Liang Xi Downey

Biography:

Liang is a Global Industry Blackbelt in Microsoft Energy & Resources Industry with 25+ years’ tech experience. She leads the AI transformation for power and utility companies across planning, grid operations, and renewable energy integration to lower customer energy bills and sustain reliability mandates. She practices Design Thinking to achieve operational outcomes through inspiration, divergent and convergent thinking. She is experienced with demand forecast, renewable forecast and optimized decision support using ML/AI and agents.  

She led the front-end delivery of a data strategy for a major ISO to support its FERC 2222 and 1920 readiness. She advised Exelon’s Handley Plant for their real-time IOT project to reduce generation downtime. She orchestrated a major energy provider’s multi-year customer transformation program. Liang works on Microgrid to improve community resilience. Liang is a senior IEEE member, a former advisor to IEEE Technology Engineering Management Society, member of the IEEE Energy Policy Committee and Power Energy Society.

She received Microsoft Champion Award, won 1st Place challenge in Microsoft Energy Industry Customer Pitch Contest 2021. She received multi-year recognition for leading the Global Power Utility Community. She has a Master’s degree in electrical engineering and a MBA in Finance.

Dr. Robert Peruzzi

Biography:

Dr. Robert Peruzzi is a Licensed Professional Electrical Engineer (PE) and Expert Witness practicing forensic  and technical consulting. He is president and sole employee of R. Peruzzi Consulting, Inc.  

Robert moved to Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley in 1990 to work as an Automated Test Equipment (ATE) test developer for AT&T Bell Labs, where he took advantage of their tuition assistance plan and earned  his Ph. D. in 2005 after what seemed like an eternity of part time study. He stayed on as that company  evolved through Lucent, Agere, LSI and Infineon. As opportunities arose, he crossed between  departments and product lines, working in analog and mixed signal design for hard disk drive and mobile  phone electronics.  
He has been an independent consultant since Infineon’s late 2008 layoffs and has expanded his practice from design and verification to include forensic and expert witness practice. 

Robert served as Chair of IEEE Philadelphia Consultants Network (CONET) and serves on the board of  IEEE Consultants Committee. He is the founder, and past Chair IEEE Lehigh Valley Chapter Solid-State  Circuits Society (SSCS). He is a member of National Academy of Forensic Engineers (NAFE), where he  serves as an Associate Editor of the NAFE Journal, and is a past NAFE Director at Large. 
Robert lives in Bethlehem PA with his wife, Esther. They are the parents of two adult children, and  grandparents of three.

William R. Kassebaum

Biography:

WILLIAM R. KASSEBAUM,  P.E. has over 37 years working in the private and government sectors, Will has extensive systems & computer (HW/SW) engineering, Electrical Power Engineering, Executive and Operations Management, Program Management, and entrepreneurial experience.

Will is an experienced technologist and computer hardware/software engineer - system architect, project/program manager, and broad technology specialist. Will has been the founding CEO of several Indianapolis based technology companies. His pioneering work at the Naval Air Warfare Center earned him and his team the prestigious National Performance Review "Heroes Of Government Reinvention" award presented by the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Vice President of the United States.

While working with private companies such as Escient, he has led teams that developed award-winning products. Mr. Kassebaum holds a Master's Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Purdue University and is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Indiana.  

Currently William R Kassebaum is the Vice President of Operations for Sims Durkin Associates Engineering Company -  an MEP Engineering Services Company working in low voltage power distribution design for Water & Waste Water, Buildings, Streetscapes, Parks, Solar Systems, and AF/SCCS Power studies. 

He is a past Chair and Director of the Central Indiana Section of the IEEE. And served on the IEEE-USA Board of Directors as Vice President Career & Member Services 2014-15, and as a corresponding member of the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Policy Committee of the IEEE-USA, a Founder and Co-Chair of the Central Indiana Engineering Consultants’ Network, and is a Past Chair and member of the Alliance of IEEE Consultants’ Networks (AICN), a committee of the IEEE-USA.

Mohammed Billoo

Biography: