Dr. Bryan Willson
Presentation Title: The Future of Combustion in a Low Carbon World
Bio: Dr. Bryan Willson is Executive Director of the Energy Institute at Colorado State University where he also occupies the Bryan Willson Presidential Chair in Energy Innovation and serves as a Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Willson served as a Program Director at ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy, from 2012-2016 and continued as a consultant / advisor to the agency until early 2019. He has worked for over 25 years to develop and deploy large-scale technology solutions related to energy, vehicle technology, air quality, and human health. As an entrepreneur, Dr. Willson is co-founder of Envirofit International, Solix BioSystems, Factor(e) Ventures, and Xpower.
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Prith Banerjee
Presentation Title: AI/ML and Simulation in the Context of Product Innovation
Bio: Prith Banerjee is the Chief Technology Officer of ANSYS where he is responsible for leading the evolution of ANSYS’ Technology strategy and champion the company’s next phase of innovation and growth. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Cray, Inc. and Cubic Corporation. Previously he used to be Senior Client Partner at Korn Ferry where he was responsible for IOT and Digital Transformation in the Global Industrial Practice. Formerly, he was Executive Vice President, Chief Technology Officer of Schneider Electric. Previously, he was Managing Director of Global Technology Research and Development at Accenture. Formerly, he was Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of ABB. Earlier, he was Senior Vice President of Research at HP and Director of HP Labs. Formerly, he was Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Formerly, he was the Walter P. Murphy Professor and Chairman of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northwestern University. Prior to that, he was Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 2000, he founded AccelChip, a developer of products for electronic design automation, which was acquired by Xilinx Inc. in 2006. During 2005-2011, he was Founder, Chairman and Chief Scientist of BINACHIP Inc., a developer of products in electronic design automation. He was listed in the FastCompany list of 100 top business leaders in 2009. He is a Fellow of the AAAS, ACM and IEEE, and a recipient of the 1996 ASEE Terman Award and the 1987 NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award. He received a B.Tech. in electronics engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana.
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John Farrell
Presentation Title: Our Evolving Fuels: From Petroleum, to Biomass, to E-fuels?
Bio: John Farrell is the Laboratory Program Manager for Vehicle Technologies at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL). He is responsible for managing the EERE Vehicle Technologies Office R&D portfolio, which includes technologies spanning vehicle electrification, batteries/energy storage, power electronics, vehicle/grid interactions, biofuel/advanced engine interactions, smart mobility (connected/autonomous vehicles, urban sciences), analysis, and technology integration. He is also responsible for developing and integrating NREL’s advanced mobility strategy with broader initiatives across NREL, other DOE national labs, and industry. From 2014 to 2018, John also led the Co-Optimization of Fuels and Engines (Co-Optima) effort, a multi-lab, multi-DOE-office initiative focused on the co-optimization of new high-performance fuels and high efficiency engines. He is a Fellow of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) International, holds a B.S. in chemistry from Purdue University, and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Colorado.
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