From April 20 to April 22, the 2026 Annual Conference of the Center for Power Electronics Systems (CPES) at Virginia Tech was held in Blacksburg, Virginia, USA. Professor Wang Xiongfei from the Department of Electrical Engineering was invited to deliver a plenary keynote presentation, while four doctoral students — Hu Jialiang, Ma Yiqing, Zhao Boyuan, and Zhu Xuanyi — attended the conference and presented laboratory research posters. This year’s CPES Annual Conference focused on the key challenges faced by power electronics technologies in the global transition toward a more efficient and electrified world. The conference featured three plenary keynote presentations and two special lectures delivered by experts from academia and industry, along with 21 technical presentations given by CPES students. In addition, the conference specially organized two laboratory exchange sessions, during which CPES graduate students and students from Tsinghua University’s Department of Electrical Engineering jointly presented a total of 58 academic posters. During the conference, faculty members and students from the Department of Electrical Engineering engaged in in-depth exchanges and discussions with experts, scholars, and American students on frontier issues in power electronics technologies.

On the morning of April 22, Professor Wang Xiongfei delivered a plenary keynote presentation titled “Challenges and Solutions for Control Stability of Power-Electronic-Based Power Systems.” The presentation focused on stability issues in power-electronic-based power systems, introducing emerging challenges related to oscillations, instability, and system vulnerability under conditions of large-scale integration of inverter-based power sources, direct-current transmission systems, and actively controlled loads. He also shared the latest research progress in relevant modeling and analytical methods, as well as robust control strategies for grid-connected converters. Professor Wang Xiongfei’s presentation received high praise from participating experts and scholars and sparked extensive discussion.

Professor Wang Xiongfei Delivers the Keynote Presentation Online

During the laboratory exchange sessions held on the afternoons of April 21 and April 22, the four students from the Department of Electrical Engineering shared and discussed their latest research achievements with professionals from various fields through electronic poster presentations, leading to lively academic exchanges. The presentations covered frontier topics including flexible DC transmission technologies, medium-frequency transformer design, grid-connected control stability, and hybrid energy storage for DC microgrids. Specific topics included: 1) Hu Jialiang: “Optimized Design and Experimental Validation of a 4.1 MVA/1 kHz Medium-Frequency Transformer for High-Power DC Transformers”; 2) Ma Yiqing: “A 1.5 kV/30 kV/10 MW Series-Resonant DC Transformer Based on IGCT and Medium-Frequency Isolation for Photovoltaic DC Collection Applications”; 3) Zhao Boyuan: “Limit Cycles and Large-Signal Stability Boundaries Induced by Outer-Loop Controllers of Grid-Connected VSCs”; and 4) Zhu Xuanyi: “Learning-Enhanced Hierarchical Control of Hybrid Energy Storage Systems in DC Microgrids.”

Ma Yiqing, Hu Jialiang, Zhu Xuanyi, and Zhao Boyuan Present Their Research and Exchange Ideas with Experts Including U.S. National Academy of Engineering Member Professor Dushan Boroyevich

Professor Fred C. Lee, Member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Poses for a Group Photo with Participating Students in Front of the Conference Posters

Professor Dushan Boroyevich, Member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and Honorary Professor of Tsinghua University, Poses for a Group Photo with Participating Students During the Laboratory Exchange Session

This in-person conference participation provided an excellent platform for exchange and collaboration in the field of power electronics between faculty and students from Tsinghua University and Virginia Tech. It enabled the latest research achievements of the Department’s power electronics group to be showcased and shared on an international stage, while also allowing participating students to gain exposure to frontier developments in the discipline and further promote advances in power electronics science and technology. Virginia Tech is an internationally renowned university in the field of engineering education, with its electrical engineering discipline — particularly in power systems and power electronics — consistently ranked among the world’s leading programs. The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering is home to four members of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and 29 IEEE Fellows, and hosts two internationally leading research platforms: the Power and Energy Center (PEC) and the Center for Power Electronics Systems (CPES). Among them, CPES was the first Engineering Research Center in electrical engineering approved by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). Since its establishment more than thirty years ago, it has become one of the world’s most prestigious research institutions in power electronics and has long led the development of power electronics science and technology worldwide. Professor Fred C. Lee, founder of CPES, member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, and foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, is a world-renowned scientist in the field of power electronics. He has long supported the development of the power electronics discipline at Tsinghua University and was appointed Chair Professor at Tsinghua University in 2017, where he taught the graduate course “Modeling and Control of Power Electronic Converters,” which was warmly welcomed by faculty members and students. Professor Dushan Boroyevich, member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, previously served for many years as Director of CPES and has long been committed to promoting collaboration and exchange with Tsinghua University. In 2018, he facilitated the signing of a cooperation agreement between the Department of Electrical Engineering at Tsinghua University and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech, and in 2024 he was appointed Honorary Professor at Tsinghua University. In addition, the current Director of CPES, Professor Richard Zhang (Zhang Xiaosong), is an alumnus of Tsinghua University. He assumed the directorship of CPES in November 2025, further reflecting the profound and enduring cooperative relationship between Tsinghua University and Virginia Tech CPES in the field of power electronics. The CPES Annual Conference, held every April, is a specialized academic conference with significant international influence in the field of power electronics.