Contact, BIO, & Interests
CONTACT & Schedule Office Hours
https://www.ccsf.edu/directory/hitesh-soneji
Education
M.Sc. in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Sciences, Lund University, Sweden (2009)
BS and MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University (1997)
Current Focus
Much of my efforts outside of CCSF are towards the aim of helping to decarbonize our modern industrial society. My focus is on Electrify Everything and in the Renewable and Distributed Energy Resource (DER) space. Building upon my 2015 RET efforts at UC Berkeley contributing to an electricity grid simulation game, I have contributed to efforts in the electrification of transit, quantifying solar, storage, and other DER impacts to the grid, assessing opportunities for EV to grid integration, and related policies. I have also worked solar + storage solutions in many contexts ranging from commercial and industrial applications, residential aggregation, and for grid services.
Bio
Decarbonization subject matter expert, architect, and solutions designer. Enabling grid integration of distributed energy resources (DERs), ranging from solar and batteries to thermostats. Led, designed, and analyzed VGI efforts for a public transit electrification project and a separate school bus electrification project with PG&E. Supported technology, client engagement, and DER management projects for CCAs. Played a key role at Tesla Energy in the design and implementation of a residential Powerwall aggregation project in San Jose, exercising behind the meter grid support use cases, and the launch of the 2000 Powerwall aggregation platform at Green Mountain Power, targeting reduction of the utility’s regional network service fees.
Prior to focusing on distributed energy, spent over 10 years in the electronics industry engaged in design and test of hardware and firmware, and 8+ years in academia; teaching and investigating topics in engineering, renewable energy, and sustainability. Oversaw all aspects of department function as the Chair of Engineering and Technology at the City College of San Francisco. Led the development of curriculum in sustainability and developed a course in alternative energy. At Intel/HP, contributed to the design of three CPU’s for the Itanium Processor Family. Also worked on embedded systems and various other electronics devices.
Examples of Recent Industry Work
Key contributor to grant proposal effort of an EVSE seeking major CEC funding. Advised on strategy and provided grid integration expertise. Conducted standards analysis, performance analysis and forecasting. Authored significant sections and key diagrams.
Virtual power plant design and market exploration expertise to a DER provider.
Provide transportation electrification, grid services, and system design subject matter expertise to a company aiming to be awarded a US Department of Energy loan through the Loan Programs Office.
External evaluator for DOE Renew America’s School FOA (DE-FOA-0002756)
(see more here, under professional development and conferences)
@ CCSF
I have been teaching at CCSF since 2005. I started by revamping and teaching our entire offering of digital electronics courses. I served as department chair between Jan 2011 and Jun of 2016. These days I teach environmental science, alternative energy, intro to engineering, circuits, and computational methods for engineers.
Transition From EE Industry -> Sustainability
At Carnegie Mellon University, I was involved in the development of robotics systems for autonomous vehicles for industrial applications. Upon graduation, I was engaged in the design of computer chips for Hewlett Packard and Intel. I worked on critical path timing analysis and automated test pattern generation for 9 years. After HP/Intel, for a brief period I was involved with electronics systems for carbon nanotube sensors. After nanotube work, I took on the challenge of being a one man design shop of sorts for a short-lived but exciting side project in the design and development of an automated bicycle sharing system. (Since my bike share effort in 2005/6, San Francisco actually did roll out an automated bicycle sharing scheme called Bay Area Bike Share. This was not our design, but it's great to see bike share in SF!)
From 2007-2009, I pursued an International Masters in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science in Sweden. The interdisciplinary program integrated all three pillars of sustainability: social, economic, and environment with a focus on equity between generations and within society.
For my M.Sc. thesis work, I analyzed the rare and hazardous minerals content of ICT equipment (Information and Communication Technologies). I developed estimates for global minerals flows and connected these with resource depletion concerns and the human welfare tragedy associated with electronics waste recycling. I debated the idea of dematerialization and an ethereal economy as well as examined several strategies for reducing the sustainability damages induced by the proliferation and use of ICT. (See: http://www.djluv.com/career/research/Soneji2009-ThesisFinal.pdf)
While at Lund University, I also collaborated with several researchers in Sweden on a proof-of-concept tool to support a participatory approach to water management that integrated GIS visualization, agent-based modeling, and a hydrological model. This research was based on ongoing efforts in Spain and Sweden. While the software tools and understanding of agents in this context were (and still are) in their infancy, we succeeded in developing a rudimentary prototype that sparked the interest of municipalities in Denmark and Sweden. (For screenshots, see: http://www.djluv.com/career/sust-tools/waterSim/)
I also wrote three short but interesting papers:
I am also quite active in San Francisco's sustainable transportation movement, trying to improve SF's transit system and promote bicycling as a safe and legitimate means of transportation.
Sustainability Research Focus
Former Research Interest Statement ~2010
My current interest is book-ended by two pillars that both work to bring us closer to a condition that might resemble sustainable. The first pillar is that of education, or outreach if you will. Sustainability is no trivial problem, and my interest here deals with how best to distill an inherently complex problem into simpler messages that promote social and cultural values consistent with sustainability. I do not believe that sustainability can be achieved if left only for the activists, advocates, and scientists to pursue. Sustainability is a problem of and by the masses. Their engagement is key, and I wish to test and explore media-based and educational pathways to increase the penetration of sustainability as a lay concern.
The second pillar of my research interest is far more technical. It involves agents of the computational sort, modeled after the carbon-based sort. Here I wish to better understand human behavior in complex systems involving constrained and/or hazardous resources. The applications I am most interested in include distributed energy systems, multi-stakeholder water management, and rare/hazardous material flows in information technology equipment.
My research interests go beyond only understanding agent behavior. They extend to the development of the tools and frameworks to enable active participation by a broader group of stakeholders in the sustainability decision-making process. System dynamics and agent-based model improvement hold the promise of allowing policy makers to actively see how stakeholders and ecosystems might respond to policy proposals. My ultimate interest is in formulating a level of understanding of systems and agent behavior that is complete enough to be conducive to predictive computational analysis that enables experimentation with various social and policy tools to achieve greater sustainability. Another potential of the same toolset really excites me: that of reconstructing the strength of the village mentality at a temporal and spatial scale that transcends political boundaries and generations. West and East alike are in a stronger position than ever to harness globalized communication networks toward the sustainability cause. The vision of the global village integrated into a system dynamics model that informs a policy formulating network may seem far fetched at present, but the promise of such a framework to achieve the oft-conflicting goals of development and sustainability is intriguing and worthy of further research.