Planery Speakers

1. Prof. Radhakant Padhi

Dr. Radhakant Padhi is currently working as a Professor in the Department of Aerospace engineering and Centre for Cyber-Physical Systems, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. After doing his Ph.D. and Postdoc in the US, he joined IISc Bangalore as a faculty in December 2003 and is continuing over there since then. He was a scientist in RCI (DRDO), Hyderabad, for a brief period during 1996-1997.

Dr. Padhi is a Fellow of INAE, IE, and IETE. He is an Associate Fellow of AIAA and a Senior Member of IEEE. He is a member of the Technical Committee on Aerospace in both IEEE and IFAC and a vice-chair of the publication board of IFAC. Currently he is a member of the Board of Governors of IEEE Control system society. He is the Director of Operations of the Automatic Control and Dynamic Optimization Society of India (has been a past president of it too), and also a Steering committee member of the Asian Control Association. He is a life member of Soft Computing Research Society, Aeronautical Society of India, and Systems Society of India. He is an Associate Editor of three international journals in the control and automation field.

Dr. Padhi’s research interest is on optimal and nonlinear control synthesis algorithms and their applications to challenging practical problems in aerospace, biomedical and mechanical engineering. He has co-authored over 250 publications in international journals and conferences, and a book on Satellite Formation Flying. His research is well-supported by Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) of USA, Agency for Defence Development of South Korea etc. He is a member of the technical review committee in DRDO and ISRO for several challenging projects and has also contributed substantially by carrying out intensive collaborative research with both the organizations. The innovative nonlinear and optimal guidance and control algorithms developed by Dr. Padhi and his team are received well across the globe. Currently his research group is passionately involved in developing an Artificial pancreas system for Type-1 diabetic patients of India and also for Dynamic modelling and optimal management of air-traffic over the Indian airspace – both of these projects are sponsored by the IMPRINT (IMPacting Research INnovation and Technology) initiative of MHRD, Govt. of India.

2. Prof. Atif Iqbal

Atif Iqbal (Senior Member, IEEE) received the B.Sc. (Hons.) and M.Sc. degrees in engineering (power system & drives) from Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Aligarh, India, in 1991 and 1996, respectively, the Ph.D. degree from Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, U.K., in 2006, and the D.Sc. (Habilitation) degree in control, informatics, and electrical engineering from the Gdańsk University of Technology, Poland, in 2019.

He is currently a Full Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Qatar University, and a Former Full Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering, AMU. He has been worked as a Lecturer with the Department of Electrical Engineering, AMU, since 1991, where he worked as a Full Professor, until August 2016. He has published widely in international journals and conferences his research findings related to power electronics, variable speed drives, and renewable energy sources. He has authored or coauthored more than 420 research papers and four books, and several chapters in edited books. He has supervised several large research and development projects worth more than multi-million USD. He has supervised and co-supervised several Ph.D. students. His research interests include smart grid, complex energy transition, active distribution networks, electric vehicles drivetrain, sustainable development and energy security, distributed energy generation, and multiphase motor drive systems.

He is a fellow of IET (U.K.), fellow IE (India), and the Vice-Chair, IEEE Qatar Section. He was a recipient of Outstanding Faculty Merit Award academic, from 2014 to 2015, and the Research excellence awards at Qatar University, Doha, Qatar, in 2015 and 2019. He was also a recipient of the Maulana Tufail Ahmad Gold Medal for standing first at B.Sc.Eng. (electrical) Exams from AMU, in 1991. He has received several best research papers awards, e.g., at IEEE ICIT-2013, IET-SEISCON-2013, SIGMA 2018, IEEE CENCON2019, IEEE ICIOT 2020, and Springer ICRP 2020. He is also an Associate Editor of IEEE Transaction on Industrial Electronics, IEEE Access, the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Electrical Engineering, a Former Associate Editor of IEEE Transaction on Industry Application, and a Former Guest Associate Editor of IEEE Transaction on Power Electronics. (This bio is based on his IEEE Author Profile)