Faculty

Prof. Hardus Odendaal

Dr. Odendaal received his bachelors, masters, and doctorate degrees in electrical and electronics engineering from Rand Afrikaans University of Johannesburg South Africa, in 1992, 1995, and 1997, respectively. After completing a post doctorate at Virginia Tech, he joined Philips Research North America in New York. Since 2001 he has been in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech. For more information on Professor Odendaal, visit his department web page at http://www.ece.vt.edu/faculty/odendaal.php.

Graduate Students

Victor Sung

Sung is originally from Indiana. He attended Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology where he received his Electrical Engineering degree. He is currently a Ph.D. student at Virginia Tech. He has worked in the Energy Conversions Systems Laboratory on the railgun project since 2008.

Robin Yang

Yang began working on the EM Launcher project during his sophomore year as an undergraduate student in Computer Engineering. He continued working in ECSL as a volunteer every semester and is currently working on his M.S. in computer engineering with Dr. Odendaal. His interests are in pulsed power digital controls hardware and software systems. His current research is on energy management for smart MVDC micro-grids while also supporting other efforts in the ECSL.

Recently Graduated Students

Eric Alexander

Alexander was born in San Francisco, California. He began working on the EM Launcher project during his senior year as an undergraduate student in Mechanical Engineering. He has continued with the program and is currently working on his Masters of Science with Dr. Odendaal. His areas of expertise include Advanced Acoustic Analysis, Mechanical Design, and Current Sensing Technologies. Eric now works for NAVSEA at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division.

George Hric

Hric was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. He received his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering, and is currently working on a graduate degree in mechanical engineering as well. He has been working in the Energy Conversions Systems Laboratory since 2011. Hric's area of research is material contact behavior.

Past and Present Undergraduate Students

These students were previously involved with the project, in some capacity or another.