The 2025 CURENT Industry Conference was held on April 22–23 at the Student Union and Min H. Kao Building at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The event brought together leading minds in power systems and power electronics, providing a platform for in-depth discussions and collaborations among electric power engineering experts.
Day 1 Highlights
The conference opened on Tuesday with a series of pre-conference tutorials delivered by renowned experts. Drs. JiangBiao He and Reza Ilka from UTK led an in-depth session on “Liquid Immersion Cooled Power Electronic Converters,” followed by Drs. Antonio Coello Perez and Seongmin Kim from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), who presented “Variational Quantum Algorithms” with hands-on examples.
Mohammed Khamees, Chair of the Student Organizing Committee of the Conference, delivered the welcome remarks. This was followed by a warm address from Dr. Brad Day, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research, Innovation, and Economic Development at UTK. Center Director Prof. Fran Li then presented an overview of CURENT, highlighting recent achievements and outlining the center’s future goals and research directions.
The afternoon featured three keynote presentations from industry leaders: Aidan Tuohy of EPRI shared insights on grid reliability and resilience; Ibrahima Ndiaye of GE Vernova spoke about flexible power transformers for system applications; and Robbie Searles of NVIDIA discussed NVIDIA’s vision for transforming the energy sector with advanced technologies.
Later, an industry-student panel session was moderated by Mohammed Khamees and featured panelists from CURENT industry partners: Clifton Black, Ibukunoluwa “IBK” Korede, Michael McAmis, Philip Lim, and John Wang. This was followed by a student poster session, where CURENT graduate and undergraduate students presented their research ideas, proposals, and findings to conference attendees.
The day concluded with a conference dinner and industry meeting, fostering networking and discussions on future collaborations and strategic directions for the research center.
Day 2 Highlights
Wednesday began with another series of keynote presentations. Dr. Michael Starke from ORNL spoke on “The Future of Resilience: Networked Microgrids and Considerations.” Dr. Mingguo Hong from ISO New England discussed “Meeting the Challenges of Operating a Fast-Evolving Grid with New Simulation and AI Capabilities,” and Curt Jawdy from TVA presented “Leveraging R&D at TVA to Manage a Rapidly Changing Grid.”
The day continued with an overview of ongoing faculty research projects, showcasing innovative work in power systems and power electronics from UT faculty. Interactive discussion sessions accompanied the presentations, promoting deeper engagement and collaboration among attendees.
The conference concluded with demonstrations of the Large-Scale Testbed (LTB), Frequency Monitoring Network (FNET), and Hardware Testbed (HTB), followed by lab tours and additional poster sessions at the Min H. Kao Building. These sessions highlighted UT’s technical contributions and research infrastructure.
The 2025 CURENT Industry Conference successfully fostered meaningful dialogue among academia, industry, and students, laying the groundwork for future advancements in energy and power systems.
