Dariush Shirmohammadi received his BSC from Shariff University of Technology in 1975 and his MASC and PhD from the University of Toronto in 1978 and 1982, respectively. He is currently an Executive Vice President at GridBright, Inc. and the Technical Director at the California Wind Energy Association. He has over 40 years of experience in the utility industry in the planning, design and operation of transmission and distribution grids, interconnection and integration of renewable resources, and development and implementation of electricity markets. Dr. Shirmohammadi has represented renewable industry on key state and national initiatives on interconnection and integration of renewable resources including member of leadership team for the NERC Task Force on large scale integration of variable generation technologies and a member of Stakeholders Steering Committee to California’s Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative. Dr. Shirmohammadi has authored over 70 technical papers on renewable generation interconnection and integration, utility industry restructuring and electricity markets, power system planning and operation, distribution system analysis and automation, Electromagnetic transient's analysis, and High voltage engineering. Dr. Shirmohammadi is a Life Fellow of IEEE and a registered Professional Engineer.

Abstract: The electric power industry has conducted numerous studies in the past two decades on integration of large scale and distributed Variable Energy Resources (VERs). The overwhelming number, if not all, such studies only address a limited set of the VERs integration needs. Working with VERs’ teaches practitioners that there are tens, if not hundreds, of temporal and locational integration needs, none of which can be dismissed. On temporal side, the integration needs range from addressing sub-minute, sub-hour, and multiple-hour net load following requirements, post fault system reliability, ability to accurately predict system state on hourly and daily basis, and finally daily, monthly, and annual resource capacity adequacy requirements. On locational side, the integration needs range from addressing system reliability and resiliency on the house, distribution feeder, local distribution system, regional and the bulk system levels both in short and long-term basis. Every one of these integration needs must be adequately defined and understood before solutions to address them could be found and collaboratively implemented by the system operator and the VER industry. In that regard, the efforts of the California ISO and North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) is worth noting.

Dr. Voicu Groza is a full professor and associate director, Computer Engineering, at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Ottawa, Canada. He received the Dipl. Ing. degree in computer engineering and Dr. Ing. degree in electrical engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Timisoara, Romania, in 1972 and 1985, respectively. He has published more than 400 technical papers in journals, conference proceedings, and books, and received five patents. He was a principal investigator or co-investigator in more than 50 research grants and contracts, and has supervised 90 graduate students. His current research interests include biomedical measurements and high-speed data acquisition systems. Dr. Groza has held leadership roles on the organization and technical program committees of numerous international conferences, such as IEEE International Symposium on Medical Measurement and Applications (MeMeA 2008-2018). He has been volunteering in the frame of the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society (IMS) both at the Ottawa chapter and at the worldwide society administration level. Dr. Groza has been chair of the Working Group P1721 on Standard for Objective Measurement of Systemic Arterial Blood Pressure in Humans of the IEEE Standards Association and currently he serves as chair of the Subcommittee on Blood Pressure Measurement of TC-25 Medical and Biological Measurements of the IEEE IMS. He is a representative of the IMS in the AdCom of the IEEE Biometrics Council. Dr. Groza is a Fellow of the IEEE and a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada.

Abstract: The Internet of Things (IoT) has shown a significant proliferation of implementations of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) in a broad range of domains. Most of applications have been in manufacturing processes automation (Industry 4.0), smart homes / cities / grids / supply chain / farming, and connected vehicles. IoT has evolved based on knowledge in computer networks, communications and software algorithms. Even though the IoT is considered a “silver bullet” that would solve many of the healthcare problems of the world’s aging population, still, the development of the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) has demonstrated a considerable lower pace than the other applications. The factors which are considered responsible for this slowdown are related to safety, security and robustness, along with verification and validation procedures. An important aspect, which was mostly neglected, is the modest accuracy and lack of trustworthiness of the data acquisition systems (DAS) from the front end of the IoMT devices and which measure non-invasively subjects’ physiological parameters. Even though wearable devices represent one of the largest IoT markets, the limited precision of these DAS represents the main impediment in the proliferation of IoMT in medical monitoring and related applications. This talk will present methods, models and architectures that address these critical challenges while identifying future research directions.

Dirk Van Hertem graduated as a M.Eng. in 2001 from the KHK, Geel, Belgium and as a M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the KU Leuven, Belgium in 2003. In 2009, he has obtained his PhD, also from the KU Leuven. In 2010, Dirk Van Hertem was a member of EPS group at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), in Stockholm. Since spring 2011 he is back at the University of Leuven where he is an associate professor in the ELECTA group. His special fields of interest are decision support for grid operators, power system operation and control in systems with FACTS and HVDC and building the transmission system of the future, including offshore grids and the supergrid concept.
Dr. Van Hertem is an active member of both IEEE (PES and IAS) and Cigré, currently acting as chair of the IEEE Benelux section and as chair of the steering committee of the ISGT Europe conference. He was the general chair of the IEEE EnergyCon 2016 conference, held in Leuven.

Abstract: Power systems are increasingly subjected to variability in the form of renewables and the free flow of electricity in the energy market. At the same time, system operators have reduced access to the traditional control means, in particular redispatch. At the same time, new elements become available giving more flexibility: faster controls, smarter grids and new technologies such as energy storage. This talk will address the consequences for the evolving power system, with a focus on reliability. To face the challenges, system operators need to move towards a risk-based reliability management and make better use of the availability of flexibility in their system. In order to do so, new tools are necessary, as well as a new state of mind for the system operator. This will be illustrated with practical examples of including a risk-based approach in systems with HVDC and by showing how incorporating the value of lost load (VoLL) change the efficiency of power systems, but also the fairness.

Petar Popovski is a Professor of Wireless Communications with Aalborg University. He received his Dipl. Ing and Magister Ing. degrees in communication engineering from the University of Sts. Cyril and Methodius in Skopje and the Ph.D. degree from Aalborg University in 2005. He has over 300 publications in journals, conference proceedings, and edited books. He holds over 30 patents and patent applications. He is a Fellow of IEEE. He received an ERC Consolidator Grant (2015), the Danish Elite Researcher award (2016), IEEE Fred W. Ellersick prize (2016) and IEEE Stephen O. Rice prize (2018). He is currently a Steering Committee Member of IEEE SmartGridComm and previously served as a Steering Committee Member of the IEEE INTERNET OF THINGS JOURNAL. He is currently an Area Editor of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS. His research interests are in the area of wireless communication and networking, and communication/information theory.

Abstract: The future wireless landscape, often associated with 5G, envisions three types of connectivity: enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communication (URLLC), and massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC). The latter two are seen as two generic types that support Internet of Things (IoT) communication, putting forward new types of requirements and research challenges, such as: protocols that operate with short packets, access for massive number of devices, techniques to achieve and assess extremely high reliability, etc. This set of challenges is further enriched by the advent of blockchain systems and smart contracts that allow autonomous interaction among IoT devices. The consensus protocols that set the basis for blockchain systems are critically reliant on communication, but they change the traffic pattern that has been envisioned for pre-blockchain IoT communication systems. This talk will give a perspective on the communication engineering challenges related to the emerging IoT communication systems, outline methods and architectures to solve them and provide communication-theoretic insights in some of the fundamental tradeoffs.

Igor Kuzle, PhD Igor Kuzle (https://www.fer.unizg.hr/en/igor.kuzle) is a Full Professor and the Head of the Department of Energy and Power Systems at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing and in November 2017 he was promoted to Tenured Scientific Adviser. He is member of two scientific councils of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Scientific Council for Technological Development and Scientific Council for Crude Oil and Gas Economy and Power Supply). Since 2017, he has been an associate member of the Croatian Academy of Engineering. Prof. Kuzle was awarded the Croatian National Science Award for the year 2017 for his outstanding contribution in the field of smart grid applications in the transmission system. In 2016, he received annual Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing award for Science - for outstanding achievement in research work or innovations in the last five years. Currently he is a project coordinator of two H2020 projects: "CROSSBOW and IRES-8" and a project leader of the two national research projects: "FENISG and WINDLIPS" financed by the Croatia Science Foundation and one Croatia-China bilateral project "WIND ASP".
His scientific interests include problems in electric power systems dynamics and control, maintenance of electrical equipment, as well as smart grids and integration of renewable energy sources.
He is member of 10 journal editorial boards (Associate Editor in the three journals) and he serves as a technical reviewer for various international journals. Igor Kuzle published four books and more than 300 journal and conference papers including technical studies for utilities and private companies. He served as chairman of the three international conferences (IET Medpower 2018, IEEE Energycon 2014, IEEE Eurocon 2013) and participated in more than 50 conference international programs committees. Also, he was the project leader for more than 70 technical projects for industry and electric power companies. Since 2012, he has been a member of Croatia TSO Coordination Group for Connection of renewable energy sources and member of Advisory expert committee of the Ministry of Environmental and Nature Protection in the evaluation of environmental impact of the RES. He is a member of technical commission for assignation of Croatian quality mark of Croatian Chamber of Economy and a member of Croatian Chamber of Electrical Engineers and a Licensed Engineer since 1994.
He is senior member of IEEE (2009-2012 IEEE Croatia Section Chair, 2015-2016 IEEE Region 8 Vice Chair for Technical Activities). Prof. Kuzle is CIGRE member and he has been a member of the Croatian National Committee CIGRE executive board (2009-2012).

Abstract: Internet of Things (IoT) is a concept based on the idea that all everyday physical objects could be connected to the Internet with the ability to exchange personal identification with all the other objects. This represents a step forward in the evolution of the Internet in which all devices and physical objects share global network based on IP protocol. The importance of the IoT concept stems from the fact that the object that can digitally identify itself becomes something inherently more than the mere object itself. That object is not only connected with the user but also with the surrounding objects and databases. Commonly speaking these devices possess limited processing power which means global connection enables new modes of control, supervision and advance services provision. In that regard, synchronized operation of multiple objects and devices is known as the ambient intelligence which enables recognition of activities, awareness of contexts and presence of individuals and adaptation to changing needs. Furthermore, IoT concept facilitates integration of large numbers of different devices with different sensors through which different means of communication and data interchange can be established. Therefore, this concept will have a decisive impact on the future organization of maintenance systems augmenting the development of maintenance schemes based on equipment state (condition-based).

Prof. Emil Levi received his Dipl. Ing. degree from the University of Novi Sad, Yugoslavia in 1982 and his MSc and the PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia in 1986 and 1990, respectively. From 1982 till 1992 he was with the Dept. of Electrical Engineering, University of Novi Sad. He joined Liverpool John Moores University, UK in May 1992 and is since September 2000 Professor of Electric Machines and Drives. He served as a Co-Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Trans. on Industrial Electronics in the 2009-2013 period and is currently Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Trans. on Industrial Electronics (for the period 2019-2021) and Editor-in-Chief of the IET Electric Power Applications. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and the recipient of the Cyril Veinott award of the IEEE Power and Energy Society for 2009 and the Best Paper award of the IEEE Trans. on Industrial Electronics for 2008. He is also a recipient of the European Power Electronics (EPE) Association “Outstanding Achievement Award” for 2014 and “Professor Istvan Nagy Award” of the Power Electronics and Motion Control (PEMC) Council for 2018.

Abstract: To reduce the CO2 emissions and achieve the 80% reduction target by 2050, it is essential that the electric vehicle (EV) development and their adoption by the public are accelerated. This requires removal of one of the major obstacles, so-called range anxiety, related to the insufficient existing charging infrastructure. After providing a brief overview of the current state of the electrified transportation, the presentation will concentrate on the charging solutions of various types, as suited to the different charging levels defined in the current standards. The first and the most obvious approach to relieving EV driver’s range anxiety is to enable battery charging using wired Level 1 chargers that connect to the single-phase grid outlets. This is simultaneously the most widespread option and is at the same time the slowest one. The next charging solution, Level 2 charging, connects the battery through a power electronic converter to the three-phase grid. For these two charging levels the solutions can be different, depending on the placement of the charger – off-board or on-board, and non-integrated and integrated. The dominant current type is non-integrated on-board charger, although the integrated versions possess numerous advantages. This includes typically easiness of switchover from charging to vehicle-to-grid (V2G) mode. Fast or Level 3 chargers remove the long waiting times for the full charge to be established and are perceived as the dominant wired solution in the near-to-mid-term future. An alternative to the wired (or conductive) charging is the wireless charging. It is currently by and large of inductive type and solutions to be surveyed relate to stationary and ‘on-the-move’ charging.

Milojicic is a distinguished technologist at Hewlett Packard Labs, Palo Alto, CA (1998-) leading system software teams over 4 continents and projects with budgets of hundred US$M. He worked at the OSF Research Institute in Cambridge, MA and at the Mihajlo Pupin Institute in Belgrade, Serbia. Milojicic received his PhD from Kaiserslautern University, Germany; and his MSc/BSc from Belgrade University, Serbia. He was a technical director of the Open Cirrus Cloud Computing Testbed, with academic, industrial and government sites in the US, Europe, and Asia. He has published 2 books and 180 papers; he has 31 granted patents. He is an IEEE Fellow (2010) and ACM Distinguished Engineer (2008). Milojicic was on 8 PhD thesis committees and taught Cloud management course at SJSU. As president of the IEEE Computer Society (2014), he started Tech Trends, the top viewed CS news. As the industry engagement chair, he started IEEE Infrastructure’18 conference.

Abstract: The deceleration of transistor feature size scaling has motivated growing adoption of specialized accelerators implemented as GPUs, FPGAs, ASICs, and more recently new types of computing such as neuromorphic, bio-inspired, ultra-low energy, reversible, stochastic, optical, quantum, combinations, and others unforeseen. There is a tension between specialization and generalization, with the current state trending to master slave models where accelerators (slaves) are instructed by a general purpose system (master) running an Operating System (OS). This talk revisits System Software functionality for memristor-based accelerators. We explore one accelerator implementation, the Dot Product Engine (DPE), for a select pattern of applications in machine learning. We demonstrate that making an accelerator, such as the DPE, more general will result in broader adoption and better utilization.
[This talk is based on a number of papers that were published (IEEE ICRC’16-18, IEEE ICDCS 2018, ACM ASPLOS 2019) or that are in the process of publishing. ASPLOS paper is available at: https://arxiv.org/abs/1901.10351]

Manuela M. Veloso is the Head of J.P. Morgan AI Research, which pursues fundamental research in areas of core relevance to financial services, including data mining and cryptography, machine learning, explainability, and human-AI interaction. J.P. Morgan AI Research partners with applied data analytics teams across the firm as well as with leading academic institutions globally.
Professor Veloso is on leave from Carnegie Mellon University as the Herbert A. Simon University Professor in the School of Computer Science, and the past Head of the Machine Learning Department. With her students, she had led research in AI, with a focus on robotics and machine learning, having concretely researched and developed a variety of autonomous robots, including teams of soccer robots, and mobile service robots. Her robot soccer teams have been RoboCup world champions several times, and the CoBot mobile robots have autonomously navigated for more than 1,000km in university buildings.
Professor Veloso is the Past President of AAAI, (the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence), and the co-founder, Trustee, and Past President of RoboCup. Professor Veloso has been recognized with multiple honors, including being a Fellow of the ACM, IEEE, AAAS, and AAAI. She is the recipient of several best paper awards, the Einstein Chair of the Chinese Academy of Science, the ACM/SIGART Autonomous Agents Research Award, an NSF Career Award, and the Allen Newell Medal for Excellence in Research.

Abstract: Artificial Intelligence includes a seamless integration of perception, as intelligent data processing, cognition, as intelligent decision making and learning, and actuation, as autonomous action execution. In this talk, I will present examples of such AI systems, where humans play multiple roles in their interaction with AI and also challenge AI in particular for interpretability. The presentation is grounded within autonomous mobile service robots and financial applications.