Our People
Mark Y. Xue, PE
Partner
Mark Xue is a Principal Engineer and one of the Partners of UAS. He has 30 years experience in power system protection and control. In addition to his day-to-day work on P&C design and relay settings, he developed numerous software for P&C engineering. One of the software is Automated Relay Settings (ARS) that can help utility engineers to improve quality and efficiency with relay settings. In his employment history, he had 8 years with AEP, 3 years with GE and 10 years with ABB. In AEP, he was a Principal Engineer responsible for P&C standards development, relay settings, P&C design, RTDS tests, R&D on special relay and software, etc. He was the lead engineer of CREZ – the largest transmission project in AEP history. In GE, he was the lead engineer in Consulting Service Group and his responsibility included protection system design, RTDS tests, relay settings, customer training, R&D, etc. In ABB, he designed and commissioned many protection and automation systems that had been put in service successfully in US, Canada, China and Mexico. Mark Xue has one US patent and has published numerous technical papers. He received his B.Eng. from Zhejiang University, China in 1993 and M.Sc. from University of Guelph, Canada in 2007. He is a senior member of IEEE and a Professional Engineer registered in multiple states.
Matt Gauss, JD
Partner
Mr. Gauss and Mr. Xue combined as Partners in 2020 to execute their vision for Utility Automation Solutions (UAS). The vision is to provide utilities with better quality, reduced costs and shorter times. The only way to accomplish our vision is through customized software for each of our clients. Our vision required some of the best engineering resources in the industry. Matt’s role with UAS is to lead the team towards our vision. He is responsible for executing on our strategies, finding and retaining talent, all while working on a few projects with the team. Mr. Gauss began his career at American Electric Power as an Engineer in the Transmission Planning organization. He continued his career through Finance, Regulatory and Strategy roles before joining an outsource engineering company in 2018. In total, Mr. Gauss has more than 15 years of utility experience. Mr. Gauss received his Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering from Michigan Technological University. He also earned a Juris Doctorate from Capital University Law School in 2015 and a registered attorney in Ohio. Lastly, he finished his Executive MBA from Ohio State’s Fischer College of Business in 2017.
Henry G. MIller, PE
Principal Engineer
Henry (Hank) Miller had served, prior to his retirement from AEP, as Staff Engineer and a Supervisor in their Protection and Control section. During his career he also served as AEP Manager of CSP’s Protection and Control section. Hank was responsible for the engineering of stations and line protection and special projects including phase shifting transformers, Back-to Back HVDC, and Variable Frequency Transformer devices. He helped develop design standards, setting templates and Application Guides for various protective relays leading to P&C standard panels for most AEP construction projects. Hank shared duties with John Burger which included managing and providing engineering, design and technical guidance on matters pertaining to: 1) protection standards, guides and templates, 2) protection requirement and project scoping for new and existing stations, 3) evaluation and testing of new protection equipment, 4) relay and coordination studies and 5) development of standard processes and guides to meet NERC compliance. Hank was a member of the NERC SPCTF from 2005 – 2010 and was a member of the NERC PRC023 standards writing group. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Ohio.
John F. BURGER, PE
Principal Engineer
John Burger had served, prior to his retirement from AEP, as Staff Engineer and a Supervisor of Protection and Control. During his long career he also served as AEP Manager of System Protection and Control and Manager of Systems Measurements for AEP. He has been responsible for the engineering of stations and line protection and special projects including FACTS devices. He has performed design engineering, calculations and protection coordination studies at all voltage levels up to 765kV. He had developed design standards, setting templates and Application Guides for various protective relays. Duties included managing and providing engineering, design and technical guidance on matters pertaining to: 1) protection standards, guides and templates, 2) protection requirement and project scoping for new and existing stations, 3) evaluation and testing of new protection equipment, 4) relay and coordination studies and 5) development of standard processes and guides to meet NERC compliance. He is a registered Professional Engineer in multiple states . He was a IEEE Life Senior Member, past Chairman of Board- UCA International Users Group and member of the Reliability First Council: Underfrequency Load Shedding Standard Drafting Team (PRC-006). He has authored/co-authored over 30 articles and publications and have presented papers at IEEE meetings, regional and national protection and station related conferences such as the American Power Conference, Texas A&M, IEEE T&D, IEC TC-57 and the PEA.
Jonathan Gao, PEng
Principal Engineer
Jonathan Gao joined UAS as a Principal Engineer in 2022. Jonathan’s main responsibility includes QA/QC for P&C projects, relay settings, and automated software outputs. His experience, with more than 20 years of protection and control engineering, ensures a high-quality product for our clients. Prior to joining UAS, Jonathan served in many roles at other large engineering companies. Most recently, he was an Engineer Manager and a Technical Leader at GE Grid Automation Technical Services group from 2009-2022. Prior to GE Grid Automation Technical Services Jonathan worked at ABB Inc. as an Applications Engineer from 2005-2008. Jonathan Received his B.Sc. Degree from North China Electric Power University in 1993 and M.Sc. Degree from Zhejiang University in 1996, both focusing in Electrical Engineering.
Jenna Shen, PENG
Principal Engineer
Jenna Shen joined UAS as a Principal Engineer in 2023. Jenna is specialized in relay setting studies, settings calculations, and NERC compliance studies both in transmission and generation. With more than 20 years’ experience in protection study and its applications, she is responsible for performing relay engineering activities including review of our Automated Relay Setting software (ARS). Prior to joining UAS, Jenna was a lead customer application engineer at GE Grid Automation from 2011-2022 and protection specialist from 1997-2010 at North China Electric Power university. Jenna received her B.Sc. Degree in 1994 and M.Sc. Degree in 1997 from North China Electric Power University, both focusing in Electrical Engineering.
Barry Xu, PENG
Principal Engineer
Barry Xu joined UAS as a Principal Engineer in 2022. Barry has over 20 years of experience in protection & control systems; specialized in design, application, and installation and testing of various relay types. Mr. Xu is an expert in engineering studies and analysis that include Arc Flash, Short Circuit, Load Flow, Device Coordination and Temporary Overvoltage. This requires Mr. Xu to be proficient with numerous software in the industry to perform each study. Barry also worked extensively on special engineering schemes and applications such as Fast Load Shedding, Transfer Schemes, IEC61850 applications, Network Switches PRP Protocol, VLAN and RSTP Ring configurations, and more. Prior to joining UAS, Barry was the Lead Protection and Control Engineer in Consulting Service Group in GE for 15 years. Barry was also the Electrical Engineer and the Marketing Director in Guoce Electric for 10 years. Mr. Xu worked with many major utilities in North America through his work at GE. In addition to his technical work, Barry is a registered Professional Engineer in Ontario Canada and authored/co-authored 4 papers for WPRC, CIGRE and Texas A&M Protective Relaying Conference. Barry received his B.Sc. Degree in 1988 and M.Sc. Degree in 1991 from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China.
Zhengliang BU, PHD
PRINCIPAL Engineer
Zhengliang joined UAS as a Principal Engineer in 2020. Mr. Bu is a member on our automation team, where we rely on his expertise to program various tools for UAS. Zhengliang’s experience includes more than 25 years of relevant protection and control engineering and theory. He has 19 patents including one US patent, published one book and 28 journal/conference papers. He was the author of 8 Chinese National Standards and guided the development of numerous IED products, among which six products were awarded as National Key New Products. His lifelong work resulted in the honor to be a member on two committees for China National Technical Committee: Voltage and Current Levels and Frequencies Standardization; Electronic Measuring Instrument Standardization. Mr. Bu received his Ph.D from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China, as well as an M.Sc. and an B.Eng. from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China.
Adam Collins
Senior Engineer
Mr. Collins joined UAS as a Senior Engineer in 2023. Adam is responsible for leading projects for UAS and providing the necessary engineering expertise. His experience includes more than 5 years of protection and control design and engineering. Most recently, he performed line and relay settings for a large territory at American Electric Power before joining UAS. Adam received his BSEE from Ohio State University.
Chuck Jones，PE
Principal Engineer
Chuck Jones joined UAS as a Principal Engineer in 2024. Chuck’s current responsibilities include protection and controls engineering, QA/QC on system design, relay settings, event analysis, etc. Mr. Jones’s experience includes more than 38 years in protection and control engineering with American Electric Power. 24 of those years were developing the Standard Protection Systems used on the AEP System. This included Line Protection, Transformer Protection, Shunt Reactor Protection and Bus Protection. In addition, Chuck was a leader in implementing IEC61850 into the AEP Standard Designs. Other experience includes integrating Substation LAN into AEP Standards, eliminating Digital Fault Recorders and replacing them with Protective Relay Fault recording systems, experience with FACTS systems such as Static Var Compensators, STATCOM and Series Capacitor Banks and SCADA systems. Chuck received his BSEE Degree from West Virginia University in 1982 and his MEEE from the University of Idaho in 2011. Mr. Jones is also a registered Professional Engineer in West Virginia and Ohio.
William Tucker，PE
Principal Engineer
William Tucker joined UAS as a principal engineer in 2024, specializing in relay settings calculations. William has over 37 years of experience in station and protection and control engineering with American Electric Power, including transmission line protection and control, misoperation investigation, and NERC compliance. William received his BSEE degree from Texas Tech University in 1986 and MBA from Oklahoma City University in 2000. William is a registered professional engineer in the states of Oklahoma and Texas.
Mike Pesci, PE
Principal Engineer
Mike Pesci joined UAS in 2023 as Principal Engineer. His expertise will support Q/A, Q/C activities relating to substation engineering and design deliverables. Mike brings 42 years of engineering and leadership experience with American Electric Power, including 30 years focused on substation engineering and design in both AEP Operating Company and Service Corp organizations. Mike had direct responsibility in overseeing the creation and review of substation engineering documents used for construction including one-line diagrams, electrical assembly drawings (2D and 3D), Bills of Material and ordering, station layout drawings and project scoping documents. This included transmission and distribution substation capital projects covering all voltages 4kV through 765kV. Projects included capacity and reliability related greenfield substations, asset additions and replacements as well as emergencies and failures. Experience includes all bus and layout configurations, major and ancillary equipment, and physical assets such as structures, grounding, shielding, stoning and fencing as well as regular participation in substation construction and safety site reviews. Mike also has related experience in customer metering and meter testing lab work. Mike is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Ohio.
Masoud Rafiee，PE
Principal Engineer
Masoud Rafiee is an experienced power engineer who has delivered strategic transformations in engineering, design, and construction of electrical substations. Displaying entrepreneurial leadership and passion for process improvement by utilizing new technology solutions that are game changers in service delivery to existing and emerging customers. He has more than 40 years of experience in the field of electrical engineering, design, construction, and management in utility industry. He joined AEP’s Appalachian Power subsidiary in 1979 as a construction site engineer. He transferred to AEP Service Corporation Station Project Engineering group when AEP moved its headquarter from New York to Columbus in 1981. Throughout his carrier at AEP, had leadership role in mission critical services and had a highly talented team of professionals who provided a broad proactive and reactive support services; GSU transformer power restorations, digitization of paper-based design, transition to 3D smart design, and skid station. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from WVIT in 1978 and a post graduate degree in electrical engineering from the OSU in 1988, US patent on quick EHV connector, and graduate of AEP’s Executive Management Development Program from the OSU in 1998. He has been on the board of AEP T&D Services LLC, senior member of IEEE, licensed professional engineer, licensed electrical contractor, and Project Management Professional.
Tom Tschantz
Principal Designer
Tom joined UAS as a Principal Designer in 2020. Tom’s main responsibilities include protection & control design, QA/QC, and training a new generation of designers at UAS. Tom’s experience with protection and control spans 50 years. More important than his expertise in the PCE field, Tom is a great mentor for the next generation of engineers and designers.
Terry Phillips
Principal Designer
Terry Phillips joined UAS as a Principal Designer in 2021. Terry’s main responsibilities include protection & control design and QA/QC. Terry has more than 50 years of experience in Protection and Controls. Most of the experience occurred while Terry was a Principal Designer at American Electric Power. The last 10 years of Terry’s career have been with outside engineering companies. Terry’s knowledge of PCE and legacy equipment make him more important than ever when working with electro-mechanical relays.
Aaron Baker
Principal Designer
Aaron joined UAS as a Principal Designer in 2021. Mr. Baker’s main responsibilities include leading our protection and controls design team at UAS. His experience, that includes more than 15 years of standards creation, allows him to work on both the consulting design team and software design automation team. Aaron received his A.A.S. in Drafting and Design from ITT Technical Institute.
Jennifer Gauss, MBA
Senior Project Manager
Jennifer Gauss joined UAS as a Project Coordinator Senior in 2023. Previously, Jennifer managed multi-million-dollar accounts for various companies with a focus on Supply Chain. Jennifer received her MBA from Western Michigan University in 2019.
Nathan Pfalzgraf
p & c SYSTEM Designer
Nathan Pfalzgraf joined UAS as a Protection and Control System Designer in 2022. Previously, Nathan worked in manufacturing for 20 years before working in the utility space. Nathan received his A.A.S in Electrical/Electronic Engineering Technology and A.S. in Science from Zane State College in 2023.
Michael Baker
p &c SYSTEM Designer
Michael Baker joined UAS as a Protection and Control System Designer in 2023.
Dustin Watts
p & c SYTEM Designer
Dustin Watts joined UAS as a Protection and Control System Designer in 2023. Dustin received his A.A.S in Electrical/Electronic Engineering Technology and A.S. in Science from Zane State College in 2023.
Alex Henry
P & c SYSTEM Designer
Alex Henry joined UAS as a Protection and Control System Designer in 2023.
Owen Brook
p & c Engineer
Owen Brook joined UAS as an Engineer in 2023. Owen graduated from the University of Guelph in 2023, receiving his B.Eng in Mechanical Engineering.
Robert Smith
Senior Designer
Mr. Smith joined UAS as a Senior Designer in 2024. Robert is responsible for Substation Physical Design projects. With over 27 years of combined expertise across substation design (7 yrs.), telecommunication design (5.5 yrs), and manufacturing in the oil & gas and aerospace sectors (15 yrs.). Brings a strong background in engineering drafting, detailed design, and multidisciplinary collaboration with a proven ability to deliver quality, standards‑compliant designs in complex and regulated environments.
Zhiying Zhang, PHD, PEng
Principal Engineer
Zhiying Zhang, Ph.D., P.Eng. joined UAS as a Principal Engineer in 2025. His responsibilities include protection and control engineering, relay settings, and event analysis. Zhiying brings 38 years of experience working with utilities and relay manufacturers. Most recently, he served as a Principal Engineer at GE Grid Solutions in Markham from 2007 to 2025, leading protection algorithm research and development. Prior to that, he was a Senior R&D Engineer at NxtPhase in Winnipeg from 1993 to 2007. He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from North China Electric Power University and his Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba, Canada. He holds 9 U.S. patents and has published over 60 technical papers. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and a Professional Engineer registered in Ontario, Canada.
Yifan wang, PE, PEng.
Principal Engineer
Yifan joined UAS in 2025. Yifan is a skilled engineer specializing in protection and control. She has extensive expertise in relay settings development, relay coordination, fault studies, substation automation and design. She also has strong analytical and programming skills. Yifan received her Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from China Agricultural University in 2011 and M.Sc. Degree in Energy System from University of Alberta in 2014. Yifan is a registered Professional Engineer in Alberta, Canada and in multiple states in the US.
Julie Nelson
project manager
Julie Nelson joined UAS as a Project Coordinator in 2024. She assists in coordinating all projects, including material ordering for our Protection and Control Engineering & Design team and our Station Engineering & Design team.
carey wade
senior designer
Carey Wade joined UAS as a Senior Designer in late 2024. Carey is responsible for developing physical substation design projects, which includes coordination with multiple disciplines and conducting peer design reviews. He brings over a decade of engineering design experience and 23 years of Air Force avionics and electro‑mechanical expertise. Since teaching himself drafting in 2011, Carey has worked across telecom, oil and gas, chemical plants, and utility infrastructure—most notably supporting AEP for the last five years at Actalent (EASi) as a Substation Design Lead and Supervisor.
trent payne, PE
Principal engineer
Trent joined UAS as a Principal Engineer. Areas of expertise include managing project portfolios for the substation department (managing financial and schedule project requirements, including the creation of estimates), as well as substation design experience (civil, structural and electrical engineering work), including conceptual and detailed scoping for projects, site/station layouts, foundation/grounding/conduit layouts and details, structure and foundation analysis and design. Mr. Payne has served as a substation engineer in the electric utility industry for 15 years and has worked on projects ranging from 12kV to 345kV.
peter brown
P & C System Designer
Peter Brown joined UAS as a Protection and Control System Designer in 2025. In 2024, Peter completed his electrical apprenticeship and schooling from Conestoga College and received his license for Electrician – Construction & Maintenance.
Debra Gilliam
Senior Designer
Debra Gilliam joined the company in late 2024 as a Senior Designer supporting substation physical design projects. She brings a diverse background, with Associate’s degrees in Drafting (2011) and Nursing (1989), along with experience in the oil and gas industry and substation design. She values strong communication and is known for her dependable work ethic.
Matthew Osborn
Senior Designer
Matthew Osborn joined UAS as a Senior Designer in October 2025. Matt is responsible for developing Substation Physical Design projects. Matt brings nine years of Engineering Substation Design experience, As well as four years of Transmission line/Substation Project Management experience. He graduated with a degree in Drafting and Design Engineering Technology (AAS), in 2017. Matt has experience with multiple Utility Clients over his career and has been a Substation Design Lead for two different Engineering Consultant Firms. Matt is passionate about 3D Design and is a member of the SDSIC (Substation Design Solution Industry Consortium).
Andrew Davidson
Designer
Andrew Davidson joined UAS as a Protection and Control System Designer in 2025. Previously, Andrew worked in manufacturing for 10 years.