Webinar Series I

Thank you for your interest and participation in our latest educational initiative, the "IEEE IMS Virtual Distinguished Lecturer Webinar Series." This initiative allowed us to continue providing IMS members with our respected and reputable Distinguished Lecturer program. Registration was completely free. Recordings are now available at the link above.

The IEEE IMS Virtual Distinguished Lecturer Webinar Series was structured in two sections. Webinars were 60-minutes long, including 15 minutes for Q&A.

Questions? Contact us at [email protected].

Mihaela Albu

Politehnica University of Bucharest
Romania

Measurements in the Emerging Power System- The Case of Phasor Measurement Units

About Dr. Albu's Webinar

Modern control algorithms in the emerging power systems process information delivered mainly by distributed, synchronized measurement systems, and available in data streams with different reporting rates. Beyond existing measurement approaches currently embedded in SCADA framework and smart meters, there are more and more deployed high-reporting rate, synchronized measurement devices like phasor measurement units (PMUs). 

There are several applications where synchronized data received with high reporting rate has to be used together with aggregated data from measurement equipment having a lower reporting rate (complying, for example, with power quality data aggregation standards) and the question is how adequate the energy transfer lossy information models are and how to correlate the measurement data streams.

The talk will address:

  • The measurement paradigm in power systems; 
  • Definitions of main quantities to be controlled in power systems;
  • Voltage and frequency variability; 
  • Model uncertainty and measurement sources of errors;
  • Information compression by the existing measurement systems
  • Phasor Measurement Units 
  • Linear and hybrid state estimators; WAMC

Andrew Taberner

The University of Auckland
New Zealand

A Dynamometer for the Heart - Nature's Engine

About Dr. Taberner's Webinar

The heart is an amazing organic engine that converts chemical energy into work. Each heartbeat begins with an electrically-released 'spark' of calcium, which triggers force development and cell shortening, at the cost of energy and oxygen, and the release of heat. We have developed new measurement systems to measure all of these processes simultaneously while subjecting isolated samples of heart tissue to realistic contraction patterns that mimic the loads experienced by the heart with each beat. These devices are effective 'dynamometers' for the heart, that allow us to measure the performance of the heart and its tissues, much in the same way that you might test the performance of your motor vehicle on a 'dyno.'

In this talk, I will overview how we have developed our own actuators, force transducers, heat sensors, and optical measurement systems to study nature's engine: heart muscle. Heart muscle force and length are measured and controlled, beat by beat, to microNewton, and nanometer precision by a laser interferometer. At the same time,  the muscle is scanned in the view of an optical microscope equipped with a fluorescent calcium imaging system. The changing muscle geometry is monitored in 4D by a custom-built optical coherence tomograph, and the spacing of muscle-proteins is imaged in real-time by transmission-microscopy. Muscle heat production is measured to nanoWatt precision using thermopile sensors. We combine all of these technologies with a hardware-based real-time acquisition and control environment and interpret results with the aid of a computational model.

Our dynamometer allows us to diagnose the 'performance' heart tissue, even as it is affected by disease, exercise, drugs, and diet. By applying this 'bioengineering approach' to the study of heart tissues, we have gathered new insight into the function of the heart - information that we hope will lead to better treatment and management of the engine upon which we all rely!

Sergio Saponara

University of Pisa
Italy

Sensing and Computing Systems for High-Performance Measurements in Autonomous Vehicles

About Dr. Saponara's Webinar

The talk by Prof Sergio Saponara will focus on sensor and measurement systems for new generations of vehicles with driver-assisted/autonomous capability. This is the main trend that is revolutionizing vehicles and the mobility of people and goods and is also making our cities smart.

The economic and social impacts of this application field are huge and the borders between automotive and ICT are blurring with huge investments from conventional automotive carmakers and tier-1 component providers but also from ICT and semiconductor companies.

The key enabling technologies for this scenario are sensing and measurement systems, needed for accurate vehicle positioning and navigation, vehicle context-awareness, obstacle detection and collision avoidance, and driver-assistance.

During the lecture, Prof Saponara will outline innovation and market trends in the above domain including discussions about new context-aware sensors (Radar, Lidar, cameras) and their data processing needing AI & high-performance computing platforms, as well as on-board sensors for positioning and navigation, including recent advances in MEMS accelerometers and gyroscope. Finally, we will analyze the trend in computing platforms, where multi-core and heterogeneous architectures and machine learning/AI (artificial intelligence) techniques are used to manage in real-time multiple and heterogeneous sources of measurements and take autonomous decisions.