Group

Current PhD students:

Yuxin Deng (from Spring 2023) received the M.S. degree from Southeast University, Nanjing, China. He is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree with University of South Carolina transfered from Mississippi State University, USA. His research interests include power system optimization, planning, and stability analysis, integrated optimization and dynamics, and electricity market operation considering renewable energy integration.

Prasant Basnet (from Fall 2022) is originally from Nepal. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Kathmandu University, Nepal in 2017. He joined Mississippi State University in Fall 2022 as a Ph.D. student and earned his Master of Science in Electrical Engineering there in 2025. He worked as a Graduate Power System Intern in the Grid Operation Planning group at NREL from February 2025 to August 2025. His research interests include power system optimization, power system dynamics, cyber physical power system modeling, and renewable energy integration. He is currently working on capacity expansion planning with a high penetration of inverter-based resources (IBRs), with a focus on power system dynamics.

Bishal Rijal (from Spring 2025) originally from Nepal, earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, in 2021. He then worked at Middle Mewa Hydropower, where he gained site-based experience with electrical equipment, before joining K&A in April 2023 to contribute to distribution design projects and impact studies for major U.S. utilities such as Pacific Gas and Electric, Duke Energy, and ComEd. In Spring 2025, he began his Ph.D. studies in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Mississippi State University, focusing on distribution transformer sizing considering demand-side resources. His research interests include power system optimization, renewable energy integration, and he is currently focusing on power system strength evaluation.