Six Gold Medals, One Silver Medal, and One Jury’s Special Grand Gold Medal Demonstrate China’s Strength in Power Technology Innovation

Recently, the 51st International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva concluded in Geneva, Switzerland. The Department of Electrical Engineering achieved outstanding results at this year’s exhibition, with participating projects winning a total of six gold medals, one silver medal, and one Jury’s Special Grand Gold Medal. These honors fully demonstrated the Department’s original innovation capabilities in the fields of energy and power systems and electrical engineering, as well as its commitment to serving China’s “dual carbon” strategy and the development of new-type power systems.

Founded in 1973 and jointly organized by the Swiss Federal Government, the Government of the Canton and City of Geneva, and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva is one of the world’s longest-running, largest-scale, and most authoritative invention exhibitions, widely regarded as the “Olympics of Invention.” This year’s exhibition attracted more than 1,000 inventions from 35 countries and regions worldwide, with the Chinese delegation presenting 237 projects. The exhibition jury, composed of more than 100 leading international experts, conducted rigorous evaluations based on innovation, practicality, and industrialization potential. Award-winning projects represent the highest level of global innovation and invention.

As a major research hub in China’s field of electrical engineering, the Department of Electrical Engineering has long been committed to technological innovation and industry-university-research integration in the energy and power sector. The award-winning projects presented at this exhibition covered frontier areas including smart energy, AI-enabled power systems, electromagnetic inspection and equipment safety, and advanced energy materials, collectively reflecting the Department’s comprehensive strengths in fundamental research, key technology breakthroughs, and the transformation and application of research achievements.

Smart Energy and Power AI Team: Artificial Intelligence Empowering Power Supply Security and Green Energy Coordination

The “AI-Enhanced Power Supply Security Early Warning System: Perceiving Strong Fluctuations in Wind and Solar Output under Extreme Weather Conditions,” developed by the Department’s Smart Energy and Power AI Team, won the Jury’s Special Grand Gold Medal at this year’s exhibition. The project also received major coverage and authoritative reporting from Xinhua News Agency. In a report dated March 15 from Geneva, Xinhua News Agency journalist Wang Lu highlighted the project while reporting on the awards won by the Chinese delegation at the 51st International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva, noting that “the AI-based power supply security early warning system significantly improves the adaptability and security pre-control capability of power grids with high penetration of renewable energy through intelligent identification of extreme fluctuation characteristics in wind and photovoltaic power generation.” Following multi-channel release by Xinhua News Agency, the report was widely republished by major media outlets including Science and Technology Daily and Sina Finance.

Focusing on the vulnerability of power supply security amid the global energy transition, the project establishes an AI-based active defense system targeting prolonged periods of low wind and sunlight as well as sudden meteorological fluctuations caused by extreme weather events. As the share of renewable energy installations continues to rise, the impact of extreme weather on the secure operation of power systems has become increasingly prominent. Through AI technologies, the project achieves precise perception and early warning of fluctuations in wind and solar output, providing an innovative solution for ensuring power supply security under conditions of high renewable energy penetration.

Another project from the same team, the “Green Energy Intelligent Collaborative Autonomous System Balancing Flexibility, Reliability, and Economy,” received a silver medal. The system is designed for distribution grids and microgrid scenarios with high renewable energy penetration, establishing a three-layer intelligent architecture encompassing system-level coordination, autonomous control, and market-user interaction.

Electromagnetic Inspection and Equipment Performance Safety Assessment Team: Advanced Inspection Technologies Empowering Equipment Safety and New Energy Development

The Electromagnetic Inspection and Equipment Performance Safety Assessment Team delivered outstanding performance at this year’s exhibition, winning three gold medals and receiving the “Saudi Delegation Commendation Award,” demonstrating the team’s deep expertise and international influence in the field of electromagnetic nondestructive testing.

The project “Electromagnetic Acoustic Stethoscope and Early Fault Warning Technology for Power Electronic Devices” utilizes naturally generated rhythmic acoustic signals from power devices during PWM switching transients to achieve multi-point real-time monitoring and full-life-cycle aging trend tracking. Targeting key scenarios such as photovoltaic inverters, electric vehicle drive systems, and data center power supplies, the project provides a highly sensitive, non-invasive, and distributed online monitoring solution.

The project “Early Diagnosis and Life Assessment Technology and Equipment for High-Temperature Equipment Creep” addresses the challenge of creep damage detection in high-temperature equipment. It invents a novel magnetoacoustic nondestructive testing method and develops a magnetoacoustic inspection instrument system, achieving the world’s first on-site early nondestructive detection and life assessment of creep damage.

The project “Preparation and Multi-Scenario Application of High-Performance Perovskite Solar Cells Based on Advanced Nondestructive Testing Technology” focuses on the development and application of advanced nondestructive testing technologies. Addressing core challenges in defect detection for perovskite solar cells, the project innovatively integrates multiple advanced nondestructive testing technologies throughout the entire new energy device R&D process, enabling precise early-stage diagnosis of battery defects and full-chain quality verification to support large-scale manufacturing of perovskite photovoltaic modules.

Smart Energy Team: Supporting Power Market Operations and Intelligent Grid Development

The Smart Energy Team won two gold medals at this year’s exhibition, with achievements focused on two critical areas: power market operations and intelligent grid development.

The project “Key Technologies and Platform for Power Market Operations with Grid-Level Energy Storage Integration” addresses the core challenge of large-scale distributed grid-level energy storage participation in electricity markets. It proposes an aggregation model for large-scale energy storage participation in electricity markets based on feasible-domain equivalent projection methods, and develops a market-clearing acceleration method based on subsystem cutting-plane induction. The project breaks through the automatic generation technology for cutting planes in market-oriented scheduling under temporal coupling of energy storage, achieving highly efficient acceleration without loss of accuracy. The related technologies have supported the orderly operation of the Southern Region unified electricity spot market and significantly improved the comprehensive utilization efficiency of energy storage, carrying important significance for ensuring energy security and promoting the high-quality development of new-type power systems.

The project “AI-Driven Grid Interaction Coordination and Optimization Technology” addresses grid operation needs under scenarios with insufficient measurements and parameters. Based on graph learning and deep reinforcement learning, it constructs data-driven dynamic grid modeling and operational decision-making systems, while designing transfer learning strategies, mechanism-data fusion-driven strategies, and intelligent action-space masking strategies to enhance the scalability, reliability, and interpretability of data-driven decision-making. The related technologies have already been implemented in areas including the Binhai New Area of Tianjin and the Huzhou power grid in Zhejiang Province, improving the intelligence level of grid operation decision-making.

Advanced Energy Materials and Equipment Research Team: Magnetic Sensor Technology Supporting Nuclear Power Plant Safety Monitoring

The “Phase-Loss Fault Monitoring System for Nuclear Power Plants Based on Advanced Magnetic Sensor Devices,” developed by the Advanced Energy Materials and Equipment Research Team, won a gold medal.

The project proposes a phase-loss fault monitoring system for nuclear power plants based on tunnel magnetoresistance magnetic sensors. The project overcomes the limitations of traditional transformers, such as large size and installation difficulty. By integrating tunnel magnetoresistance technology with long-distance wireless communication modules and employing a dual-algorithm approach based on “threshold and zero-sequence current,” it achieves precise real-time fault identification. The system also integrates a global navigation satellite system and real-time clock modules for high-precision time calibration, assisting in the rapid formulation of maintenance plans. The achievement features advantages including compact size, high precision, and low cost, effectively solving the challenge of phase-loss monitoring in auxiliary power systems of nuclear power plants.

Standing on the International Stage, Contributing “Electrical Engineering Wisdom”

At the 51st International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva, the Department of Electrical Engineering once again demonstrated China’s innovative strength in electrical engineering and energy technology to the world through eight award-winning achievements. China is currently accelerating the construction of new-type power systems and comprehensively advancing its carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals. The Department of Electrical Engineering has consistently remained oriented toward major national strategic needs, focusing on core scientific and technological challenges in the energy and power sector, continuously promoting deep integration of industry, academia, and research, and closely combining fundamental research, technological breakthroughs, and industrial applications. The Department’s outstanding performance at this year’s International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva undoubtedly represents strong recognition and affirmation from the international academic community of China’s level of innovation in power technology.

Looking ahead, the Department of Electrical Engineering will continue advancing frontier research in energy and power technology, strengthening original innovation capabilities, deepening international scientific and technological cooperation, demonstrating greater achievements in serving China’s “dual carbon” strategy and the construction of new-type power systems, and contributing more innovative strength to global sustainable energy development.