The department maintains a general ECE Events calendar (below) that all Faculty and Staff are encouraged to make use of. If you would like to add this calendar to your Google calendar, click on the link, go to the bottom, right side of the page and click on the “+Google Calendar” button.
November2026
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun
1
2
3
4
5
6
M.C. Dean Engineering Hub Student Research Symposium
M.C. Dean Engineering Hub Student Research Symposium
November 6, 20268:00 am - 5:00 pm Duke Energy Hall, James B. Hunt Jr. Library
Engineering the Next Generation of Critical Power Infrastructure: a one-day symposium on how the next generation of critical power infrastructure gets engineered, manufactured, tested and deployed at scale. The day includes welcome remarks and keynotes, fellowship project presentations, senior design presentations and a poster competition.
Call for posters: abstracts are due Oct. 23.
Agenda, speakers and registration: https://ece.ncsu.edu/critical-power-symposium/
Virtual Inertia Scheduling (VIS) for IBR-Penetrated Low-Inertia Power Systems
Virtual Inertia Scheduling (VIS) for IBR-Penetrated Low-Inertia Power Systems
November 6, 20269:15 am - 10:15 am 1231 Koch Hall
Virtual inertia scheduling (VIS) is introduced to efficiently handle the increasing penetration of inverter-based resources (IBRs) in power systems. VIS serves as an inertia management framework designed to achieve security-constrained and economy-oriented inertia scheduling and generation dispatch of power grids with a large scale of renewable generations. The seminar begins by discussing the transition of IBRs from passive components to active participants in system dynamics, followed by an introduction to the VIS framework and its general mathematical formulation. The application of VIS in power system economic dispatch is then explored, focusing on inertia and damping management while considering transient frequency performance metrics such as the rate of change of frequency (RoCoF) and frequency nadir. A case study will be presented to validate the proposed VIS concept of incorporating system dynamics into economic dispatch in the 39-bus ISONE test system with high-penetration renewable energy.
--
Fangxing "Fran" Li received his B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E. degrees from Southeast University in China in 1994 and 1997, and his Ph.D. from Virginia Tech in 2001. He is the John W. Fisher Professor in electrical engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and director of CURENT. His research interests include grid resilience, power system economics and AI for power. Li has received the 2026 IEEE PES Roy Billinton Power System Reliability Award, the IEEE PES Prize Paper award in 2026 and an R&D 100 Award in 2020. He served as editor-in-chief of the IEEE Open Access Journal of Power and Energy from 2020 to 2025 and is founding chair of the IEEE PES Artificial Intelligence for Power Systems Coordinating Committee. He is a Fellow of IEEE.
--
https://ncsu.zoom.us/j/98389016656
Virtual Inertia Scheduling (VIS) for IBR-Penetrated Low-Inertia Power Systems
Virtual Inertia Scheduling (VIS) for IBR-Penetrated Low-Inertia Power Systems
November 6, 202610:15 am - 11:15 am 1231 Koch Hall
Virtual inertia scheduling (VIS) is introduced to efficiently handle the increasing penetration of inverter-based resources (IBRs) in power systems. VIS serves as an inertia management framework designed to achieve security-constrained and economy-oriented inertia scheduling and generation dispatch of power grids with a large scale of renewable generations. The seminar begins by discussing the transition of IBRs from passive components to active participants in system dynamics, followed by an introduction to the VIS framework and its general mathematical formulation. The application of VIS in power system economic dispatch is then explored, focusing on inertia and damping management while considering transient frequency performance metrics such as the rate of change of frequency (RoCoF) and frequency nadir. A case study will be presented to validate the proposed VIS concept of incorporating system dynamics into economic dispatch in the 39-bus ISONE test system with high-penetration renewable energy.
--
Fangxing "Fran" Li received his B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E. degrees from Southeast University in China in 1994 and 1997, and his Ph.D. from Virginia Tech in 2001. He is the John W. Fisher Professor in electrical engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and director of CURENT. His research interests include grid resilience, power system economics and AI for power. Li has received the 2026 IEEE PES Roy Billinton Power System Reliability Award, the IEEE PES Prize Paper award in 2026 and an R&D 100 Award in 2020. He served as editor-in-chief of the IEEE Open Access Journal of Power and Energy from 2020 to 2025 and is founding chair of the IEEE PES Artificial Intelligence for Power Systems Coordinating Committee. He is a Fellow of IEEE.
--
https://ncsu.zoom.us/j/98389016656
November 11, 20268:30 am - 9:30 am 930 Main Campus Dr., Raleigh, NC 27695
Start your morning off with Centennial Coffee Hour at 321 Coffee's new location at 930 Main Campus Drive. Network with friends and co-workers from 8-9 a.m. the second Wednesday of every month. Stop by during the coffee hour and receive a dollar off your beverage. All are welcome to attend.
Cutting Edge AI in Electrical Design: A Framework for Engineering Collaboration With AI
Cutting Edge AI in Electrical Design: A Framework for Engineering Collaboration With AI
November 13, 202610:15 am - 11:15 am 1231 Koch Hall
Large language models can dramatically accelerate engineering work, but they fail in specific and repeatable ways. Based on months of daily use in analog and mixed-signal IC design, this talk explores where AI creates real value, where it breaks down, and what those failures reveal about the future role of engineers. Through examples in modeling, verification, and design workflows, I will present a practical framework for working with AI: constrain, verify, and learn. The central lesson is that while AI reduces the cost of implementation and exploration, it increases the importance of judgment. As generated answers become abundant, verification becomes the bottleneck and domain expertise becomes more valuable than ever.
--
Brian Holford is a principal engineer at Analog Devices, where he serves as lead technologist for the Advanced Layout Technology Team. He is pursuing a Ph.D. in signal processing and data conversion systems at NC State under the advisement of David Ricketts. His research focuses on ultrawideband spectral monitoring using low-resolution dithered quantizers. At Analog Devices, Holford defined the mixed-signal system-on-chip layout methodology that has scaled across multiple product generations. He also leads the Advanced Data Converter Fellowship Program, an internal training initiative that accelerates the development of new engineers into productive contributors in data converter design. Holford received his B.S. degrees in electrical engineering and computer engineering in 2006 and his M.S. in electrical engineering in 2008, all from NC State.
--
https://ncsu.zoom.us/j/98389016656