Speakers

Prof. Zhao Xu

(Keynote Speaker)

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, HKSAR, China

---

Speech Title: Securing the Future Grid: A Historical and Technical Perspective on Fault Ride-Through Control for Renewables

Brief Bio: Prof. Zhao Xu received the B.Eng. degree from Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, in 1996, the M.Eng. degree from the National University of Singapore, Singapore, in 2002, and the Ph.D. degree from The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, in 2006, all in electrical engineering. From 2006 to 2010, he was an Assistant and then an Associate Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark. Since 2010, he has been with The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, where he is currently a Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering and the Leader of Smart Grid Research Area. He is also a foreign Associate Staff of the Centre for Electric Technology, Technical University of Denmark. His research interests include smart grid, renewable energy, and applications of AI and big data analytics. He has extensive research project experiences involving collaborations with academia, industrial, and business sectors. Prof. Xu was the recipient of several awards for research excellence, including the 2017 State Award in Nature Science from MOE, China. He is currently the Chairman of the IEEE Hong Kong Joint Chapter of PES/IELS/IAS/PELS. He has served/is serving as an editor for a number of IEEE Transactions and IET journals. <Personal Webpage>

Prof. Zhongbao Wei

(Keynote Speaker)

Beijing Institute of Technology, China

---

Speech Title: Intelligent Control for Lithium-ion Batteries: From Data-Driven Diagnostics to Proactive Safety Management

Brief Bio: Zhongbao Wei received the B.Eng. and the M.Sc. degrees in instrumental science and technology from Beihang University, China, in 2010 and 2013, and the Ph.D. degree in power engineering from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, in 2017.

He has been a research fellow with Energy Research Institute @ NTU, Nanyang Technological University from 2016 to 2018. He is currently a professor in vehicle engineering with the National Engineering Laboratory for Electric Vehicles, Beijing Institute of Technology, China. He has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed articles. His research interests include electrified transportation and battery management. He serves as Associate Editor for many international journals like IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, and IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification. <Personal Webpage>

Prof. Bo Yang

(Keynote Speaker)

Kunming University of Science and Technology, China

---

Speech Title: Artificial Intelligence based Optimization in New Power Systems

Brief Bio: Prof. Bo Yang received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Liverpool in 2015 supported by China Scholarship Council (CSC). He has authored two Chinese monographs as the first author and published over 180 SCI journal papers (including 11 ESI papers and 3 hot papers) and 30 EI journal papers. He has led 33 research projects, including two National Natural Science Foundation of China and three Yunnan Province basic Research Programs. He has received numerous awards, including the First Prize for Technological Innovation from the China Electricity Council in October 2018, the Second Prize for Innovation in Industry-Academia-Research Cooperation in December 2018, and the First Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress from the Yunnan Power Grid Company in December 2023. He was awarded as the "Yunnan Province Ten Thousand Talents Program - Young Top Talents" (provincial level) in December 2018, Highly Cited Chinese Scientist from 2021-2024 by Elsevier, top 2% of scientists globally in terms of lifetime scientific impact and annual influence from 2022-2024, as well as China Knowledge Network Top 1% of Highly Cited Scholars for 2024. From October 2023 to January 2024, he was fully funded by the to conduct research as a visiting scholar at the University of Liverpool. He also serves on the Youth Working Committee of the Eighth Council of the China Electrotechnical Society, as an executive director of the IEEE PES China Energy Informatics and Systems Technology Subcommittee and the Dynamic Power System Artificial Intelligence Applications Technology Subcommittee. He has been playing General Chair of IEEE International Conference on Power Science and Technology (ICPST 2023-2025), indexed by EI). <Personal Webpage>

Prof. Lixuan Lu

(Keynote Speaker)

Ontario Tech University, Canada

---

Speech Title: The Role and Demand of Instrumentation and Control for Nuclear Power Generation

Brief Bio: Lixuan Lu obtained her Ph.D degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Western Ontario (now Western University), Canada in 2005. She joined the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (now Ontario Tech University), Canada as an assistant professor in 2005, and obtained her associate professorship and full professorship in 2011 and 2017, respectively. Her research interests cover dynamic probabilistic safety assessment, reliability analysis methods, instrumentation and control systems in safety-critical applications, passive safety systems, risk-informed design, risk-informed maintenance, and small modular reactors. <Personal Webpage>

Prof. Zhenglong Sun

(Keynote Speaker)

Northeast Electric Power University, China

---

Speech Title: Analysis and Control of the Transient Stability Region in Grid-Forming Converter Integrated System

Brief Bio: Sun Zhenglong, PhD in Engineering, is a Professor, Doctoral Supervisor at Northeast Electric Power University, and a former Postdoctoral Fellow at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Currently, he serves as Vice Dean of the School of Electrical Engineering at Northeast Electric Power University and Director of the National First-class Undergraduate Program.

As the first corresponding author, he won one Second Prize of Jilin Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award. He has also received multiple honors, including being named "Jilin City Young Expert in Professional Post", "Jilin Provincial Class D Talent", recipient of the "Jilin Provincial Preferential Funding for Scientific and Technological Innovation and Entrepreneurship of Overseas Returnees (Excellent Category)", "Northeast Electric Power University Scholar" at Northeast Electric Power University, and "Outstanding Party Affairs Worker" at Northeast Electric Power University. Additionally, he was selected into the "Young Talent Support Program" of the Chinese Society for Electrical Engineering.<Personal Webpage>

Assoc. Prof. Jiaqi Ruan

(Invited Speaker)

Sichuan University, China

---

Speech Title: Exploring Emerging Vulnerabilities in Energy Systems

Brief Bio: Dr. Jiaqi Ruan is an Associate Professor at the College of Electrical Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China. He received his Ph.D. from The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2023. After that, he was awarded a Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Dr. Ruan is an IEEE Member and serves on the editorial boards of several journals, including Energy Conversion and Economics, Scientific Reports, EAI Endorsed Transactions on Internet of Things, etc. His research interests include smart grids, artificial intelligence algorithms and their applications in energy systems, cyber-physical security, climate resilience, and risk management. He has authored over 40 academic publications, with representative works published in Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification, IEEE Internet of Things Journal, Applied Energy, etc. His research has been recognized with multiple Best Paper Awards, including those from ECE 2024, ECE 2023, and POWERCON 2018. He has also received several Excellent Organizer Awards for his contributions to academic conferences. <Personal Webpage>