Keynotes

SusTech 2025 Keynotes

April 21 8:15 am	Video presentation (on IEEE.tv)	Tom Coughlin, 2024 IEEE President
April 22 8-8:45 am	Keynote 1: “Designing for Regeneration”	Alan Booker
April 22 1-1:45 pm	Keynote 2: “Carbon Dioxide Measurement for Climate Restoration”	Snyder & Fiekowsky
April 22 8pm	Keynote 3: “The IEEE Humanitarian Technologies Board (HTB)”	Adil Usman
April 23 8-8:45 am	Keynote 4: “Advanced Electric Machines for Next Generation Electric Vehicles”	Adil Usman
April 23 1-1:45pm	Keynote 5: “Late Breaking Considerations in Sustainability”	Maike Luiken

Keynote 1: “Designing for Regeneration”

Alan Booker, Institute of Integrated Regenerative Design

Abstract:

Human technologies can either work in harmony with the Earth’s biosphere, seeking to align with its regenerative capacities, or work against it by trying to resist nature’s complex and emergent dynamics. Regenerative design practices seek to better align human technologies with the natural environments in which they are embedded, working with nature instead of against it.

Speaker:

Alan Booker (LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP, LFA, GRP) is the founder and executive director of the Institute of Integrated Regenerative Design, which trains professional design practitioners to create systems that are ecosystemic, biocompatible, and regenerative. With a degree in electrical engineering, he has over 35 years’ experience in engineering and 25 years in sustainable and regenerative design.

Alan is the creator of the Integrated Regenerative Design framework and the lead author of the Biocompatible Design Standard.

Alan is currently completing work on the draft release of the Biocompatible Design Standard and documenting his research into technically-rigorous definitions for the terms regenerative and sustainable in the forthcoming book The Dynamics of Regenerative and Sustainable Holons.

Keynote 2: “Carbon Dioxide Measurement for Climate Restoration”

David Snyder, 42Tek LLC

Abstract:

Reducing the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide down to pre-industrial levels will require removing and sequestering approximately 1,000 gigatons of carbon dioxide. This requires scaling removal up to about 60 Gt/yr by 2030 and maintaining that rate to 2050. The only method demonstrated to remove carbon dioxide at the needed speed and scale is ocean iron fertilization (OIF).

Work is underway to refine monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) for marine carbon dioxide removal. This requires measurement of the carbon dioxide removed and of any carbon dioxide that returns to the atmosphere.

OIF requires continuous monitoring during process development and during full scale production. The effectiveness of this method that replicates a natural process needs to be measured across large areas where the application of iron dust stimulates phytoplankton growth providing carbon dioxide removal through photosynthesis and sequestration in the ocean depths as biomass sinks.

Ocean-going buoys measure carbon dioxide in the water and air upwind and downwind of the project area and across a grid of sectors within the project area. This provides direct evidence of effectiveness. Measurements from NASA’s OCO-2 satellite monitor changes in carbon dioxide concentration above OIF project areas so that, in addition to observing reduction, possible re-emissions can also be detected.

IEEE and other organizations are continuing to explore the science and engineering needed for MRV.

Speaker:

David Snyder is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional, Certified Cloud Security Professional, California-registered Civil Engineer (PE) and IEEE Senior Member.

As an environmental engineer, he conducted environmental impact studies for power plants, transmission lines, and pipelines. He managed environmental, health, and safety regulations work for Chevron Pipe Line and then the investigation and remediation of soil and groundwater contamination at industrial sites. He is a member of the IEEE Standard P7100 Environmental Impact of Artificial Intelligence Working Group.

David is the Board Chair of the IEEE Consultants Network of Silicon Valley, a past board member of the Northern California Chapter of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), and has been the organizer, moderator, or speaker for more than 20 conferences and seminars, including the “Security, Standards and Laws” session of the 2024 IEEE World Technology Summit on AI Infrastructure and a panel on “Communications, Computing, and Power during Disaster Response” at the 2022 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference.

See https://42tek.com/

Keynote 3: “The IEEE Humanitarian Technologies Board (HTB)”

Adil Usman, Outreach Committee Chair; Technical Activities Representative, IEEE HTB

Speaker:

Adil Usman is currently working as an R&D Tech Lead at Varroc Engineering Limited in India. He was a postdoctoral researcher at National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Colorado, United States from 2022-2023. Before joining NREL, he was a research employee at University of California Santa Cruz. Dr. Usman holds a PhD degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), India. His research areas of interests include design and diagnosis of electrical machines & drives, for all electric transportation systems. He has significant contributions in terms of accomplished projects along with reputed publications. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and is currently serving as one of the board members for IEEE Industry Application (IA) Society.

Dr. Usman has been an active volunteer in humanitarian technologies (HT) and currently serving in the HT Board (HTB) as Chair for the Outreach Committee. Prior to this role, he was the Program Committee chair for the HTB in 2024. He is involved in most of the humanitarian conferences and workshops which includes IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC), where he is engaged since 2012. In the past he volunteered for SIGHT group and played a key instrumental role in setting up SIGHT chapters in the local sections of IEEE Region 10. He is also carrying out an initiative-lead, on a Humanitarian Ad-Hoc Committee within the IA society.

Keynote 4: “Advanced Electric Machines for Next Generation Electric Vehicles”

Adil Usman, Varroc Engineering Limited, Pune, India

Abstract

The electric drive technology (EDT) is continuously being advanced to widely transform and improve the performance of electric transportation or e-mobility systems on a global scale. In this context, several roadmaps are developed by the US automotive council and US Department of Energy (DOE) which draws and exhibit unified objectives of industry and government stakeholders. Essential steps are adopted to provide feasible solutions for high power density electric traction drive system (ETDS) with improved performance. The ETDS comprises of battery-packs, power electronic converters, electric machines and controllers. Among these, electric machines play a critical role in driving the EVs. Hence for the next generation electric vehicles (EVs), significant advancement in electric motors is required to meet the demand and comply with the set targets of the US Automotive Council.

This will provide a consolidated discussion and propose significant measures in improving and advancing the performance of synchronous electric machines which are widely employed in electric traction applications designed for passenger electric vehicles. The talk will quantify the discussion on improving the power density and efficiency of the machine with the commercially available solutions in terms of new design architectures, advanced emerging materials and adoption of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies for the development of electric traction motors. An overview on current trends, introduction to innovative technologies, and changes in existing manufacturing practices will be presented to achieve high performance advanced electrical machines with improved fault tolerance capabilities and reliability. New challenges and opportunities are identified for the optimized machine designs having potential to meet the standards for the next generation electric vehicles, while keeping the cost under control.

Bio:

Adil Usman is currently working as an R&D Tech Lead at Varroc Engineering Limited, Pune, India. Before moving to India, Adil was a postdoctoral researcher at National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), United States from 2022-2023 and a research employee at University of California Santa Cruz from 2021-2022.

Dr. Usman holds PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), India. His research areas of interest include design and diagnosis of electrical machines & power electronic converters, Battery Management System (BMS) in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs) and State of Health (SOH) estimation for all electric transportation systems. He has more than 50 reputed research publications, more than 20 invited talks and several technical awards and recognitions to his name.

Dr. Usman is a Senior Member of IEEE and is currently serving as a member of the Board of Directors for IEEE Industry Applications (IA) Society, United States.

Keynote 5: “Late Breaking Considerations in Sustainability”

Maike Luiken, Carbovate Development and Western University, Canada

This presentation will discuss emerging technologies aimed at addressing sustainability and climate change.

Bio:

Maike Luiken, PhD, SMIEEE, IEEE-HKN, FEIC, FCAE is a member of the IEEE Standards Association Board of Governors and the IEEE SSIT Board of Governors. She chairs the IEEE Planet Positive 2030 Initiative, the IEEE P7800^TM Standards Working Group: Recommended Practice for Addressing Sustainability, Environmental Stewardship and Climate Change Challenges in Professional Practice, and the Green Hydrogen IEEE SA Industry Connections Program. She is a co-chair, IEEE Future Directions SusTech Initiative.

Maike is a longtime advocate for sustainable development and for the deployment and use of technology that is ‘sustainable by design’ to achieve a long-term healthy planetary biosphere. Her areas of interest and expertise span diverse technical areas from ICT, energy, and water to advanced manufacturing.

She is managing director, R&D, at a start-up company, Carbovate Development, and Adjunct Research Professor, Western University, Canada.

Maike’s career spans academia and industry in Canada, USA and Germany.

She is/has been serving on numerous Boards of Directors and Committees, including IEEE and the Canadian Standards Council Steering Committee of the Artificial Intelligence and Data Governance Standardization Collaborative.