UCLA Smart Grid Energy Research Center
       Speakers UCLA
Smart Grid Training Workshop


Speakers  
 
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Dr. Rajit Gadh
Director, UCLA Smart Grid Energy Research Center (SMERC)

Dr. Rajit Gadh is a Professor at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science at UCLA, and the Founding Director of the *UCLA Smart Grid Energy Research Center* or *SMERC*. He is also Founder and Director of the *Wireless Internet for Mobile Enterprise Consortium* or *WINMEC*.

Dr. Gadh's research interests include Smart Grid Architectures, Smart wireless communications, sense and control for Demand Response, Micro Grids and Electric Vehicle Integration into the Grid, Mobile Multimedia, Wireless and RFID Middleware, RFID and Wireless sensors for Tracking Assets, RF-sensor-control interfaces,and Visualization. He has over 150 papers in journals, conferences and technical magazines, and, 3 patents granted.

He has a Doctorate degree from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), a Masters from Cornell University and a Bachelor's degree from IIT Kanpur. He has taught as a visiting researcher at UC Berkeley, has been an Assistant, Associate and Full Professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison, and did his sabbatical as a visiting researcher at Stanford University for a year. He has won several awards from NSF (CAREER award, Research Initiation Award, NSF-Lucent Industry Ecology Award, GOAL-I award), SAE (Ralph Teetor award), IEEE (second best student-paper, WTS), ASME (Kodak Best Technical Paper award), AT&T (Industrial ecology fellow award), Engineering Education Foundation (Research Initiation Award), William Wong Fellowship award from University of Hong-Kong, etc., and other accolades in his career. He is on the Editorial board of ACM Computers in Entertainment Publication and the CAD Journal.

  Dr. Rajit Gadh

Tishmari Lewis
Project Manager for Home Area Network , San Diego Gas & Electric (SDGE)

Tishmari Lewis is the Project Manager for Home Area Network at San Diego Gas and Electric. She is responsible for overseeing the implementation of HAN projects, business processes and lab testing to support Home Area Network programs offered by SDG&E. Lewis has been with SDG&E since 1995 holding various positions throughout Information Technology, Electric Generation, Supply Management and most recently as a Principal Business Analyst on the Smart Meter deployment project. She is a certified Project Management Professional and received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from California State University San Marcos.

  Tishmari Lewis

John McLean
Industry Solution Executive, Ventyx/ABB

John McLean is an Industry Solution Executive at Ventyx, an ABB Company. John has 14 years of energy industry experience, working mainly in software consulting and business development. His focus has primarily been billing, settlement, meter data management, and smart grid operations, and he has worked with system operators, distributors, generators, and retailers throughout North America, South America, and Europe. John is based in Pasadena, California.

  John McLean

Mark Martinez
DSM Strategy and Policy, Southern California Edison (SCE)

Mark is a senior program manager for Southern California Edison, with over 20 years' experience in the demand side management program design, operations and technical execution, and regulatory compliance and testimony.

During his career at SCE he has designed multi-million dollar EE, DR, and DG programs, conducted DSM impact evaluation and innovative research pilot studies, and was the Director of Engineering for the $125M Edison EnVEST program. He has designed and managed programs in DR at SCE since 2001, and was responsible for the design of the SCE Energy Orb and negotiated SCE's first DR aggregator forward contracts worth over 300MW.

He currently manages the strategic oversight and compliance guidance for SCE's integrated demand side management (IDSM) programs and pilots and is developing program policy and demand side strategy for SCE's Water-Energy nexus programs.

  Mark Martinez

Charles McParland
OpenSource DRAS and Wireless / Harmonization Lead , Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Chuck McParland is a Computer Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He has been involved in the design and deployment of large-scale scientific data acquisition, control and remote communications systems for over 25 yrs. Recent research activities have centered on home networking technologies, especially wireless (802.15.4) protocols, and their efficient integration into both residential energy management and demand response control systems. He was a contributing author of the OpenADR 1.0 specification and participates in the Zigbee Alliance SEP 2.0 working group. He is also an active member within the ASHRAE SPC201 "Facility Smart grid Information Model" technical committee. His current research include cybersecurity aspects of industrial control networks and is funded as part of the DOE/NETL Cybersecurity for Energy Deliver Systems program (CEDS).

  Charles McParland

Dr. Hemanshu Pota
Associate Professor, The University of New South Wales

Hemanshu Pota's current research focus is dynamics and control of the interconnection of thousands of microgrids in a smart grid configuration.

Hemanshu R. Pota received the B.E. degree in electrical engineering from Sardar Vallabhbhai Regional College of Engineering and Technology, Surat, India, in 1979, the M.E. degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, in 1981, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia, in 1985. He is currently an Associate Professor with The University of New South Wales, Canberra, Australia. He has held visiting appointments at the University of Delaware, Newark; Iowa State University, Ames; Kansas State University, Manhattan; Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA; the University of California, San Diego; and the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Bangalore. He has continuing interest in the areas of power system dynamics and control and of modeling and control of mechanical systems such as flexible structures, acoustical systems, and unmanned aerial vehicles.

  Dr. Himanshu Pota

Jennifer Potter
Project manager, Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD)

Jennifer Potter is a Project Manager at Sacramento Municipal Utility District responsible for the Department of Energy ARRA grant funded Consumer Behavior Study. While at SMUD, she has worked as the program planner for residential and small commercial efficiency and incentive programs. Prior to her time at SMUD, Jennifer worked at City of Roseville, Roseville Electric, as the principal load and revenue forecaster, load researcher, and business analyst for the utility. She holds a B.A. in International Studies and Economics from Southern Oregon University and a M.S. in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University.

  Jennifer Potter

Dr. Shiv Prabhu
Project Lead - Demand Response, UCLA Smart Grid Energy Research Center (SMERC)

 

   

David Prezioso
Chief Executive Officer, Ice Energy

David Prezioso serves as CEO of Ice Energy. Dave has more than 30 years of experience leading operations teams in implementing fully integrated solutions in the electric utility and chemical industries. He served two terms of employment with Honeywell International. While with Honeywell, he managed programs in the U.S., the Netherlands, Turkey, and Belgium. Dave was responsible for the operation of the Honeywell's SCAN3000 program in the U.S., which later developed into Honeywell's flagship product, PlantScape. In 1991, Dave led operations for Leeds & Northrup Corporation of North Wales, Pa., implementing projects for the power generation business in the U.S. From 2004-2007, he served as Vice President of Strategic Business Development for RTP Corporation in Pompano Beach, Fl., supporting business in Europe and North Africa. He also collaborated with green technology companies Xylan, Inc., and Power Energy Fuels converting waste into clean fuel. Dave did his undergraduate work at Ohio State University and graduated from LaSalle University with a degree in Electrical Engineering and a Masters in Business Management. He also holds a degree in Computer Technology.

   

Massoud Saboury
Demand Response Project Manager, Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (LADWP)

Mr. Massoud Saboury is currently Manager of the Demand Response Program (DRP) for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP). The DRP is an important initiative aimed at reducing capital costs of power generation and other benefits such as increased reliability, lower system costs, reduced infrastructure and emissions, and the integration of intermittent renewable energy from wind and solar power. He oversees the collaborative efforts of many LADWP organizations, including Information Technology System, Energy Control Center, Rates and Financial Planning, Customer Services, Construction and Engineering throughout. The DRP is expected to manage and implement the Program to add 200 MW of Power by 2020 and 500 MW of Power by 2026 to LADWP's portfolio.

Massoud, in his tenure at LADWP has been leading and managing increasingly challenging responsibilities. He managed the LADWP Cyber Security Program from May 2006 to June 2009 including the NERC/FERC Critical Infrastructure Program (CIP) Compliance project. He initiated, planned and implemented many sensitive multi-disciplinary engineering projects essential in the successful construction, start up, commissioning, and smooth operation of the Harbor Generating Station Repowering Project. He built and managed successful projects and operation teams. He has guided and mentored successful engineers and staff.

Massoud is a licensed Professional Electrical Engineer from the State of California. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Fresno State University and a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering specialized in Power from the University of Southern California.

 

  Massoud Saboury