Penn Power Electronics Research Lab
Welcome! We are a research group passionate about building circuits and systems in power electronics. We explore new ways to convert and deliver electrical energy, aiming to make these systems smaller, more efficient, and better suited to emerging technologies. Our students combine fundamental ideas with hands-on design and experiments, and we are always curious about the new possibilities that better power electronics can enable.
About Lei Gu
I’m an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, where I lead the PENGUIN Lab. My research focuses on power electronics and energy conversion. I’m also a visiting researcher with the Circuits Group at NVIDIA Research. Before joining Penn, I worked on HomePod at Apple, and I received my Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford in 2019.
A formal third-person bio is also available.
People
- Aaron Khan, Ph.D. student
- Ahmed Altunkaya, undergraduate researcher
- Aobo Yang, Ph.D. student
- Cameron Woo, Ph.D. student
- Gyu Cheol Lim, postdoctoral scholar
- Harrisen Richards, undergraduate researcher
- Penelope Anema, Ph.D. student
- Sida Chen, Ph.D. student
- Xiang Li, Ph.D. student
Alumni
- Rohan Panday, undergraduate researcher
- Victor Gao, undergraduate researcher
- Zhiguo Tong, postdoctoral researcher
Join Us
We expect to recruit highly motivated Ph.D. students for Fall 2027. Prospective students should apply through the Penn ESE Ph.D. program and may email Professor Gu with a CV and a brief description of their interests. Because of email volume, not every inquiry can receive a response.
Selected News
[July 2026] We welcomed students from The Franklin Institute’s STEM Scholars program to Penn for lab tours and a hands-on Arduino PWM activity.
[Apr. 2026] I gave an IEEE PELS webinar on design considerations for multi-MHz wireless power transfer, from compensation networks to coil architectures.
[Mar. 2026] We presented two papers at IEEE APEC 2026 on data-center power delivery and MRI RF amplifiers. I also co-presented a professional education seminar on advanced gate drivers. #APEC26_PowerSmoothing #APEC26_MRI_PA
[Oct. 2025] Our paper comparing 50 MHz single-ended and isolated push-pull Class-E amplifiers was presented at IEEE ECCE 2025. #ECCE25_ClassE
[June 2025] Aobo and Cameron presented our work on an energy-efficient pulsed magnet for MRI and an optical gate driver for SiC MOSFETs at IEEE COMPEL 2025 in Knoxville, TN. #COMPEL25_Yang #COMPEL25_Woo
[June 2025] Congratulations to Victor, Aobo, and Sida for receiving the IEEE ITEC+ 2025 Best Student Paper Award for their paper, “Analysis and Comparison of Compensation Networks for Multi-Megahertz Inductive Power Transfer.” #ITEC25_Gao
[June 2025] We received the NSF CAREER Award.
[May 2025] Aloha! Aobo presented his energy-efficient pulsed magnet and amplifier for MRI applications at the 2025 ISMRM Annual Meeting in Honolulu, HI.
Visit Us
Electrical and Systems Engineering
200 South 33rd Street 202
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Collaborations
Penn Engineering, Penn Medicine, and Yale
Research Support
ARPA-E · NSF · ARPA-H · Lam Research · Methode Electronics