Principal Engineer at Hinetics, where I have worked since 2024 focused on system integration, modeling, and testing of our cutting-edge electric propulsion motor technologies. Concurrently, I am an Adjunct Research Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), where I have lectured on green electric energy technologies. I earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from UIUC in 2005 and 2008, respectively. I have been included multiple times on the UIUC List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent, most recently in 2019.Previously, I was a Senior Lead Engineer at P.C. Krause & Associates (PCKA), where I worked from 2009-2024. While there, I led a multi-member industry modeling and simulation team for the Air Force Integrated Vehicle Energy Technology (INVENT) next generation more electric aircraft program. I also supported numerous aircraft electrification-based projects and developed and taught short courses and webinars in this area.I have co-authored over 20 technical papers and three textbooks on electric machines and have co-edited a book on electrified aircraft propulsion, published in May 2022. I received the 2019 Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Premium Award and the 2010 Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Charles M. Manly Memorial Medal Award (both Best Paper awards for work in aircraft electrification). Dr. O’Connell is a member of IEEE (Senior), AIAA and SAE. I served as Chair, Vice Chair, and Treasurer of the IEEE Central Illinois Section, and as Department of Defense Aerospace Industry Liaison to the IEEE Transportation Electrification Community. I served three years as Associate Editor and am currently a Senior Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, where I have been a key contributor to greatly improving that journal's impact factor and time-to-decision.