On the afternoon of November 14th, the 13th "Jingde Forum" hosted by the Department of Electrical Engineering was successfully held at Lecture Hall 3-217 of the West Main Building. Philip T. Krein, Member of the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE), IEEE Fellow, and Emeritus Endowed Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), was invited as the keynote speaker. Zheng Zedong, Party Secretary of the Department of Electrical Engineering, Sun Kai, Vice Dean of the Department, and more than 90 faculty members and students from inside and outside the university attended the event. The lecture was hosted by Sun Kai.
On behalf of the Department of Electrical Engineering, Sun Kai extended a warm welcome to Professor Krein's visit and introduced the founding origin, purpose and philosophy of the "Jingde Forum" to the teachers and students present. Subsequently, Zheng Zedong, on behalf of the department, awarded Professor Krein a commemorative certificate and plaque of the Jingde Forum.
In the special report session, Professor Krein first delivered a sharing titled "Exploring Ubiquitous Electric Charging Infrastructure for Passenger Cars". He systematically analyzed the operation and charging characteristics of different types of vehicles such as daily passenger cars, school buses, delivery vehicles, and long-haul trucks, and conducted in-depth discussions on key issues including their charging costs, charging duration, and demand for power grid capacity. Professor Krein pointed out that with the continuous advancement of automotive electrification, most of the electrical energy can be supplemented through regular power outlets in scenarios such as homes, workplaces, and truck parking areas, and this model is expected to become the mainstream charging method in the future. Therefore, building ubiquitous charging infrastructure for passenger cars is a key link in promoting the development of the electric vehicle industry. In the subsequent Q&A session, Professor Krein conducted enthusiastic exchanges with teachers and students of the Department of Electrical Engineering on topics such as the challenges faced in the construction of charging facilities and the application prospects of V2G (Vehicle-to-Grid) technology.
Later, Professor Krein delivered his second thematic report—"Power Electronics and the Computing-Energy Nexus". He conducted an in-depth analysis of the technical challenges faced by data centers and their "power wall" bottleneck, and explained the dialectical relationship between low-power computing circuits and high-performance power conversion. On the basis of summarizing the power supply architecture of traditional data centers, he focused on analyzing the opportunities and challenges brought by emerging AI data centers to the development of power electronics technology. Professor Krein emphasized that to address various challenges in data center power supply, it is necessary to correctly grasp the complementary relationship between computing and energy, place them in equally important positions, and conduct collaborative design at the system level. He also pointed out that artificial intelligence technology should be actively integrated into power electronics design to achieve a synergistic development pattern of "AI driving electricity and electricity empowering AI". In the final Q&A session, Professor Krein shared his unique insights on the role of electrochemical energy storage in data center power supply systems.
Introduction to the Speaker
Professor Philip T. Krein is a Member of the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE), Member of the US National Academy of Inventors (NAI), and IEEE Fellow. He currently serves as an Emeritus Endowed Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and concurrently as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Zhejiang University. His research interests cover high-performance power electronics technology for data centers and artificial intelligence systems, electrified transportation infrastructure, and renewable energy integration. Professor Krein was awarded the IEEE William E. Newell Power Electronics Award in 2003, the IEEE Transportation Technology Award in 2021, and the Zhejiang Provincial International Science and Technology Cooperation Award in 2024. He currently serves as a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Transportation Electrification Council (TEC).
