Ph.D. Dissertation Challenge

meet the Energy Industry’s future leaders

The IEEE PES Grid Edge Technologies Conference and Exposition committee is pleased to announce the return of the “3-Minute Ph.D. Dissertation Challenge” for our 2025 meeting. The competition will provide an international platform for all current and recent Ph.D. researchers in the fields related to Grid Edge technologies to present their projects.

This challenge recognizes quality research and provides a unified platform to share technology innovations and exchange ideas between academia and industry. The presented ideas should demonstrate the economic, societal, environmental, or technological advancements.

Selected finalists will have a 3-minute presentation in front of a panel of industry/academia judges, who will vote to select four winners for a $5,000 cash prize each.

Meet the 2025 judges

Saifur Rahman
2023 IEEE President
*IEEE*

Lina Bertling Tjernberg
Professor in Power Grid Technology
*KTH the Royal Institute of Technology*

Luka Strezoski
Founder & Principal
*DerMag Consulting International*

Nilanjan Ray Chaudhuri
Associate Professor
*The Pennsylvania State University*

Damir Novosel
President and Founder of Quanta Technology
*Quanta Technology*

Lina He
Assistant Professor
*University of Illinois Chicago*

Larissa Affolabi
Principal Software Engineer
*OATI, Inc.*

Grant Ruan
Postdoc
*Massachusetts Institute of Technology*

Jianghui Wang
Professor
*Southern Methodist University*

Mohammad Shahidehpour
Professor
*Illinois Institute of Technology*

Meet the students

Grid Edge Technologies Ph.D. Dissertation Challenge – session 1

January 22, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Siyuan Wang
Tsinghua University

Tara Aryal
*South Dakota State University*

Pooja Aslami
*South Dakota State University*

Arbel Yaniv
Tel Aviv University

Yansong Pei
University of Connecticut

Hamza MK Alnawafah
*University of Wisconsin Milwaukee*

Grid Edge Technologies Ph.D. Dissertation Challenge – session 2

January 22, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM

Mehrnaz Madadi
*North Carolina State University*

Luis Fernando Bustos Marquez
*University of Delaware*

Ibnu Kahfi Bachtiar
*Bandung Institute of Technology*

Mercy Chelangat Koech
*The University of Texas at Dallas*

Mohamadamin Rajabinezhad
*University of Connecticut*

Farzan ZareAfifi
*University of California, Merced*

Patrick Salter
*Colorado School of Mines*

Meet A 2023 Winner: Larissa

Larissa Affolabi is a winner from the 2023 IEEE PES Grid Edge Technologies Ph.D. Challenge and joins the judges panel for 2025. Larissa is a PES graduate student member who is pursuing her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering with a focus in Power Systems at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). She became an engineer so she could pursue a career that would allow her to make a meaningful impact on society by solving real-world problems.

“In [events like the IEEE PES Grid Edge Technologies], you get to meet and interact with professionals and learn about what they are doing, the most pressing issues, and the latest advancement in the field – importantly – you get to do something besides your own work which can be truly eye-opening,” she said.