CALIFORNIA PATH FACULTY DIRECTOR
Biography
In January of 2022, Dr. Scott Moura became the new Faculty Director of the California Program for Advanced Transportation Technology (PATH) at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Moura holds the Clare and Hsieh Wen Shen Endowed Distinguished Professorship and is an Associate Professor in Civil & Environmental Engineering. In addition to his duties at PATH, Dr. Moura is also the Director of the eCAL, where he mentors undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and visiting PhDs. Since graduating with his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 2011 from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Dr. Moura has continued to lead research progress in the areas of modeling, estimation, and control of energy systems. This research led to UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship appointment at UC San Diego in the Cymer Center for Control Systems and Dynamics and as a visiting researcher in the Centre Automatique et Systèmes at MINES ParisTech in Paris, France.
Currently, Dr. Moura is working to develop battery monitoring and control software to improve the capacity, safety, and charge rate of electric vehicle batteries. Conventional methods for preventing premature aging and failures in electric vehicle batteries involve expensive and heavy overdesign of the battery and tend to result in inefficient use of available battery capacity. The objective of this research is to increase usable capacity and enhance charging rates by improving the ability to estimate battery health in real-time, to predict and manage the impact of charge and discharge cycles on battery health, and to minimize battery degradation. His other research interests include PDE estimation and control theory, adaptive control, machine learning, optimal control, dynamic system modeling, energy management, battery management systems, smart grid, and vehicle-grid integration. His expertise in electrification will guide the PATH program into new areas of research, development, and collaboration –ensuring Caltrans’ vision of the future of transportation.
In 2020, Dr. Moura was presented with the ITS Faculty of the Year Award in recognition of exemplary support of student research and education and his service to ITS. He is also the recipient of the ASME Division of Control Systems and Division Outstanding Young Investigator Award, National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award, NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, UC Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Michigan Distinguished ProQuest Dissertation Honorable Mention, University of Michigan Rackham Merit Fellowship, and the College of Engineering Distinguished Leadership Award. Dr. Moura has also served on the editorial board for the SAE International Journal of Connected and Automated Vehicles and has been a funding agency reviewer for the National Science Foundation, among others. Additionally, Dr. Moura belongs to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.