Dr. Jennifer Vining
About Dr. Jennifer Vining
Dr. Jennifer Vining is a Staff Engineer specializing in Electric Powertrain at Nikola Motor Company, with extensive experience in electrical engineering and a background in academia and industry.
Current Role at Nikola Motor Company
Dr. Jennifer Vining is currently employed at Nikola Motor Company, where she serves as a Staff Engineer in the Electric Powertrain division. She started this role in 2021. Her responsibilities likely involve the design, control, and testing of electric powertrain systems, implementing her extensive expertise in power electronics and electric machine design.
Previous Experience as an Electrical Engineering Consultant
Before joining Nikola Motor Company, Dr. Jennifer Vining worked as an Electrical Engineering Consultant at Igor Institute from 2020 to 2021 in Seattle, Washington. In this capacity, she offered her specialized knowledge in the design, control, and optimization of electrical systems, assisting various projects with her skills in power electronics and embedded systems.
Founding CEO of EighthGen Solutions
From 2020 to 2021, Dr. Jennifer Vining founded and led EighthGen Solutions as CEO in Seattle, WA. She utilized her deep industry knowledge and leadership skills to steer the company, focusing on innovative solutions in electrical engineering, possibly involving the development of electric drives and power electronics control systems.
Educational Background and Academic Roles
Dr. Jennifer Vining holds a PhD in Modeling and Design of Power Electronics and Electric Drives from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, completed between 2005 and 2011. She also earned a BSEE in Power & Signal Processing from The University of Texas at Austin from 2000 to 2004. Her academic experience extends to teaching roles at the University of Washington, where she served as a Lecturer in the Electrical & Computer Engineering Department from 2019 to 2021.
Professional Expertise and Technical Skills
Dr. Jennifer Vining specializes in the design and modeling of electric machines and power electronics controls using platforms like Matlab/Simulink, ANSYS, and COMSOL. She has hands-on experience in real-time programming of DSP and microcontroller interfaces using C/C++. Her technical skills also include multi-physics FEA modeling, embedded system control, and the design of power electronics control systems for various applications such as inversion, rectification, and VAr support. Additionally, she conducts harmonics and spectrum analyses of power electronics and electric machines and utilizes LabVIEW for data acquisition and control.