UC Davis CITRIS researcher aims to electrify big machines
Shima Nazari, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC Davis, works on the electrification of off-road machinery.
One of her recent projects, supported in part by a 2022 CITRIS Seed Award, seeks to electrify the California Department of Transportation’s work vehicles, including loaders, excavators and street sweepers. These complex, off-road vehicles contribute to roughly half of the carbon emissions generated by construction work, and electrification is a viable route to alleviate their environmental impact. Nazari’s lab is developing control system models to better understand the machinery’s duty cycles and meet their demanding battery requirements.
“Control systems are really my thing,” says Nazari. “It has all the components of mechanical engineering — thinking about how different parts of the system have to work together to get the best outcome, the best efficiency, the best performance — and it is all about math, which I love the most.”