Biography:For more than 40 years, Dr. Robin Podmore has dedicated his career to the development of computer applications for power system operations and planning. As an IEEE Fellow Dr. Podmore has been advocating methods, standards and programs whereby transmission and generation operators could enhance and add functions to their existing energy management systems through a series of incremental upgrades. Dr.Podmore was a key contributor to development and world-wide adoption of the Common Information Model. Since January 2008, Dr. Podmore has been working with US Department of State and visiting with the Iraq Ministry of Electricity to train Iraqi Grid Operators with his company’s Power Simulator product to maintain the reliability of their interconnected electric systems. As Co-chair of the IEEE PES Community Solutions Initiative, Dr. Podmore is advocating a virtual community and a Sustainable Energy Reference Architecture so that open source electric generating solutions using solar, wind and human energy can be affordable to those earning one to two dollars a day. A link to his IEEE profile is: http://www.ieee.org/about/news/releases/profile_podmore.html Presentation: The Community Solutions Initiative – Forming IEEE and EWB-USA partnerships for powering developing communities:
The Community Solutions Initiative www.communitysolutionsinitiative.org seeks to develop extremely affordable open- source electric energy solutions for developing-country communities and to support locally owned micro-business development to reach a significant portion of the un-served electricity population in each country of deployment. The use of ad-hoc alternatives is not working. More than a billion people are trapped in poverty and millions are losing their lives because of ineffective solutions to light their homes, cook their meals, and run their medical clinics, schools and businesses. The technology exists to fix the world electricity crisis. By scaling and adapting the same technologies used in the world's richest nations we can solve the problems in the poorest. Open source design, strategic delivery and training of local entrepreneurs is the answer. CSI is bringing the best and brightest minds from across all disciplines of engineering to build the tools necessary to deliver affordable sustainable energy solutions to developing communities. In this key note presentation Dr Podmore will outline the scope of the Community Solutions Initiative and will show how EWB-USA members can accelerate their career growth and contribute to humanity by participating as regional champions, product developers or functional specialists. |