Smart Grid Seminar

Talk Title: “Technologies for the Smart Grid: An  overview”

Dr. William Kao UC Santa Cruz Silicon Valley Extension

Talk Abstract: In this talk Dr. Kao will first present a definition  and vision of the Smart Grid, and  its five key areas: Sensing and Measurement, Advanced Control Methods,  Improved Interfaces and Decision Support, Advanced Components and Integrated Communication. He will then briefly go over three key areas to achieve Smart Grid success: its Architecture, Communications and Technology. The rest of the talk will focus on some of the Hardware, Software and Materials technologies for the smart grid.

Speaker Bio: Dr. William Kao received his BSEE, MSEE and PhD from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He worked in the Semiconductor and Electronic Design Automation industries for 30 years holding senior and executive (Director, VP) engineering management positions at Texas Instruments, Xerox Corporation, and Cadence Design Systems.

Dr. Kao has authored more than 40 technical papers and holds several software and IC patents. He was an Adjunct Professor at UCLA Electrical Engineering Department where he taught courses in computer aided circuit design. Dr. Kao is a Senior Member of IEEE, and was one of the founding members of IEEE-Circuits and Systems - Silicon Valley Chapter, where he was Chapter Chair in 2005 and 2006.

Dr. Kao currently teaches Renewable Energy, Clean Technology and Business Sustainability courses at UC Santa Cruz Silicon Valley Extension, and at the Silicon Valley Technical Institute in San Jose. He is also on the Technical Advisory Board for Sigma Quest on the topics of Energy and Environment, and Quality Control, and is a consultant for several Clean Tech companies.

Dr. Kao was the founder and President of CARES (Chinese American Renewable Energy Society), now The Clean Technology Group of the Chinese Institute of Engineers (CIE) USA-SF, where he is also a Board Member.

Most recently, Dr. Kao was a Clean Technology consultant for mainland China Government where he taught courses on “Low Carbon Economy” to Chinese government officials; for the Taiwan Ministry of Science and Technology where he was invited to give seminars on Clean Technology, Renewable Energy, and  Energy Efficiency at major universities (academia), and government research institutions; and for the Malaysian Government on  Emerging Technologies for a  new Knowledge Based Economy.

Talk Title: "Imperatives, Opportunities and Dangers in Smart Grid Development"

Dr. James Caldwell, President E3 Regenesis Solutions

Talk Abstract: The "Smart Grid" is not well understood as a whole system. It must develop intelligently at various levels as an efficient "brain" for power generation, distribution and use. However, that is only one dimension.  It must coordinate power generation, distribution and use to optimally serve building operators, community social and economic stakeholders and the resources of the local ecosystem. Since all of these change continually, along with technology and the Internet, no one fully understands all the parts and the whole grid either.  Nonetheless,

1. We must develop it or suffer serious problems far bigger than those we are currently experiencing in natural gas pipelines, public transit failures, etc.

2. We must develop it to be able to creatively evolve within a whole system perspective even while each component must also be developed to operate independently and interactively with larger systems. There are opportunities for systems engineers, social engineers, Internet engineers, electrical and mechanical engineers as well as urban and regional planners, biologists, chemists, geologists, botanists, and politicians.

We will look at the smart (or intelligent) grid from the perspective of biomimicry, imitating nature’s processes and ecosystems. One model and essential component is the world wide web, which routes traffic ever more efficiently throughout the world, constantly adapting to changing traffic conditions and the needs of users and providers. In fact, it must incorporate the web in providing information to help all who need it to more efficiently allocate power resources under changing circumstances.

Speaker Bio: Dr. James Caldwell is President of E3 Regenesis Solutions Inc, a company specializing in building green energy alliances and systems integration worldwide. He is a Member of the California Biomass Collaborative, Sustainable San Mateo County, Board President of Conexions and member of it's Sustainovation steering committee. Member of Energy Voyager Corporation's International Knowledge Trust, a Director of the 1990 Institute and a Director of the U.S. China Green Energy Council building collaborative alliances in the field of green buildings and green Eco-cities. He is currently working with numerous business, NGO's and governmental organizations in the green energy field to help integrate systems that depend upon and support the development of ever more efficient and clean energy use in innovatively regenerative communities.

As preparation for building alliances and managing organizational transformation, Dr. Caldwell taught university courses on U.S. and international politics, the Politics of Energy and the Environment, Comparative Politics and World History at The University of Texas at Austin, SUNY Binghamton and Iona College, NY. He also taught the rise and fall of civilizations and co-edited a book "Aisles of Time" that traced the development through history of political, economic, religious and legal systems. Fluent in Chinese, he worked in Asia for several years. He was a Fellow at the U.C. Berkeley Institute of East Asian Studies and Assistant Director of the Center for East Asian Studies at Stanford University. He founded Pacific Rim Connections, Inc., a multilingual technology integration company. He served as Editor of the Unicode Standard (ISO10646) for multilingual electronic communications: practiced the art of alliance management to solve seemingly intractable problems among engineers from different cultures. Also served as VP for Multilingual Technology at Ion Global - US (part of Chinadotcom) which integrated internet companies around the world.

Organizer: CleanTech Group of CIE/USA-SF (formerly CARES)

Chinese American Renewable Energy Society (CARES) founded in 2009 in Silicon Valley by a small group of professionals who shared their common interests in alternative sources of clean energy, energy efficiency, and global environmental sustainability, is to promote renewable energy and clean technology to Chinese American communities by providing a common platform, services, activities and education. Now CARES has merged with the Chinese Institute of Engineers USA San Francisco Bay Area Chapter to become the CleanTech Group of CIE/USA-SF.