John Nierenberg is a native of the Pacific Northwest who received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Seattle University where he first became a member of IEEE. John has worked for three electric utilizes Puget Sound Energy, Seattle City Light and now Tacoma Power. John is a working member of the IEEE Insulated Conductors Committee and the Northwest Energy Systems Symposium organizing committee.
Aravindhan Vadivel is Manager of Grid Operations – Applied Grid Innovation at GE Vernova, where he leads AI/ML-driven innovation for transmission and distribution grid operations, enhancing real-time decision-making and grid reliability. He previously led the global research, development, and deployment of Wide Area Monitoring Systems (WAMS), enabling advanced capabilities such as real-time situational awareness, oscillation detection, and dynamic stability monitoring across utilities and ISOs/RTOs worldwide. His work has contributed to modernizing control room operations and advancing more resilient, adaptive grid performance.
He regularly serves as a panel speaker, and presenter at IEEE and other industry events like NASPI (Novel Applications for Synchronized Power Instrumentation) work groups, sharing expertise in synchrophasor technologies and AI-enabled grid solutions. He also engages closely with academia through invited talks and mentorship, helping bridge innovation with the next generation of power engineers in AI/ML and digital grid operations.
Dajan Lyttle is a Lead Energy & Utilities Analyst for 1898 & Co., part of Burns & McDonnell, focusing on transmission planning, reactive capability analysis, and system impact studies for new generation. He started his career in consulting in 2023 with WSP USA, working on balance of plant studies for utility scale and distributed generation and electrical design for industrial and commercial projects. He has a Bachelor of Science Degree (’23) in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington Tacoma and is pursuing a Master of Engineering in Electrical Engineering with the University of Idaho.
