Pritpal Singh, PhD

IEEE has been supporting humanitarian projects in lower- and middle-income countries through various programs including the humanitarian activities committee (HAC), the IEEE Special Interest Group for Humanitarian Technology (SIGHT) and the IEEE Smart Village program.

In this presentation, Dr. Singh will describe several sustainable development projects conducted with IEEE support, many including Villanova electrical and computer engineering students. The countries in which these projects have been carried out include the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, Guatemala, Rwanda, and Burundi. The projects to be presented address several of the UN Sustainable Development goals including quality education, connectivity and digital literacy, and renewable energy.

Biography:

Dr. Pritpal Singh is a Professor of Electrical Engineering at Villanova University. He has been teaching and performing research in solar energy for over 40 years. He also works with students on the design and application of technologies for sustainable development. He ran his own solar business in India for five years and has consulted for the US Department of Energy and three private companies on solar electric systems. He has worked with UNICEF in Nicaragua, Burundi and Zimbabwe and has recently worked on renewable energy and connectivity projects in Ecuador. He served as the IEEE SIGHT Education Subcommittee Chair from 2017 – 2019 and is presently the Vice President of the IEE Smart Village Education Committee. He served as the Technical Chair for the 2020 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC) and will serve as Co-Chair and host of the 2023 IEEE GHTC Conference. He was recently awarded the IFEES Duncan Fraser Global Award for Excellence in Engineering Education.