Openings

Dr. Bendong Tan will join the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) as an Assistant Professor in Fall 2025. He is now recruiting fully funded Ph.D. students (Spring/Fall 2026) and visiting students in power systems. Undergraduate and Master’s students are also welcome to join the group for research internships.

About Me

Before joining PolyU, Dr. Tan was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Connecticut and a visiting scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, working with Dr. Junbo Zhao and Dr. Deepjyoti Deka. I received my Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Connecticut in 2024, advised by Dr. Junbo Zhao. Prior to that, he earned an M.S. (2020) and a B.Eng. (2017) in Electrical Engineering from Wuhan University.

Dr. Tan’s research focuses on the modeling, stability assessment, and control of inverter-penetrated stochastic power systems, with related work published in leading journals such as IEEE Transactions on Power Systems. He has received the 2023 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad, the GE Fellowship for Excellence at the University of Connecticut, and the Ezra Postdoctoral Associate Fellowship at Cornell University. He is also a recipient of multiple awards, including Best Paper Awards at the IEEE PES General Meetings in 2021, 2022, and 2024, the Best Journal Paper Award from the International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems in 2022, and the Outstanding Reviewer Award from IEEE Transactions on Power Systems (2021–2023).

Research Interests

The group focuses on modeling/monitoring, stability assessment, and control of inverter-penetrated stochastic power systems. We are particularly interested in the areas, including but not limited to:

  • Dynamic power system modeling, including dynamic load and inverter-based resources
  • Inverter-penetrated power system inertia estimation and tracking
  • Static and dynamic power system risk assessment with high penetration of inverter-based resources
  • Stochastic power system decision-making and control
  • Applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning in power system analysis and control

If you have interesting ideas in other research areas, I am open to discussing them.

Application Requirements

We are looking for talented candidates who have some or all of the following qualities:

  • Self-motivated applicants with strong research curiosity and passion, and strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
  • Background in electrical engineering, optimization and control, signal processing, statistics, artificial intelligence, or related fields
  • Proficiency in programming (Python/Matlab), with experience in professional power system software such as PowerFactory, PSSE, or PowerWorld
  • Strong English writing and communication skills (Applicants to PolyU are required to have an IELTS score of 6.5 or higher, or a TOEFL score of 80 or higher)

Application Timeline and Procedure

Enrollment time is in Spring or Fall 2026. The application deadline for Spring 2026 admission is September 30, 2025. The full PhD studentship is approximately HKD 19000 per month. We encourage and support outstanding candidates to apply for the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme (HKPFS), which offers around HKD 28000 per month. For more information, please refer to:

To apply, please email your CV, transcripts, and representative publications (if any) to bendong.tan@uconn.edu with the subject: {PhD Application}-{Your Name} (e.g., PhD Application-Ming Li). Please include a brief statement of motivation for joining the research group in the email.