Humanitarian Technology Panel

Dr. Pritpal Singh is a Professor of Electrical Engineering at Villanova University. He received his BSc in Physics from the University of Birmingham in England in 1978 and his Ph.D. in Applied Science/Electrical Engineering from the University of Delaware in 1984.

Dr. Singh has been working in solar energy research for over 40 years,
working right from the cell level to the systems level. He teaches
postgraduate courses in power electronics, renewable energy systems, sustainable product development for low resource settings and information, communication and energy technologies for development (ICET4D). He ran his own solar business in India for five years and has consulted for the US Department of Energy and two private companies on solar electric systems. He has worked with UNICEF in Nicaragua, Burundi and Zimbabwe giving workshops on renewable energy and entrepreneurship. He has recently worked on humanitarian projects in Ecuador in renewable energy and connectivity with colleagues from the Escuela Politecnica del Litoral (ESPOL) in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Dr. Singh served as the IEEE Special Interest Group for Humanitarian Technology (SIGHT) Education Subcommittee Chair from 2017 – 2019 and was the 2020 Chair of the Assessment Training Ad-hoc Subcommittee of IEEE SIGHT. He was also the Technical Chair for the 2020 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference. He is currently the Vice Chair of the IEEE Smart Village program’s Education Committee.

Dr. Kun graduated from the Merchant Marine Academy in Uruguay and holds a BSEE; MSEE and Ph.D. degree in BME all from UCLA. A (Lifetime) Fellow of the IEEE, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering. He is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of National Security Affairs (CHDS) and was Professor of Homeland Security at the National Defense University (2003-2015).

He is the President-Elect 2022 – IEEE – Society of Social Implications of Technology (SSIT) and Distinguished Lecturer. He is Editor in Chief of Springer’s Journal of Health and Technology. He spent 14 years at IBM; was Director of Medical Systems Technology at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. As Senior IT Advisor to AHCPR he formulated the IT vision and was the lead staff for High Performance Computers and Communications program and Telehealth.

Sampathkumar Veeraraghavan is a renowned technologist known for his innovations in addressing global humanitarian and sustainable development challenges. Prior to serving as the 2021 HAC Chair, Sampath was the 2019-2020 IEEE SIGHT Chair, leading the program to record-breaking growth through high-impact, technology-driven sustainable programs benefiting members in 115+ countries. In 2020, Sampath was an expert in the Broadband Commission working group on school connectivity co-chaired by UNESCO, UNICEF and ITU to drive “GIGA,” a Global School Connectivity Initiative. He is the founder and president of “The Brahmam,” a humanitarian program delivering next-generation social innovations to achieve sustainable development goals and benefit marginalized communities. He currently works as a senior technology and program management leader with Alexa Artificial Intelligence Group at Amazon. Sampath was recently accredited with the 2020 IEEE Theodore W. Hissey Outstanding Young Professional Award.

Morgan Mozhgan Kiani (S’06–M’09) received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, USA, in 2009., She was an Adjunct Faculty Member with the University of Texas at Arlington. She has been a Faculty Member with the Department of Engineering, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX, since 2011. She has authored several scientific articles in peer reviewed journals and conference proceedings. She holds one patent on active control of doubly fed induction generators used in wind energy harvesters.

Her research interests include modeling and analysis of energy converters, numerical methods in power system simulation, integration of distributed generators in smart grid, fault detection in wind farms, energy harvesting, energy diversification, and power electronics. Her teaching interests include electric circuits, power systems, power electronic systems, and electromechanical energy conversion.