Philip Odonkor (podonkor)

Philip Odonkor

Assistant Professor

School of Systems and Enterprises

Education

  • PhD (2019) University at Buffalo, SUNY (Mechanical Engineering)
  • MS (2015) University at Buffalo, SUNY (Mechanical Engineering)
  • BS (2013) University at Buffalo, SUNY (Dual Major in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering)

Research

Design Optimization
Data-Driven Control
Cyber-Physical Systems
Sustainability

General Information

Dr. Philip Odonkor is the Director of the Design Informatics Lab and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Systems and Enterprises at Stevens. In 2024, he was awarded an NSF CAREER award to investigate how groups of buildings can cooperate to advance energy sustainability and equity in cities. His research and teaching centers on urban informatics, smart cities, socio-technical modeling, simulation, and control. Dr. Odonkor is a member of several professional organizations including IEEE, ASME, and ACM. He also co-founded Grid Discovery, an energy tech start-up building data-driven solutions for microgrid feasibility assessments. Dr. Odonkor's research has appeared in several journals, his ideas have been featured on the TEDx stage as well as in Time Magazine. He aims to not only advance urban sustainability through his research, but also equip the next generation of urban scientists and planners to create smarter, more livable cities.

Experience

Dr. Odonkor earned his doctorate in Mechanical Engineering at the University at Buffalo (SUNY). He followed this with a doctoral research internship with Hitachi Big Data Labs, where his research focused on optimizing industrial applications using deep reinforcement learning. Dr. Odonkor is a 2019 SUNY Chancellor's Award recipient. His research has been featured by the Journal of Mechanical Design and earned him the Dean's Graduate Achievement Award in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University at Buffalo.

Institutional Service

  • Special Faculty Senate IT Committee Meeting (Advisory Committee) Member
  • Faculty Senate IT Committee Member
  • NTT Faculty Search Committee Member
  • Office of Student Affairs - Dinner for 8 program Chair
  • Subcommittee for new technical electives in the EM, ISE and SSW programs Member
  • President's Leadership Council Meeting Member
  • Instructor for Pre-college Bootcamp + ECOES program Member
  • SSE Teaching Faculty Search Committee Member
  • Stevens Strategic Plan Committee Member
  • Served on Institute Curriculum Committee (ICC) Adhoc for Gen Ed Member
  • Served on the Institute Curriculum Committee (ICC) Member
  • Undergraduate Academic Ambassador Member
  • SSE Graduate Student Awards Member
  • "Ask a Professor" Series Member
  • Business School - Candidate Interview Member
  • Graduate Open House: School of System and Enterprises Member
  • SSE PhD Seminar Series Member

Professional Service

  • Stevens NSF ADAPT S-STEM program Faculty Mentor
  • ASME IDETC DAC 2 Topic organizer and Session Coordinator
  • Conference on Systems Engineering Research Session Chair
  • Moore Foundation Moore Inventor Fellow Reviewer
  • NSF Graduate Research Fellowships Program (GRFP) Proposal Reviewer
  • Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong Proposal Reviewer
  • International Conference on Energy Efficiency in Domestic & Light Sources Reviewer
  • Conference on Systems Engineering Research Reviewer
  • ASME Design Automation Conference Review Coordinator
  • National Science Foundation Grant Reviewer
  • Department of Energy Grant Reviewer
  • Swarm and Evolutionary Computation - Journal Reviewer

Appointments

Assistant Professor, Department of Systems and Enterprises (Jan. 2019 - Present), Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ

Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Co-Founder, Grid Discovery

Honors and Awards

National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2024)

Professional Societies

  • ACM – Association for Computing Machinery Member
  • IEEE – Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Member
  • ASME – American Society of Mechanical Engineers Member

Selected Publications

Book Chapter

  1. Ghadim, H. V.; Fallah-Ardashir, J.; Odonkor, P. (2022). Effective factors and policies in Electrical Energy Security. The Handbook of Energy Policy. Singapore: Springer Nature.
    https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-981-16-9680-0_5-1.

Conference Proceeding

  1. Preziuso, D.; Odonkor, P. (2023). A framework for agent based models to consider energy justice through technology adoption.
  2. Ghorbani Renani, N.; Odonkor, P. (2022). A Multi-Objective Optimization for Clustering Buildings into Smart Microgrid Communities. 2022 IEEE Green Energy and Smart System Systems (IGESSC).
  3. Ghorbani Renani, N.; Preziuso, D.; Odonkor, P. (2022). Addressing social vulnerability in community microgrids: an equity-centered peer-to-peer electricity trading model. Proceedings of the 9th ACM International Conference on Systems for Energy-Efficient Buildings, Cities, and Transportation.
  4. Ghorbani Renani, N.; Odonkor, P. (2022). An Energy Cost Optimization Model for Electricity Trading in Community Microgrids. 2022 IEEE International Smart Cities Conference (ISC2).
  5. Ghorbani-Renani, N.; Preziuso, D.; Odonkor, P. (2022). Addressing Social Vulnerability in Community Microgrids: An Equity-Centered Peer-to-Peer Electricity Trading Model. Association for Computing Machinery.
    https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3563357.3567832.
  6. Ghorbani-Renani, N.; Odonkor, P. (2022). A Multi-Objective Optimization for Clustering Buildings into Smart Microgrid Communities. IEEE.
    https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9955342.
  7. Preziuso, D.; Odonkor, P. (2022). A baseline assessment of residential utility rates and compensation mechanisms that influence the value proposition of grid-interactive efficient buildings. IEEE Xplore.
    https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9932238.
  8. Ghorbani Renani, N.; Odonkor, P. (2022). An Energy Cost Model For Electricity Trading in Community Microgrids. IEEE.
    https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9922504.
  9. Preziuso, D.; Odonkor, P.. Towards an Equitable Grid-Interactive Efficient Building Landscape: Analyzing Technology Adoption in the State of New York; ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings. . American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
    https://aceee2022.conferencespot.org/event-data/pdf/catalyst_activity_32697/catalyst_activity_paper_20220810191707968_9f8ffa98_a245_4aad_9da6_c7bfa2d02c5d.
  10. Odonkor, P.. Exploring How the Heterogeneity of Building Types in Community Microgrids Impact Their Value Proposition. ASME.
  11. Kaminski, G.; Odonkor, P. (2021). Evaluation of Commercial Building Clusters With Energy Storage to Reduce Reliance on Electrical Utility Grids. ASME International Design Technical Conferences.
  12. Preziuso, D.; Odonkor, P.; Kaminski, G. (2021). Understanding the Energy Behavior of Building Occupants Through the Chronology of Their Energy Interactions. ASME International Design Technical Conferences, Design Automation Conference. Hoboken.
  13. Inneo, S.; Odonkor, P.; Wadler, D.; Estevez, R.; Schneiderhan, J. (2020). The Macro Impacts of Micro-Climates on the Energy Consumption of Urban Buildings.. Communications in Computer and Information Science. Hoboken.

Courses

EM 301 - Accounting & Business Analysis
ENGR 355 - Engineering Economics
EM 599 - Introduction to Smart Cities and Their Ecosystems
SYS 611 - Systems Modeling & Simulation