2026 AI x Energy Summit

Mr. Bohn is with the Center for Transportation Research at Argonne National Laboratory. He is a principal electrical engineer in the EV-Smart Grid Interoperability Center, identifying and validating interoperability issues related to PEV charging systems. He actively serves on SAE, IEEE, and EV charging standards committees, including safety standards.

He currently chairs the SAE J3271 Megawatt Charging System (MCS) standard for all large battery vehicles that ‘Roll, Fly or Float’ as well as AIR7357 megawatt charging of electric aircraft.

Mr. Bohn received his BS and MS degree in electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin- Madison. He holds an adjunct faculty position at University of Wisconsin-Madison where he has developed and delivered EV charging safety related education and training materials. He has taught EV short courses on energy storage systems including electrical safety.

As a high-voltage scientist and engineer with over 7 years of experience, I am passionately invested in propelling the field of electrical power engineering into the future. My expertise lies in designing innovative experiments, conducting multiphysics simulations, and mastering data analysis to create products that outperform current industry standards and find solutions to the novel high-voltage challenges.

I wear many hats, not only as a detail-oriented engineer and researcher but also as an active author, editor, and technical reviewer in the scientific community. Having published over 30 peer-reviewed articles, I continue to navigate the multifaceted realms of power transmission networks, resilient power grids, and insulation design in electric transportation systems. Join me in this exhilarating journey where we craft solutions that pave the way for a new era of efficiency and excellence in our electrified world.

At the end of the day, I find joy in playing tennis, baking sourdough, and exploring the world of philosophy.

Dr. Lei Chen joined the University of Michigan-Dearborn from Mississippi State University. His research interests are in the broad area of advanced manufacturing and materials design, with a focus on additive manufacturing of metals and piezoelectric composites. Dr. Chen has published over 70 papers in top international journals, including Nature, Nature Communications, Advanced Materials, Acta Materialia, Additive Manufacturing, etc., and has received several awards, the most recent of which are the prestigious ASEE Southeastern Section New Researcher Award (2018) and ORAU Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award (2017). Dr. Chen received his Ph.D., National University of Singapore in 2012, M.S. from Huazhong University of Science & Technology in 2007, and B.S. from Huazhong University of Science & Technology in 2005.

Dr. Mario Harper is a professor at Utah State University and serves as the Director of Intelligent Systems & Security at the NSF ASPIRE Engineering Research Center, where he leads efforts in artificial intelligence systems deployment across electrified transportation and energy infrastructure. His work focuses on designing and implementing large-scale AI platforms that support enterprise energy systems, grid-integrated transportation networks, and national electrification testbeds operated through ASPIRE and its partners. Dr. Harper’s research also extends into autonomous systems and mission-critical AI applications for defense and security environments, including robotics, distributed sensing, and resilient infrastructure systems operating in complex and uncertain conditions.

Dr. Sean Hauze serves as Chief Operating Officer for the IT Division at San Diego State University, where he oversees the strategic alignment of operations, resources, and execution across a dynamic technology landscape, with a focus on operational maturity that enables sustainable growth, effective service delivery, and innovation at scale. He directs IT Finance, HR, and Strategic Operations, managing budget planning, organizational design, and resource allocation to promote financial stewardship and institutional agility. As leader of the Project & Portfolio Management Office, he ensures that high-priority initiatives are strategically aligned, efficiently executed, and measured for outcomes. His leadership spans data governance, service-level accountability, and performance management, leveraging dashboards, reporting tools, and continuous improvement frameworks to enable transparency and evidence-based decision-making. Through organizational change management and strategic initiative planning, Dr. Hauze drives the development of resilient systems and scalable services that meet the evolving needs of the university.

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.

Tong Huang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of ECE at San Diego State University. Before joining SDSU, he was a postdoctoral associate in the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He received his Ph.D. degree from Texas A&M University in 2021. His industry experience includes an internship with ISO-New England in 2018 and an internship with Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories in 2019. As the first author, he received two Best Paper Awards at the 2020 IEEE PES General Meeting and the 54-th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. His research focuses on cyber-physical resilience enhancement of power electronics-dominated electricity infrastructure via both data-driven and model-based approaches.

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.

Dr. Kong received her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from East China University of Science and Technology in 2016. Before joining SDSU, she was a Postdoc at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 2018-2023. Her research focuses on understanding the fundamental sciences of material’s structure-properties relationship using advanced characterization techniques, manufacturing electrochemical energy storage devices as well as developing sustainable recycling technologies for battery materials.

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.

Dr. Ching-Ming Lai, an IEEE Senior Member, earned his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from National Tsing Hua University in 2010. He is the founder of UPE-Power Technology, specializing in ODM/OEM/EMS services for power supplies and electronics circuits. Currently a Professor at National Chung Hsing University, he oversees the Intelligent Electric Vehicle and Green Energy Center. In 2021, he assumed the role of Director at the Intelligent Transportation Development Center.

Dr. Lai’s expertise encompasses electric vehicles, power electronics, green energy technologies, and intelligent transportation. He is recognized as a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (U.K.) and the Australian Institute of Energy. Additionally, he founded and serves as the Secretary General of the Taiwan EV and Green Energy Association.

His achievements include numerous paper awards, acknowledgment as a top 2% scientist in Energy, and various distinguished researcher and engineer accolades. Dr. Lai has actively contributed to IEEE conferences, serving as an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology and an Associate Editor for IEEE Access.

Mr. Timothy Lin, with a PhD in material science from University of California, Irvine (2000), is an IEEE senior member and the founder/CEO of Solid Energies, Inc. (Anaheim, CA). SEI has operated its business since 2017, focusing on the research, manufacturing and commercialization of new-generation solid-state battery.

Dr. Lin is a veteran scientist and entrepreneur in developing and commercializing new generation renewable/clean energy technologies for over 20 years, having founded 3 companies including SEI and Bioenno Tech. Since 2009, his team has received more than 20 grants from federal agencies including DoE/DoD/NASA, and has cooperated with a number of companies including Boeing and Lockheed Martin on multiple projects related with all-solid-state lithium-ion battery (ASSB).

Recently, his team received a 3-year project granted from the California Energy Commission (CEC) to establish an initial commercial manufacturing of ASSB directed toward the mass-production for potential applications in renewable energy and electric vehicles.

Susan Linwood is the Co-Founder & CEO of Novos Power (Palo Alto) and a serial deep-tech energy founder. A Stanford GSB ’24 alum, she leads the commercialization of decades of DOE/NASA–funded research to tame megawatt-scale, millisecond load swings in AI data centers and strengthen the smart grid. Novos Power’s proprietary technology bypasses legacy utility-transformer bottlenecks to deliver high-density, reliable DC power.

Featured in Charged magazine, she has spoken at the California Energy Commission, EnergyNexus, the California Air Resources Board, Plug In IE, the EV World Congress and Stanford Sustainability Day. Her vision: build the foundational power layer for AI, clean energy, and electrified defense.

Jinjun Liu ( Fellow IEEE, Fellow CPSS ) received the B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University (XJTU), Xi’an, China, in 1992 and 1997, respectively.

He then joined the XJTU Electrical Engineering School as a faculty. From late 1999 to early 2002, he was with the Center for Power Electronics Systems, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA, as a Visiting Scholar. In late 2002, he was promoted to a Full Professor and then the Head of the Power Electronics and Renewable Energy Center at XJTU, which now comprises over 30 faculty members and around 300 graduate students and carries one of the leading power electronics programs in China. From 2005 to early 2010, he served as an Associate Dean of Electrical Engineering School at XJTU, and from 2009 to early 2015, the Dean for Undergraduate Education of XJTU. He is currently a XJTU Distinguished Professor of Power Electronics. He coauthored 3 books (including one textbook), published over 500 technical papers in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, and holds over 100 invention patents (China/US/EU). His research interests include modeling, control, and design methods and reliability evaluation and monitoring for power converters and electronified power systems, power quality control and utility applications of power electronics, and micro-grid techniques for sustainable energy and distributed generation.

Dr. Liu received for many times governmental awards at national level or provincial/ministerial level for scientific research/teaching achievements. He also received the 2006 Delta Scholar Award, the 2014 Chang Jiang Scholar Award, the 2014 Outstanding Sci-Tech Worker of the Nation Award, the IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics 2015, 2020, and 2024 Prize Paper Awards and 2024 Prize Letter Award, the 2016 State Council Special Subsidy Award, the Nomination Award for the Grand Prize of 2020 Bao Steel Outstanding Teacher Award, the 2022 Fok Ying Tung Education and Teaching Award, the 2022 National Prominent Teacher Award, the 2025 IEEE PELS Harry A. Owen, Jr. Distinguished Service Award, and the 2025 China National Textbook Award. He served as the IEEE Power Electronics Society Region 10 Liaison and then China Liaison for 10 years, an Associate Editor for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS since 2006, and 2015-2021 Vice President of IEEE PELS. He was on the Board of China Electrotechnical Society 2012-2020 and was elected the Vice President in 2013 and the Secretary General in 2018 of the CES Power Electronics Society. He was 2013-2021 Vice President for International Affairs, China Power Supply Society (CPSS), and since 2016, the inaugural Editor-in-Chief of CPSS Transactions on Power Electronics and Applications. He was elected the President of CPSS in Nov. 2021 and re-elected for the second term in Nov. 2025. Since 2013, he has been serving as the Vice Chair of the Chinese National Steering Committee for College Electric Power Engineering Education Programs.

Dr. Ping Liu is a Professor of Nanoengineering and the Director of the Sustainable Power and Energy Center at UCSD. Prior to joining the Jacobs School faculty, Professor Liu was a Program Director at the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), where he initiated and managed research programs in energy storage for electric vehicles and thermal management technologies to improve building energy efficiency.

He was the manager of the Energy Technology Department at HRL Laboratories (an industrial lab jointly owned by GM and Boeing) and was a research staff member with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Professor Liu received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Fudan University in China. He was a Distinguished Inventor in multiple years at HRL and won an R&D 100 award in 2009 for a battery technology developed at NREL.

Habib Maiga is a seasoned energysector leader with more than 18 years of experience spanning transmission planning, grid operations, regulatory strategy, cleanenergy integration, and software product development. As Manager of Grid Planning and Optimization at San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), he oversees the strategic development of the region’s electric grid by advancing regulatory compliance, cleanenergy resource interconnections, and major infrastructure initiatives.

Habib holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Arizona State University and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington. He is a Californiacertified Professional Engineer.

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.

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”.

Anthony Pugliese is the Director of the Office of Technology Commercialization and the Chief Commercialization Officer of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). In this role, he leads efforts to accelerate commercialization of innovative energy technologies, strengthen public-private partnerships, and enhance technology transfer from DOE’s National Labs.

Before joining DOE, Mr. Pugliese held leadership roles in both the public and private sectors. In the private sector, he focused on energy, permitting, economic development, and national security, advising businesses and organizations on navigating regulatory landscapes and advancing strategic initiatives.

In the federal government, Mr. Pugliese previously served as the Chief of Staff at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Along with overseeing the Commission’s daily activities, he led efforts to improve interagency coordination. He negotiated key memoranda of understanding (MOUs) promoting efficiencies between federal agencies, most notably the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration in the U.S. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Department of the Interior. He also spearheaded MOUs with several countries, including Mexico, Japan, India, and Israel, to strengthen energy cooperation.

Prior to his role at FERC, Mr. Pugliese served as the Senior White House Adviser at the U.S. Department of Transportation, where he played a key role in overseeing all aspects of the department, including various modes of mobility and regulatory reform. Earlier in his career, he was Director of Legislative Affairs for the Pennsylvania Governor’s Office and at the Department of Community and Economic Development, where he served on several technology and economic boards.

Prof Shyue Ping Ong is the Provost’s Chair Professor in Materials Science and Engineering at the National University of Singapore. He leads the Materialyze.AI lab, a materials informatics research group focused on the integration of materials science with data science and artificial intelligence to accelerate the discovery and design of materials. He is widely recognized as one of the pioneers of foundation potentials, i.e., machine learning interatomic potentials with comprehensive coverage of the periodic table that has broad applications in materials discovery and design. Prof Ong is also the founder and lead developer of pymatgen, one of the most popular open-source libraries for materials analysis, and a core contributor to the Materials Project, a public platform that provides computed properties of tens of thousands of inorganic compounds. Ong earned his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2011, and an MEng and BA in Electrical and Information Science from the University of Cambridge in 1999. He has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed publications, and has been recognized as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher since 2021. He is also a recipient of the prestigious US Department of Energy Early Career Research Program and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program awards.

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.

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.

Di Shi is the Paul W. and Valerie Klipsch Distinguished Professor and Associate Professor with the Klipsch School of ECE at New Mexico State University. Before academia, he founded a tech startup focusing on energy systems AI, commercialized two technologies, and founded and led the AI & System Analytics group at GEIRINA. He has also held research positions at NEC Labs, EPRI, and Arizona State University. Currently, he leads two IEEE task forces/working groups on IoT and machine learning for power systems, holds 28 patents, and serves as an associate editor for five IEEE and IET transactions. He led a team to the championship of the 2019 L2RPN power system AI competition. He earned his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees from Arizona State University and a B.S. from Xi’an Jiaotong University.

She received her Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle, WA in 2020. From 2020 to 2021, she was a Postdoctoral Scholar at Caltech. Her research focuses on machine learning, dynamical systems and control, with applications to sustainable power and energy systems. She was a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, Schmidt Sciences AI2050 Early Career Fellowship, Hellman Fellowship, and best paper finalists in L4DC 2025 and ACM e-Energy 2022.

John Sines works at the intersection of advanced energy systems and hyperscale AI infrastructure. He is the Principal Electrical Engineer at Lambda, where he leads end-to-end electrical design for next-generation AI data centers—from utility interconnection and on-site generation through medium- and low-voltage distribution down to high-density GPU racks. His work includes modeling AI workload transient behavior, aligning electrical architectures with NVIDIA’s chip roadmap, and designing infrastructure capable of supporting rapidly scaling AI clusters.

Previously, John spent a decade at Facebook/Meta within the Infrastructure Data Center organization, where he supported some of the world’s largest and most complex data center regions—scaling infrastructure for massive GPU deployments, developing utility curtailment playbooks, and leading cross-functional readiness efforts for new site builds. Earlier in his career, he worked on high-performance computing systems at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, helping prepare site infrastructure for top-ranked supercomputers, and served as a U.S. Navy nuclear submarine officer.

John’s background spans hyperscale data centers, grid operations, HVDC transmission, nuclear engineering, and mission-critical infrastructure. As AI compute demand accelerates, he has been closely examining what it would actually take for emerging energy technologies—particularly fusion and advanced nuclear—to meet the reliability, ramping, power density, and deployment timelines required by modern data centers. He brings an operator’s perspective to the fusion conversation, grounded in the practical realities of delivering reliable megawatts at scale.

Greg Smedley received his Ph.D. from Caltech. He is a renowned researcher, educator, and industry leader with a diverse career that spans power electronics, medical devices, Research and education at Caltech, and Space exploration at JPL. Dr. Smedley is the CEO of One-Cycle Control, Inc. and is focused on tackling global-scale problems in transportation, energy, electric grids, and low-cost access to space.

Keyue Ma Smedley (Fellow, IEEE) received the B.S. degree in 1982 and the M.S. degree 1985 in electrical engineering from Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, in 1985, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Caltech, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA, 1991.,She was the Chief Designer of magnet power converters for all accelerator rings, DOE Superconducting Super Collider Lab in early 1990s. She has been a Professor with the EECS, University of California, Irvine (UCI) and the Founder/Director of the UCI Power Electronics Lab since 1992. In addition, she is a co-founder of one-cycle control, Inc., that commercializes one-cycle control (OCC) technology. She is the inventor of the OCC method. Initially groundbreaking in high-fidelity audio applications during 1990s, OCC later unified four-quadrant control of single and three-phase power converters in the early 2000s. Today, OCC technology is widely applied across various market sectors, including professional audio, renewables, storage, power quality, grid stabilization, and defense. Her team also invented the Hexagram multilevel converter in late 2000s, put the first fault current limiter on the US grid for demonstration in 2010s, and demonstrated OCC-DVC for fast and precise control of the power grid during the same period. Recently, her team has made breakthroughs in full-range gain control of resonant switched-capacitor converters, opening the doors for magnetic-less power conversion for wide applications. and made breakthroughs in full-range gain control of resonant switched-capacitor converters in early 2020s. She is dedicated to innovation and impact in her field. Her research has yielded >200 publications, >15 US and international patents, two startup companies, and wide industry acceptance. Her research interest includes power electronics.,Dr. Smedley was the recipient of numerous recognitions, including UCI Innovation Award in 2005, IEEE Fellow in 2008, and a DOD Achievement Award from Pentagon in 2010 with OCC, Inc. She has been an IEEE PEL Distinguished Lecturer since 2021. She is also the recipient of 2024 IEEE Power Electronics Society RD Middlebrook Achievement Award.

Anna G. Stefanopoulou is the William Clay Ford Professor of Manufacturing at the University of Michigan. She has been on the faculty of the Department of Mechanical Engineering since 2000, and serves as the Director of the Automotive Research Center a multi-university Center of Excellence in Modeling and Simulation of Ground Vehicles. She obtained her Diploma (1991, Nat. Tech. Univ. of Athens, Greece) in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering and her Ph.D. (1996, University of Michigan) in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

She is an ASME Fellow (08) and an IEEE Fellow (09), an elected member of the Executive Committee of the ASME Dynamics Systems and Control Division and the Board of Governors of the IEEE Control Systems Society, the Founding Chair of the ASME DSCD Energy Systems Technical Committee and a member of a U.S. National Research Council committee on the 2025 US. Light Duty Vehicle Fuel Economy Standards.

She is a recipient of the 2012 University of Michigan, College of Engineering Research Award, the 2009 ASME Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award, a 2008 Univ. of Michigan Faculty Recognition award, the 2005 Outstanding Young Investigator by the ASME DSC division, a 2005 Henry Russel award, a 2002 Ralph Teetor SAE educational award, a 1997 NSF CAREER award and selected as one of the 2002 world’s most promising innovators from the MIT Technology Review.

She has co-authored a book, 20 US patents, 5 best paper awards and more than 250 publications on estimation and control of internal combustion engines and electrochemical processes such as fuel cells and batteries.

Dr. Maria Sushko is an expert in innovative multiscale atomistic simulation methodologies, such as classical density functional theory specifically applied to solid/fluid interfacial dynamics. Her research focuses on developing a generalized modeling framework of crystallization processes that bridge atomic-scale dynamics and the formation and structure of mineral products at the mesoscale. The insights gained using these atomistic-to-mesoscale models include identifying the central role of correlated ion and water dynamics in the electric double layers of mineral surfaces in driving surface selectivity and alignment during the oriented attachment processes and discovering that interfacial chemical gradients may drive the formation of mesocrystals through preferential nucleation of new particles in the interfacial region.

Dr. Don Tan earned his PhD from Caltech. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the IEEE. He has served as Distinguished Engineer, Fellow, Chief Engineer-Power Conversion, Program Manager, Department Manager, and Center Director in a US Fortune 500 corporation.

Unusually prolific as a visionary technical leader in ultra-efficient power conversion and electronic energy systems, Dr. Tan has pioneered breakthrough innovations with numerous high-impact industry firsts and record performances that received commendations from the highest level of US Government. He has developed hundreds of designs and thousands of hardware units deployed for space applications without a single on-orbit failure. His suite of world-class electronics performed flawlessly on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), located one million miles away, achieving world-record-breaking performances and advancing the understanding of deep space for humanity.

Dr. Tan is the IEEE Technical Activities Vice President-Elect 2025, founding President of IEEE Transportation Electrification Council, Chair of IEEE Fellow Advisory and Oversight Subcommittee, and Vice Chair of IEEE Industry Engagement Committee. Among numerous others, Don has served as Division II Director, IEEE Board of Directors; Fellow Committee Chair, IEEE PELS/PES eGrid Steering Committee Chair, PELS Long Range Planning Committee Chair, Nomination Committee Chair, PELS President, Editor-in-Chief (Founding) for IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics, APEC General Chair, and IEEE Chair for the IEEE/Google Little Box Challenge.

Don has delivered about 130+ keynotes/invited global presentations. He has received more than $30M+ external customer funding for research and technology development. He also serves on many prestigious national and international award, review and selection committees.

Cheng Wang is the founder and CEO of Xenerpower, a Houston-based manufacturer of transformers and switchgear. She is also the CEO of BrightBuild Electric, Texas licensed electrical contractor specializing in electrical installation and power distribution projects. In addition to her industry work, Cheng is a Professor of Practice at the University of Houston, where she teaches Programming for Analytics. Prior to joining UH, she was a lecturer at Tulane University. Cheng comes from a family in the transformer industry, with her family’s transformer business was established since 1992.

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.

Wotao Yin is a Scientist and Principal Engineer @ Alibaba Group US, specializing in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Optimization. Before that, he was a Professor in the Department of Mathematics at UCLA. His research interests include computational optimization and its applications in image processing, machine learning, and other data science problems. Dr. Wotao Yin obtained his PhD in Operations Research from Columbia U. He invented fast algorithms for sparse optimization and large-scale distributed optimization. He has been among the top 1% highly cited mathematicians since 2018. He received an NSF CAREER Award 2006, Sloan Research Award 2007, Morningside Gold Medal 2016, DAMO Award 2021, and Egon Balas Award 2021. He discovered the first method that can be used to decompose three monotonic operators without increasing the dimensionality of the variable, known by academics as Davis-Yin Splitting.

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.