Dr. Swastirani Chakrabarty is a postdoctoral research fellow in electrical engineering at McMaster University, where she has been conducting research in electric machine drives under the supervision of Dr. Ali Emadi, since March 2026. Swasti received her B.E. (Honors) in electrical engineering from Gauhati University, India, in 2016 and earned her Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, India, in January 2025. Prior to joining McMaster, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. Her research expertise includes electric machine design and optimization, electromagnetic finite element analysis (FEA), low-power electric motor prototype fabrication, experimental validation, and motor drive systems. Her current research focuses on computationally efficient FEA methodologies for induction motors and permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drives with reduced magnet requirements for electric vehicle applications.
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From an early age, Swastirani was fascinated by the principles governing electrical systems. Her curiosity about how machines operate led her to a career dedicated to understanding, designing, and optimizing advanced electric motor drive technologies. This passion evolved into a research career focused on electric machine design, computational electromagnetics, and experimental validation of next-generation motor-drive systems.
Swastirani earned her bachelor of engineering (honors) degree in electrical engineering from Gauhati University, India, in 2016. During her undergraduate studies, she developed a strong foundation in electric machines, power electronics, control systems, and embedded controllers, which later served as the basis for her research in electric motor drives.
In July 2019, she began her doctoral studies at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IIT Gandhinagar), where she specialized in the design, optimization, prototyping, and testing of electric machines. Her Ph.D. research focused on the development of switched reluctance motors for mining applications, addressing challenges related to efficiency, torque performance, reliability, and operation under harsh environmental conditions.
Throughout her doctoral research, Swastirani developed expertise in electromagnetic finite element analysis (FEA), parametric motor geometry design, design optimization, and performance prediction of electric machines. Her work involved detailed electromagnetic modeling, statistical analysis, regression-based performance estimation, and simulation-driven design methodologies to improve machine characteristics. In parallel, she gained extensive hands-on experience in motor prototype development, including test setup design, experimental characterization, and validation of simulation results through hardware testing.
To complement her academic research, she completed a part-time industry internship focused on electric motor testing and validation, gaining practical experience in laboratory testing procedures, performance characterization, data acquisition, and experimental analysis of electric machines and drives.
Following the completion of her Ph.D. in January 2025, Swastirani joined the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay as a postdoctoral fellow, where she continued her research in advanced electric machine technologies and motor-drive systems. Her work further expanded her expertise in computational analysis, machine optimization, and emerging technologies for transportation electrification.
Since March 2026, Swastirani has been a postdoctoral research fellow at McMaster University and a member of the McMaster Automotive Resource Centre (MARC), working under the supervision of Dr. Ali Emadi. Her current research focuses on developing computationally efficient finite element analysis techniques for electric vehicle traction induction motors. The objective of this work is to accelerate machine design and optimization processes while maintaining the accuracy required for high-performance EV applications.
