Keynote Speakers

Prof. Davide Fabiani

IEEE DEIS President
University of Bologna, Italy.

Keynote topic: Piezolelectric nanocomposite materials for mechanical sensing and energy harvesting

Abstract

This topic discusses the development of multifunctional composite materials with a piezoelectric effect. First, different-shaped polymeric mats made of piezoelectric nanofibers electrospun were produced. The piezo effect has been enhanced by carefully designing the electrospinning device to raise the electric field in the interelectrodic area that polarizes the dipolar moments. The electromechanical response of the resulting composite materials, which are made up of the mats and a silicon rubber matrix, is then assessed. By appropriately integrating the nanofibers into the host material, as shown by images obtained using electron microscopy, delaminations, that might have occurred with piezoelectric films, are avoided. Last but not least, it has been demonstrated that both vibration and impact stimuli result in a sizable electrical reaction which can be used for sensing and energy harvesting.

Biography

Davide Fabiani (S’98-M’02-SM’16) was born in Forlì, Italy, in 1972. He received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering with honors in 1997 and 2002, respectively. Since 2014, he is Associate Professor at the Department of Electrical Electronics and Information Engineering of University of Bologna where he teaches the courses of “Innovative Electrical Technologies” and “Insulation Systems Design and Diagnosis”. Formerly, from 2005 to 2014 he was Assistant Professor at University of Bologna. His fields of research are mainly related to:

• Development and characterization of nanostructured materials for applications in electrical and electronic apparatus.

• Investigation of HV apparatus diagnosis mainly through partial discharge measurements

• Evaluation of the effect of non-sinusoidal waveforms on reliability of components and insulation systems (in particular, induction motors fed by power electronic converters)

• Study of electrical conduction mechanisms and aging processed in high voltage insulation systems.

He was involved in several projects financed by public and private companies.

He is author or co-author of about 280 papers, most of them published on the major international journals and conference proceedings. He is Associate Editor of IET High Voltage Journal as well as reviewer for several International Journals. He is a founder of the Research Group on Electrospinning (RGE) of University of Bologna. Currently he is President of IEEE Dielectric and Electrical Insulation Society (DEIS) from January 2024. He has been member-at-large of DEIS AdCom and Chair of the Meetings Committee from 2016 to 2019, DEIS VP Technical for 2020-2021 and VP Admin for 2022-2023. He is member of the TC on Nanodielectrics of IEEE DEIS and of two CIGRE working groups on multifunctional material and insulating material diagnostics.