Kevin Melendez is a PhD student at the IMSE department of USF. His current research interests are energy distribution, network optimization, and hazard conditions prevention. His past research topics were advanced control strategies, fault detection, identification and diagnosis. He received his BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Universidad del Norte, honored with a Cum Laude award for his master thesis. Previously, he worked at Universidad del Norte as an instructor and a project engineer and at a major oil and gas company in Colombia as an R&D engineer. He is co-advised by Dr Tapas Das.