Prof.  Yi Zhang

RTDS Technologies Inc., Canada

FCAE, FIEEE, FEIC

Bio: Dr. Yi Zhang joined RTDS Technologies Inc. in 2000, where he now serves as Vice-President R&D and Chief Technology Officer (CTO). He has over 32 years of experiences working in power system simulation and analysis. His expertise includes Real Time EMT Simulation, Voltage Stability and HVDC, etc. As a principal member of the RTDS development team, he developed many simulation models on RTDS Real Time Simulator in the past 23 years. At present, Dr. Zhang leads the research and development activities in RTDS Technologies. He also serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Manitoba Canada and Hunan University China, and an editor of IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery. Dr. Zhang is a Fellow of IEEE, a Fellow of Canadian Academy of Engineering and a registered professional engineer in the province of Manitoba.

Prof. Xiaodong Liang

University of Saskatchewan

FIEEE

Bio: Dr. Xiaodong Liang is a Full Professor and Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Technology Solutions for Energy Security in Remote, Northern, and Indigenous Communities at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada. She is a Fellow of IEEE (the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) (2026), and IET (the Institution of Engineering and Technology) (2022). Dr. Liang's research interests include power systems, renewable energy and electric machines. She has published over 300 peer-reviewed publications. She also holds 3 granted US and Canadian patents. She has served as Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Canadian Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering since Jan. 1, 2026 to present, Co-Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Canadian Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering from Jan. 1, 2025 to Dec. 31, 2025, and Deputy Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications since April 2022 to present. She served as the Chair of the Power System Engineering Committee from Jan. 2024 to present, the Technical Committee Papers Review Chair (TCPRC) of the Power System Protection Committee from Jan. 2024 to Dec. 2025, and the TCPRC of the Power System Engineering Committee from Jan. 2021 to Dec. 2023, IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS). Currently, she also serves as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications (2013 - present), IEEE Access (2019 - present), IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Industrial Electronics (2021 - present), IEEE Open Access Journal of Power and Energy (2023-present), and IEEE Open Journal of Industry Applications (2022-2025). Dr. Liang is a registered Professional Engineer in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada. 

Prof. Yan Xu

Nanyang Technological University

Bio: Dr Xu received his B.E. and M.E. degrees from South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China, in 2008 and 2011, and PhD degree from University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia, in 2013, all in electrical engineering. He is now holding the Nanyang Professorship at NTU Singapore, and also a Cluster Director at Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N). Prior to joining NTU, he held the University of Sydney Postdoctoral Fellowship in Australia. Between 2009 and 2011, he was with Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and from late 2015 to early 2016, he was with Electric Power Research Institute of China Southern Grid. He has published 105 SCI-indexed journal papers (including 65 in IEEE Transactions and 23 in IET journals), as well as over 50 international conference papers. 6 of his publications are listed as the “web-of-science highly cited paper”. He has also received 7 paper contest awards and conference best paper awards from IEEE and IET. His research outcomes have been practically applied by power utilities in Australia, USA, Hong Kong, Macau, and China Mainland. In Singapore, his research is funded by National Research Foundation (NRF), Ministry of Education (MOE), Energy Market Authority (EMA), Housing & Development Board (HDB), DSO National Laboratories, Rolls-Royce, etc. He has also been collaborating with a number of universities in Australia, China, Hong Kong, UK, Denmark, France, Switzerland, US. A Senior Member of the IEEE, Dr Xu is serving as an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid and a committee member for IEEE PES Singapore Chapter. 

Prof. Jin Ma

The University of Sydney

Bio: Jin Ma (Member, IEEE) received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, in 1997 and 2000, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 2004. From 2004 to 2013, he was a Faculty member of North China Electric Power University, China. He is currently an Associate Professor with the School of Electrical & Information Engineering, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia. His main research interests include power system modeling, dynamic power system, power system economics, energy informatics and data analytics on smart grid operation.

Prof. Pei Zhang

Tianjin University

FIEEE

Bio: Pei Zhang (Fellow, IEEE) received the Ph.D. degree from the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of London, London, U.K. He was the Director of the Smart Grid with the Resource Group of Accenture and the Program Manager leading the Power System Analysis, Operation and Planning Group, Electric Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, CA, USA. He was also the Vice Dean with the Hanergy School of Renewable Energy, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, China. He is currently a Professor with School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China. His research interests include power system stability analysis and application of advanced information technologies in power systems.Data Driven Coordination of MGs and VPPs for High Percentage Integration of DERs in Smart Grids