2026 Research Symposium

The FREEDM Annual Symposium is where we showcase our research for the past year, hear from renowned speakers, and debate the future of energy and the grid. Please join us February 10 and 11 at the Hunt Library on Centennial Campus! Register for this year's event here using Eventbrite. The agenda for 2026 and previous years' symposia are below.

Agenda

Tuesday, February 10
8:00 amRegistration and Breakfast
8:30 amUniversity WelcomeChristopher Frey, PhD
Associate Dean for Research and Infrastructure
College of Engineering
NC State
FREEDM UpdateIqbal Husain, PhD
FREEDM Executive Director
NC State
Active MV Substations to Power the
Hyperscaler Datacenter Complex
Johan Enslin, PhD
Program Director
ARPA-E
10:00 amBreak
10:15 amLarge Load Integration
Calvin Zhang, PhD
Director of Engineering Datacenter Hardware
Eaton
Development of a Data Center
Digital Twin
Ning Lu, PhD
Professor
NC State
Ahren Leith
Director of Engineering
FlexGen
11:30 amIndustry CollaborationEd White
CEO
Field2Base
12:00 pmLunch and Posters
1:30 pmSupply Chain Modeling and Analytics for
Resilient Power Systems
Maria Mayorga, PhD
Goodnight Distinguished Chair, ISE

Benjamin Rachunok, PhD
Assistant Professor, ISE

Jordan Kern, PhD
Associate Professor, ISE

Anderson de Queiroz, PhD
Associate Professor, CCEE
2:00 pmElectric Transportation
Powertrain Design and SimulationIqbal Husain, PhD
FREEDM Executive Director
NC State
High Power SiC Inverters with Ultra-High Efficiency
for Transportation Applications
Wensong Yu, PhD
Associate Research Professor
NC State
Flexible Scheduling of Large EV Loads for Improving
the Stability of Power Distribution Systems
Amit Podder, PhD
Senior Engineer, ET Strategic Initiatives
Dominion Energy
3:00 pmBreak and Posters
3:30 pmPower Systems
Operations Research Meets AI:
Shaping the Future of Power Systems
Wenyuan Tang, PhD
Associate Professor
NC State
Data-Driven Nonlinear Control of Power Systems
with Inverter Based Resources
Aranya Chakrabortty, PhD
Associate Department Head for Research, ECE
NC State
Challenges and Recent Breakthrough in the Stability
and EMT Simulation of Large Scale Power Systems
Hantao Cui, PhD
Assistant Professor, ECE
NC State
4:15 pmPower Electronics
Zeljko Pantic, PhD
Assistant Professor, ECE
NC State
III-Nitride Power Devices: Fundamental Research
and Prototyping Opportunities
Spyros Pavlidis, PhD
Assistant Professor, ECE
NC State
Advancing Power Electronics & Packaging Including
AI/ML/DT Reliability Integration
Doug Hopkins, PhD
Research Professor, ECE
PREES Lab Director
NC State

Jon Ryu, PhD
Associate Professor, MAE
NC State
WBG Devices-enabled Power Conversion System
and DC Grids
Subhashish Bhattacharya, PhD
Duke Energy Distinguished Professor
NC State
5:30 pmReception with heavy Hors d'Oeuvres
Wednesday, February 11
8:00 amRegistration and BreakfastSpeaker
8:30 amWelcome
Microgrids: Lesson LearnedJoel Linton
Engineer
Florida Power and Light
Microgrids: Lesson LearnedTim Gubitz, PE
Manager, Energy Services & Technology
NCEMC
Multi-input Converter for
Nags Head Microgrid
Al Raji Billah
Graduate Research Assistant, ECE
NC State
9:45 amBreak and Posters
10:30 amKeynoteBill Dean
CEO
M.C. Dean, Inc
11:00 amM.C. Dean Hub Projects
Coordinated Control of Energy
Storage in Networked Microgrids
Aranya Chakrabortty, PhD
Associate Department Head for Research, ECE
NC State
Development of a Data Center Digital Twin
for Energy and Power Management System Design
Ning Lu, PhD
Professor
NC State
Dynamic Data Center Models to
Enhance Grid Stability and Reliability
Hantao Cui, PhD
Assistant Professor, ECE
NC State
Future Industrial Infrastructure
Distribution Systems Consortium
Srdjan Lukic, PhD
Lampe Distinguished Professor, ECE
NC State
12:00 pmLunch
1:00 pmLab Tour and PostersFollow directions to FREEDM lab or parking deck.
3:00 pmAdjourn