Troy, N.Y. – Richard Kauffman, chairman of Energy and Finance for New York in the Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, will give the keynote address this week at the 2015 Annual Conference of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Center for Future Energy Systems (CFES). The event will take place Thursday, Feb. 26, at the Hilton Garden Inn in Troy, N.Y. from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

The all-day event showcases the latest energy innovations and research results from Rensselaer faculty and students and their partners in industry, government, and academia. The three key themes of this year’s conference are “Energy Storage and Fuel Cells,” Power Electronics, Photovoltaics and Energy Efficiency,” and Renewable Energy Systems and Grid Resiliency.” See the full schedule at:  http://bit.ly/1DLfygG

CFES actively partners with small and mid-sized companies, global corporations, New York state and federal agencies, and educational institutions to accelerate energy research, move technologies from the laboratory to the marketplace, and ultimately build value and create jobs. CFES is one of 15 designated Centers for Advanced Technology funded by the Empire State Development (ESD) Division for Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR).

“The development of clean energy is critical to our economy and environment,” Jian Sun, CFES director and professor in the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering at Rensselaer. “The Annual Conference is an important venue to bring together CFES researchers, students, and partners to discuss advances in energy and how research and collaboration can bring us closer to our shared goal of creating a future energy system that is sustainable, resilient and economical.”

This year, a total of 21 oral presentations will be offered. The sessions, to be held from 10 to 11:40 a.m., and also from 1:40 to 3p.m. will feature presentations by world-class experts focused on the conference theme.

In addition to Rensselaer, researchers affiliated with several CFES industrial partners, as well as partners from government, and academia, will speak at the conference, including: Cornell University, General Electric, Con Edison of New York, Inc., Eaton Corporation, and Opal-RT Technologies, among others.

Attendees will also have an opportunity to view the poster session, scheduled to take place from 3 to 6:30 p.m. Overall,  64 posters will showcase the broad research scope of CFES and provide additional opportunities for individual and in-depth technical discussion with Center researchers. In addition, 26 CFES industry partners have also been invited to exhibit their technology and showcase their collaboration with CFES. 

The conference will feature talks from several Rensselaer faculty members and research associates about their energy research, including:

• Rahul Mukherjee and Nikhil Koratkar | Photo-Thermally Reduced Graphene Anodes for High-Performance Lithium-Ion Batteries
• Felipe Wilches-Bernal and Joe Chow| A Fundamental Study of Applying Wind Turbines for Power System Frequency Control
• Shahil Shah and Jian Sun | Comparison of Offshore Wind Farm Electrical System Architectures with HVDC Transmission
• Nick Novelli and Anna Dyson | On-Site Net Zero Buildings
• Sauvik Chowdhury and T. Paul Chow | 4H-SiC P-i-N Diodes on Lightly Doped Free-Standing Substrates
• Yiping Wang and Jian Shi | The Role of Ferroelectric Polarization on Charge Separation and Recombination in Perovskite Solar Cells
• Ignacio Vieto and Jian Sun | Analysis and Mitigation of Subsynchronous Resonance Involving Type-III Wind Turbines
• Pengzhi Gao, Meng Wang, Joe Chow, and Scott G. Ghiocel, in collaboration with Bruce Fardanesh and George Stefopoulos from the New York Power Authority (NYPA) and Michael P. Razanousky (NYSERDA) | Identification of Continuous “Unobservable” Data Attacks in Power Systems via Matrix Decomposition

CFES is the locus of energy research at Rensselaer, where world-leading science and engineering researchers from all fields gather to collaborate on advancing energy technologies for the benefit and promotion of economic growth in New York. With partner Cornell University, the center’s research thrusts range from advanced materials for energy conversion and storage, to energy efficiency, renewable energy, smart grids, and grid resiliency.

This year, more than 250 individuals from the Capital Region and across New York state will attend the 2015 Center for Future Energy Systems (CFES) conference.