Keynotes

Pawel Wargocki is a professor at the Technical University of Denmark. He is an academic teacher, scientist, industry consultant, and IAQ expert. He is a mechanical engineer by education. He has expertise in environmental psychology, physiology, and exposure monitoring and more than 30 years of experience in research on human requirements in indoor environments. He is an ISIAQ, REHVA, and ASHRAE Fellow. He graduated from the Warsaw University of Technology in Poland and received his Ph.D. from the Technical University of Denmark, where he has been teaching and performing research ever since. He is known for his seminal work demonstrating that poor indoor environmental quality affects the performance of office work and learning. His research influenced indoor air quality, ventilation, and air cleaning requirements. His research has recently focused on studies on human emissions, sleep quality, the development of IEQ rating schemes, the performance of green buildings, solutions for reducing infection risk and air cleaning, and interactions between different indoor environmental domains. He has trained and educated numerous students and scholars. He has collaborated with leading research institutions, universities, and industrial partners worldwide, such as the National University of Singapore, Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, Waseda University in Tokyo, Syracuse Center of Excellence, United Technologies, Velux, Boeing, and Google. He was President and long-standing board member of the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate (ISIAQ), President of the ISIAQ Academy of Fellows (previously Academy of Indoor Air Sciences), Vice President of the Indoor Air 2008 conference, and Chair of several ASHRAE committees. He has been invited to many conferences as a keynote speaker and received several awards for his work and papers. He published extensively (h-index=60).

Manuel Alcázar-Ortega received his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain) and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of South Florida (USA). Currently, he is an Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, where he is also Academic Director of the Degree in Energy Engineering at the College of Industrial Engineering. At UPV, he has been linked to the Research University Institute for Energy Engineering from 2004 to the present, where he is the Head of the Area of Energy Systems and Markets. Previously, he worked at the company RWE Deutschland AG (Germany) as electrical engineer within the Department of New Technologies and he hold the position of Research Assistant Professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo (USA), where he was the Director of Smart Energy Systems and Demand Response in the Power Center for Utility Explorations. He has been a Teaching Lecturer at the University “Miguel Hernandez” of Elche (Spain). Furthermore, he has participated as a guest lecturer for the Master’s Degree in Energy and Sustainability at the University of Vigo (Spain), the Master’s Degree of Energy Management at the National University of Itapúa (Paraguay) and the Postgrad Course on Smart Grids at the National University of Engineering (Peru). Moreover, he has given lectures in different courses, conferences and events in Spain, Colombia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Japan, Singapore or the United States of America. At present, he is working on different lines of research related to the study of smart grids and micro-grids, the characterization of energy consumers and the active demand participation in electricity markets. In this area, he is author of more than 70 publications in international JCR indexed journals, conference proceedings and other scientific media.

Peter Gorder Dr. Peter Gorder, Professor and Chair, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS)
Peter Gorder is serving a second stint as Chair of the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) Department at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. Prior to returning to the University of California, Davis, to earn his Ph.D., Dr. Gorder spent 5 years in industry, working as a contractor for NASA Ames Research Center. Upon completion of his Ph.D., Dr. Gorder began his academic career in 1993 at Kansas State University where he established the Aircraft Design and Manufacturing Research Center as well as led research in the advancement of general aviation aircraft as part of the NASA Advanced General Aviation Technologies Experiments (AGATE) program in addition to leading advancements in the nation’s air traffic management system as part of the joint NASA-FAA Center TRACON Automation System (CTAS) program.
Since joining UCCS in 2000 as the first chair of the new MAE Department, Dr. Gorder’s focus has transitioned to the workforce development role of the engineering academy. He has developed a unique capstone experience program designed to better prepare graduates for their professional careers. This program now includes all engineering majors at UCCS providing an opportunity for true multidisciplinary team experiences. In addition, Dr. Gorder has expanded the program to include international collaborative teaming experiences where UCCS students team with students from other parts of the world to address real problems for industry sponsors as well as international service learning projects.

Paolo Valdiserri is an Associate Professor at the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Bologna, Italy. He holds a five-year degree in Civil Engineering (with honors) from the University of Bologna, a post-graduate master’s degree in Corporate Business, and a PhD in Applied Thermal Physics.

His academic and research topics focus on steady-state and transient heat transfer phenomena in devices used in civil and industrial applications. The primary research activity focuses on the development and application of numerical models for solving heat and mass transfer phenomena. Several studies arose from the directives on energy performance in buildings. Applications of interest are in the field of: i) Building envelope: dynamic performance of opaque envelope and transparent components, overall performance of glazing and shading systems, towards the definition of control strategies; ii) HVAC systems: ventilation systems modelling of heat recovery systems, heat pumps for space heating and cooling, control strategies and application potential of the technology, performance of carbon dioxide heat pumps for electric vehicles; iii) Indoor air quality and environmental wellness: measurement of thermal comfort and HVAC interaction; iv) Building systems: dynamic performance of the entire building, simulation for sensitivity analysis to model approach, integration with district heating systems and cogeneration; v) Renewable energies: ground sources heat pumps, solar thermal collectors and PVT panels; vi) Heat transfer and energy management in industrial applications.