In Dr. Giovanna Oriti’s classroom at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), military officer students arrive with years of operational experience in the fleet and field, and questions shaped by the challenges they’ve faced.
For nearly two decades, Oriti has helped students in NPS’ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) develop their technical skills in complex subjects like power electronics, energy management systems, electrical circuits, and more. For her exemplary efforts, she was selected as the 2026 recipient of the Rear Adm. John J. Schieffelin Award for Excellence in Teaching, an annual award recognizing an outstanding NPS faculty member based on feedback from current students and recent graduates, selected by a committee of peers.
As her students gain a stronger technical foundation through their coursework, Oriti works closely with them to examine the challenges they have encountered operationally through applied thesis research.
“They start asking questions,” Oriti said. “Questions that I have never even thought about because, of course, I don’t have the operational experience. So it’s a wonderful combination.”
Oriti’s approach centers on making sure students understand technical material well enough to apply it. She uses simulations and lab exercises to work through difficult concepts and adapts her teaching tactics to ensure students are connecting with the material.
“I care that everybody who wants to learn, learns; I focus on their learning,” Oriti said. That effort extends beyond the classroom as she helps students pursue research publications, awards and other opportunities before they return to the fleet.
Oriti built her expertise through education, research and industry experience. She earned electrical engineering degrees from the University of Catania in Italy, conducted research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and worked at United Technologies Research Center and as an industry consultant. Her work included modeling power converters for the Navy’s all-electric ship projects.
She began teaching at NPS as a contract instructor in 2007, when the ECE department needed to expand its expertise in power electronics; she joined the faculty the following year. Since then, she has taught hundreds of students in the classroom and advised dozens more through their master’s theses, capstones and doctoral dissertations.
For Oriti, transferring expertise also means continuing to develop it. Her research keeps her connected to emerging technologies and current military problems, while U.S. DOW sponsors bring challenges that become NPS faculty research projects and student theses.
“We do research applied to the needs of the Navy, the Marine Corps, the DOW in general,” Oriti said. “So we know what is critical for them, and what is going to help the warfighter.”
Research can also begin with a problem brought directly to NPS. Oriti recalled an overseas U.S. Navy facility seeking ways to improve its critical energy security and resilience, ensuring continued power to critical systems during disruptions, manmade or otherwise. That challenge led to Oriti and her NPS colleagues breaking new ground in the field of microgrids, where small, independent power systems work together to make Navy and defense facilities more resilient and secure.
That work grew into a broader cross-disciplinary effort at NPS on microgrids, leading to the Microgrid Innovations Research Center, where faculty from multiple disciplines collaborate on critical energy security problems. Oriti served as the primary advisor for roughly 20 ECE student theses examining varied aspects of microgrids over the past eight years — with nearly 100 student theses supported through the research center across multiple curricula — allowing successive groups of students to contribute to research that began with an operational need, a hallmark of NPS student research.
NPS alumni David Lorio and Joshua Ashley both attended NPS as Marine Corps captains, exploring different aspects of emerging microgrid technologies with Oriti. They would both later apply that knowledge as science and technology analysts in the Marine Corps Expeditionary Energy Office, where they worked on advanced expeditionary energy technologies.
Lorio’s NPS research examined photovoltaic power systems, while Ashley studied energy management for a tactical microgrid. Their follow-on assignments after NPS demonstrate how technical knowledge developed in its graduates benefits the broader defense organization.
“I think what they learned here was instrumental to what they went on and did for the Marine Corps afterwards,” Oriti said.
Students may only spend months in Monterey, but as they move into positions of increasing responsibility across the military, that technical foundation is invaluable … Understanding how emerging technologies apply to operational requirements requires technical knowledge, Oriti says.
“They know enough about connecting the technology with the need and the mission,” Oriti said. That foundation allows leaders “to ask tough questions” when evaluating technologies the Navy and Department of War may eventually depend on.
For NPS, that process begins the moment students step onto campus, where applied student research in emerging technologies is enabled by the instruction of expert faculty. For Oriti, that process is a challenge she proudly accepts, requiring faculty that not only remain active researchers, connected to the military problems their students help address – it also requires effective teachers.