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
9:00 amActive MV Substations to Power the
Hyperscaler Datacenter Complex		Johan Enslin, PhD
Program Director
ARPA-E
Calvin Zhang, PhD
Director of Engineering Datacenter Hardware
Eaton
10:00 amBreak
10:15 amLarge Load Integration
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 pmSupply Chain Resiliency for Electric UtilitiesMaria Mayorga, PhD
Goodnight Distinguished Chair and
Director of Operation Research, ISE
NC State
2:00 pmElectric Transportation
Powertrain Design and SimulationIqbal Husain, PhD
FREEDM Executive Director
NC State
SST for Multi Megawatt
Fast Charging		Wensong Yu, PhD
Associate Research Professor
NC State
Flexible Scheduling of Large EV Loads for Improving
the Stability of Power Distribution Systems		Amit Podder, PhD
Senior Engineer, ET Strategic Initiatives
Dominion Energy
3:00 pmBreak and Posters
3:30 pmPower Systems
Operations Research Meets AI:
Shaping the Future of Power Systems		Wenyuan Tang, PhD
Associate Professor
NC State
Data-Driven Nonlinear Control of Power Systems
with Inverter Based Resources		Rahul Roy
Graduate Student, ECE
Challenges and Recent Breakthrough in the Stability
and EMT Simulation of Large Scale Power Systems		Hantao Cui, PhD
Assistant Professor, ECE
NC State
4:15 pmPower Electronics
Zeljko Pantic, PhD
Assistant Professor, ECE
NC State
III-Nitride Power Devices: Fundamental Research
and Prototyping Opportunities		Spyros Pavlidis, PhD
Assistant Professor, ECE
NC State
Doug Hopkins, PhD
Research Professor, ECE
PREES Lab Director
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
Multi-input Converter for
Nags Head Microgrid		George Bonner, PE
Director, NC Renewable Ocean Energy Program
Coastal Studies Institute
Microgrid Control/Coordination
Co-Design
9:45 amBreak and Posters
10:30 amKeynoteBill Dean
CEO
M.C. Dean, Inc
11:00 amM.C. Dean Hub Projects
Coordinated Control of Energy
Storage in Networked Microgrids		Aranya Chakrabortty, PhD
Associate Department Head for Research, ECE
NC State
Development of a Data Center Digital Twin
for Energy and Power Management System Design		Ning Lu, PhD
Professor
NC State
Dynamic Data Center Models to
Enhance Grid Stability and Reliability		Hantao Cui, PhD
Assistant Professor, ECE
NC State
Future Industrial Infrastructure
Distribution Systems Consortium		Srdjan Lukic, PhD
Lampe Distinguished Professor, ECE
NC State
12:00 pmLunch
1:00 pmLab Tour and PostersFollow directions to FREEDM lab or parking deck.
3:00 pmAdjourn

 

Past Symposia

2025 Research Symposium

2024 Research Symposium

2023 Research Symposium

2022 Research Symposium

2021 Research Symposium