As part of Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s University Research Initiative, which helps bring distinguished researchers to Texas universities,nationally recognized researcher Thomas Overbye recently joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Before joining the department this semester, Overbye taught at the University of Illinois for more than 25 years.
“I knew a professor here at Texas A&M who asked if I was interested in teaching here,” Overbye said. “I knew a lot of people here because A&M and University of Illinois are in a similar consortium called Power Systems Engineering Research Center and I had worked with them through PSERC and other projects.”
Associate professor Le Xie believes the addition of Overbye to the department will promote the visibility of the engineering program on a national and international stage.
“I think he will bring a lot of exciting new activities in all fronts of research, teaching and service to this department that will benefit students, faculty and researchers in this community,” Xie said.
Overbye wants to continue the research he started at University of Illinois as well as start new projects. He is particularly involved in the domains of smart-grid cyber security and power system visualization.
“Power system resiliency in general is something I am interested in; that is to say how we keep the grid working when really bad things occur, such as cyber-attacks or physical attacks,” Overbye said.
Associate professor Ulisses Braga Neto hopes Overbye will bring more research funding to the university as well as recognition and high rankings for the department in terms of academics.
“He is very well-known; he has published a software package and he is a member of the National Academy of Engineering,” Braga Neto said. “We are very happy that he is joining us, that’s for sure.”
Spending a greater part of his time in Wisconsin and at the University of Illinois, Overbye is excited for this new opportunity. So far he has found the department to be welcoming and optimistic. As a professor, he said his goal is to focus on the undergraduates and get to know them better.
“My experience so far has been really positive. Texas A&M is obviously a great university, so I would like to think I went from one great university to another,” Overbye said. “I’ll be teaching an undergrad course next semester, so I am very much looking forward to getting to know the Texas A&M undergrads.”