Robert successfully defended his dissertation on June 11th. His dissertation, entitled “Permanent Magnet Assisted Synchronous Reluctance Machine (PMa-SynRM) Design and Performance Analysis for Fan and Pump Applications” proposes an optimized PMa-SynRM design which improves performance and efficiency for these electric machines. Additionally, through analysis and experiments, he verified the superiority of his design with respect to performance and cost savings as compared to traditional induction machines. EMPE lab congratulates Dr. Robert Vartanian for his successful defense and wishes him best of luck with his professional career.