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 BreakfastSpeaker
8:30 amUniversity WelcomeChristopher Frey, PhD
Associate Dean for Research and Infrastructure
College of Engineering
NC State
8:40 amFREEDM UpdateIqbal Husain, PhD
FREEDM Executive Director
NC State
9:30 amActive MV Substations to Power the
Hyperscaler Datacenter Complex
John Enslin, PhD
Program Director
ARPA-E
10:00 amBreak
10:15 amLarge Load Integration
Calvin Zhang, PhD
Director of Engineering Datacenter Hardware
Eaton
PowerSecure
Development of a Data Center
Digital Twin
Ning Lu, PhD
Professor
NC State
11:30 amIndustry CollaborationEd White
CEO
Field2Base
12:00 pmLunch and Posters
1:30 pmElectric Transportation
Machines and Drives
Fast charging
Heavy duty electrification
3:00 pmBreak and Posters
3:30 pmPower Systems
Forecasting
Nonlinear Controls
Open Source Models
4:15 pmPower Electronics
Zeljko Pantic, PhD
Assistant Professor, ECE
NC State
Wensong Yu, PhD
Associate Research Professor
NC State
Spyros Pavlidis
Assistant Professor, ECE
NC State
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
Atlantic Marine Energy Center
Microgrid Control/Coordination
Co-Design
9:45 amBreak and Posters
10:30 amKeynoteBill Dean
CEO
M.C. Dean, Inc
11:15 amM.C. Dean Hub Projects
Coordinated Control of Energy
Storage in Networked Microgrids
Predictability and Reliability
of a Modular Delivery Supply Chain
Dynamic Data Center Models to
Enhance Grid Stability and Reliability
Future Industrial Infrastructure
Distribution Systems Consortium
12:00 pmLunch
1:00 pmLab Tour and PostersFollow directions to FREEDM lab or parking deck.
3:00 pmAdjourn