Keynote Speakers

Iqbal Husain (Fellow, IEEE)

ABB Distinguished Professor, NC State University

Director, FREEDM System Center, NCSU Raleigh, USA

Iqbal Husain (Fellow, IEEE) received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University in 1993. He currently serves as the Director of the FREEDM NSF Engineering Center and holds the prestigious position of ABB Distinguished Professor in the ECE Department at NC State University, Raleigh, NC, USA. Prior to joining NC State, he was associated with the University of Akron, Akron, OH, USA. He has been recognized for his academic contributions as a Fulbright Scholar in several Australian institutions in 2022 and as a Visiting Professor with Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA, in 2001. Prof. Husain's research interests encompass power electronic system integration into the power grid and transportation electrification with wide bandgap power electronic devices and permanent magnet & reluctance machine drives. He has developed graduate and undergraduate courses on electric and hybrid vehicles and authored the textbook "Electric and Hybrid Vehicles: Design Fundamentals." He has been honored with numerous awards, including the 2023 Outstanding Engagement Award and the 2022 Alcoa Distinguished Engineering Research Award at NC State, the 2022 IEEE-IAS Outstanding Achievement Award, the 2006 SAE Vincent Bendix Automotive Electronics Engineering award, the 2004 College of Engineering Outstanding Researcher award, the 2000 IEEE Third Millennium Medal, and the 1998 IEEE-IAS Outstanding Young Member award. He became an IEEE Fellow in 2009 and served as the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Electrification Magazine.

Emil Levi (Fellow, IEEE)

Liverpool John Moores University, UK

Emil Levi (Fellow, IEEE) received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in 1986 and 1990, respectively. He joined Liverpool John Moores University, U.K., in May 1992 and has been a Professor of Electric Machines and Drives since September 2000. He served as a Co-Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics from 2009 to 2013. Currently, Dr. Levi holds the positions of Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics and Editor-in-Chief of the IET Electric Power Applications. Dr. Levi has received several prestigious awards, including the Cyril Veinott Award of the IEEE Power and Energy Society for 2009 and the Best Paper Award of the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics for 2008. He was honored with the “Outstanding Achievement Award” from the European Power Electronics Association in 2014 and the “Professor Istvan Nagy Award” from the Power Electronics and Motion Control Council in 2018. He is also a Foreign Member of the Serbian Academy of Engineering.

Milos Manic (Fellow, IEEE)

President of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IES)

Milos Manic is currently the President of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IES) and a professor with the Computer Science Department at Virginia Commonwealth University and is the director of the VCU Cybersecurity Center. He is also a Commonwealth Cyber Initiative Fellow, inaugural class 2020-2022. As a principal investigator or university partner, he has completed more than 40 research grants with the departments of Energy, Homeland Security, Air Force, Battelle Energy Alliance/Idaho National Laboratory, National Science Foundation, and industry entities, in the area of data mining and machine learning applied to cybersecurity, critical infrastructure protection, energy security, and resilient intelligent control. Manic has given over 40 invited talks around the world, authored more than 200 refereed articles in international journals, books, and conferences, holds several U.S. patents and won the 2018 R&D 100 Award for Autonomic Intelligent Cyber Sensor (AICS), one of top 100 science and technology worldwide innovations in 2018. He is also an inductee of U.S. National Academy of Inventors (class of 2019). He is an IEEE Fellow, recipient of IEEE IES 2019 Anthony J. Hornfeck Service Award. He also received the 2012 J. David Irwin Early Career Award and 2017 IEM Best Paper Award. He served as associate editor of Trans. on Industrial Electronics, was a founding chair of IEEE IES Technical Committee on Resilience and Security in Industry, and a general chair of IEEE IECON 2018, IEEE HSI 2019.

Gourab Majumdar (Senior Fellow, IEEE)

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Japan

Gourab Majumdar received Bachelor of Technology degree in electrical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, India in 1977 and Doctor of Engineering degree from Kyushu Institute of Technology (KIT), Japan in 2005. He came to Japan in September 1978, and has been living in the country since then. He started his job career at Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Japan (Mitsubishi Electric) on a special OJT program in September 1978. He was employed by the same company in 1980 and, since 1983, has worked in its units responsible for advanced power semiconductor development, designing and application. From April-2012 to March-2017, he served as Executive Fellow, Semiconductor & Device Group of Mitsubishi Electric. On April-2017, he was reemployed by Mitsubishi Electric on a contract basis and acted as Senior Fellow (Technology) for Semiconductor & Device Group of the same company until March-2021. From April-2022 until currently, he has been working as Senior Fellow for Power Device Works of Mitsubishi Electric. He has published and co-authored many technical papers and books on power semiconductor devices and holds several patents in the related fields. He is a recipient of the prestigious National Invention Award in Japan in 2005 for invention of the fundamental concept of IPM (Intelligent Power Module) and has also received several other prestigiouscawards, including the “Monozukuri Nihon Taishou” (Japan Craftsmanship Grand Prix) award from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in 2013 for contribution in development and commercialization of various versions of IPM devices. He served as the General Chairman of ISPSD 2013 and has been participating as a member of PCIM's Advisory Board and ISPSD's Advisory Committee. He received IEEE-ISPSD Contributory Award in 2017 for playing an active role in the field of Intelligent Power Module and Power IC technologies and contributing largely to the ISPSD. He was nominated to be one of the first 32 inductees to IEEE-ISPSD Hall of Fame for his pioneering global role in progressing IGBT and IPM technologies and was awarded the prestige in May 2018. He was promoted to IEEE Fellow in 2021. He lectured courses on advanced power semiconductor devices as a visiting professor at Kyushu University and Tokyo Institute of Technology (TIT) for several years till 2019. Also, he has been bestowed with Honorary Professorship in 2016 by Amity University, India.

Frede Blaabjerg (Fellow, IEEE)

Department of Energy Technology Aalborg University, Denmark

Frede Blaabjerg was with ABB-Scandia, Randers, Denmark, from 1987 to 1988. From 1988 to 1992, he obtained the PhD degree in Electrical Engineering at Aalborg University in 1995. He became an Assistant Professor in 1992, an Associate Professor in 1996, and a Full Professor of power electronics and drives in 1998. From 2017, he became a Villum Investigator. He is honoris causa at University Politehnica Timisoara (UPT), Romania, and Tallinn Technical University (TTU) in Estonia. His current research interests include power electronics and its applications such as in wind turbines, PV systems, reliability, harmonics, and adjustable speed drives. He has published more than 600 journal papers in the fields of power electronics and its applications. He is the co-author of four monographs and the editor of ten books in power electronics and its applications. He has received 32 IEEE Prize Paper Awards, the IEEE PELS Distinguished Service Award in 2009, the EPE-PEMC Council Award in 2010, the IEEE William E. Newell Power Electronics Award 2014, the Villum Kann Rasmussen Research Award 2014, the Global Energy Prize in 2019, and the 2020 IEEE Edison Medal. He was the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics from 2006 to 2012. He has been a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Power Electronics Society from 2005 to 2007 and for the IEEE Industry Applications Society from 2010 to 2011, as well as 2017 to 2018. In 2019-2020, he served as President of IEEE Power Electronics Society. He is Vice-President of the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences too. He was nominated in 2014-2019 by Thomson Reuters to be among the most 250 cited researchers in Engineering in the world.

Dr. Tapan Sahoo ( Fellow, INAE)

Executive Director (Engineering) at Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Dr. Tapan Sahoo is the Head of Digital Enterprise and has served as the Executive Director (Engineering) at Maruti Suzuki India Limited and has over 32 years of experience in product design & development, supplier development, technology, cost and program management functions. An Eminent Alumnus and graduate in Electrical Engineering from UCE – Burla, Dr. Sahoo continued his academic pursuit along with his professional work and completed his MBA and Ph.D. from Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi. Dr. Sahoo has played a key role in upgrading the R&D capability of MSIL in the Electrical & Electronics, xEV, Powertrain, Vehicle Engineering, Cost, Prototype, Design and Planning functions. He played an instrumental role in developing the design capability of auto component suppliers in India as well. Dr Sahoo participates and contributes in various Industry, Academia, Professional and Government bodies. Some of the key roles are: Co-Chairman, Technical Council of SIAM (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers) encompassing Electric Mobility, Sustainable Mobility, Connected vehicles, Styling & Design, Frontier Technology & Innovation, Manufacturing & Industry 4.0. Past Chairman, International Harmonization Group of SIAM – engaged in understanding, alignment, and adaptability of international regulations for India Past Chairman, Frontier Technology Group of SIAM; the group engaged in policy formulation for Hybrid and Electric vehicles in India along with Govt of India. Chairman, India GRE group, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (Govt. of India) Chairman, SAEINDIA Northern Section, a non-profit society of automotive engineers, aiming to promote the cause of mobility Member, CII National Committee on Future Mobility • Member, Board of Academics, MNNIT (Allahabad) Member, OICA-GEE Panel (International Auto Manufacturer’s Association – Lighting & Light Signaling Group) Dr Sahoo holds multiple granted patents. His research papers in the areas of strategic technology management, xEV technologies and automotive product development & policy matters have been published in national and international journals of repute. For his contribution in the field of engineering and technology management, Dr. Sahoo has been conferred “Fellow” status by Society for Technology Management and Indian National Academy of Engineering

Dr. Ram Adapa

Technical Executive, HVDC & Power Electronics, EPRI, Palo Alto, CA, USA

Dr. Ram Adapa is a Technical Executive in the Energy Delivery and Customer Solutions at EPRI. His research activities focus on High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission, Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS), Custom Power, and Fault Current Limiters. Dr. Adapa joined EPRI in 1989 as a Project Manager in the Power System Planning and Operations program. Later, he became Product Line Leader for Transmission, Substations, and Grid Operations, where he developed the research portfolio and business execution plans for the Grid Operations and Planning areas. Some of the tools in this portfolio included market restructuring, transmission pricing, ancillary services, and security tools to maintain the reliability of the grid. Before joining EPRI, Dr. Adapa worked at McGraw-Edison Power Systems (presently known as Eaton’s Cooper Power Systems) as a Staff Engineer in the Systems Engineering Department. Dr. Adapa received a BS degree in electrical engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, India, an MS degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, and a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Adapa is an IEEE Fellow and has been honored several times by IEEE for his outstanding contributions to the profession. He received the 2016 IEEE PES Nari Hingorani Custom Power Award and the 2023 IEEE PES Uno Lamm HVDC Award. He has authored or coauthored more than 130 technical papers and is an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer. He is an individual member of CIGRE and a Registered Professional Engineer.

Danan Dou

Chief Technologist, John Deere Power Systems

Danan Dou has a Ph. D in Chemistry. He worked on emission controls for 11 years before joining John Deere in 2006 as the manager of aftertreatment technologies. Danan is a John Deere fellow and a SAE fellow. His current position is the Chief Technologist of John Deere Power Systems.