Daniel C. Ludois
Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, H.I. Romnes Faculty Fellow
Daniel Ludois received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2012 and B.S. in Physics from Bradley University in 2006. Dr. Ludois currently serves as a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in UW–Madison’s College of Engineering and is the Research & Innovation Director of the internationally renowned Wisconsin Electric Machines and Power Electronics Consortium (WEMPEC).
Dr. Ludois’s research focus has been on broadening the horizons of power conversion by leveraging new dielectric materials, capacitive coupling and high frequency power electronics. Applications include compact wireless power transfer for mobile and rotating equipment, brushless electric machine bearing current mitigation, electrostatic (e-field) machinery, and dual energy cores for integrated inductor-capacitors. More recent research directions include the application of switch mode power electronics to HF-Band communications, co-design of power semiconductor devices, and offshore energy harvesting. Dr. Ludois has published >80 papers and has >35 issued and pending patents collectively. Courses in his repertoire include ECE 411 “Introduction to Electric Drives,” ECE 711 “Dynamics and Control of AC Drives,” and ECE 713 “Electromagnetic Design of AC Machines.”
Dr. Ludois’s efforts in electrostatic machinery earned him national recognition via a 2015 National Science Foundation CAREER Award, a 2017 Gordon & Betty Moore Inventor Fellowship and Phase I & II Awards in the 2024 DOE InDEEP Competition. This high-risk-high-reward work focuses on the removal of electrical grade steels, copper conductors and rare-earth permanent magnets in electric machines by transitioning electrostatic forces where possible. Electrostatic machines can use sustainable materials like aluminum or composites for lower cost, ease of manufacturing and reduced supply chain volitility. Dr. Ludois cofounded C-Motive Technologies, a start-up business dedicated to translating electrostatic power conversion devices to industrial use. C-Motive’s efforts were featured in the Wall Sreet Journal with motors under test at major US corporations.
Ludois Group students are highly entrepreneurial and have founded power conversion businesses themselves. The cofounders of H3X, for example, received Forbes 30 Under 30 recognition.
Awards/Honors
Professional
DOE InDEEP Prize, Phase I & II (2024)
H.I. Romnes Faculty Fellow (2023)
Vilas Faculty Early Career Investigator Award (2022)
ECE Outstanding Graduate Student Mentor Award (2022)
Jean van Bladel Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering (2020)
Moore Inventor Fellow – Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation (2017)
Dugald C. Jackson Faculty Scholar (2017)
Midwest Energy News 40 Under 40 (2016)
Gerald Holdridge Teaching Excellence Award (2016)
NSF CAREER Award – National Science Foundation (2015)
Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) Innovation Award (2012)
Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Competition, 2nd place advanced manufacturing track (2012)
Graduate School
Poster Presentation Award, IEEE Energy Conversion Congress & Exposition (ECCE) (2011)
2nd Place “Distingusished Student Humanitarian” IEEE President’s Change the World Competition (2011)
Grainger Power Engineering Fellow (2010)
Grand Prize – Nelson Institute Climate Leadership Challenge (2010)
Prize Papers
- 2023 – Best Oral Presentation Paper Award for Emerging Technology at ECCE 2022. Presented by the IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS), S. Wang and D. C. Ludois, “A Capacitively-Coupled Single-Wire Earth-Return Power Tether for Aerial Platforms,” 2022 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), Detroit, MI, USA, 2022, pp. 1-7.
- 2023 – Third Prize Journal Paper, awarded by the IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS) Electric Machines Committee. D. C. Ludois, K. J. Frankforter, S. E. Behringer and F. A. Roberts, “Double Layer Capacitive Power and Heat Transfer in Rotating Machinery,” in IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 58, no. 5, pp. 6115-6124, Sept.-Oct. 2022.
- 2017 – First Prize Paper, awarded by the IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications. B. Ge and D. C. Ludois, “Design Concepts for a Fluid-Filled Three-Phase Axial-Peg-Style Electrostatic Rotating Machine Utilizing Variable Elastance,” in IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 52, no. 3, pp. 2156-2166, May-June 2016.
- 2017 – Second Prize Paper, awarded by the IEEE JESTPE (IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics) J. Dai and D. C. Ludois, “Capacitive Power Transfer Through a Conformal Bumper for Electric Vehicle Charging,” in IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 1015-1025, Sept. 2016.
- 2016 – First Prize Paper, awarded by the IAS Electric Machines Committee with IEEE ECCE. B. Ge and D. C. Ludois, “Design concepts for a 3-phase axial peg style electrostatic rotating machine utilizing variable elastance,” 2015 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), Montreal, QC, 2015, pp. 6519-6528.
- 2016 – Second Prize Paper, awarded by the IEEE JESTPE (IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics) J. Dai and D. C. Ludois, “Single Active Switch Power Electronics for Kilowatt Scale Capacitive Power Transfer,” in IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 315-323, March 2015.
Group’s Students
David Skrovanek, DOE InDEEP Competition Phase 1 (2023), Phase 2 (2024)
Max Liben, Forbes 30 under30 (2023)
Thomas Nguyen, NSF Graduate Research Fellow (2022)
Thomas Nguyen, Grainger Power Engineering Fellow (2022)
Marisa (Tisler) Liben, Grainger Power Engineering Fellow (2022)
David Skrovanek, Public Service Fellow, named by WISCIENCE (2021)
Peter Killeen, Grainger Power Engineering Fellow (2020)
Baoyun Ge, IEEE Industry Applications Society Annual Meeting Student Poster Award (2019)
Baoyun Ge, IEEE Industry Applications Society Thesis Award, 3rd place (2019)
Baoyun Ge, Harold A. Peterson Distinguished Dissertation Award, award by UW-Madison ECE (2019)
Skyler Hagen, Grainger Power Engineering Fellow (2019)
Andy Schroedermeier, Grainger Power Engineering Fellow (2018)
Andy Schroedermeier, Poster Presentation Award at IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC) (2018)
Ryan Knippel, Grainger Power Engineering Fellow (2017)
Jiejian Dai, Skyler Hagen, Oral session student winners IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC) (2017)
Baoyun Ge, Aditya Ghule, 3rd place student demo award IEEE Energy Conversion Congress & Expostion (ECCE) (2016)
Baoyun Ge, Oral session student winner IEEE Energy Conversion Congress & Expostion (ECCE) (2015)
Adam Shea, Oral session student winner IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC) (2014)