REIMAGINING THE FUTURE OF THE ELECTRIC GRID

Electric energy systems are undergoing profound changes as they become increasingly interdependent with other infrastructures. The changes originate from within (new key components, such as inverters and storage), from the expanding system boundaries (transportation), and strengthened connections with other societal infrastructures, communications, water, and gas. The advent of new technologies related to renewable sources and electronic loads has increased the number and variability of transients. Recent events, such as the 2025 blackout in Spain and Portugal, underscore the need for a deeper understanding of hybrid systems that combine traditional (electromechanical) with new sources and loads (electronic). These processes have implications for education, which needs to combine depth in the discipline with a broad understanding of rapidly evolving fields, like AI and power semiconductors. The electric energy program at Santa Clara has initiated a reexamination of its undergraduate and graduate offerings with the aim of being responsive to industry needs while preparing students for the rapidly evolving profession. This workshop offers an opportunity to network with SCU friends and affiliates, as well as to collaborate on outlining future directions in research and teaching related to electric energy systems.
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Co-sponsored by: Santa Clara University
Agenda:
8:00 Breakfast/Registration
9:00 Welcome and Opening remarks: Kendra Sharp (SCU Dean School of Engineering)
9:15 Keynote Damir Novosel (Founder, President Quanta)
10:15 Break
10:30 Rethinking Modeling, Computing and Control for Changing Electricity Service, Maria Ilic (Professor, MIT)
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Seeing Before Believing – Sensing and Power Quality Monitoring in Emerging Power Systems, Prof. Alex Stankovic (Professor, SCU)
2:00 Break
2:30 Inverter Interfaces for the Future Grid, Leo Casey (Chief Scientist, Google)
3:30 Power and Energy program at SCU Prof. Maryam Khanbaghi (Associate Professor, SCU)
4:00 Break
4:15 Panel: Workforce Development for the Future
– Page Crahan – General Manager, Tapestry at X, the Moonshot Factory
– Prasad PMSVVSV – VP and Head of Systems Engineering, Bloom Energy
– Robert Entriken – Technical Executive, Electric Power Research Institute
5:00 Networking hour
Room: SCDI 1302/1308, Bldg: Sobrato Campus for Discovery and Innovation (SCDI), 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, California, United States, 95053