Keynote Speakers
Prof. Milos Manic
IEEE Fellow, Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University
Dr. Manic is a Professor with the Computer Science Department and Director of VCU Cybersecurity Center at Virginia Commonwealth University. He completed over 50 research grants in AI/ML in cyber and energy and intelligent controls. He authored over 200 refereed articles, has given over 50 invited talks around the world, authored over 200 refereed articles in international journals, books, and conferences, holds several U.S. patents and has won 2018 R&D 100 Award for Autonomic Intelligent Cyber Sensor (AICS), one of top 100 science and technology worldwide innovations in 2018, and is recipient of the 2023 FBI DCLA Director’s Community Leadership Award for innovative research in AI & cybersecurity.
He is an inductee of US National Academy of Inventors (senior class of 2023, member class of 2019), and a Fellow of Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (specialty in AI & Cybersecurity). He holds Joint Appointment with Idaho National laboratory.
He is an IEEE IES President (2024-2025), after serving in multiple IES officer positions, IEEE Fellow (for contributions to machine learning based cybersecurity in critical infrastructures), recipient of IEEE IES 2019 Anthony J. Hornfeck Service Award, 2012 J. David Irwin Early Career Award, 2017 IEM Best Paper Award, associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, IEEE Open Journal of Industrial Electronics Society, and IEEE IES Senior Life AdCom member. He served as AE of Trans. on Industrial Electronics, was a founding chair of IEEE IES Technical Committee on Resilience and Security in Industry, and was a General Chair of IEEE ICIT 2023, IEEE IECON 2018 (record breaking, over 1,100 participants), IEEE HSI 2019.
Prof. Akshay Kumar Rathore
IEEE Fellow, Professor, Singapore Institute of Technology, Singapore
Akshay Kumar Rathore is an IEEE Fellow and expert in power electronics and control of electrical motor drives. He is currently a Professor and Program leader of Electrical Power Engineering Degree Program jointly offered with Newcastle University, UK. He received the Gold Medal for securing the highest academic standing in his Master’s degree among all electrical engineering specializations at IIT (BHU) Varanasi, India. He received his PhD degree in Power Electronics from University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada in 2008. He had two subsequent postdoctoral research appointments with the University of Wuppertal, Germany, and the University of Illinois at Chicago, USA. From 2011-2015, he served as an Assistant Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore. From 2016-2021, he served as an Associate Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada where he was listed in the Provost Circle of Distinction in 2021. He served as Graduate Program Director and Chair of Graduate Awards during 2020-21.
Dr. Rathore is a recipient of the 2013 IEEE IAS Andrew W. Smith Outstanding Young Member Achievement Award, 2014 Isao Takahashi Power Electronics Award, 2017 IEEE IES David Irwin Early Career Award, 2019 IES Publications Service Recognition Award, 2020 IEEE Bimal Bose Award for Industrial Electronics Applications in Energy Systems, 2021 Nagamori Award, and 2023 Distinguished Alumna Award (Young Achiever Category -IIT BHU Varanasi). He published about 300 research papers in international journals and conferences, including 105 IEEE Transactions.
Dr. Rathore is currently serving as the co-Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics and IEEE Fellow Evaluation Committee member of Industrial Electronics Society and member of the IEEE Nikola Tesla Award Committee.
Prof. Pierluigi Siano
Professor, University of Salerno
Pierluigi Siano (M’09–SM’14) received the M.Sc. degree in electronic engineering and the Ph.D. degree in information and electrical engineering from the University of Salerno, Salerno, Italy, in 2001 and 2006, respectively. He is a Full Professor of Electrical Power Systems and Scientific Director of the Smart Grids and Smart Cities Laboratory with the Department of Management & Innovation Systems, University of Salerno.
His research activities are centered on demand response, energy management, the integration of distributed energy resources in smart grids, and electricity markets, and the planning and management of power systems.
In these research fields, he has co-authored more than 800 articles including more than 400 international journals that received in Scopus more than 23000 citations with an H-index equal to 73. Since 2019 he has been awarded as a Highly Cited Researcher in Engineering by Web of Science Group. He has been the Chair of the IES TC on Smart Grids. He is an Editor for the Power & Energy Society Section of IEEE Access, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL INFORMATICS, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, IEEE SYSTEMS.
Prof. Vinod Khadkikar
IEEE Fellow, Professor, EECS Department at Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Prof. Khadkikar is an IEEE Fellow and a Professor in the EECS Department at Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, UAE. He is a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Industry Applications Society.
He received his M. Tech. degree in Power Electronics, Electrical Machines and Drives from the Indian Institute of Technology (IITD), New Delhi, India, in 2002 and PhD in Electrical Engineering from the École de Technologie Supérieure (ETS), Montréal, Canada, in 2008. From April 2010 to December 2010, he was a Visiting Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA. From December 2008 to March 2010, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow with the University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.He has contributed around 75 IEEE Transactions papers, and has been instrumental in attracting several external and internal research funds/grants as PI/Co-PI with a total amount of 28 million US$. He was ranked 142 among more than 100,000 researchers in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in the list of world’s top 2% of career-long scientists as of September 2022 released by Stanford University.
He is Co-EiC of the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics and an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications and IET Power Electronics Journal. He was an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics from 2015 to 2023. Prof. Khadkikar’s research interests include applications of Power Electronics in Distribution Systems and Renewable Energy Resources, Power Quality Enhancement, Active Power Filters, Solid State Transformers, Microgrids, CubeSats and Electric Vehicles.
Sze Sing Lee
Newcastle University in Singapore
Dr. Balakrishna I
Senate Member (UoM), Executive Member, Center for IOT (Anna University), Center for Electromagnetics, Chennai, R&D Lab, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)
Hon’ble Governor of Tamilnadu Shri. R N Ravi has nominated him as a SENATE Member of the University of Madras, Chennai, and Anna University. He is also an Executive Committee Member for C-IoT (Center for Internet of Things), MIT, Anna University, Chennai. He is a Chairman and member for the Board of Studies (BOS) in IITs, NITs, Reputed Universities, and Various Engineering Colleges. He is
a Visiting Scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, NTU Singapore, IISc Bangalore, IIT’s, NIT’s. He was with Reliance Jio Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, India as a Chief Manager and the Head of the R & D, Administrative and Financial Department. After he departed from the previous company, he joined as a Scientist at R & D laboratory, Centre for Electromagnetics, Chennai, Ministry of Electronics & Information of Technology, Govt. of India. He has 13+ years of Experience in Research and Development in RF, Microwaves, and mm-Wave technologies for strategic and civilian sectors. Under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan Scheme- Self- reliant India program, he handled many National Prestigious and Mission Critical Defense, Space, Indian Navy, and Indian Army Projects and Missiles Test Flown Successfully. He worked on the Analysis of Complex Electromagnetic Problems such as Antennas on Ships, Satellites, Stealth Technology Aircraft and Missiles. As a scientist, in the initial part of his career, he has been actively involved in the
implementation of various future-driven next-generation technologies for both strategic and societal applications for DRDO, MeitY, and DoT. He has been part of multi-institute (IITM, IITB, IITD, IITK, IITH, IISc, CEWiT, and CEM) collaborative research towards the development of Indigenous 5G solutions “Indigenous Development of End-to-End 5G Test Bed” Funded by DoT (Department of Telecommunications), Government of India with Budget Outlay of Rs. 240 Crores. He was part of the 5G team and for the first time in India, we demonstrated 5G test bed to the Hon’ble Prime Minister on 17th May 2022 which is a fully functional MIMO and massive MIMO (256T and 256R) Antenna Systems, Joint Director/Scientist E-mail. [email protected]
Dr. Balakrishna I,MIEEE & AP-S and SEMCEI Remote Radio Head (RRH)/RU, Distributed Unit (DU), Wireless Front Haul, Mid Haul, and Back Haul Interfaces, RF and Antenna Systems for Sub-6 GHz Band (FR1) and Phased Array Antenna in mmWave Band with a Multi-Layer design for (FR2) bands worked in TDD/FDD mode and deployable in NSA & SA mode Active Antenna Systems for 5G Base Station Applications and integrated mmWave Tiled Phased array antennas in the country. He was instrumental in building indigenous technologies and R&D facilities and executed various strategic projects to address the denied technologies in India. He is working on 5G/6G and Beyond Technology Projects. As a member of high-level committees at the national level in driving the technology programs for India, he facilitated collaborative research between Academia and Industry, both at national and international levels. He actively contributes to capacity building in terms of lectures, workshops, National and International Conferences, and symposia and mentored several scientific teams of B. Tech, M. Tech, MS, and Ph.D. Scholars at various levels of NITs, IITs, and reputed Indian Universities. He is a member of Doctoral and Master Committees for various IITs, NITs, and reputed Indian universities. He has authored few patents and research papers in highly referred IEEE International Journals and Conferences. He is a Motivational Speaker and he does counseling for Students. He also extended his helping hands to needy 50+ Students for their Higher Education and a few among them are placed in various State and Central Government Sectors.
His current research interests include Jammer systems and Surveillance Systems, 6G Solutions, intelligent reflecting surfaces, UAV detection, deactivation, Spectrum Studies and RF SoC and Tiled Phased arrays systems, IoT – Smart Agriculture, Smart Farming and Smart Cities, Wearable Watches, Smart Homes, Smart Medical Applications using 5G Technology and MIMO, massive MIMO, and Switched Beam Antenna Arrays for 5G and Beyond Technology. Aperture Coupled antennas, Planar Antennas arrays, RF Cloaking, Shared Aperture Antennas, FSS Based Antennas and Radomes, Metamaterial Based Antennas, V/UHF Antenna, UAV Antennas, Low-Frequency Antennas, THz
Antennas, Wireless Gigabits-WiGig, High Impedance Surface for the Surveillance and Radar Tracking Applications. Hybrid Vehicles, E-Vehicles, Embedded Systems, Airborne Applications, Drones, Rovers, and Robotics Applications.
Prof Subhransu Ranjan Samantaray
Head of the School of School of Electrical Sciences and OPTCL Chair Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar
Prof Subhransu Ranjan Samantaray, FNAE has received B. Tech from UCE Burla, PhD from NIT Rourkela and Post-Doctoral Studies from McGill University, Canada. Currently, he holds the position of Head of the School of School of Electrical Sciences and OPTCL Chair Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, India.. He has visited McGill University, Canada and AALTO University, Finland as Visiting Professor. He has more than 25 years of experience including Industry and Academia.
His major research interests include Power System Protection, PMU and WAMs and Smartgrid. With 1 patent, 145 peer reviewed international journals and 83 conference proceedings, his research appeared in top power engineering journals such as IEEE Transactions, IET Proceedings and Elsevier etc. The research outcomes have been cited more than 8685 with h-index of 50 and i-10 index of 142.
Received several national and international recognitions of high repute including Top 2 % scientist by Stanford University (2020-2024), SERB STAR Award-2021, Director’s Commendation for Outstanding Research-2021, IEEE PES Chapter Outstanding Engineer Award-2020, NASI- SCOPUS Young Scientists Awards-2015, IEEE PES Technical Committee Prize Paper Award-2012, USA, Samanta Chandra Sekhar Award-2010 and Young Scientists, Odisha Bigyana Acadmey-2007, INAE innovative Doctoral thesis award-2008, Institutes of Engineers (IEI) Young Engineer Award-2009 etc.
Prof Samantaray is the past Associate Editor of IEEE Systems Journal, past Editor of IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, Associate, IET, Generation, Transmission & Distribution and Guest Editor, IEEE Sensor Journal. He serves as a member of IEEE Task Force on Big Data Analytics for Synchro-Waveform Measurements and IEEE Power Systems Stability Sub-Committee.
He is a Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering (FNAE), Institution of Engineering and Technology (FIET), UK and Senior Member, IEEE.
Prof Samantaray is the founder secretary and past Chair of of IEEE Bhubaneswar Subsection.
Dr. Simon Lambert
Deputy Director for Electrification, Newcastle University, UK
Title: Automated Performance Qualification of Automotive Batteries for Second- Life Applications and Energy Storage
Abstract:
Promoting the reuse of automotive batteries in second-life applications aligns with the principles of the waste hierarchy. However, implementing second-life use cases presents nuanced, multi-dimensional challenges. Traditional metrics like State of Health (SoH), which compares present capacity against manufactured capacity, fail to fully capture a battery’s performance potential in second-life applications. Instead, understanding target application requirements is crucial to predicting energy, power, thermal performance, and projected lifespan under new operating conditions.
The concept of Remaining Useful Life (RUL) provides a tailored metric for making informed gateway decisions regarding the destination of batteries at the end of their primary life. Assessing RUL involves advanced techniques such as active measurements, complex control algorithms, and AI-driven strategies. These methods must balance computational complexity and data requirements, adapting to specific
states of charge (SoC) and levels of granularity (pack, module, or cell). As battery fleet sizes grow, economic considerations necessitate automation in re- engineering processes, potentially incorporating robotic or co-bot systems. Additionally, decisions about recycling versus repurposing must account for strategic material recovery, which could benefit the next generation of batteries.
This presentation provides an overview of research addressing these multi-dimensional challenges, highlighting technical, economic, and material considerations shaping the future of second-life applications for automotive batteries and energy storage systems.
Dr. Simon Lambert is a Senior Lecturer and Deputy Director for Electrification at Newcastle University. He earned an MEng (Hons) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 2008 and a Ph.D. in 2012, both from Newcastle University. With nearly 20 years of experience, Dr. Lambert specializes in power electronics, machines, drives, battery integration, and degradation analysis.
He has contributed to numerous national and international collaborative research projects, including leading roles in the Faraday Institution’s ReLiB project on recycling lithium-ion batteries. Dr. Lambert’s expertise extends to battery testing, characterization, and quality control, underpinned by extensive industry collaboration with EV manufacturers.