On the afternoon of March 27, 2018, Dr. Rob Stephen, Chairman of the International Conference on Large High Voltage Electric System (Conference Internaitonal des Grands Reseaux Electriques, CIGRE), was invited to visit the Department of Electrical Engineering and gave an academic report entitled "Future Grid Opportunities for Universities". The report was chaired by Prof. Zeng Rong, Chairman of the Department of Electrical Engineering. Prof. Kangchong, Professors Liang Xidong, Zhang Boming, He Jinliang and Dong Xinzhou, Associate Prof. Guo Qinglai, Mr. Zhao Jianjun, Director of the Chinese Society of Electrical Engineering, Mr. Stanislaw M. Gubanski, Professor of the Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, Dr. Ma Zhao from the China Electric Power Institute, and more than 30 students from the Department of Electrical Engineering, attended the Conference.

At the Conference, Dr. Rob Stephen first introduced the organizational structure and main work of CIGRE, explained the ten major areas involved in future power grid design and operation, and also discussed the key technical issues respectively in these ten areas.

Subsequently, accompanied by Prof. Kang Chongqing, Secretary of the Party Committee of the Department of Electrical Engineering, Dr. Rob Stephen visited the State Key Laboratory of Power System and Generation Equipment Control and Simulation, and discussed the broad prospects for future cooperation.

Profile:

Rob Stephen, Ph.D., Chairman of International Conference on Large High Voltage Electric System (CIGRE). He holds a Master of Science, an MBA degree and a Doctor’s degree in engineering. He joined South Africa State Power Corporation (Eskom) in 1980. He is currently a senior expert in Eskom Technologies Group, responsible for transmission and distribution technology in all voltage fields and for Eskom's smart grid strategy. He served as Chairman of CIGRE SC B2 Working Group, and also acted as Chairman of CIGRE Task Force. He was elected Chairman of CIGRE in 2016. He is also a Fellow of SAIEE. He was appointed as the honorary vice-Chairman in 2005 and won the SAIEE Chairman Award in 2016.