JK's Ikhlaq Hussain among Stanford university's top ranking scientist
Post by on Wednesday, November 17, 2021
Born in 1986 in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir, Dr. Ikhlaq Hussain has been featured twice in Stanford University’s top scientist rankings which commenced from 2019.
Founded in 1885 Stanford University, a research university in Stanford, California, is considered among the largest universities in the United States and is ranked among the best universities in the world.
After pursuing Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from University of Jammu, Dr. Ikhlaq pursued his masters from Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi and Ph.D from IIT Delhi.
Currently working as a coordinator in the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Kashmir, Zakura Campus, he always wanted to join the academic line due to his keen interest in teaching.
He has received numerous awards for his contribution in the field of Electrical Engineering. He is a senior member of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) since 2021.
Dr. Ikhlaq received the POSOCO Power System Award in 2017 and young scientist award in BRICS, Young scientist conclave held in South Africa in 2018. Besides this, he is also a recipient of the Gandhian Young Technology Innovation award and ranks among the top 10 award recipients of Outstanding Faculty Researchers in the renewable energy field.
His four papers have featured in the “best paper award” in various conferences that he has attended and has been awarded by GUCON for the same in Malaysia in 2021.
Besides this, he was recently featured in the elite list of Stanford University rankings that ranks the top 2% of scientists worldwide on the basis of indices, citations and publications in 2019 and 2020.
His research interests include solar photovoltaic systems, micro grid, renewable energy, power quality, power electronics, distribution systems etc.
Currently, Dr. Ikhlaq is involved in the research regarding the feasibility and marketability of electric vehicles and their impact on the power grid in Kashmir province. The project has been financed by the UT government.
“In Kashmir, many people have started to use electric vehicles and the quantity is increasing with every passing day. We are researching the impact of the increased number of electric vehicles on the already established power grid network of Kashmir. What if there are more electric vehicles? Is there any chance of a power collapse? We are working on all these issues,” he said.
Guided by Dr. Bhim Singh, one of the top scientists of India who has received various awards in the field of Electrical Engineering, he and his team has filed 5 patents and are jointly working on a number of projects.
He has published more than 150 papers in top renowned journals mostly indexed in quartile 1 & 2. Till date, he has managed to publish close to 31 transaction papers with high impact factor.
“One of the patents that we have filed is about multifunctional converters. As per IEEE standards, total harmonic distortion in a system should be less than 5% but it always exceeds this limit, deteriorating the power quality of the system. Loads like computers, printers and all other electronic gadgets generate a lot of harmonics thus polluting the system. Due to this, efficiency of the system decreases. It also leads to overload in the generators. Transfer of active power through multifunctional converters results in improvement in power quality,” he said.
Currently, Dr. Ikhlaq is co-supervising 6 students of National Institute of Technology, Srinagar and Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi who are pursuing their Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering.
One of his projects is to improve power quality using AI techniques in solar PV systems. Much of his work is about the impact of renewable energy on distribution systems using AI techniques.
“Power is generated at Uri and load is located in Srinagar in the form of industries and offices which require electricity all the time. There is a long distance between generator and user which causes transmission losses. We install solar PV in our homes to generate electricity and minimize these losses. Why can’t we generate locally and what impact it will have locally. We are working on this project,” he said.
His projects also involve optimization techniques to aid the conventional controllers. He said, “We are also working on the improvement of performance of microgrids. The utilization of oil will be minimized by designing a system comprising PV, wind and batteries. Such a system when disconnected from the mains will work as a standalone system. When the supply is restored, it will be reconnected automatically.”
The transmission and distribution losses, aggregated technical and commercial losses owing to pilferage and improvement of power quality are some of the projects that Dr. Ikhlaq is involved with.
He says, “Around 1980, all companies in the middle-east increased the price of oil. People thought why not go for an alternate source of energy. India made a special ministry called ministry of non-renewable energy. We came up with the concept of converters. After 2035, some countries have decided to use Electric Vehicles only. In Srinagar after 5-10 years, people will use electric vehicles because they are economical and are environment friendly.”
Dr. Ikhlaq said that research on renewable energy is the need of the hour to increase the efficiency of the system. “An increase of 0.05 % in efficiency will be a big thing for us,” he added. He is working on various areas related to renewable energy and has collaborated with many foreign researchers for the same.
Reminiscing about his early childhood, Dr. Ikhlaq said that he had interest in Mathematics and people would call him a computer due to his strong hold on the subject. He said, “I had no concept of good technical colleges. I had qualified AIEEE and was waiting for 6 months due to lack of awareness about counseling in NIT. I was interested in electrical engineering because of the number of power projects that had cropped up in my area.”
His family wanted him to prepare for KAS but he was determined and didn’t leave his field and instead started preparing for KAS and GATE examination simultaneously. “I prepared for both these exams studying at home. I passed the prelims of KAS with electrical engineering as the optional paper and during the mains exam, I was praying not to get selected. I never changed my goal,” he said.
Dr. Ikhalq was just 12 years old when he lost his father. Later, his elder brother had to take up a job to run the family. “One should always work with truthfulness. There should be no pressure from society or parents. Whatever a person has to do, he should do it with determination. Then nothing can stop him,” he concluded.
