Hi there. I'm Emre Can Kara, an engineer based out of Davis, CA, where I live with my family. When I'm not working on the next thing at the intersection of decarbonization, machine learning, and software engineering, you can find me playing guitar, building imaginary Lego monsters with my kids, woodworking, or being an amateur farmer.
About
I'm an experienced technical leader with a successful start-up exit and a demonstrated history of working in the software, mobility, and renewable energy industries. I began my professional journey in 2015 in academia and switched to industry in 2018.
I've worked with data from sensors deployed in energy and mobility systems, and I hold a patent for a load disaggregation methodology to estimate solar generation in distribution grids. I've published over 30 peer-reviewed articles on energy systems and presented my work at numerous academic conferences. I led engineering and data science at eIQ Mobility until it was acquired. Most recently, I worked at Stem, where I led a team of data scientists working on load, price, and solar prediction, and building digital twins of stand-alone battery storage systems.
Professional History
Head of Machine Learning and Simulations --- Stem
Nov 2021 – August 2021
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Led a team of data scientists and software engineers improving a time-series forecasting microservice and building a model predictive control experimentation platform.
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Delivered machine learning milestones to unlock new revenue streams in different energy markets.
Vice President of Engineering --- eIQ Mobility (acquired by NextEra Energy Resources)
Apr 2019 – Jun 2021
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Led the development of a highly scalable software platform on Google Cloud Platform. The platform is used to generate plans for transitioning internal combustion engine fleets to electric vehicles (EVs).
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As the first engineering hire, built the team to 10 data scientists and software engineers and managed remote teams.
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Actively participated in executive meetings and fundraising activities.
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Successfully delivered engineering milestones that resulted in an additional 1M USD convertible note funding.
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Led technical due diligence and acquisition by NextEra Energy Resources.
Senior Optimization Software Engineer --- Stem
May 2018 – April 2019
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Led the design and development of a software service that optimally controls more than 200 battery storage systems in California.
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Improved solution time for an optimal battery storage dispatch strategy by a factor of 5-7.
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Implemented Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers to solve joint optimization problems across all energy storage assets deployed.
Associate Staff Scientist --- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
March 2016 – May 2018
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Led GISMo’s mobility efforts with a focus on electrification of transportation and its impact on the power grid.
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Co-PI on two California Energy Commission grants investigating EV charging impact on the power distribution system.
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Advised PhD students, postdoctoral fellows, and undergraduate researchers.
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Contributed to a SLAC-wide big data analytics platform for energy applications