Speakers/Panelists

Jason is President and CEO of Cleantech San Diego, a business organization that positions the greater San Diego region as a global leader in the cleantech economy. Cleantech San Diego’s members include more than 130 businesses, universities, governments, and nonprofits committed to advancing sustainable solutions for the benefit of the economy, the environment and all members of the community.

In 2016, Cleantech San Diego launched the Southern California Energy Innovation Network with the support of the California Energy Commission. The program provides free resources through a consortium of regional partner organizations to help energy entrepreneurs successfully bring their innovations to market.

Before joining Cleantech San Diego in 2010, Jason was Vice President of Business Development for the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation (EDC). Prior to joining EDC, Jason lived in Austin, Texas, where he worked in the State Capitol as a Legislative Director for a Texas State Senator.

Jason holds a degree in Corporate Communications from the University of Texas in Austin. Jason serves on the boards of CONNECT, the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation, and the San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative.

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.

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.

Dr. Chao Yan is a Co-Founder and the CEO of Princeton NuEnergy, and Co-Inventor of the direct recycling of lithium-ion batteries technology based on low-temperature plasma-assisted separation (LPAS™). He is also a research scientist at Princeton University in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Chemical and Biological Engineering departments, where his research is mainly focused on energy conversion, fuels, and batteries.

He has published over 30+ high-impact publications and 40+ conference presentations in the energy field. He is a leading expert in physical chemistry and battery materials. Dr. Chao earned his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

In business, he has administered and operated a serial enterprise since 2014. Dr. Yan has combined his two passions of science and business by founding and leading Princeton NuEnergy.

Huang-Jen Chiu is the CTO of Delta Electronics. He was previously a Distinguished Professor and Dean of the Research and Development Office at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology.

His research interests include high efficiency/high power density bidirectional DC/DC converters, PFC topologies, PV inverters, and DSP control in renewable energy applications.

His work brought him several distinctive awards including the Young Researcher Award in 2004 from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan, the Outstanding Teaching Award in 2009 and 2017, the Excellent Research Award in 2009 and 2011 from the NTUST, the Y. Z. Hsu Scientific Paper Award in 2010, the Excellent Industry-academia collaboration Award in 2015 and 2017, Google Little Box Academic Awards, and the 2018 IEEE Empower a Billion Lives (EBL) Pacific Asia Regional Award.

His student teams won the grand prize of the IEEE International Future Energy Challenge (IFEC) in 2013 and 2015, respectively.

Currently Dr. Peter Cho is an adjunct research professor at Advanced Research Institute (ARI) at Virginia Tech (VT). His research interests at ARI VT include cyber-security, micro-grid, renewable energy, HEV/EV/unmanned systems, and electric machine design, analysis, and fabrication. Peter is also an adjunct professor at George Mason University (GMU), Fairfax, VA. His teaching topics are ‘Advanced Technology Vehicles (HEV/EV/FCV/AFV)’ and ‘Leadership in Engineering’.

Peter’s professional experiences over 30 years of the US government and commercial: US Navy labs, Office of Naval Research (ONR), ONR Global, and US State Dept, GM Delco Remy (EV/HEV), E-Techno Group, Wavecrest Lab, and Society for Automotive Engineering (Professional Development Instructor) covered all in power and energy area. He retired from U.S. Navy as a civilian researcher/scientist after 26 years of service in December 2020.

Peter published over 60 technical papers and holds 29 united states patents. Last 15 years, he has managed over total $80M USD of S&T and R&D fundings as a PI, Project Director, Program Officer, and Project Manager focused on unmanned/autonomous vehicles, electric machines, controllers, power electronics for military/commercial research projects sponsored by Pentagon, DARPA (PNGV), ARPA-E, DoS, NAVSEA, SECNAV, and ONR.

He earned Ph.D. in Systems Engineering at the University of New Hampshire, 1995, and MSEE, 1987, and BSEE, 1987, at the University of Massachusetts. He also earned MBA degree at Anderson University, 2001, and Cyber-security Fundamental, Graduate Certificate Program, at Naval Postgraduate School, 2015.

Dr. Cho awarded U.S. Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award, 2013; ONRG Associate Director of the Year Award, 2008; Most Influential Navy Patent of the Year Award, 1998; selected US Dept of State Science Fellow at US Embassy in South Korea, 2015; selected NAVSEA Innovation Award, 2017. He served the Board of Trustee at University of Massachusetts, Lowell, MA, 1986-1987, as a Graduate Student Representative.

Tien Q. Duong, Office of Vehicle Technologies, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of Energy, Washington, DC, 202-586-7836, tien.duong@ee.doe.gov Tien is currently Senior Technical Advisor and Manager of the Batteries for Advanced Transportation Technologies (BATT) Program (https://batt.lbl.gov/). The focus of the BATT program is conducting research and development on the next generation of battery technologies for vehicle applications. He was manager of the Energy Storage R&D effort from 1999 to 2003, and was team leader of the Hybrid and Electric Systems Team from 2004 to 2008. Tien has been a member of the United States Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC) Technical Advisory Committee and Management Committee. Tien studied Chemistry at the University of Saigon, Vietnam before emigrating to the United States in 1979. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and an M.S. in Civil Engineering, both from Virginia Tech. Tien is a licensed Professional Engineer in the state of Virginia.

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.

Scott has 30 years of financial services experience in investment banking, investment management, private equity, and consulting.

Just over 13 years ago, he began focusing on clean technologies. Today, he is President & CEO of Sustain SoCal, and serves on various corporate, non-profit and academic boards and committees in various roles almost all related to cleantech and sustainability.

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.

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.

Fred C. Lee received his B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan in 1968, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Duke University in 1972 and 1974, respectively.

Dr. Lee is a University Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Founder and Director Emeritus of CPES, a preeminent academic center in power electronics research at Virginia Tech. As CPES Director, Dr. Lee leads a program that encompasses research, technology development, educational outreach, industry collaboration, and technology transfer. The CPES program enables its Principal Plus industry members to sponsor graduate fellowships and provides the opportunity to direct research in areas of mutual interest. To date, more than 250 companies worldwide have benefited from the industry partnership program. The center has been cited by NSF as a model ERC for its industry collaboration and technology transfer, education, and outreach programs.

Dr. Lee’s research interests include high-frequency power conversion, magnetics and EMI, distributed power systems, renewable energy, power quality, high-density electronics packaging and integration, and modeling and control.

Dr. Lee holds 105 U.S. patents, and has published 338 journal articles and 793 refereed technical papers. During his tenure at Virginia Tech, Dr. Lee has supervised to completion 88 Ph.D. and 94 Master’s students. According to Microsoft H index, Dr. Lee is rated among the top three best cited authors for over 2.5 million engineering authors in the world.

Chen Li has taken roles at Gotion, a battery technology company, including Director of Silicon Valley R&D Center, Director of International R&D Centers, VP of Engineering R&D Institute, and now President of Gotion Global.

Before Gotion, he worked with think tanks Bridging Nations Foundation and Worldwatch Institute in Washington, DC. He holds BS in management from Purdue University and MPA from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

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 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. He is currently a XJTU Distinguished Professor of Power Electronics. His research interests include modeling, control, and design methods for power converters and electronified power systems, power quality control and utility applications of power electronics, and micro-grids 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 2016 State Council Special Subsidy Award, the IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics 2016 and 2021 Prize Paper Awards, the Nomination Award for the Grand Prize of 2020 Bao Steel Outstanding Teacher Award, and the 2022 Fok Ying Tung Education and Teaching Award.

He served as an Associate Editor for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS since 2006, 2015-2019 Executive Vice President and 2020-2021 Vice President of IEEE PELS, and was elevated IEEE Fellow in 2018. He was the Vice President for International Affairs, China Power Supply Society (CPSS) from 2013 to 2021, 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. Since 2013, he has been serving as the Vice Chair of the Chinese National Steering Committee for College Electric Power Engineering 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.

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.

Grzegorz (Greg) Ombach, PhD, is a senior deep-tech executive and board member recognised for scaling businesses and organisations 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.

Alongside his executive responsibilities, he serves as Chair of AdvEn Industries and as a board member of Thread Innovations and Acubed, contributing to capital allocation, M&A oversight, and transformation at board level.

Earlier in his career, he held senior leadership roles at Qualcomm, Siemens, and Dräxlmaier Group, building and scaling global technology-driven businesses in complex industrial environments.

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.

Xiaofeng Denton Peng is Chairman and CEO of SPI Energy Co., Ltd., a renewable energy company headquartered in McClellan Park, California. A pioneer, visionary, and successful entrepreneur in the renewable energy industry, he boasts two decades of experience in solar, battery storage, electrical vehicles (EV), and EV charging. SPI Energy Co Ltd. trades under Nasdaq under the ticker symbol SPI.

Additionally, he serves as CEO and Chairman of Phoenix Motor Inc.. This publicly traded company specializes in designing, developing, manufacturing, and assembling all-electric transit buses and integrating electric drive systems for medium- and light-duty electric vehicles in the United States. Phoenix Motor trades on the NASDAQ as PEV, offering various products, including zero-emission transit buses, shuttle buses, Type A school buses, utility and service trucks, flatbed and cargo trucks, walk-in vans, chargers, and electric forklifts.

Having served as Director and Executive Chairman of the board of directors of SPI Energy since January 2011, he assumed the role of Chairman in February 2017 and has been leading the company as CEO since 2016.

Furthermore, since 2015, he has also held the position of Chairman of the board of SolarJuice Co., Ltd., Australia, a subsidiary of SPI Energy.

As a business leader, he remains at the forefront of investing in emerging technologies within the renewable energy sector. Ensuring technology innovation in each renewable energy segment to serve a broad customer base remains a top priority for him and his team at SPI Energy. “We have a firm position in fast-growing sustainable energy and products.”

Raffi Nazikian is Senior Director for Fusion Energy at General Atomics, steering data-driven and HPC-enabled advances for magnetic and inertial confinement fusion. He earned his Ph.D. in plasma physics from the Australian National University, then joined the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, where he led DIII-D and international collaborations and headed the ITER & Tokamak Department. He is a Fellow and Distinguished Lecturer of the American Physical Society, a two-time Kaul Prize recipient and serves on the coordinating committee of the International Tokamak Physics Activity and the PPPL advisory board. His current focus blends AI, real-time diagnostics, and digital-twin methodologies to accelerate the path from fusion research to commercial energy.

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.

Subham Sahoo is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Energy, Aalborg University (AAU), Denmark, where he is also the vice-leader of the research group on Reliability of Power Electronic Converters (ReliaPEC) in AAU Energy. He has held visiting appointments as a guest researcher in University of Edinburgh, National University of Singapore (NUS) and as a visiting professor in MIT over the years.

He is a recipient of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) Innovative Students Project Award for the best PhD thesis in 2019. He is also selected into EU-US National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Frontier of Engineering (FOE) Class of 2021. He is the recipient of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) Young Scientist award in the year 2023.

He is an affiliate of the Danish Data Science Academy (DDSA), European Lab for Learning & Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) and Lundbeck Foundation Investigator Network, Denmark. He is also the chair of the IEEE joint IAS/IES/PELS chapter in Denmark. He currently serves as the vice-chair of IEEE PELS Technical Committee on Design Methodologies (TC 10).

His research interests are sustainable design, development and use of AI for power electronics and systems.

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.

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. 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.

Ms. Cheng Wang is the CEO of Xenerpower, Houston, TX, and a Professor of Practice at the C.T. Bauer College of Business, University of Houston. She previously served as a Lecturer at Tulane University’s A.B. Freeman School of Business (2017–2021). Her professional background includes marketing and sales at Del Sol Foods, and commodity trading and energy analysis at TechMotion Capital, where she focused on fundamental and technical analysis of energy commodities (including natural gas and crude oil) and developed and back-tested trading strategies. She also worked as an equity analyst with the Burkenroad Reports program, building financial models, conducting management interviews, performing peer and valuation analyses, and publishing an investment research report on Seacor Holdings. Earlier in her career, she was an auditor at Ruihua Certified Public Accountants and held roles at Jinan Qinghe Electric, including KPI system implementation and overseas client negotiations. She received her MBA from Tulane University’s A.B. Freeman School of Business (Energy, International Business) in 2015, and a BBA in Financial Management from Nankai University, China in 2012.

Dr. Junfei Xie is currently a Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the San Diego State University (SDSU). She received her B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), Chengdu, China, in 2012. She received her M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering in 2013 and Ph.D. degree in Computer Science and Engineering from University of North Texas (UNT), Denton, TX, in 2016. Before joining SDSU, she was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computing Sciences at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMUCC). Her research interests include large-scale dynamic system design and control, uncertainty quantification, networked airborne computing, mobile edge computing, unmanned aerial systems, air traffic flow management, spatiotemporal data analysis, and complex information systems, etc. She is the recipient of multiple prestigious awards such as the NSF CAREER Award, SDSU Presidential Research Faculty Fellow Award, San Diego Top 50 Women of Influence in Engineering, etc. She currently serves as the Editor of Unmanned Systems and Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics – Systems. She is a senior member of IEEE and AIAA.

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.

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.