New Faculty - College of Technology and Applied Sciences

Arunachala Nadar Mada Kannan
Associate Professor, Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering Technology
Dr. Mada Kannan received his Ph.D. in electrochemistry from the Indian Institute of Science, an M.S. in chemistry from Madurai University, and an M.B.A. from Madras University, India. Prior to joining ASU at the Polytechnic campus, he served as chief scientist at Hoku Scientific, Inc., responsible for leading research and development of fuel cell membranes and electrodes. His research interests include catalyst design, membrane modification, gas diffusion electrodes, MEA fabrication and optimization, and stack assembly and testing for automotive applications. He has extensive expertise with a variety of fuel cell technologies including polymer electrolyte micro (PEM) fuel cell, direct methanol, solid oxide, and molten carbonate fuel cells. Prior to working at Hoku Scientific, Dr. Mada Kannan worked at the University of Texas, Austin, where he led a research team in the development of new PEM fuel cell catalysts and membrane formulations. Previously he served as the department head at Exide Industries Limited, India where he was responsible for a 30-person team involved in the design and development of small lead/acid batteries for miners’ cap lamps for underground mines. He is also a lead auditor for ISO 9000 quality systems and led one of the Exide units to ISO 9002 certification.

Slobodan Petrovic
Associate Professor, Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering Technology
Dr. Petrovic joins ASU at the Polytechnic campus from Clear Edge Power (formerly Quantum Leap Technology) where he served as a vice president of engineering. He obtained his doctorate from the Technical University of Dresden, Germany in 1984. Dr. Petrovic also held appointments at Neah Power Systems as director of systems integration and at Motorola, Inc. as a fuel cell group manager and reliability manager. He has over 20 years of experience in energy systems, fuel cells and batteries, industrial electrochemical processes, and catalysis and sensors. He has 50 journal publications and conference proceedings, 2 book contributions, and 7 patents.