Jalal Awan is a doctoral candidate at the Pardee RAND Graduate School and an assistant policy analyst at RAND. Prior to joining RAND, he worked as an electrical projects and maintenance engineer with hands-on experience on industrial electrical and control systems.
His research interests revolve around autonomous transport, climate change, advanced manufacturing, infrastructure resilience, future of work and the smart grid. He has experience working on lifecycle analysis of photovoltaic-based off-grid electrical systems and feasibility of 'platooning' autonomous vehicle fleets to tackle traffic congestion in Los Angeles.
Awan is an IEEE-accredited electrical engineer and an ASQ certified Six Sigma Green Belt. He has worked as a technical consultant for the United Nations Development Program in New York and Hagler Bailey in Pakistan on concept, design and costing for renewable energy projects in Pakistan. At RAND, he is currently involved in projects under the Social and Economic Well-being division including developing performance measures for public health emergency handling, estimating benefits of autonomous vehicles, evaluating transboundary environmental impacts on India-Pakistan relations, using gaming to understand the application of technology in food production, using deep learning to predict air quality, and examining cybersecurity for unmanned aerial vehicles.
Awan holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Engineering & Technology, Pakistan. As a Fulbright Exchange scholar, he completed his M.S. in green technologies from the University of Southern California in December 2015. Awan also holds the U.S. Green Building Council certification in Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED).
