KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Prof. Alex Baitch
Abstract
Worldwide there are dramatic changes occurring in the electricity industry and more broadly in the energy industry. With the spectacular growth of solar photovoltaic generation, wind energy, solar thermal, hydro and other forms of renewable energy, the electricity network is undergoing fundamental change.
The worldwide focus on reducing carbon emissions means that carbon free electricity generation is being incentivised to compete with the more traditional sources of energy such as coal fired power, diesel and gas fuelled supplies. At the same time the intermittent nature of many such resources presents significant challenges to the industry. Global interconnection systems are being considered at the high level.
In parallel with this development are the profound changes that have occurred in communications and data systems. The integration of energy management with communication and computing layers has resulted in the development of the concept of the Internet of Energy.
At the IEC level, a number of Systems Committees have been established to address the areas of Smart Energy, Smart Cities, Assisted Living and LVDC to establish consistent frameworks.
In mapping out the areas Smart Energy is it all encompassing of the all elements of the electricity industry. This ranges from generation, system operation, substation control and monitoring, distributed energy, industrial automation, electricity mobility, home and building automation through to perhaps most importantly, the retail energy market.
With the development of bitcoin technology, this a further disruptive technology that will impact the way electricity is traded and provide the customer a new level of capability in participating in the electricity market.
Biography
Alex Baitch, FTSE HonFIEAust, CPEng, FIPENZ, NER, RPEQ, BE, MEngSc, MBA(TechMgt)
Principal BES (Aust) Pty Ltd
Honorary Professorial Fellow, University of Wollongong
Member IEC Advisory Committee on Transmission and Distribution
Australian Representative on various IEC Committees (incl TC8, SC8A, SC77A, TC99)
Chair and Member of various Standards Australia committees
Professor Alex Baitch is Principal of his electrical engineering consulting practice which he established in 1993 and has extensive industry experience. Alex’s career has included employment in the electricity supply industry, manufacturing and consulting. He is a Chartered Professional Engineer, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, an Honorary Fellow of Engineers Australia and Honorary Professorial Fellow of the University of Wollongong. He was National President of Engineers Australia in 2014.
Alex is Chair of the Australian Standards Committee EL043 which has produces the Australian Standard AS2067 on Substations and High Voltage installations and its revisions. He is also Chair of Australian Standards Committee EL034-5 Grid Integration of Renewable Energy Generation and a member or EL-034 Power Quality.
Alex represents Australia on various IEC committees, and participates as an active member of various working groups. He is a member the IEC Advisory Committee on Transmission and Distribution (IEC ACTAD). He represents Australia on IEC committees of TC99 High Voltage Installations,SC77A Power Quality, TC8 Systems aspects of electrical energy supply, SC8A Grid Integration of Renewable Energy Generation and SC8B Decentralized Electrical Energy Systems.
Alex is a member of CIGRE with participation of CIGRE’s Study Committee C4 System Technical Performance and Study Committee C6 Distribution Systems and Dispersed Generation. He convened a Working Group of C6 that produced a Technical Brochure on Demand Side Integration and participates as a member of various CIGRE Working Groups.
Dr. Chin-Moi Chow
Topic: Wearable sleep trackers – How do you sleep?
Biography: Dr Chow is the Associate Professor of Sleep and Wellbeing at The University of Sydney. After getting a Biochemistry degree at Otago University in New Zealand, she conducted sleep research on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome for her PhD at Sydney University. Later, she did a post-doc that examined the mechanisms of Obstructive Sleep Apnea at Wisconsin University.
Professor Chow’s research focuses on the impact of lifestyle factors on sleep. Some examples include sleepwear thermal comfort, exercise, daytime napping, and dietary factors. Her broad-based education, from Physiology, Biochemistry to Exercise Science, has effectively grounded her research that combines sleep and lifestyle factors.
Prof. Hong Yan
Topic: Co-clustering Analysis of Multidimensional Big Data
Abstract:
Multidimensional big datasets are being produced in many applications due to the rapid development of electronic and communications systems. Although a dataset can be very large, it may contain coherence patterns much smaller in size. For example, we may need to detect a subset of genes that co-express under a subset of conditions. In this presentation, we discuss our recently developed co-clustering algorithms for the extraction and analysis of coherent patterns in big datasets. In our method, a co-cluster, corresponding to a coherent pattern, is represented as a low-rank tensor and it can be detected from the intersection of hyperplanes in a high dimensional data space. Our method has been used successfully for DNA and protein data analysis, disease diagnosis, drug therapeutic effect assessment, and feature selection in human facial expression classification. Our method can also be useful for many other real world data mining, image processing and pattern recognition applications.
Brief Biography of the Speaker:
Hong Yan received his PhD degree from Yale University. He was Professor of Imaging Science at the University of Sydney and is currently Chair Professor of Computer Engineering and Dean of the College of Science and Engineering at City University of Hong Kong. His research interests include image processing, pattern recognition and bioinformatics, and he has over 300 journal and conference publications in these areas. Professor Yan was elected an IAPR fellow for contributions to document image analysis and an IEEE fellow for contributions to image recognition techniques and applications. He was a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE SMC Society during 2010 to 2015. He received the 2016 Norbert Wiener Award from the IEEE SMC Society for contributions to image and biomolecular pattern recognition techniques.
Mr. Sam Gorman
Topic: Building a quantum computer with phosphorus atom qubits in silicon
Abstract: Quantum information and quantum computation promise absolute security and dramatic improvements in computational speed for certain types of problem. There are a number of routes being investigated to build a quantum computer; including: superconductors, nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond, electron spins in quantum dots, and exotic Majorana Fermions in semiconductor-superconductor hybrid structures. In this talk, we will present recent progress using phosphorus atom qubits in silicon created using the atomic precision of a scanning tunnelling microscope. Single phosphorus atom qubits in silicon have demonstrated extremely high fidelities and the long coherence times necessary for a scalable quantum computer. The next major step is the demonstration of a fast, high-fidelity two-qubit gate between two phosphorus donors. To accomplish this the interactions between individual electrons on these donors must be thoroughly understood, which we investigate using single, double and triple donor devices using a tunnel coupled single electron transistor.
Biography: Sam Gorman is currently a researcher within the group of Prof. Michelle Simmons at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology, University of New South Wales, Australia. He graduated with a Bachelors degree in Nanotechnology in 2012 from the University of Wollongong, Australia. Sam’s current research is driving the use of single dopant atoms in silicon to form the building blocks of a large scale quantum computer using phosphorus. He has largely worked on the sensing of coupled electrons and their coherent and incoherent dynamics where he recently demonstrated the first controllable interaction between two electrons bound to phosphorus donors in silicon. This is one of the first steps towards the realisation of a scalable quantum computing prototype using individual donor atoms.
Dr. Sharon Peng
Topic: IOT & SMART Audio – a Glimpse to CE industry trend
Abstract: Technology advances and accessibility has pushed consumer electronics to new heights. What are these consumer electronics that consumers use in home environment every day? How do consumers use them? How do these electronic devices communicate? All these questions bring new challenges to existing consumer electronic technologies and opportunities to emerging technology initiatives.
In this talk, I will first give a brief overview of home consumer electronics past and present. The migration aspects of main stream home electronics are discussed with respect to hardware, software, network connectivity and UI preferences. Then advances in audio/video/wifi technologies are presented and their role in converging the traditional home electronics to the current connected products and future concepts. Key issues on integration of wifi technology, voice assistant, audio and video compression, synchronization, and processing technology, and portable devices are summarized. In conclusion, connected homes with IOT and smart audio devices are the key to meet the consumer needs.
Biography: Dr Sharon Peng has more than 25 years of experience on consumer electronics research, design, develop, and engineering management. She has worked for Fortune 500 companies such as Philips Electronics Research Laboratories and Harman International, now Samsung Electronics Company. She served as senior research staff,principal video engineer,chief audio/video system architect, director of R&D center, director of product engineering.Her expertise and experience includes audio and video system architectures and algorithms,audio or video coding and decoding algorithms, wireless transmission and receiver systems, HDTV video and display processing, home and portable consumer electronics, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning application to Consumer Electronics, Virtual Personal Assistant (VPA) products etc. During her professional endeavors, Dr. Peng has generated 24 U.S. patents and published numerous IEEE papers.
Dr. Peng is the President of IEEE Consumer Electronics Society. She has taken various leadership positions within IEEE and accumulated more than 15 years of experience in serving IEEE conferences and society activities.
Prof. Ren Ping Liu
Topic: IoT + Blockchain: Technologies, Challenges, and Applications
Abstract: The Internet of Things (IoT) is poised to transform our lives and unleash enormous economic benefit. In this talk, we discuss a wide range of IoT technologies and their applications, as well as the security and trust implications. We argue that the current security issues in IoT can be attributed to the centralized network architecture.
Blockchain, a distributed ledger, was initially designed as a financial transaction tool. Remarkably, its cryptographic security benefits, such as user anonymity, decentralization, fault tolerance, transaction integrity and authentication, can be used to resolve security and privacy issues of IoT. We discuss the benefits, limitations, and challenges of IoT+Blockchain. I will describe the tamper-resistant demonstration of a Blockchain built into our IoT testbed. I will also give a preview of our current project on IoT+Blockchain for supply chain tracking and traceability.
Biography: Ren Ping Liu is a Professor and Head of Discipline, Network and Cyber Security at the School of Electrical and Data Engineering in University of Technology Sydney. He is also the Research Program Leader of the Digital Agrifood Technologies in Food Agility CRC, a government/research/industry initiative to empower Australia’s food industry through digital transformation. Prior to that he was a Principal Scientist and Research Leader at CSIRO, where he led wireless networking research activities. Professor Liu was the winner of Australian Engineering Innovation Award and CSIRO Chairman medal. He specialises in protocol design and modelling, and has delivered networking solutions to a number of government agencies and industry customers. His research interests include 5G, VANET, IoT, security, and Blockchain. Professor Liu has over 150 research publications, and has supervised over 30 PhD students.
Professor Liu is the founding chair of IEEE NSW VTS Chapter and a Senior Member of IEEE. He served as Technical Program Committee chairs and Organising Committee chairs in a number of IEEE Conferences. Ren Ping Liu received his B.E.(Hon) and M.E. degrees from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Newcastle, Australia.
Ollencio D’Souza B.E., MMgt
Topic: Standards: the Lifeblood of Local Industry and World Trade
Abstract: The World Trade Organisations (WTO) encourages the use of well defined productspecifications, interface and communication standards to facilitate trade within a country and between countries. Standards Australia (SA) for many years has ensured that Australia has a set of word class standards in many critical & Key areas that help ourlocal industry. Taking this worldwide SA has built up strong strategic ties with most of the key standards generating organisations around the world like the IEC, ISO, IEEE, etc. Volunteers from industry are coopted into working groups and standards committees so industry, research bodies and other industry peak bodies, participate in committees via representatives, to contribute to developing these standards. As a member of both SA Committees and overseas bodies like the IEC, ISO and IEEE the challenge has been acquiring the knowledge, making the time and executing the hard work of creating the documents and liaising with multiple teams to bring these standards to life through a broad process of intense consultation and consensus. As the lead for two very critical new standards, on Video Content Analysis and Business Processes for real time awareness, forensic performance testing and grading it is an opportunity to present with examples, what we do, who our work willbenefit and outcomes we aim to achieve through this process.
Biography:
Currently MD of Technologycare – “We use innovative technology to help you care for your business and do business better”
Engineer (B.E. Electronics and Telecommunications), Manager (Masters in Management), Intrapreneur (corporate in-houseentrepreneur) – enjoys deploying technology, new developments, innovation and ground-breaking events. With two co-patents and several innovative designs that have been converted into working projects – the pleasures of practical innovative &successful solutions is extremely satisfying. Constant food for thought, stimulated by membership of esteemed organisations like the IEEE and participation in committees that set trends such as Standards Associations and User Groups make it an interesting life. Working towards a PhD formally. Presently developing in house solutions using core OEM PSIM and Video & Audio Analytic Technology.
Senior Member IEEE, Currently PastChair IEEE Joint Chapter Communications, Signal Processing and Ocean Engineering. On NSW Section Standards and Industry Liaison, IEEE Standards WGs.
Standards Australia and IEC standards Working Groups: Lead IEC62676-6 VCA Standards Working Group (WG12 – TC79).
Dr Robert Barr AM
Topic: Microgrids for power supply to remote and isolated areas.
National President: Electric Energy Society of Australia
Abstract: His lecture will include discussion of the future development of the electricity supply system in Australia in the light of the recent events that have taken place here.
The economic justification of new transmission lines and augmentation of existing lines is always a very difficult and complex exercise. Pressures are building to extend and augment the transmission system within the Australian National Electricity Market (NEM) in two key areas, these being the “Snowy 2.0” pumped hydro scheme and the proposed new “Renewable Economic Zones” across eastern Australia.
The proposed “Renewable Economic Zones” will require extensive transmission extensions to create capacity to support new areas rich in wind, solar and other renewable generation resources and areas not already serviced by strong transmission systems. For potential renewable generators, these zones offer the prospect of low cost connections to the grid but will require significant development and substantial application of “Internet of Things” technology to achieve best results.
Biography: Robert is the National President of the Electric Energy Society of Australia (EESA) and the Principal of Electric Power Consulting. He has over 40 years of experience in the field of electricity distribution. He is a fellow of Engineers Australia and a member of Consult Australia. He is an Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Wollongong and was named the 2012 Australian National Professional Electrical Engineer of the year.