Title: Staff Research Engineer
Company: General Motors Global R&D Center
Location: Oakland Township, Michigan, United States
Avoki Omekanda, Staff Research Engineer at General Motors Global R&D Center, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Engineers for dedication, achievements, and leadership in electrical engineering.
Born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dr. Omekanda initially obtained a Bachelor of Science in physics in 1984 from Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco and later continued his education with a Bachelor of Science in engineering in 1990 and a Doctor of Philosophy in electrical engineering in 1993 from the Faculty of Engineering of UMons in Belgium.
After providing superior service as a researcher with the Faculty of Engineering of UMons from 1990 to 1995, Dr. Omekanda immigrated to the United States and excelled from 1999 to 2010 as a staff research engineer with Delphi Research Laboratories and beginning in 2010 with the General Motors Research and Development Center and its propulsion systems research laboratory and electric drives and power electronics group. With Delphi and General Motors, Dr. Omekanda has written or co-composed numerous patents.
Dr. Omekanda’s professional memberships include the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), where he has chaired the Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition Steering Committee, Industry Application Society Inter-Society Cooperation Committee, Electric Machines Committee and Industrial Power Conversions Systems Department. The vice chair of the governing board for the IEEE Smart Village in 2022, he has been additionally involved with the nonprofit organization Light Up A Village, which helps people in his country through education, electricity and entrepreneurship. He has also received numerous professional honors: the Taguchi Excellence Award for Paper on DFSS of Electric Machine, International Conference on the Robust Quality of Engineering, Recognition Service Award as General Chair of the IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Expo (ECCE), Recognition Service Award as Technical Program Co-Chair, IEEE-ECCE, Science Spectrum Trailblazer Award from the National Council of Engineering Deans of the Historically Black College and Universities, Lockheed Martin Corporation, and U.S. Black Engineer & Information Technology Magazine, and he was an inductee into the Delphi Innovation Hall of Fame.
Dr. Omekanda’s goal in the coming years is to be part of a revolution in engineering that involves phasing out terminal commercial engines in favor of electric machines taking over transportation including aircraft, in which he hopes to participate. When he decides to retire, he intends to go back and help his fellow young Congolese in Africa so that they can be inspired through his story and motivated to pursue science as a career.
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