PELS Distinguished Lecture Program by Dr. Pradeep Shenoy

From the substation feeder to the transistor gate, every watt powering an AI data center passes through a chain of power conversion stages - and each one now limits how far AI infrastructure can scale. This lecture follows that path end to end: grid interconnection, medium-voltage distribution, solid-state transformers, HVDC architectures, rack-level storage, and package-level vertical power delivery, along with the wide-bandgap devices - SiC and GaN - that make the whole chain viable. The talk highlights where efficiency is still being lost and where the next major gains are likely to come from.