Honglin Li, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Kansas State University
Education
2021 – 2025
Ph.D. (Mechanical Engineering)
The University of Texas at Dallas
Dissertation: Techno-Economic Analysis of Hydrogen-Integrated Sustainable Energy Systems
2019 – 2021
M.S. in Engineering (Industrial Engineering)
Texas State University
Thesis: Planning Virtual Power Plants for Smart Factories and Industry 4.0 with Renewable and Thermal Cogeneration
2016 – 2018
M.E. in Computer Engineering
Dalian Maritime University
Focus: Machine Learning
Academic Experience
Apr 2026 – present
Kansas State University
Postdoctoral Fellow · Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Instructor · ECE 685 Power Systems DesignFall 2026
- Leading techno-economic and optimization research on small modular reactor (SMR)-powered data centers, quantifying colocation economics, delayed grid energization, and alternative grid-coupling architectures under load and market uncertainty.
- Developing system-level evaluation metrics and a multi-account cost framework spanning private, ratepayer, and social perspectives, extending prior nuclear–hydrogen–battery and carbon-aware scheduling work to AI-driven electricity demand growth.
Sep 2025 – Apr 2026
University of Texas at Dallas
Research Associate
- Led a techno-economic study of a BWRX-300 small modular reactor whose turbine-extracted steam drives absorption chillers, supplying a data center with both power and cooling; steam, cooling, and power were co-optimized hourly with ERCOT prices (first author; accepted in Energy Conversion and Management).
- Mapped where SMR supply becomes competitive with grid supply, and how an output-based production credit shifts steam from cooling to generation.
Internships
Feb 2025 – Aug 2025
Idaho National Laboratory (INL)
- Optimization of Hydrogen Integration in Nuclear Grid Services: Developed an optimization framework using mathematical programming techniques to identify the most profitable deployment strategies for nuclear-powered hydrogen production. Integrated techno-economic analysis, historical market data (ISO prices), and policy incentives (45V tax credits) to maximize revenue from hydrogen sales and grid ancillary services; results published in Nature Communications (2026, first author).
- Techno-Economic Analysis of Non-Powered Dam Retrofits: Contributed a pro-forma techno-economic module to an INL toolset for retrofitting U.S. non-powered dams with hydropower and battery storage; integration with floating PV was scoped in planning.
Aug 2024 – Jan 2025
FM
- Solar PV Microgrid Design Optimization: Developed and implemented a techno-economic model incorporating optimization techniques to determine the optimal sizing of solar PV, battery storage, and backup generation for an industrial research campus microgrid. Minimized levelized cost of energy subject to meeting demand in modeled grid-outage scenarios, using a DOE reference load profile scaled to the campus’s annual consumption and site solar resource data.
- Lithium Battery Production Line Simulation and Bottleneck Optimization: Built a discrete-event simulation model (Arena) of a lithium battery production line to quantify the economic impact of equipment failures and maintenance schedules. Identified production bottlenecks and analyzed potential improvements through simulation, implicitly informing optimization of maintenance and buffer strategies.
- Wind Farm Maintenance Strategy Optimization: Proposed a research framework featuring an optimization model to determine the optimal predictive and corrective maintenance scheduling for wind farms. Aimed at balancing O&M costs, maximizing energy production (reducing downtime), and ensuring long-term asset reliability.
Work Experience
2021 – 2024
The University of Texas at Dallas
Research Assistant (Focus: Energy System Optimization Modeling)Aug 2021 – Aug 2024 Teaching Assistant (Courses: Engineering Optimization, Numerical Methods)Aug 2022 – Dec 2022
- Conducted comprehensive techno-economic analyses of hydrogen-integrated sustainable energy systems.
- Developed optimization-based techno-economic strategies for nuclear–renewable integrated systems.
- Studied green hydrogen production and its integration with renewable and nuclear supply.
2019 – 2021
Texas State University
Research Assistant (Focus: Operations Research in Energy/Manufacturing)Aug 2019 – Jul 2021 Teaching Assistant (Courses: Probability & Statistics, Operations Research)Aug 2019 – Jul 2021
2014 – 2019
Shanghai Electric Power Construction Co., Ltd. (SEPC)
Ipaye Power Plant Project, Ajebandele, NigeriaSep 2016 – Apr 2019 Eritrea HIRGIGO Power Plant 2×23MW Extension Project, Shanghai, ChinaNov 2015 – Sep 2016 Phase I in 3×142MW Coal Fired Power Plant Project, Bali, IndonesiaSep 2014 – Oct 2015
Mentoring Experience
- Summer 2022 Undergraduate student Mirabella Herrera (UT-Dallas) Mentored undergraduate researcher Mirabella through the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program, focusing on techno-economic analysis of co-located wind and green hydrogen systems.
- Summer 2022 High school student Co-advised a high school student in the TAST STEM Summer Research Program, focusing on techno-economic analysis modeling.
- Summer 2023 Undergraduate student Jonathon Matutes (University of Indianapolis) Mentored undergraduate researcher Jonathon Matutes through the REU program, focusing on techno-economic analysis of potential offshore wind energy development along the northeastern US coast.
- Summer 2024 Undergraduate student Zaina Anarwala (UIUC) Mentored undergraduate researcher Zaina through the REU program, focusing on techno-economic analysis of potential offshore wind energy development in the US Gulf of Mexico.
- Spring 2025 Undergraduate student Kevin Sun (UT-Dallas) Mentored Kevin on a research project focused on techno-economic analysis of nuclear and hydrogen systems.
Grant Writing Experience
- 2026 K-State Secure Energy Initiative (SEI) Seed Grant Proposal: Secure Power for Kansas Data Centers: Socio-Techno-Economic Pathways for SMR Deployment and Grid Integration Co-PI; under review.
- 2024 NSF INTERN supplement (funded) Helped prepare a funded NSF INTERN supplement ($55,000; PI Prof. Jie Zhang) that supported my nuclear–hydrogen research at Idaho National Laboratory.
Skills
- Optimization Techniques
- Linear Programming (LP), Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP), Non-Linear Programming (NLP), Stochastic Programming, Dynamic Programming, Constraint Programming Basics.
- Optimization Software
- Solvers: Gurobi, CPLEX, SCIP; Modeling Languages: AMPL, Pyomo (Python), JuMP (Julia), GAMS.
- Programming & Data Analysis
- Python (Pandas, NumPy, SciPy, Matplotlib, Scikit-learn, Pyomo), SQL, MATLAB, R, Julia.
- Simulation
- Discrete-Event Simulation (Arena), Monte Carlo Methods, System Dynamics Modeling.
- Techno-Economic Analysis (TEA)
- LCOE/LCOH, NPV, IRR, Cash Flow Analysis, Sensitivity Analysis (applied for optimization model inputs & validation).
- Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA)
- Carbon Footprint Accounting, Integration with TEA.
- Machine Learning for OR
- Surrogate Modeling (Gaussian Processes), Uncertainty Quantification, Time Series Forecasting (LSTM).
- Domain Knowledge
- Renewable Energy Systems (Wind, Solar PV), Data Centers, Energy Storage (Battery, Hydrogen), Power Grid Operations & Ancillary Services, Electricity Markets (ERCOT, MISO basics), Carbon Neutrality Strategies, Manufacturing Systems.
Conference Presentations
- Mar 10, 2021 Power Demand Prediction using LSTM Neural Network with Multiple Features 2021 International Research Conference
- May 24, 2021 Allocating microgrid for transactive energy operations in a multi-echelon manufacturing supply chain Annual IISE Conference and Expo 2021
- Jun 2, 2022 Optimal Planning of Co-Located Wind Energy and Hydrogen Plants: A Techno-Economic Analysis TORQUE 2022, Delft, Netherlands
- Oct 17, 2022 Redesign Supply Chain for Transactive Energy Operations in Manufacturing-Microgrid-Climate Nexus Annual INFORMS Conference 2022
- Aug 20, 2023 A Multi-fidelity Gaussian Process Regression Method for Probabilistic Wind Farm Power Curve Estimation ASME 2023 IDETC/CIE, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Oct 31, 2023 Economic Feasibility and Decarbonization Potential of Hybrid Wind and Hydrogen Systems in Texas NAWEA/WindTech 2023 Conference, Denver, Colorado
- Nov 1, 2024 Economic Feasibility and Decarbonization Potential of Hybrid Renewables and Hydrogen Systems in Texas NAWEA/WindTech 2024 Conference, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey
- Oct 12, 2026 Quantifying the Cost of Delayed Grid Energization (CoDE) for AI Data Centers 2026 North American Power Symposium (NAPS), Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Michigan
Reviews of Manuscripts
Journals
Applied Energy Journal of Cleaner Production Energy International Journal of Hydrogen Energy Journal of Mechanical Design Journal of Energy Storage Scientific Reports Journal of Energy Engineering Energy Conversion and Management Energy Conversion and Management: X Energies Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments Journal of Electrical Engineering Discover Sustainability Discover Environment Sustainable Energy, Grids and Networks International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry Next Energy Sustainable Futures Cleaner Manufacturing
Conferences
ASME-IDETC-2024 ASME-IDETC-2025 ASME-IDETC-2026 NAPS 2026
The PDF also lists research projects and publications. See Projects and Publications.