Featured Speakers

Dr. Chapman is an experienced technology leader with a background in power electronics, systems engineering, energy storage, renewable energy, intellectual property, and entrepreneurship. He has supervised teams of hardware, software, mechanical, firmware, systems, and control engineering. Chapman earned two degrees from Missouri S&T — a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1996 and a master’s degree in the same field a year later. He earned his doctoral degree from Purdue University and currently serves as VP of Enphase Energy.

Dr. Johan H. Enslin serves as a Program Director at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). His focus at ARPA-E is on future electrical power system technology and operations. Prior to joining ARPA-E, Dr. Enslin was a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Duke Energy Endowed Chair in Smart Grid Technology at Clemson University. Dr. Enslin combines a balanced industry and academic career with more than 40 years of leadership experience in industry and academia throughout the United States, Europe, and South Africa. He has served as an executive for private business operations and a professor in electrical engineering at several universities. Dr. Enslin received Bachelor of Science, Master of Science, and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), South Africa, in 1981, 1983 and 1988 respectively. He has authored more than 350 technical papers and several book chapters and holds 25 patents. Dr. Enslin is also a Fellow of the IEEE.

Dr. Hao Huang, Retired Technology Chief of GE Aerospace—Electrical Power since 2020, shaped technical directions, innovation strategies, and product roadmaps while pioneering advances in aircraft electrical power. With 37 years of experience in power systems, generation, starting, electronics, controls, and electric vehicle drives, he holds 80 U.S. patents, ~300 international patents, and numerous publications. He is an NAE Member, IEEE Fellow, NAI Fellow, SAE Fellow, and a distinguished adjunct professor at the University of Houston. Earning his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1987, he received the 2019 IEEE Transportation Technologies Award.

Marija received her Sc.D. degree in Systems Science and Mathematics from the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering at Washington University in 1980. She then undertook a long academic career, including senior faculty positions at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Carnegie Mellon University.

Marija’s research contributions center around modeling and control of electric power systems. Marija has been a pioneer in treating the power system in a hierarchical manner, leading to the introduction of interaction variables and her DyMonDS framework for conceptualizing communication requirements and shared variables for the power systems of today and tomorrow.

Marija has also had a distinguished career as a teacher, developing power systems curricula at CMU and classes here at MIT, and has co-authored several important textbooks in the field. Marija has also performed an extraordinary amount of service on program committees, task forces, associate/guest editor roles, and, perhaps most notably, as an NSF Program Director.

Among her many awards, she is an IEEE Life Fellow, has received the Outstanding Power Engineering Educator Award by the IEEE Power & Energy Society, is a member of the Academia Europaea, and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Charles Ku was born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in 1977. He received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, in 2012. He is currently the Chief Technology Officer of AcBel, one of the world’s top 10 power supply companies.

Chris Mi is a fellow of IEEE and SAE, a Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and the Director of the US DOE-funded GATE Center for Electric Drive Transportation at San Diego State University, San Diego, California, USA. He was previously a professor at the University of Michigan, Dearborn from 2001 to 2015. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China, and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, all in electrical engineering. Previously he was an Electrical Engineer with General Electric Canada Inc. He was the President and the Chief Technical Officer of 1Power Solutions, Inc. from 2008 to 2011, and CTO of EV Safe CHarge, Inc. from 2000 to 2022.

Dr Grzegorz (Greg) Ombach is the Senior Vice President and Group Head of Disruptive Research, Technology & Innovation at Airbus. He is a senior deep tech executive and board member recognized for scaling businesses and organizations through complex industrial transformations. He brings strategic clarity, operating judgment, and execution discipline to fast moving, complex environments. He serves as Senior Vice President at Airbus, where he sets direction and governance for advanced technology and innovation strategy, and for venture and portfolio oversight across next generation industrial platforms. His role spans strategic direction, portfolio level decision making, and collaboration across global ecosystems in civil, defense, and dual use domains. Alongside his executive responsibilities, he serves as Chair of AdvEn Industries and as a board member of ProLogium, Thread Innovations, and Acubed. His board work focuses on scale up governance, capital discipline, technology licensing, capital allocation, M&A oversight, and public market readiness. He also advises and invests in More.ai, supporting the scaling of physical AI capabilities for robotics and machine intelligence. Earlier in his career, he held senior leadership roles at Qualcomm, Siemens, and Dräxlmaier Group, building and scaling global technology driven businesses across automotive and consumer electronics. https://www.linkedin.com/in/grzegorz-ombach/

Burak Ozpineci earned his B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Orta Dogu Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, in 1994. He then completed his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 1998 and 2002, respectively.

Since 2001, he has been with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where he began as a student and has held positions as a researcher, founding group leader of the Power and Energy Systems Group, group leader of the Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Group. He currently serves as a Corporate Fellow and the Section Head of the Vehicle and Mobility Systems Research Section.

Additionally, he has a joint faculty appointment with The University of Tennessee. Dr. Ozpineci is a Fellow of IEEE.

Peter A. Panfil is a Distinguished Engineer and VP Technical Business Development at Vertiv.  He and his team lead strategic business development for the Vertiv Global Strategic Accounts group.  Peter has deep knowledge of power architectures and systems to support the unique needs of AI applications and is an advocate of the “Bring Your Own Power” approach to solving utility independence issues.

He has more than 30 years of experience in critical space and is a frequent presenter and spokesperson for industry trade shows, conferences and media outlets serving the IT, facilities and engineering industry, and a published author via his contribution to the 2024 book “Greener Data Vol. 2”.

Dr. Rajashekara joined the University of Houston as a Distinguished Professor in Electrical & Computer Engineering Department in September 2016. Prior to this, he was at the University of Texas at Dallas as a Distinguished Professor of Engineering.

From 2006-2012, he was a Chief Technologist in Rolls-Royce Corporation, Indianapolis working on More Electric/Hybrid Electric Aircraft architectures, VTOL vehicles, and power conversion/control technologies. From 1989-2006, he held various lead technical and managerial positions in Delphi and General Motors, and managed a team that was responsible for developing electric machines, controllers, and power electronics systems for electric, hybrid, and fuel cell vehicles. He was a Chief Scientist for Advanced Propulsion and Drive systems. He has published over 300 papers and has over 50 patents. He has given more than 250 invited presentations, in over 50 countries.

Dr. Rajashekara was elected as a Member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering (2012), Fellow of the US National Academy of Inventors (2015), International Fellow of the Chinese (2021), Japanese (2024), and Indian (2013) National Academies of Engineering. He is the recipient of 2022 Global Energy prize. For his continued contributions to transportation electrification, he received the IEEE Medal for Environmental and Safety Technologies (2021), IEEE Richard Harold Kaufmann award (2013); IEEE IAS Outstanding Achievement Award (2009), IEEE IAS Gerald Kliman award (2006), and IEEE PELS Vehicle and Transportation Systems Achievement Award (2019). He is a Fellow of IEEE (1999) and a Fellow of SAE (2006).

Specialties: Propulsion systems for electric and hybrid vehicles; Power electronics and variable speed motor drives; Renewable Energy based power generation Systems; Electric and Hybrid Aircraft; Flying cars.

Akshay Kumar Rathore is a Professor and the Director of the Power and Energy Systems Research Area in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the National University of Singapore. His research focuses on power electronics and control of electric motor drives. He is an IEEE Fellow and a recipient of several prestigious awards, such as the IEEE IAS Andrew W Smith Outstanding Young Member Achievement Award, the Isao Takahashi Power Electronics Award, the IEEE David Irwin Early Career Award, the IEEE Bimal Bose Award for Industrial Electronics Applications in Energy Systems, the Nagamori Award, and the distinguished alumnus award (young achiever) from IIT (BHU) Varanasi, India. During his tenure at Concordia University in Canada, he was listed in the Provost Circle of Distinction in 2021.

Prof. Rathore has contributed significantly to the design of novel power electronic converter topologies and modulation strategies, publishing over 300 research articles including about 110 IEEE Transactions. He edited a book on advanced concepts and technologies for electric transportation, published by CRC Press in 2022. He has delivered above 300 invited talks, keynotes, and tutorials in several events across the globe. He is currently a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Power Electronics Society, Chair of the IEEE IAS Andrew W Smith Outstanding Young Member Achievement Award Committee and serves on the committees for the IEEE Medal in Power Engineering, the IEEE Nikola Tesla Award, and the IEEE Fellow Committee.

George has 48 years’ professional experience related to high-power electrical systems, with a focus on power electronics and utility switchgear. Prior to joining RockeTruck in mid-2023, George worked as an engineer and engineering manager at General Atomics (GA) for 34 years, up until his retirement in July 2022. During his last 15 years at GA, George was an Engineering Manager and Technical Advisor at GA’s rapidly-growing Electromagnetic Systems Division, in which capacity he designed multi-megawatt power converters for a variety of specialized applications. Prior to this, he was a Principal Engineer in GA’s Power Inverters group, in which capacity he designed and built megawatt-class inverters for use in large electrically-powered mining vehicles. Before joining GA in 1988, George was a Technical Group Leader for nine years at Maxwell Laboratories, where he developed advanced devices such as electron beam power supplies for isotope separation and pulse energization systems for electrostatic precipitators. George began his professional career at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in 1976, where he spent three years after earning his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas, Austin.

Thomas Schuldt leads business development and strategy at DG Matrix, where he helps deploy clean, secure, and reliable power technologies for AI data centers, microgrids, and EV charging. He previously worked at McKinsey, enabling corporations, startups, and investors to scale climate technologies including EVs, batteries, hydrogen, renewables, and carbon solutions. Earlier, he led circular economy initiatives at WWF across Southeast Asia and began his career at NRG Energy focused on renewable and distributed energy strategy. Thomas brings deep climate-tech expertise, global experience across three continents, and holds dual bachelor’s degrees from ESB Business School and Universidad Pontificia Comillas, and a Fulbright master’s in Sustainability Management from Columbia University. Title of speech: DG Matrix Multi-port Solid-State Transformers Accelerating AI Data Center Speed to Power.

Tomy Sebastian is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, Vice President of Halla Mechatronics, and a recipient of IEEE Tesla Medal. Tomy Sebastian’s pioneering work on permanent magnet (PM) machine technology has paved the way for electric power steering (EPS) systems that are making automobiles more efficient, environmentally friendly, and safe. His brushless motor-controlled EPS unit introduced in 1998 addressed the challenges of torque ripple, noise, and cost issues in PM machines to meet the automotive industry’s demanding requirements for an alternative to hydraulic-based steering. EPS-based vehicles provide better fuel economy, thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and providing cost savings through reduced assembly time. Sebastian has also improved vehicle safety with digital control strategies that address motor and controller failures. His work also addressed cogging torque issues associated with the manufacturing tolerances and variations as well as induced voltage harmonics and electromagnetic torque ripple in interior PM synchronous machines.

Dr. Le Xie is the Gordon McKay Professor of Electrical Engineering at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Faculty Director of the Power and AI Initiative (PAI) at Harvard SEAS. He was on the faculty of Texas A&M Electrical and Computer Engineering Department from 2010 to 2024. He received B.E. in Electrical Engineering from Tsinghua University in 2004, S.M. in Engineering Sciences from Harvard in 2005, and Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon in 2009. His industry experience includes work at ISO-New England and Edison Mission Energy Marketing and Trading. His research interest includes modeling and control in data-rich large-scale systems, grid integration of clean energy resources, and electricity markets.

Dr. Xie is a Fellow of IEEE, IEEE PES Distinguished Lecturer, and recipient of several prestigious awards, including the NSF CAREER Award, the 2021 IEEE Technical Committee on Cyber-Physical Systems Mid-Career Award, and the 2017 IEEE PES Outstanding Young Engineer Award. He was the recipient of Texas A&M Dean of Engineering Excellence Award, ECE Outstanding Professor Award, and TEES Select Young Fellow. He serves or have served on the Editorial Board of IEEE Transactions on Power Systems (Senior Editor), IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, and IET Transaction on Smart Grid. He is the lead author of the book on “Data Science and Applications for Modern Power Systems” (Springer 2023). He is the founding chair of IEEE PES Subcommittee on Big Data & Analytics for Grid Operations. His team received the IEEE PES Technical Committee Prize Paper award, and multiple Best Paper awards at North American Power Symposium 2012, IEEE SmartGridComm 2013, HICSS 2019 and 2021, IEEE Sustainable Power & Energy Conference 2019, and IEEE PES General Meeting 2020/2023.

Longya Xu received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in 1986 and 1990 both in Electrical Engineering. He is presently a professor (retired) and founding director of Center for High Performance Power Electronics at The Ohio State University. His research interests include design and control of novel electric machines, power electronics, and digital technology for electrified transportation and renewable energy systems.

Dr. Xu is an IEEE Life Fellow and he has received several IEEE prestigious awards. Dr. Xu is the recipient of the prestigious Nikola Tesla Award for his outstanding contributions to the generation and utilization of electric power. In 2023, Dr. Xu was elected to National Academy of Engineering and is recognized for his contributions to high-performance electric machines and variable-speed drives for aerospace and wind turbines.

Dr. Xu has served as the chairperson of Electric Machine Committee of IEEE/IAS and as the Conference Co-Chair for IEEE Transportation Electrification Conference and Expo, Asia-Pacific 2014, 2016 and 2019. In addition he has served as the IEEE Transportation Technology Award Committee as the member, chairman, and past chairman from 2018 to present.

Jerry Yan is the Editor-in-chief of Nexus, Applied Energy, and Advances in Applied Energy). He is a Chair Professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China. Professor Jinyue Jerry Yan obtained his PhD from Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden in 1991. He was Chair Professor and Head of Energy Department at Luleå University of Technology, Chair Professor at the Mälardalen University and KTH, and Director of the Future Energy Profile. He is now a Chair Professor of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He is an active member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. Professor Yan’s research interests include energy systems, renewable energy, and climate change mitigation. He has published over 400 papers in scholarly journals including Science, Nature Energy, and Nature Climate Change and is a highly cited researcher, with over 10 patents. He has received several awards including the Global Human Settlements Award, the EU Energy Islands’ Award, and Top100 Research2Business (Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences). In addition to his role as founding editor-in-chief of Nexus, he is the advisory editor-in-chief of Applied Energy, the founding editor of Advances in Applied Energy, and the founder of several international and inter-disciplinary research and development platforms and events.

Salim Youssefzadeh is CEO and co-founder of WHI, the holding company that includes WattEV and technology subsidiary developing SST products for both megawatt charging as well as AI applications. Youssefzadeh graduated from UCLA in 2011 with a BS in Electrical Engineering with an emphasis on Computer Science and a BS in Applied Mathematics, and graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 2014 with an MS in Electrical Engineering and an MBA.