Kuwait → University of North Carolina · Electrical Engineering

Hameed Hasawi

I build and study the systems that move power — three-phase networks, photovoltaic arrays, grid synchronisation. The goal has never changed: a cleaner grid for Kuwait, and for everywhere else.

See the work LinkedIn

01 — About

A desert country taught me what a grid is worth.

I'm Hameed Hasawi, born in Kuwait in 2000. I grew up between Arabic and English, spent most of my schooling at an American private school in Kuwait — with two years in Atlanta, Georgia — and graduated with high honours into a full scholarship to study Electrical Engineering in the United States.

I hold a BSc in Electrical Engineering with a Power & Energy emphasis from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and I now work as an electrical engineer in Kuwait.

The reason I chose engineering isn't abstract — it started with taking things apart. I wanted to understand the why and how behind everything around me: what made a VHS play, a DVD spin, a TV turn on, a remote change the channel, a printer put ink on a page. That curiosity only grew and grew.

The real push toward electrical engineering specifically came in my teenage years, when I understood Kuwait's immense need for power — the strain of cooling a desert country, of providing fresh-water resources, and a national dependence on oil as the main source of that power.

Hameed Hasawi

Purpose

Research & development, deliberately chosen.

After pointing my degree at power and energy systems, the path stopped being a question. I'm always looking for solutions in areas that may not have any yet — improvements in efficiency, automated usage, and safety. My interest grew from low-voltage devices and tools into home power distribution, and then into neighborhood and city-wide distribution and transmission systems.

Research and development is where the problems I care about actually get solved — where renewable sources stop being a pledge and start being infrastructure.

The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do. Steve Jobs
Hameed Hasawi at graduation, UNC Charlotte

02 — The stakes

In 1991, Kuwait's sky went black for months.

Retreating forces set the oil wells alight; crude ran into the Gulf and the desert, and NASA recorded it as one of the clearest demonstrations of what war does to an atmosphere. I grew up in the aftermath — a country rebuilding, where recycling resources and recycling energy is the whole game.

Kuwait has pledged carbon neutrality by 2060. Oil still pays for the country — roughly three million barrels a day — and it will still run out. The plan is already in motion, and I'd like to be useful to it.

0 oil wells set alight, 1991
0 months the fires burned
0M barrels produced per day
0 pledged net-zero target

03 — Leadership

Three teams, three deliverables, one year.

Team Leader · Aug 2021 – May 2022 · UNC Charlotte

Transportation Infrastructure Perception: Data Fusion & Detection with AI

A traffic-monitoring platform fusing LiDAR, 360° camera, stereo depth, thermal and radar to detect and track vehicles and pedestrians. Raw sensor data was cleansed, stored, and run through machine learning and data-fusion techniques to support traffic regulation decisions.

I led UNCC_TRAN2 — six engineering students — under Professor Lei Zhu, running tasks, timelines and sponsor communication with the UNC Charlotte Civil Engineering & Engineering Management department. We delivered a working prototype and a clean handoff into the next phase.

  • Time management & planning
  • Team communication
  • Proposals & presentations
UNCC_TRAN2 senior design project poster
Atlas Copco AED research — regional exposure map

Researcher · Jun – Aug 2022 · Atlas Copco

Associated Equipment Dealers — market research

Product comparisons, availability, annual revenue and location counts across every business connected to Atlas Copco's suppliers, dealers and competitors — delivered as a presentation to the management team.

Working in a pair with Ayush Punjabi, we pulled data from over 1,000 company sites, reports and filings into Excel, then modelled the company's regional exposure across the United States and North America.

  • Research & revision
  • Presentation & public speaking
  • Machinery & component literacy

Team Leader · Jun – Aug 2022 · Atlas Copco

The intern film

The brief was to gather the 17 Atlas Copco summer interns of 2022 and capture their experience on video. We made a production instead.

Alongside my manager Felipe Aguilar, I handled Power & Light product documentation and revisions, then took full responsibility for videography, editing and production. I ran the brainstorm in week one and built the plan — shot list, edit schedule, feedback rounds, revisions — around a three-month deadline.

  • Team management
  • Brainstorming & pitching
  • Videography & producing
Atlas Copco intern video production

04 — Technical

Labs, builds and sizing reports.

Coursework and project documentation from the power & energy track.

Slides

Power Analysis Labs

Team Leader

  • Three-phase circuits, power measurement & power-factor improvement
  • Series and parallel solar panel connections
  • Wind turbine grid synchronisation
PDF

Junior Design — PV Array Circuit Build

Team Leader

  • PV array circuit design and build
  • POWERGUI · MATLAB · Simulink
PDF

Stand-Alone PV System Sizing Report

Electrical Energy Conversion

  • Load analysis and array sizing for an off-grid system

05 — Research

Where the energy transition actually gets stuck.

PDF

The Future of EV Fast Charging

Advantages and trade-offs across the world's EV charging methods.

Open PDF PDF

Kuwait Under the Sun

An OpEd on the real constraints facing renewable resources in Kuwait.

Open PDF PDF

Climate Change & Recycling Campaign

Promotional recycling poster, shared at my school in Kuwait.

Open PDF

06 — Timeline

A single line, from Kuwait to the grid.

  1. 2000

    Born in Kuwait

    Raised between Arabic and English, in a country rebuilding after the invasion.

  2. 2007

    Two years in Atlanta, Georgia

    The first stretch of life outside Kuwait — and the start of a second cultural fluency.

  3. 2018

    Full scholarship, UNC Charlotte

    Graduated an American school in Kuwait with high honours; moved to the US for a BSc in Electrical Engineering, Power & Energy emphasis.

  4. 2021–22

    Senior Design team lead

    Led six engineers on an AI sensor-fusion traffic platform, sponsored by UNC Charlotte's Civil Engineering department.

  5. 2022

    Atlas Copco — Power & Light Product Marketing Engineer Intern

    Commissioning and testing of power-generation equipment, a competitor analysis of the product lineup, and leading a team of 17 on the intern film.

  6. May 2023

    BSc Electrical Engineering

    University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Power & Energy Systems.

  7. 2023

    Alhasawi Group — Application Engineer

    Risk assessments on electrical components and compliance with safety standards, product analysis to guide improvements, and preventive maintenance across solar power, machinery controls and lighting systems.

  8. 2025

    Kuwait Ferro Alloys — Electrical Maintenance Engineer

    Preventive and corrective maintenance of high- and medium-voltage systems — furnace transformers, 11kV switchgears, capacitor banks and MCC panels — with diagnostics, interlock testing and electrical safety inspections.

  9. 2025

    Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research — Electrical Maintenance Engineer

    Operation, maintenance and reliability of electrical systems across KISR sites — diesel generators, UPS, fire safety, CCTV, security and lighting — plus distribution calculations for rehabilitation and renovation projects.

  10. 2030

    The target

    Researching and delivering energy services at a company genuinely invested in a sustainable grid.

07 — Personal

A small world means bigger aspirations.

Since leaving Kuwait in 2018 I've stayed closer to my family than ever — checking on health, on grandparents, on cousins. They are the motivation. Wanting better living conditions for them is not separate from wanting a better grid.

Away from engineering: piano and electric guitar, short films and videography, Spanish as a fourth language, and sharpening Python and AutoCAD.

Connect on LinkedIn

08 — Contact

Building something worth plugging into?

Renewable power, high-voltage systems, turbines, grid research — I want to hear about it.

hameed.hasawi@hotmail.com linkedin.com/in/hameedhasawi