Dr. Ayman El-Refaie. MILWAUKEE —Dr. Ayman El-Refaie, Werner Endowed Chair in Secure/Sustainable Energy and professor of electrical and computer engineering in the Opus College of Engineering at Marquette University, has been awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop the next generation of electric drivetrains for aerospace propulsion. The award has a phase one value of $1.6 million over 18 months. This grant is a part of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy’s (ARPA-E) Aviation-class Synergistically Cooled Electric-motors with iNtegrated Drives (ASCEND) program. The goal will be to develop an electric drivetrain which meets or exceeds the ARPA-E’s system-level targets for power-to-weight ratio and system efficiency.