Keynote & Tutorial Speakers

Bikash Pal is a Professor of Power Systems at Imperial College London (ICL). He has his BEng degree (1990) from Jadavpur University, MEng degree (1992) in power engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and a PhD degree (1999) from Imperial College London as a Commonwealth Scholar. He is research active in power-system stability, control and estimation. He led three multinational, multi-university research collaborations between the UK and China and between the UK and India in renewable-energy integration and control.

His research is conducted in strategic partnership with ABB, Siemens, GE Grid Solutions, National Grid UK and UK Power Networks. Siemens R&D collaborated with him to develop fast power-flow and volt-var control tools in Spectrum Power, an advanced distribution-management-system solution running in many power-distribution utilities around the world. GE commissioned a series of projects with him to analyse and solve wind-farm HVDC grid-interaction problems from 2013 to 2019.

Professor Pal was the chief technical consultant for a panel of experts appointed by the UNFCCC Clean Development Mechanism. He has offered training in Chile, Qatar, the UAE, Malaysia and India in power-system protection, stability and control. He developed and validated a prize-winning 68-bus power-system model that now forms part of the IEEE Benchmark Systems used by researchers to validate innovations in stability analysis and control design. He has published about 140 papers in IEEE Transactions and authored four books in power-system modelling, dynamics, estimation and control.

In 2016, his research team won the President’s Outstanding Research Team Award at Imperial College London. He is an IEEE Fellow for his contribution to power-system stability and control, a Fellow of the Chinese Society of Electrical Engineers and the IET, and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He received the 2025 IEEE PES Prabha Kundur Power System Dynamics and Control Award. In 2025, he was elected a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the Indian National Academy of Engineering. He is an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer in power-distribution-system estimation and control.

He was Otto Mønsted Professor at the Technical University of Denmark in 2019 and Mercator Professor, sponsored by the German Research Foundation, at the University of Duisburg-Essen in 2011. He previously worked as faculty at IIT Kanpur and holds distinguished visiting professorships at North China Electric Power University and Tsinghua University.

He served as Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy from 2012 to 2017, Editor-in-Chief of IET Generation, Transmission & Distribution from 2005 to 2012, and IEEE PES Vice President for Publications from 2019 to 2023. He is IEEE Power & Energy Society President-Elect for 2026–2027 for the office of President in 2028–2029. Beyond his profession, he founded the Kajalbabu Memorial Trust, an education charity in India that mentors children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

Professor Ramesh Bansal has more than 25 years of diversified experience in teaching and learning, accreditation, research, industry and academic leadership across several countries. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Sharjah and an Extraordinary Professor at the University of Pretoria. Previously, he was Professor and Group Head (Power) in the ECE Department at the University of Pretoria. Before that appointment, he worked at the University of Queensland, the University of the South Pacific and BITS Pilani.

Professor Bansal has significant experience collaborating with industry and government organizations. He has contributed to the development and delivery of BS and ME programmes for utilities and has extensive experience designing and delivering continuing professional development programmes for professional engineers. He has conducted research and consultancy and attracted significant funding from industry and government organizations.

He has published more than 500 journal articles, conference papers, books and book chapters. He has more than 25,000 Google Scholar citations and an h-index of 75. He has supervised 25 PhD scholars and 10 postdoctoral researchers or research assistants and currently supervises several PhD students. His research interests include renewable energy, wind and photovoltaic systems, distributed generation, microgrids and smart grids.

Professor Bansal is an editor of several highly regarded journals, including IEEE Systems Journal, EE and SGSE. He is a Fellow and Chartered Engineer of the IET, a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers (India), a Fellow of SAIEE and a Senior Member of IEEE.

Professor Abbes Amira is the Associate Dean for Research and Knowledge Exchange in the Faculty of Science and Engineering at the University of Wolverhampton, UK, and the former Dean of the College of Computing and Informatics at the University of Sharjah, UAE.

His extensive academic leadership also includes roles as Associate Dean for Research and Innovation, and Director of AI Institute at De Montfort University (UK) and Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies, Director of KINDI Centre at Qatar University, Qatar. He took other academic, leadership, visiting positions in the UK, GCC, ASIA and Europe including Queen’s University, Belfast and Brunel University of London, UK, and UTHM Malaysia. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Queen’s University Belfast, UK.

With expertise spanning Artificial Intelligence, Digital Twins, Edge/IoT Computing, Embedded Systems, and Computer Vision, Prof. Amira has led major international research initiatives applied to connected health, smart energy, and sustainable cities. He is the founder of the Smart Sustainable Cities (S2C) Research Group and has served as Principal Investigator on high-profile grants funded by EPSRC, QNRF, British Council and many regional and international research councils, securing significant research funding.

A Fellow of both the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and the Higher Education Academy (HEA), Senior Member of both IEEE and ACM, Prof. Amira has published over 400 high-impact paper and supervised more than 25 PhD students.

He has received numerous awards, including the VARIAN Prize from the Swiss Society of Radiobiology and Medical Physics, the CAST Award, the DELL-EMC Envision the Future Award, the IET Premium Award, the TAGHEER Award for Best Performing College, and multiple best paper and recognition awards at IEEE international conferences and events.

A frequent keynote speaker at global venues such as the World Future Energy Summit and BETT, he also serves as an expert evaluator for national funding bodies across the UK, Europe, and the GCC.

Yassine Himeur is an Associate Professor at the College of Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Dubai and Director of the Master of Electrical Engineering program. He is an IEEE Senior Member and an internationally recognized researcher whose work focuses on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its applications across cybersecurity, big data analytics, energy management, smart and sustainable systems, and emerging digital technologies. His research impact has earned him recognition among the world’s Top 2% most influential scientists by Stanford University/Elsevier for four consecutive years (2022–2025). He has authored and co-authored more than 250 research publications and has contributed to and co-led several research and development projects funded by the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), Qatar University, and the University of Dubai.

Dr. Himeur received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering in 2011 and 2015, respectively, followed by his Habilitation to Direct Research in 2017. Before joining the University of Dubai, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Qatar University from 2019 to 2022. Earlier in his career, he served as a Senior Researcher and Head of the TELECOM Division at the Algerian Center for Development of Advanced Technologies (CDTA). His research achievements have been recognized through several awards, including the Best Research Award for the 2023/2024 academic year, the Best Student Paper Award at IEEE GPECOM 2020, and the Best Paper Award at the 11th International Conference on Signal Processing and Multimedia Applications (SIGMAP 2014).

Beyond his research, Dr. Himeur is actively involved in the international IEEE and academic communities. He serves as Chair of the IEEE UAE Joint Chapter for Robotics and Automation, Control Systems, and Engineering in Medicine and Biology. He has held several leadership roles at international conferences and workshops, including Proceedings Chair for IEEE BigDataService 2023 and 2024, Publicity Chair for ICSPIS 2024, Chair of the 4th Workshop on Distributed Machine Learning for the Intelligent Computing Continuum (DML-ICC) at IEEE/ACM UCC 2024, and Chair of the Embedded Intelligence Workshop at IEEE/ACM BDCAT 2024.

Dr. Himeur also contributes to the scientific community through editorial activities, including serving as an Associate Editor for Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and as a guest editor for special issues addressing the intersection of artificial intelligence, energy, and sustainable cities. Alongside his research and professional service, he is deeply engaged in education and mentorship, teaching courses in Advanced Artificial Intelligence, Text Mining, and Research Methods and supervising Master’s and Ph.D. students. He has also been invited to deliver keynote and invited talks at international conferences and scientific events, where he shares his perspectives on artificial intelligence, intelligent systems, digital transformation, and emerging technologies.

Prof. Mohammed El-Abd (IEEE SM’16) is a Professor of Computer Engineering at the American University of Kuwait (AUK). He serves as the Dean for the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at AUK. Prof. Mohammed obtained his Ph.D. from the ECE Department at the University of Waterloo (UW) in Canada in 2008. He obtained his B.Eng. and M.Sc. from the ECE Department at Ain Shams University in Egypt in 1998 and 2003, respectively.

He was awarded the AUK-Dartmouth fellowship in 2012. He has vast experience in assessment and accreditation and is a certified ABET Program Evaluator. Prof.

Mohammed has over 100 publications including journal articles, book chapters, conference papers, and abstracts. He is an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Artificial Intelligence (TAI), the IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies (IEEE-TLT), Swarm and Evolutionary Computation (SWEVO), and Computers & Electrical Engineering. He was also a Guest Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Education (ToE) and Frontier in Artificial Intelligence. He was the founding chair of the IEEE Symposium on Cooperative Metaheuristics (IEEE-SCM) and was the general co-chair of the 2023 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON). He serves as a reviewer for many prestigious journals including the IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, the IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics and IEEE Access.

As a co-author, he was awarded the best paper award in the IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON) in 2015 and the best poster award in the 14th ACS/IEEE International Conference on Computer Systems and Applications in 2017. Prof. El-Abd has been named, since 2020, among the top 2% of researchers in Artificial Intelligence as per the Stanford University–Elsevier list.

His research interests span the areas of meta-heuristics, evolutionary computation, swarm intelligence, cooperative algorithms, continuous optimization, large-scale optimization, real-world applications, Internet-of-Things (IoT), smart cities, and engineering education.

Ahmed Saber received his Ph.D. from the University of the Ryukyus, Japan, in 2007. He is currently the Vice President of Optimization and AI at ETAP R&D, USA, where he contributes to AI-driven methods, products, and systems for power-system prediction, optimization, efficiency, sustainability, and operator assistance through large language models (LLMs). He currently serves as the Chair of the IEEE Orange County Section in California. His pioneering research led to a novel deep-learning-based model that improved load-forecasting accuracy, CO₂ estimation, efficiency, and operator support for power-system optimization and sustainability.

Recently, he introduced an AI-powered Electrical Copilot, an assistive intelligence system that enhances grid-operator decision-making by providing real-time diagnostics, fault detection, and predictive maintenance, improving grid resilience and reducing downtime. It has generated significant interest among power-system engineers, students, and researchers. His patented AI tools are widely used in power industries around the world.

Dr. Saber’s research has received national and international funding, including support from the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE). In recognition of his contributions to smart-grid technologies, he was honoured with the IEEE Outstanding Engineer Award in the Southern California Orange County Section in 2012. He received the Best Paper Award at IEEE ICEEICT 2018 for his outstanding research in AI and PV. He also received the ETAP Leadership Award in 2017 for excellence in power-system modelling, optimization, and AI-driven advancements.

He has contributed significantly to the power industry through patents, technical publications, conference presentations, benchmark systems, keynote speeches, tutorials, and workshops. With more than 100 technical publications and four patents on AI applications for power systems, his expertise spans AI/ML for power systems, smart grids, digital twins, energy storage, renewables, AI/ML data centres, power-system forecasting and optimization, cybersecurity, real-time systems, and operations research.

Faris AtaAllah serves as Head of Research and Development at SureFlow, where he works on the development of advanced IoT solutions for sustainable urban infrastructure. He holds a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Aleppo, Syria, and an M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the American University of Sharjah, UAE, where his research focused on efficient motor control algorithms and thermal-based energy management systems for EV batteries.

His professional experience spans industrial automation, embedded systems development, and energy management technologies. From 2019 to 2021, Faris worked extensively with PLCs and embedded systems in industrial automation applications. Since joining SureFlow in 2024, he has progressed from embedded systems design for energy monitoring solutions to leading the development of SureFlow`s comprehensive monitoring ecosystem and EV charging optimization, all while driving innovation in new products and patents.

At this conference, Faris will share insights on how accelerating electrification and surging power demand are straining the legacy energy infrastructure. He will then explore how smart, connected systems can optimize energy usage for a more sustainable future.

Dr. Siddharth Joshi has been working as an Assistant Professor (Grade 1) in the Department of Electrical Engineering, School of Energy Technology, Pandit Deendayal Energy University, since December 2012. He received his Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical Engineering in 2007, Master of Engineering in Power Systems in 2011, and PhD in Electrical Engineering in 2018. He has more than 18 years of teaching experience.

He has published more than 85 research papers and articles in national and international conferences, book chapters and journals, and has delivered more than 40 invited talks and guest lectures. He received the Young Scientist Award in January 2012 at a national conference in Visnagar, Gujarat, India. He has guided ten M.Tech. students and one PhD scholar, and currently supervises two PhD scholars.

Dr. Joshi is a lifetime member of IETE, ISTE and IE, and became an IEEE Senior Member in August 2020. He served as Chair of the IEEE CIS Gujarat Chapter, Treasurer of the chapter from April 2023 to March 2025, and has served as Vice Chair of the IEEE CIS Gujarat Section since April 2025.

He is also associated as a non-executive consultant with APA Environment and Energy Pvt. Ltd., London, United Kingdom, working for UK Power Networks on projects involving hybrid renewable-energy systems, wind power, solar PV and battery energy-storage systems.

Dr. Amee Daiya is associated with Scintillant Technologies as Manager - AI & Computer Vision. She was previously associated as a Data Scientist with APA Environment and Energy Pvt. Ltd., London, United Kingdom, working for UK Power Networks on projects involving hybrid renewable-energy systems, wind power, solar PV and battery energy-storage systems.

Dr. Daiya worked for 14 years as an Assistant Professor (Class II) in the Department of Computer Engineering at Government Engineering College, Rajkot, Gujarat, India. She received her Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Engineering in 2007, Master of Technology in Computer Engineering in 2021, and PhD in 2026 in NLP and AI/ML from the Department of Computer Science, Saurashtra University, Rajkot, Gujarat, India. She has more than 14 years of teaching experience and two years of industry experience.

She has published more than ten research papers in national and international conferences, book chapters and journals. She has delivered sessions, tutorials and keynote addresses at national and international conferences, served as a panellist at a premier AI and ML event in Mumbai, and guided more than 100 undergraduate and postgraduate students.

She is a lifetime member of IETE and Treasurer of the IETE Rajkot Centre. She served as Joint Secretary of the IEEE CIS Gujarat Chapter from March to December 2024 and has served as Treasurer of the IEEE CIS Gujarat Section since April 2025. She was elevated to IEEE Senior Member in 2025.

This workshop presents a practical roadmap for transitioning from grid digitalization to full digital transformation, covering smart grids, data analytics, automation, digital twins, and AI-driven decision-making to enhance efficiency, resilience, asset performance, and long-term value creation across the power sector.

Dr. Tareg Ghaoud is a highly accomplished utility industry expert with more than 25 years of experience in advanced power systems, smart grid technologies, and digital transformation.

He currently leads the Smart Grid Integration (SGI) team at the DEWA R&D Center, where he drives innovative initiatives in grid modernization, grid analytics, and the digitalization of power transmission and distribution networks. With a strong academic foundation including degrees from the University of Sussex (BEng), Imperial College London (MSc), and the University of Oxford (DPhil) he combines deep technical expertise with strategic leadership in the development of future-ready utility solutions.

He is a Chartered Engineer (CEng) from the IET, a Senior Member of IEEE PES, and a Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), reflecting both his engineering excellence and digital product leadership.