Mads Almassalkhi

Mads Almassalkhi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Vermont (UVM), with a joint appointment as Chief Scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). He co-founded Packetized Energy, a clean-tech startup acquired by EnergyHub, and leads the CORE Systems Lab focused on grid optimization and distributed energy resource (DER) control. His expertise spans power systems, control theory, and mathematical optimization.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering: Systems, University of Michigan (2013)
• M.S.E. in Electrical Engineering: Systems, University of Michigan (2010)
• B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Applied Mathematics, University of Cincinnati (2008)

Research Interests:

• Scalable algorithms for grid resilience and responsiveness
• DER coordination and virtual energy storage (VES)
• Packetized energy management for demand-side resources
• Hybrid energy systems integration
• Grid-aware optimization frameworks

Key Contributions:

• Developed packetized energy management (PEM) for anonymous, asynchronous DER coordination
• Validated PEM in real-world deployments with over 200 residential loads
• Advances in grid-aware control for distribution systems and under-frequency load shedding

Awards:

• NSF CAREER Award (2021)
• UVM CEMS Outstanding Junior Faculty Award (2016)
• IEEE PES SBLC Loads Subcommittee Chair
• Otto Mønsted Visiting Professorship at DTU (2021-22)

Labs & Teams:

• Director of the CORE Systems Lab at UVM
• Chief Scientist at PNNL’s Optimization & Control Group
• Collaborates on DOE-funded projects like Energysheds and Hybrid Energy Systems