Plenary Speakers

We are all seeing the growth of electrification across multiple industries. So what does this mean for engineers and engineering? This talk will present the speaker’s experience and observations on this topic.

Dr. Uday Deshpande is currently CTO of D&V Electronics, a maker of special test equipment used in automotive, military and defense applications for testing electrical systems and EV components.

Prior to joining D&V, Dr. Deshpande held global engineering leadership positions in companies such as CNH Industrial, Ingersoll Rand, General Atomics, Black & Decker.  He has worked on projects from electric power steering to electric drivetrain in automotive, on electromagnetic aircraft launch and recovery systems, electrification and autonomy for agriculture equipment, connected products and services. His areas of technical focus are electrical and electromechanical systems and their applications.

Dr. Deshpande has been active in the IEEE Industry Application and Power Electronics societies and part of organizing and steering committees of several conferences including Co-General Chair of the ECCE 2011 conference.  He is the past Chair of the Industrial Drives Committee of the IEEE IAS and TC3 Electric Machines, Drives & Automation technical committee of the IEEE PELS and is an Associate Editor of the Transactions in Power Electronics.

Dr. Deshpande received his B. Tech.(Hons.) degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India and the MS and PhD degrees from the University of Kentucky, USA, all in Electrical Engineering. Dr. Deshpande has several patents and publications to his name and is a Senior Member of IEEE.

Dr. Babak Fahimi has received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Tehran, Iran with the highest distinction, in 1991 and 1993 respectively. He also received a PhD in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University in 1999.He has been active in research on electric machines and drives over the past 30 years. He has co-authored over 375 peer-reviewed articles and holds 22 US patents. He has been the advisor for 36 PhD students and 30 M.S. students. Dr. Fahimi is a fellow of IEEE for his contributions to modeling of adjustable speed motor drives. He has received the Richard M. Bass young power electronics investigator award from IEEE-PELS in 2003, Cyril Veinott electromechanical energy conversion award from the IEEE-P&E in 2015, and Ralph Teetor educational award from the society of automotive engineers in 2008.

The presentation will focus on customer value proposition of Electrification Technology in the Off-Hwy segment including technology trends & adoption enablers.

Jayanthi (Jay) Iyengar assumed the role of Chief Technology Officer in November 2019. She has over 30 years of international technology experience in the automotive, aerospace and advanced water technology fields, much of which she gained through roles of increasing importance with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Eaton Aerospace and Xylem Inc.

Before joining CNH industries, from 2015-2019 she was the Senior Vice President, Chief Innovation and Technology Officer of Xylem Inc., a leading water technology company. From 2012-2015, she served as the Group Vice President Engineering and Technology for Eaton Aerospace. From 2009 – 2012 Ms. Iyengar served as Global Director, Electrified Powertrains for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA, Stellantis). This was preceded by a series of roles of increasing responsibility in the FCA powertrain division, including being named Senior Manager and Chief Engineer of FCA Hybrid Development Center in 2005.

Jay currently serves on the Board of Array Technologies Inc, a solar technology public company, and on the board of Engineering Tomorrow, a nonprofit focused on promoting STEM education for underprivileged minority high school students. She has also served on the board of the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Vehicular Technology Society.

Jay Iyengar holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Mysore University, Karnataka, India, a master’s degree MTech in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India, as well as a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Wayne State University, Michigan.