Harikrishna Rao Mohan Rao

Grad Research Asst Fellowship, Faculty of Engineering - Electrical & Computer Engineering Dept
Grad Research Assistantship, Faculty of Engineering - Dean Administration

Pronouns: He/Him/His

Contact

Grad Research Asst Fellowship, Faculty of Engineering - Electrical & Computer Engineering Dept
Email
mohanrao@ualberta.ca

Grad Research Assistantship, Faculty of Engineering - Dean Administration
Email
mohanrao@ualberta.ca

Overview

Area of Study / Keywords

Advanced Alarm Systems Industrial Alarm Monitoring Process Diagnostics


About

Harikrishna Rao (Hari) is a Ph.D. candidate in the Advanced Alarm Management and Design Group, supervised by Dr. Tongwen Chen. He is also guided by Dr. Sirish L. Shah. His research focuses on advanced data-driven solutions for the improvement of industrial alarm systems. He aims to develop reliable decision support systems that improve operations and reduce operator workload in the process industries. He received his B.Tech degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kerala in 2012, where he was awarded the Proficiency Prize for the Best Outgoing Student. His undergraduate project was completed at the Indian Space Research Organization. Hari joined the graduate program at the University of Alberta with over seven years of industrial experience in process control and automation, alarm management, and fault detection in the utility-scale SOFC industry in the U.S., India, Japan, and South Korea. Hari was awarded the 2023 IEEE Systems Council James O. Gray Graduate Scholarship. He is actively involved with the International Society of Automation (ISA) and IEEE. He is also a non-voting member of the ISA18 Standards Committee on Instrument Signals and Alarms.

He is also passionate about tennis (Roger Federer fan forever!), exploring Edmonton's vast river valley, and discovering the hidden gems in the city!

Do you like to play Tennis? Or feel like talking to someone (about life/school/work/why the world works the way it works/other existential questions or vent out) -- Send me an email at mohanrao@ualberta.ca.



Research

Research Interests: Industrial Alarm Monitoring, Advanced Alarm Systems, and Process Diagnostics

During his tenure in the industry, Hari's work focused on Alarm Management and Fault Detection. He also holds two patent-approved invention disclosures classified as Trade-Secrets in the field of early detection and prediction (online implementation) of abnormality and component failures using process data, and he was the youngest employee to do so. His current research interests fall within the area of intelligent process monitoring and control of large-scale processes. 

Recognitions

Publications

  • Industrial Alarm Management:
  1. H. R. M. Rao, T. Chen, and S. L. Shah, "Advances in the smart data analytics framework: Integrating data extraction and automated reporting," presented at the 3rd IEEE Industrial Electronics Society Annual Online Conference IES ONCON 2024 (Dec 08-10, 2024).
  2. Y. Rahimi, H. R. M. Rao, and T. Chen, "Optimizing alarm design: A comparison of delay-timers, counters, and time-deadbands," presented at the 3rd IEEE Industrial Electronics Society Annual Online Conference IES ONCON 2024 (Dec 08-10, 2024).
  3. H. R. M. Rao, B. Zhou, K. Brown, T. Chen, and S. L. Shah, "Alarm correlation analysis with applications to industrial alarm management", Control Engineering Practice, vol. 143, 105812, Feb. 2024.
  4. H. O. Garcés, B. Aballay, H. R. M. Rao, T. Chen, and S. L. Shah,  "An Unsupervised Machine Learning Approach for Process Monitoring by Visual Analytics". IFAC-PapersOnLine, 58(14), pp.847-854, 2024.
  5. N. Tamascelli, H. R. M. Rao, V. Cozzani, N. Paltrinieri, and T. Chen, "Online Classification of Alarm Floods Using a Word2vec Algorithm", IECON 2023- 49th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, Singapore, Singapore, 2023, pp. 1-6.
  6. H. R. M. Rao, S. L. Shah, and T. Chen, “Application of Alarm Correlations in Root Cause Diagnosis of Plant-wide Oscillations”, IFAC-PapersOnLine, 56(2), pp.7154-7159, 2023. Presented at the 22nd IFAC World Congress 2023, Yokohama, Japan.
  7. H. R. M. Rao, B. Zhou, T. Chen and S. L. Shah, “Discovery of Alarm Correlations Based on Pattern Mining and Network Analysis”, American Control Conference (ACC), 2022, pp. 2467-2472, Atlanta, USA, 8-10 Jun. 2022.
  • Engineering Education
  1. R. Khodarahmi, H. R. M. Rao, and J. Miller-Young, "Toward a More Transformative EDI in Engineering", accepted to the Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA-ACEG) Conference 2025
  2. A. K. Vinayak and H. R. M. Rao, “Engineering education: Nurturing a holistic skill set for future success through an introductory course”, Proceedings of the 2025 Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA-ACEG) Conference 2024, Edmonton, Canda, 15-20, Jun. 2024.
  3. H.R.M. Rao, H. Zhu, and J. Acharya, J., "Teaching and Leading in the Gaming Industry: Past, Present, and Future." Bulletin of the Technical Committee on Learning Technology (ISSN: 2306-0212) 23, no. 1 (2023): 1-4.

Invited Talks, Presentations, and Demonstrations (representing AAMD Research Group):

Posters:

  •  A. Yu, H.R.M. Rao, and T. Chen, "Alarm Data Analytics and Visualization", Dean's Research Award - Fall 2024, Faculty of Engineering, University of Alberta
  • H. R. M. Rao and T. Chen, FGSR Innovation Showcase (May 25, 2022), Student and Postdoctoral Innovations from YEG Postsecondary Institutions

Teaching

  • Lead Teaching Assistant: ENGG 160 Introduction to Engineering Design, Communication, and Profession - Winter 2024
  • Teaching Assistant (LEC): ECE 460 Control Systems II - Winter 2024
  • Teaching Assistant (LAB): ECE 209 Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering - Fall 2023
  • Teaching Assistant: ENGG 160 Introduction to Engineering Design, Communication, and Profession - Winter 2023 (Control System Architecture Design)
  • Teaching Assistant (LEC): ECE 209 Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering - Fall 2022
  • Teaching Assistant: ENGG 160 Introduction to Engineering Design, Communication, and Profession - Winter 2022 (Control System Architecture Design)
  • Teaching Assistant (LEC): ECE 360 Control Systems I - Fall 2021
  • Teaching Assistant (LEC): ECE 209A, ECE 209B Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering - Spring/Summer 2021
  • Teaching Assistant (LEC): ECE 209 Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering - Winter 2021

A reflection of the teaching experience has been documented as a technical article, titled "Engineering education: Nurturing a holistic skill set for future success through an introductory course" (co-authored with Anil Kumar Vinayak), and presented at the Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA-ACEG) Conference held in Edmonton, AB from June 15-29, 2024 (to be published in the conference proceedings).

Hari is also currently working as a Research Assistant at the Institute of Intersectional Studies at the University of Alberta, under the supervision of Dr. Janice Miller-Young, for a project to improve the Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Indigeneity (EDI&I) in Engineering Curricula, lead by Dr. Ivan Fair, Vice Dean, Faculty of Engineering.


Announcements

Other Engagements:

At the University of Alberta, Hari has been selected/nominated to serve in various committees and student representative organizations in judiciary, advisory, and leadership roles. He aims to improve the student experience, outreach of the resources, foster meaningful connections and create a sense of belongingness among the community.

External Engagements:

He has been nominated by the Dean of Students to represent the University of Alberta at the Healthy Campus Alberta Wellness Summit 2023, recognizing his contributions to the advocacy for mental health and wellness on campus. He is one of the 20 creative artists from the University of Alberta to be featured in "Happiness Reflected", a community creative project and a limited series podcast released as a part of the 2024 International Day of Happiness.

Book(s) Currently Reading


Useful Links