Adrian Bejan is ranked among the top 0.01% of leading world scientists in the 2019 citations "impact" database.
His impact is in top 10 in Engineering worldwide.
He is the author of 680 peer refereed articles and 30 books.
Most recently, he received the Benjamin Franklin Medal, the Humboldt Research Award, and the Prize of the Turkish Academy of Sciences.

Plenary Lecture:          Freedom and Evolution: Hierarchy in Nature, Society and Science.

Abstract: Evolution is the defining phenomenon of nature. This lecture outlines the role played by freedom and evolution in physics (thermodynamics): given freedom, movement exhibits the tendency to evolve into configurations that provide greater access. The lecture traces the modern evolution of flow systems that morph with freedom toward greater flow access, in accord with the constructal law. The progress is in two ways, incremental and with sudden step changes in flow configuration and performance. All this is predictable. The doctrine of evolutionary (constructal) design teaches how to predict evolution in general, and how to fast-forward technology evolution. The human today is a construct much larger and more complex than the human body examined in isolation. An individual today is a flow system that covers the globe. Each of us is becoming a better and thicker spherical shell of flows connected all over the globe. Our devices, from automobiles and air conditioners to schools, hospitals and Internet fill the global human shell, which thickens constantly during the human geological age. We are the human & machine species.

Remus Teodorescu received the Dipl.Ing. degree in electrical engineering from Polytechnical University of Bucharest, Romania in 1989, and PhD. degree in power electronics from University of Galati, Romania, in 1994. In 1998, he joined Aalborg University, Department of Energy Technology, where he currently works as full professor. Between 2013-2017 he was a visiting professor at Chalmers University. He has coauthored over 500 IEEE journals and conference papers. His areas of interests includes: design and control of grid-connected converters for photovoltaic, battery storage and wind power systems, HVDC/FACTS based on MMC, Smart Battery and lifetime based on artificial intelligence.

Plenary Lecture:          Smart Battery

Abstract: This disruptive Smart Battery concept will first revolutionize the hardware architecture of battery systems by adding cell-level switching capability, software reconfiguration and wireless data communication and secondly by using the mature Machine Learning (ML) technology, ground-braking functionality will be developed including life-time control and chemistry/aging independent performance for second life time reconfiguration. The critical challenge here is not adding "brains" to each cell for monitoring and state estimation (like IoT), but the cell switching capability, a device that will be able to optimize the charging/discharging current profiles flor lifetime extension, isolate a faulted cell and make the charger/load converters redundant. In other words, will transform the battery cells in building-blocks, that will significantly ease the design effort in applications raging from kW to GW. We have seen this kind of revolution in power electronics by the development of power modules which made the power converter to be virtually present in all energy applications today.

Mircea Popescu (M'98 - SM'04 - F'14) is Chief Technology Officer for Motor Design, Ltd., UK and has more than thirty five years of engineering experience. Mircea received PhD degree from University "Politehnica" Bucharest, Romania and DSc (Tech) degree from Helsinki University of Technology, Finland in 1999 and 2004 respectively. Earlier in his career, he was with Helsinki University of Technology (now Aalto University) in Finland and with the SPEED Lab at University of Glasgow, UK. Dr. Popescu published more than 150 papers and his publications have received three IEEE best paper awards. He is co-author of the book "Multiphysics Simulation by Design for Electrical Machines, Power Electronics and Drive", Wiley, 2018, ISBN: 978-1-119-10344-8. His consultancy contributions for industry are incorporated in many state-of-the-art products. Current major projects include ReFreeDrive, rare-earth free e-drives featuring low cost manufacturing, under EGVI Horizon 2020 program. An IEEE Fellow, Dr. Popescu acted as IEEE IAS Electrical Machines Committee Officer between 2010-2017 and 2013-2016 Distinguished/Prominent Lecturer IEEE IAS Region 8.

Plenary Lecture:          Optimised Electrical Machine Designs for E-Mobility Applications

Abstract: Transport electrification is seen as one of main solutions to reduce global CO2 emissions and increased demand of mechanical energy can be provided by electrical energy. The best energy conversion systems are undoubtedly the combination: electrical machines + power electronics + batteries. The increasing demand of full electric vehicles arises specific challenges in terms of design for manufacturing, low weight, material costs and material supply chain. There is a strong interest to reduce the volume and cost of active materials in propulsion motor technologies beyond their current state-of‐art, with a strong focus on industrial feasibility for mass production. Potential solutions include increased motor speeds and higher pole numbers and/or the adoption of rare earth free typologies such as reluctance (switched and synchronous) and induction machines. As there can be significantly different usage and performance requirements across e-mobility applications adopting a common standard of motor design is unlikely to yield the optimum in terms of overall system efficiency and electric vehicle range. These considerations will be discussed and compared.Cutting-edge sensitivity analysis and multi-objective optimisation techniques will be applied in the design of an electric motor for a PHEV traction application. Each candidate solution will be evaluated in terms of electromagnetic, thermal and mechanical behaviour across the full operating envelope. The optimisation will generate a pareto front which allows efficiency over a drive cycle to be traded off against motor cost. This approach utilises a high performance or cloud computing infrastructure to deliver a truly revolutionary design workflow.

Floriana D. Stoian is Professor of Engineering Thermodynamics and of Power Plants and is also affiliated with the Magnetometry Lab, Research Center for Complex Fluid Systems Engineering, Politehnica University Timisoara. She graduated Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Politehnica University Timisoara, Romania, in 1989, with specialization in Industrial Power Engineering. She received the PhD degree in engineering from the same university, in 1997. She was fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (1996, 1999-2000, Japan) and fellow of the CNR-NATO Program (2004, Italy). After defending the habilitation thesis in 2017, she became PhD Adviser in Mechanical Engineering. Since June 2000, together with research teams from Politehnica University Timisoara and from the Magnetic Fluid Lab, Romanian Academy-Timisoara Branch, she developed research studies regarding the thermal properties of magnetic nanofluids, their use in heat transfer applications and the heat transfer control by magnetic fields.

Plenary Lecture:          Magnetic and Transport Properties of Concentrated Magnetic Nanofluids for Use as Liquid Core

Abstract: Magnetic nanofluids (ferrofluids) have already proven their capabilities in various electrical and power engineering related applications, including for cooling and insulation of power transformers. Recent researches showed the potential of using magnetic nanofluids as a magnetic liquid core in miniature-sized transformers, by replacing partially or totally the solid ferrite core. Results of the investigations on the magnetic and several transport properties (rheological, magneto-rheological, thermal and electrical) of concentrated magnetic nanofluid samples, prepared for use as liquid core in a planar micro-transformer, are presented. Potential advantages with reference to the corresponding properties that a ferrite core should fulfil are outlined.