First Meeting of the R-PODID Advisory Board: Key Discussions and Future Plans
25-04-22 00:00
The inaugural meeting of the R-PODID Advisory Board took place on the 31st of March 2025, marking an important milestone for the R-PODID project.
The agenda was filled with insightful presentations and discussions about the project’s vision, strategies, and future directions.
The meeting began with the Introduction of the R-PODID Advisory Board members, where each expert introduced themselves and shared their expertise. This set the stage for the collaborative work ahead, bringing together a diverse group of professionals committed to the project’s success.
Next, Marco Crescentini, the R-PODID Coordinator, provided a comprehensive Overview of the R-PODID Project, including a detailed explanation of the R-PODID Use Cases. This section gave attendees a clear understanding of the project’s scope, objectives, and the real-world problems it aims to address, particularly in industrial contexts, such as manufacturing line applications, the automotive industry, testbeds, and industrial and urban lighting.
Following this, Urtė Steikūnienė from TeraGlobus presented the R-PODID’s Dissemination and Outreach Strategies. This segment emphasised the importance of effective communication and outreach in raising awareness about the project and engaging key stakeholders.
The meeting also included a presentation on R-PODID’s Exploitation Plans, where potential avenues for the commercial and practical use of R-PODID’s outcomes were discussed.
The remainder of the meeting focused on fruitful discussions about several key topics:
R-PODID’s main objectives and goals, focusing on the industrial drive applications.
Exploitation activities: Participants discussed various potential ways to maximise the impact of the R-PODID project, both commercially and in terms of its broader societal benefits.
Follow-up collaborations and partnerships: Ideas were shared on how the project could expand through future collaborations with other organisations and research initiatives.
Strategies to further enrich the project’s communication and dissemination outcomes, publications’ impact, and outreach metrics.
The meeting was characterised by a strong sense of collaboration, with all participants engaging deeply in the discussions and offering valuable insights. The board members expressed enthusiasm for the next steps and look forward to the continued development and success of the R-PODID project.
As the R-PODID Advisory Board moves forward, the project is set to make significant progress in beyond state-of-the-art innovations, offering new solutions to improve the efficiency and reliability of power converters and industrial drives.
Introducing members of the R-PODID Advisory Board:
Prof. Enrico Sangiorgi is Professor at University of Bologna’s Department of Electrical, Electronic, and Information Engineering "Guglielmo Marconi", and Director Emertus of SINANO Institute. He is a member of the Chips JU Governing Board and of the Aeneas Supervisory Board. He is a member of the Supervisory Board of the Foundation Chips-IT, a recently established national research center. Prof. Sangiorgi has been Vice Rector at the University of Bologna and a Visiting Scientist at Stanford University and Bell Laboratories. His research covers the physics, characterization, modeling, and fabrication of solid-state devices and integrated circuits. He has been working on device scaling and reliability. Enrico Sangiorgi is a Distinguished Lecturer and Fellow of the IEEE (2005).
Prof. Dr. Ir. Willem D. van Driel is a distinguished expert in the reliability of electronic products and systems. Prof. van Driel serves as a Fellow Scientist at Signify (formerly Philips Lighting) in Eindhoven, focusing on solid-state lighting reliability. In addition to his corporate role, since April 2024, he leads the Electronic Components, Technology, and Materials (ECTM) section at the Department of Microelectronics, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). He earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology in 1992 and 1994, respectively, and completed his Ph.D. at TU Delft in 2007. He has authored over 400 scientific publications, including journal and conference papers, book and book chapters, patents, and invited keynote lectures. His research interests encompass solid-state lighting, microelectronics, microsystems technologies, virtual prototyping, virtual reliability qualification, and designing for reliability of microelectronics and microsystems.
Prof. Dr. Hendrik Wöhrle is a prominent figure in the field of medical electronics, serving as a professor at the University of Duisburg-Essen. He also leads the "Smart Embedded Systems" research group at the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems (IMS) in Duisburg, Germany. His research focuses on the development of domain specific computer architectures, advanced sensor systems, encompassing areas such as medical implants, edge computing, and adaptive machine learning. The "Smart Embedded Systems" group at Fraunhofer IMS specialises in creating embedded machine learning solutions for predictive maintenance, sensor systems, and robotics, aiming to push the boundaries of sensor technology through the integration of artificial intelligence and cutting-edge microsystem techniques.
Ethem Sahin serves as the Production Director at Arçelik's Electronics Plant, where he plays a pivotal role in overseeing manufacturing operations. Notably, he led the project for relocating the TV factory from Beylikdüzü to Çerkezköy, a strategic move aimed at enhancing production efficiency and capacity. This relocation aligns with Arçelik's commitment to expanding its manufacturing capabilities; in October 2018, the company inaugurated a new electronics factory in Çerkezköy, investing 500 million Turkish Liras to bolster its production capacity and export potential. Mr Sahin has published on the topics of Design of a just-in-time periodic material supply system for the assembly lines and an application in electronics industry.
