Professor
Electrical & Electronic Engineering
UniSA STEM
University of South Australia
Mawson Lakes Campus
SA 5095, Australia
Biography
Syed Mahfuzul Aziz holds BSc and MSc degrees in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, a Ph.D. degree in Electronic Engineering and a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education. He is currently professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of South Australia, and a former professor of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). He has collaborated extensively with industry and government agencies, and led projects with over A$2.5 million in research, teaching and infrastructure grants. Professor Aziz has diversified research interests including high performance digital systems, reconfigurable processing architectures, integrated circuit design and renewable energy. His research has encompassed various sectors including energy, defence, health and the environment. He has published over 150 research and scholarly articles in journals and conferences.
Professor Aziz was the recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for Australian University Teacher of the year in 2009. He has fulfilled many leadership roles and actively contributes to discussions on the quality issue in higher education nationally and internationally. He has served on the national teaching award committee in Australia and as assessor of competitive research grants and educational programs internationally. He is a senior member of IEEE and a regular speaker at national and international forums.
Title: Greener electricity future – challenges and opportunities
Abstract:
Increasing frequency of catastrophic bushfires, cyclonic weather patterns and flood events are attributed in large part to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The energy and transport sectors are among the big polluters. On top of this, the growing worldwide electricity demand poses a significant challenge to the efforts in reducing GHG. Thanks to international initiatives such as the Kyoto protocol and the Paris Climate Agreement, countries around the world have made noticeable commitments in recent years to reduce their carbon footprint. Consequently, electricity generation from renewable sources such as solar and wind have gained momentum. Quite a few countries have taken significant leap forward to transition to greener electricity generation and transportation. However, replacing conventional power generating plants with renewables is posing new and diversified challenges. These include the intermittency of renewable power and the impact on system stability. Among the energy storage solutions being deployed to mitigate some of the challenges, battery energy storage systems (BESS) have gained a lot of traction in recent years. This keynote will discuss some of these challenges and the opportunities to create a greener electricity future. The talk will provide an overview of the research conducted in this area at the University of South Australia including research on effective integration of Electric Vehicles into the future electricity grid.