2026 IEEE North-East India International Energy Conversion Conference and Exhibition

Prof. Praveen Jain

Prof. Praveen K. Jain (Fellow, IEEE) received his PhD from the University of Toronto in 1987. He is currently a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Power Electronics, and Director of the Centre for Energy and Power Electronics Research at Queen’s University. He made pioneering contributions in introducing resonant power conversion technology in telecommunications during his work at Nortel in the 1990’s. He played a key role in the design and development of high-frequency power conversion equipment for the International Space Station at Canadian Astronautics in the late 1980’s. Over the last 35 years, he has made sustained contributions to the theory and practice of power electronics through his considerable consulting work with industry. He is the founder of two successful start-up companies, CHiL Semiconductor in the area of digital power controller (acquired by International Rectifier), and SPARQ Systems in the area of photovoltaic micro-inverters, listed at the Toronto Stock Exchange Venture in 2022. He has supervised and guided over 100 graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and power electronics engineers. He has published over 600 papers and holds over 100 patents. He is the recipient of the 2021 IEEE Medal in Power Engineering, the 2017 IEEE Canada Electric Power Medal, the 2011 IEEE William Newell Power Electronics Award, and the 2004 Engineering Medal of the Ontario Professional Engineers. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, the Royal Society of Canada, the Engineering Institute of Canada, and the Canadian Academy of Engineering.

Prof. Marta Molinas

Prof. Marta Molinas (Fellow, IEEE) is a Professor of Information Technology and Electrical Signal Analysis in the Department of Engineering Cybernetics at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), in Trondheim, Norway. She received her M.E. degree from Ryukyu University, Nishihara, Japan, in 1997, and her Doctor of Engineering degree from the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan, in 2000. Dr. Molinas was a Guest Researcher at the University of Padova, Italy, in 1998. From 2004 to 2007, she held a postdoctoral research position at NTNU, and from 2008 to 2014, she served as a Professor in the Department of Electric Power Engineering at the same institution. In 2014, she was a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. She was also an invited fellow in Japan under the JSPS Invitational Fellowship in both 2008 and 2022. Her research interests include the stability of power electronic systems, harmonics, instantaneous frequency, and nonstationary signals from both human and machine sources. Prof. Molinas is an Editor for the IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER ELECTRONICS (JESTPE), the IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS (JESTIE), and Scientific Reports (Nature Publishing Group). She also serves as an Advisor to the Board of IEEE ELECTRIFICATION MAGAZINE and as an Associate Editor for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS. She is a member of the Administrative Committee (AdCom) of the IEEE Transportation Electrification Council and previously served on the AdCom of the IEEE Power Electronics Society from 2009 to 2011. In 2016, Dr. Molinas was General Chair of IEEE COMPEL. She is a Fellow of the IEEE.

Dr. Brij N. Singh

Dr. Brij N. Singh is a Technical Fellow - Power Electronics Engineering in John Deere, USA. He has earned B.E from MMM Technical University, Gorakhpur, M.E from IIT Roorkee, and a Ph.D. from IIT Delhi, all in Electrical Engineering. In 1996, Dr. Singh joined ÉTS Québec, Montreal as a Post-Doctoral Fellow. In 1999, he joined Concordia University, Montreal, as a Research Fellow. In 2000, he joined the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Tulane University, New Orleans, as an Assistant Professor. In 2007, Dr. Singh joined John Deere USA as a Senior Staff Engineer to lead John Deere’s WBG power electronics projects. Currently, Dr. Brij Singh (Fellow IEEE) is the Electrification R&D Manager and John Deere Fellow - Power Electronics Engineering at John Deere, USA. He has authored or coauthored more than 100 research papers; He has 39 granted US patents and one trade secret. His current research interests include wide bandgap technologies, power electronics for precision agriculture, vehicles’ electrification, power converters, etc. Dr. Singh is a recipient of four teaching awards at Tulane, where he worked as an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering. In John Deere, Dr. Singh won three innovation awards and one collaboration award. In 2020, he was awarded the “Power Electronics Engineering Fellow” title by John Deere. He also won the 2020 IEEE Power Electronics Emerging Technology Award and has been recognized as the 2021-2024 IEEE Power Electronics Society Distinguished Lecturer (IEEE PELS DL). In June 2023, the US Department of Energy recognized Dr. Singh’s outstanding contributions and insightful technical expertise with the “Distinguished Achievement Award”. In January 2025, Dr. Singh was appointed as the Chair of the IEEE PELS DL Program.

Dr. Shankar Venugopal

Dr. Shankar Venugopal is Vice President at Mahindra & Mahindra, where he leads the Technology Innovation, Intellectual Property, Knowledge Management, and Mahindra Technical Academy verticals. Dr. Shankar leads technology innovation for the Automotive & Farm services business (AFS). He heads the intellectual property (Patents) and knowledge management functions. He is also the Dean of the Mahindra Technical Academy. Dr. Shankar is passionate about developing sustainable urban mobility solutions, and his current interests span across electric vehicles, connected vehicles, autonomous vehicles, and precision farming. Prior to joining Mahindra & Mahindra, Shankar has held technology innovation leadership roles at GE, Dow, Honeywell, and Cummins. He holds ten international patents and numerous new product innovation awards. He was awarded GE’s Edison Inventor Medal early in his career. He has developed a proprietary innovation methodology – Innovation FLOW – and trained 1000 + inventors and innovators. Dr. Shankar obtained a Ph.D in Materials Science and a gold medal for the best doctoral thesis from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He completed his executive management program from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. He is an avid reader and is interested in physics, philosophy, and psychology. He teaches technology innovation management at premier engineering & management institutes in India & abroad. He was also recognized as one of the 50 Innovative leaders at the World Innovation Congress 2020. He is also a TEDx speaker. Dr. Shankar is active in the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and leads the CTO Forum – bringing together technology leaders across the industry to share best-practices on adapting new technologies and driving innovation. He plays an active role in the Management Committee of Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) India Southern Section – he is focused on reskilling automotive engineers on electric mobility. He also serves in the Branding & Communication Committee of SAE India.

Prof. Iqbal Hussain

Prof. Iqbal Husain received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University, College Station, USA, in 1993. He currently serves as the ABB Enrique Santacana Distinguished Professor in the ECE Department at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, where he is also the Director of the FREEDM NSF Engineering Research Center. Prior to joining NC State, he was a faculty member at the University of Akron for seventeen years. Prof. Husain was also a Fulbright Scholar at four Australian institutions in 2022 and previously served as a Visiting Professor at Oregon State University in 2001. He was also the Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Industry Applications Society for 2012–2013. Prof. Husain’s research interests are in the areas of control and modelling of electrical drives, design of electric machines, development of power conditioning circuits, microinverters for distributed power generation, inverter controls for grid synchronization, and modelling of electric and hybrid vehicle systems. He has worked extensively on the development of SR and PM motor drives for various automotive and industrial applications. The research contributions on electric machines are in the areas of design optimizations, sensorless and high-performance controls, acoustic noise prediction, and parameter identification methods. The primary application of Prof. Husain’s work is in the transportation, automotive, and aerospace industries. As a result of this exposure, Prof. Husain has developed graduate and undergraduate courses on electric and hybrid vehicles and is the author of the textbook Electric and Hybrid Vehicles: Design Fundamentals. Prof. Husain received the 1998 IEEE-IAS Outstanding Young Member Award, the 2000 IEEE Third Millennium Medal, the 2004 College of Engineering Outstanding Researcher Award, the 2006 SAE Vincent Bendix Automotive Electronics Engineering Award, the 2022 IEEE-IAS Outstanding Achievement Award, 2022 Alcoa Distinguished Engineering Research Award at NC State, the 2023 Outstanding Engagement Award at NC State, and the 2025 Outstanding Global Engagement. He previously served as Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Electrification Magazine.

Prof. Biplab Sikdar

Prof. Biplab Sikdar is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the National University of Singapore. He currently serves as the Head of Department for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and leads the $54 million Cisco-NUS corporate research laboratory. He received the B. Tech. degree in electronics and communication engineering from NERIST, North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, India, in 1996, the M.Tech. degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, in 1998, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA, in 2001.

He was an Assistant Professor from 2001-2007 and Associate Professor from 2007-2013 in the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute from 2001 to 2013. He is a recipient of the NSF CAREER award, the Tan Chin Tuan fellowship from NTU Singapore, the Japan Society for Promotion of Science fellowship, and the Leiv Eiriksson fellowship from the Research Council of Norway.

His research interests include IoT and cyber-physical system security, network security, and network performance evaluation. Dr. Sikdar is a member of Eta Kappa Nu and Tau Beta Pi, and IEEE Distinguished Lecturer and ACM Distinguished Speaker. He has served as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, IEEE Internet of Things Journal, and IEEE Open Journal of Vehicular Technology.

Dr. Tapan Sahoo

Dr. Tapan Sahoo has over 34 years of experience in automotive sector. He is currently leading the Digital Enterprise business vertical, Information & Cybersecurity at MSIL and is responsible for digital transformation of the value chain leveraging cutting edge technologies like AI/ML, IoT, Industry x.O and is driving business innovation in collaboration with startups and academia etc. Prior to this, Dr Sahoo was responsible for product & portfolio planning, design & development, supplier development, technology, cost and program management functions. He has played a key role in upgrading the R&D capability of MSIL and supported development of design capability of many auto component suppliers in India. Dr Sahoo is an alumnus of IIT Delhi (MBA & PhD) and Eminent Alumnus & graduate in Electrical Engineering from VSSUT (UCE) – Burla). For his contribution in the field of engineering and technology management, Dr. Sahoo has been conferred “Fellow” status by “Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE)” and “Society for Technology Management (STEM)”. Dr Sahoo participates and contributes in various Industry, Academia, Professional and Government bodies at National & International level. Some of the key roles are:

Dr Sahoo holds multiple granted patents and his research papers in the areas of strategic technology management, xEV technologies and automotive product development & policy matters have been published in national and international journals of repute.