Tutorial 1

Dr. G. V. Ramanjaneyulu,
Executive Director, Center for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA), India

Title : Need for transition to organic food against the global climate change and food safety crisis

Dr. G. V. Ramanjaneyulu is currently working as a Director with the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture for ecological and economical sustainability of farming and farming-based livelihoods. Earlier, he also worked with Indian Council of Agricultural Research as a Scientist at the Directorate of Oilseeds Research. He did his Ph.D. from Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi in 1996.

Tutorial 2

Dr. Nidhi Mishra,
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong

Dr. Nidhi Mishra received her M.Tech in Electrical Engineering from BIT Mesra, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India in 2012. She was lecturer in the Department of Electrical Engineering at NIT Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, India. She had completed her Ph.D. in the Department of Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi, India in 2020. Currently, she is working in The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Electrical Engineering. She had authored and co-authored and had been reviewer in IEEE, IET and IETE journals. She has also served as session chair in quite international conferences like IECON and ECCE. Her areas of interest includes power electronics, multilevel converters, grid interaction of renewable energy systems, power quality improvement in grid-tied systems, conductive magnetics and wireless power transfer.

Title : Renewable Energy Sources and Applications

Abstract: The tutorial would encapsulate with recent trends in multilevel converter-based applications. It would deal with varied applications related to renewable energy, wind energy, or hybrid energy management-based applications which would deal with cost functionality and power quality improvement for the overall system. The performance of multilevel converters during abnormal grid operation and its diagnosis would be dealt which would provide an in-depth analysis for the workability pattern. Again, various closed-loop control strategies would give an insight into the efficient performance of the system during high power conversion from DC-AC. Control techniques would also help in reducing the computational burden for power converters in microgrids. Multilevel converters switching loss and conduction loss calculation would give cost estimation in order to seek the viability of the introduced scheme. Overall, the tutorial session would emphasize over the efficient aspects to be covered in developments led by multilevel converters in different applications from a power quality point of view.

Tutorial 3

Matlab Team, India

Title: Use of Matlab in Developing AI/ML Applications

Abstract: MATLAB provides AI capabilities similar to those of dedicated AI tools like Caffe and TensorFlow—and more importantly, only MATLAB lets you integrate AI into the complete workflow for developing a fully engineered system. An AI model is just one part of the complete workflow for developing a fully engineered system.

Keynote Talks

Prof. Anurag Mairal,
Stanford University, USA

Title : To be announced

Dr. Anurag Mairal is an Adjunct Professor of Medicine and the Director, Global Outreach Programs at Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign, Stanford University. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and a Faculty Fellow and Lead for Technology Innovation and Impact at Center for Innovation in Global Health. In these roles, he leads initiatives focused on applying the biodesign process to resource-constrained settings globally. Further, he facilitates opportunities for students, faculty and fellows at Stanford to work on global healthcare needs. He is part of the founding faculty team for MED 232, Global Health: Scaling Health Technology Innovations in Low Resource Settings and BIOE 371, Global Biodesign: Medical Technology in an International Context, graduate-level courses offered to engineering, business, and medical students at Stanford University. Earlier, he served as Associate Director for the Stanford-India Biodesign and Singapore-Stanford Biodesign programs. He serves as the Founding Chair of BME IDEA APAC, a community of medtech innovation programs in Asia Pacific, partnering closely with the industry and academia in the region. He is also an Honorary Professor at University of Cape Town, South Africa. Concurrently, he is a co-founder and Executive Vice President of Orbees Medical, a SF Bay Area-based strategy consulting firm serving global healthcare industry, with a focus on medtech, pharmaceutical, and digital health industry.

Mr. Asim Bhalerao, Founder and CEO, Fluid Robotics, San Francisco, California, USA

Title: The role of robotics and AI in wastewater surveillance, and its impact on the environment and public-health.

Asim Bhalerao, Founder of Fluid Robotics, holds a Master’s degree in Intelligent Robotics from the University of Southern California and a Master’s degree in Mechanical Design from Santa Clara University, USA. He has previously led engineering and manufacturing teams in Silicon Valley, building autonomous submarines, drones and robots for minimally invasive surgery. In 2016 Asim moved to India along with Co-founder Nidhi Jain to start Fluid Robotics, with a mission to solve some of India’s growing problems with water loss and water contamination.

Indian cities today lack data about the location and health of underground pipeline infrastructure. This results in losses of 50-60% of potable water, whereas only 10-15% of wastewater gets treated, severely polluting our water resources. Due to rapid urbanization, these problems are only expected to increase exponentially over time. This has forced cities to increasingly rely on manual scavenging, endangering more lives in the process. Fluid Robotics solves these problems by building AI powered robots for monitoring pipeline networks. In the last two years the company has contributed to the treatment of over 400MLD of untreated wastewater previously contaminating lakes and rivers, and has helped identify over 20MLD of water leakages in distribution.

Prof. Juzer Vasi, IIT Bombay, India

Prof. Juzer Vasi has been with the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay since 1981, where he is currently Professor Emeritus. His research interests have been in the areas of microelectronics and photovoltaics. He was Principal Investigator of the “National Centre for Photovoltaic Research and Education” (NCPRE) at IIT Bombay, and India Research Thrust Leader for Photovoltaics of the “Solar Energy Research Institute for India and the US” (SERIIUS). He has a B.Tech. degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay, and a Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University. He was an Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices during 1997-2003. He is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of IEEE, and a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet of the Government of India.

Title: Transitions to Green Energy in India and the World: Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract: Globally, there are profound changes under way as countries transition towards green net-zero carbon energy.  Solar photovoltaics (PV) has emerged as the most important way to generate clean energy and combat climate change.  It is already one of the cheapest ways to produce electricity.  In India, too, solar energy has been playing a major role to achieve the ambitious target of 450 GW renewable energy by 2030.  This talk will review recent developments in solar PV in India and globally, and also present future scenarios up to 2050.  The energy transition presents many new opportunities for electrical and electronics engineers, from research to manufacturing to deployment.  There are also challenges to be overcome, including those of sustainability and adoption of a circular economy. 

Prof. Arumugam Manthiram, University of Texas at Austin, U.S.

Arumugam Manthiram is the Cockrell Family Regents Chair in Engineering and Director of the Texas Materials Institute at the University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin). After receiving his Ph.D. in chemistry from Indian Institute of Technology Madras in 1981 and working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford and at UT-Austin with 2019 Chemistry Nobel Laureate John Goodenough, he became a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UT-Austin in 1991. His research is focused on batteries and fuel cells. He has authored 850 journal articles with 80,000 citations and an h-index of 139. He has mentored 265 students and postdoctoral researchers, including the graduation of 66 Ph.D. students.

Dr. Manthiram is a Fellow of six professional societies: Materials Research Society, Electrochemical Society, American Ceramic Society, Royal Society of Chemistry, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and World Academy of Materials and Manufacturing Engineering. He is an elected member of the World Academy of Ceramics. He received the university-wide (one per year) Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award in 2012, Battery Division Research Award from the Electrochemical Society in 2014, Distinguished Alumnus Award of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in 2015, Billy and Claude R. Hocott Distinguished Centennial Engineering Research Award in 2016, Honorary Mechanical Engineer of the ME Academy of Distinguished Alumni Award in 2019, Henry B. Linford Award for Distinguished Teaching from the Electrochemical Society in 2020, and the International Battery Association Research Award in 2020. He is a Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher every year since 2017. He delivered the 2019 Chemistry Nobel Prize Lecture in Stockholm on behalf of Professor John Goodenough.  

Title: Sustainable Battery Technologies for Vehicle Electrification

Abstract: Rapid increase in global energy use and growing environmental concerns have prompted immense interest in the electrification of the transportation sector. Rechargeable batteries are the prime candidates for vehicle electrification, but their widespread adoption requires an optimization of cost, cycle life, safety, energy density, power density, and environmental impact, all of which are directly linked to severe materials challenges. After providing an account of the current status, this presentation will focus on the development of advanced materials and new battery chemistries for electric vehicles. Specifically, the presentation will focus on the development of sustainable battery technologies, such cobalt-free lithium-ion batteries as well as lithium-sulfur batteries that do not involve the mining of transition metals.   

Prof. D. P. Agrawal,
Ex-Chairman, UPSC, India

Title: IOT Drives Health Systems Future

Professor D.P. Agrawal was Chairman, Union Public Service Commission, New Delhi for a full period of six years from 16th August 2008 to 16th August 2014 . Prior to this he worked as Member, UPSC for the period from October, 2003 to August, 2008. As Chairman UPSC, he has been at 9A in Warrant of precedent in GOI. Prof. Agrawal has initiated major reforms and improvements in the scheme of various Examinations including the flagship Civil Services Examination conducted by the Commission. Professor D P Agrawal was founder Director of Atal Bihari Vajpayee – Indian Institute of
Information Technology and Management (ABV-IIITM), Gwalior from 1998 to 2003, a GOI institute under MHRD. Professor Agrawal has been an eminent teacher, educational administrator and institution builder. He was Professor and Dean at IIT- Delhi from where, in 1994, he took over as Joint Educational Adviser (T) in the Ministry of HRD, Government of India. He has planned and developed a number of initiatives at national level in technical education, particularly in the areas of information technology and computer education. He too has made a substantial contribution for the development of vocational education through advice and guidance as JET (T) in MHRD GOI.