Dr. Jennifer Bauman – Faculty of Engineering
Jennifer Bauman

Dr. Jennifer Bauman

Expertise

Hybrid and electric powertrain design and control, power electronic converters, advanced vehicle modeling, smart-charging and EV integration into the smart-grid

Current status

  • Accepting graduate students

  • Associate Professor

    Electrical & Computer Engineering

Overview

The aim of my research group is to contribute to the electrification of transportation through the development of new concepts and technologies that improve vehicle design, reduce vehicle cost, and ease electric vehicle integration into society. The research focuses on 3 different levels of detail:

Low Level: Power Electronics

We explore new power electronic converter topologies and control methods, as well as the use of wide-band gap devices, in order to increase efficiency and reduce cost of the electronic components in powertrains.

Mid Level: Vehicle Design and Control

We perform optimization studies on various hybrid and electric powertrain designs in order to find and quantify system-level benefits. We use extensive vehicle modeling to enable these studies.

High-Level: EV Integration

We study the effects of increased penetration of EVs on the grid and investigate the challenges and opportunities that will come with a widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles.

Did you know?

Dr. Bauman worked at a Waterloo start-up company for 8 years prior to joining McMaster.

Dr. Bauman designed, built, integrated, and tested a 65kW boost converter into a fuel cell vehicle for a student vehicle competition during grad school.

Jennifer Bauman (P.Eng.) received the B.Sc. (2004) and Ph.D. (2008) from the University of Waterloo. During graduate studies, she was the electrical lead for the University of Waterloo Alternative Fuels Team. Dr. Bauman then spent 8 years in industry as the Director of Research at a startup company called CrossChasm Technologies. In this position, she gained a wealth of industry and entrepreneurial experience, and led the modeling team on a wide variety of automotive projects, some with major OEMs. Dr. Bauman joined McMaster University in September 2016 as an Assistant Professor. Her research focuses on power electronic converters for electrified powertrains (with a focus on wide-bandgap devices), vehicle design, modeling, and control, and EV interactions with the smart grid. Dr. Bauman has extensive experience in vehicle architecture design and optimization, as well as analysis, simulation, and problem-solving with respect to the real-world issues faced by the next generation of advanced vehicles.

B.A.Sc., Ph.D. (Waterloo, Canada)

P.Eng.