2025 Research Symposium

The 2025 FREEDM Annual Symposium was held February 10 and 11 at the Hunt Library on Centennial Campus. The symposium agenda is below.

Agenda

Monday, February 10
8:00 amRegistration and Breakfast
8:30 amUniversity WelcomeChristopher Frey, PhD
Associate Dean for
Research and Infrastructure
College of Engineering
NC State
8:35 amVeena Misra, PhD
Department Head
Electrical and Computer Engineering
NC State
8:40 amFREEDM UpdateIqbal Husain, PhD
FREEDM Executive Director
NC State
9:00 amKeynote SpeakerVictor Veliadis, PhD
Executive Director
PowerAmerica		Accelerating Commercialization
of SiC Chips and
Power Electronics
9:45 amBreak
Electric TransportationSpeakerPresentation Title
10:00 amTomas Sadilek, PhD
Principal Aerospace Power
Electronics & Motor Drive Engineer
Curtiss Wright		Electrified Actuation for Aerospace
Applications at Curtiss-Wright
10:20 amSarah Searcy
Emerging Technologies and
Innovation Manager
NC Department of
Transportation		NCDOT's Electric Vehicle
and Automated Vehicle Initiatives
10:40 amPetri Korhonen
Innovation Director
Kempower		Electric Mobility Research
at Kempower
11:00 amAshfanoor Kabir, PhD
Senior Engineering Specialist
Caterpillar		Electric Motors for Transportation
11:20 amPoster SessionElectric Transportation
12:00 pmLunch
12:45 pmKeynote SpeakerVille Naumanen, PhD
Research Director
Kempower Electric
Mobility Research Center
Perspectives on Heavy Duty
Electric Transportation
in Europe
Renewable EnergySpeakerPresentation Title
1:30 pmBen Callum
Head of Product
PV Farm		Bridging Design to Construction:
Interactive Solar Engineering
1:45 pmVatan Kumar
PV Projects Manager
RWE		Update on Utility Scale Solar
Deployments in the US
2:00 pmZeljko Pantic, PhD
Associate Professor
NC State		FREEDM Research on
DC Microgrid Systems for
Offshore Applications
2:15 pmRifat Rachi, PhD
Power Electronics Engineer
Danfoss Drives		Green Hydrogen Production
2:30 pmTrent Miller
Lead Engineer, Microgrid
and DER Integration
Duke Energy		Hot Springs Microgrid
Performance post Helene
2:45 pmPoster SessionRenewable Energy
Wide BandgapSpeakerPresentation Title
3:30 pmKeynote SpeakerPeter Barbosa, PhD
R&D Director
Delta Electronics		Solid-State Transformers
in Medium Voltage Applications
4:00 pmWensong Yu, PhD
Associate Research Professor
NC State		SiC Paired Switches
for High Power Applications
4:15 pmDoug Hopkins, PhD
Research Professor
NC State		Advanced Packaging Issues
and A New WFD Platform
4:30 pmGovind Chavan, Phd
Principal Scientist
ABB		Protection Coordination
in DC Microgrids
4:45 pmPoster SessionWide Bandgap
5:30 pmReception with heavy Hors d'Oeuvres
Tuesday, February 11
8:00 amRegistration and Breakfast
8:30 amWelcome
8:40 amKeynote SpeakerDamir Novosel, PhD
President
Quanta Technology		Success Factors for Sustainable
Electrical Energy Delivery
Power SystemsSpeakerPresentation Title
9:15 amSayak Mukherjee, PhD
Senior Research Scientist
Pacific Northwest National Lab		On the Dynamical Impacts and
Advanced Controls for
Inverter-Dominated Grids
9:30 amHantao Cui, PhD
Associate Professor
NC State		Pathway Towards an
Open-Source Ecosystem for
Power System Software
9:45 amBreak
10:00 amHyeonjin Kim
Student
Pre-trained Models for
Load Profile Analysis
10:15 amYi Hu
Student		Generative AI in Power
System Data Analysis
10:30 amJishnudeep Kar, PhD
Scientist
Hitachi Energy		A Risk-Aware Strategy for
Enhancing Power Grid Resilience
to Extreme Weather Events
10:45 amThree Minute Thesis Competition
11:15 amPoster SessionPower Systems
12:00 pmLunch
1:00 pmLab Tour and PostersFollow directions to FREEDM lab or parking deck.
3:00 pmAdjourn