan Petrovic - Electrical Eng & Renewable Energy – WIND

Derrick Speaks - Oregon Renewable Energy Center (OREC) - Renewable Energy - Optical and Electronic Properties of Semiconductors – CCAI & WIND  

Dr Speaks has always had a strong interest in renewable energy. His graduate work at UC Berkeley was in the Electronic Materials Group where he fabricated and characterized new materials for PV applications. He has extended this work at OIT where he is developing the Oregon Institute of Technology Thin Film Research and Development Center which will support both teaching and research. The Center will develop renewable energy solutions via synthesis and characterization novel thin films as well as the expansion of undergraduate student education to better support high tech and renewable industries. Dr Speaks’ research interest centers on understanding the role that dopants and

defects play in the optical and electronic materials of semiconductor thin films. He has studied many systems including Group III-V and II-VI materials. He and his collaborators have worked to improve and control properties such as: carrier concentration, electron/hole mobility, location of the optical absorption edge and modification of the electron band structure to specifically tune semiconductors for optimal performance in a variety of applications. As an OREC affiliated researcher he leads a team investigating methods to improve Wind Power Generation in the State of Oregon.

Dr Rachel Speaks - Nanofabrication - Wind 

Her doctoral research at the University of Cambridge (Device Materials Group) focused on high-temperature superconductors (thin film deposition, device fabrication, device testing) and her undergraduate research at the University of Washington focused on molecular engineering of organic material at inorganic interfaces. She has worked in the semiconductor industry and is now applying her skills to renewable energy. Dr Rachel Speaks worked at Intel as a Development Technologist in FMO looking at next generation materials. Prior to that she worked at Intel as a Process Engineer (FE CMP) in PTD, Low Yield Analysis and Plasma Etch. Specialties:

• Semiconductor Device Manufacturing

• Superconductor Device Fabrication

• Process Engineering

• Additive Manufacturing/3D Printing

Chitra Venugopal - Associate Professor - Electrical Eng & Renewable Energy – HVDC

Dr. Chitra Venugopal’s academic and professional background combines science and engineering (BEng in Electronics, Communication and MEng in Power Electronics and Drives from Bharathidasan University and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Sastra University). Her professional experience includes researcher in power system and power electronics field and published many research articles. Dr. Chitra is a senior member of the IEEE, a member of Eta Kappa Nu (the international honor society for electrical engineers). She joined the Electrical Engineering and Renewable Energy (EERE) department at Oregon Tech in 2018 where is now a tenure track Assistant Professor. Dr. Chitra currently serves as the program director of the BS Renewable Energy Engineering Program, Portland – Metro Campus. Her areas of teaching include power system, power electronics, electric power conversion and grid integration. Her current research focuses on smart grid integration of renewable energies, demand response and grid oscillations, power converters for nano and micro power applications, smart drives including PLCs, intelligent converters for EVs.