About us

Knowledge grows when it is shared.

The Expertise Forum is an open stage where researchers, engineers and professionals talk about their work with anyone curious enough to listen.

Our story

Why we started the Forum

Our community is full of people doing remarkable work in laboratories, universities, utilities and companies around the world. Too often, that knowledge stays inside a narrow circle. We created The Expertise Forum to bring it into the open.

Each session invites one expert to present a subject they know deeply, guided by a moderator and followed by a live discussion with the audience. Topics range from disaster resilience and soil science to artificial intelligence and power systems — always explained so that students, professionals and curious minds can all follow.

Every session is held live on Zoom and is free to attend.

The founders

Meet the people behind the Forum

Three engineers working in power systems and civil engineering across the United States, united by the belief that expertise is most valuable when it is shared.

Co-founder & Moderator

Eng. Ernst Masséant

Distribution Planning & Analysis Engineer, Leidos Florida, USA

Ernst is a power systems engineer who has spent more than six years at Leidos helping electric utilities plan and strengthen their distribution networks. His work covers load and capacity studies, voltage assessments, grid reliability, and reviews for connecting distributed energy resources to the grid.

Before Leidos, he interned with NextEra Energy and at Tampa Electric’s Bayside power station, and spent years tutoring and mentoring engineering students at Florida Atlantic University. He moderates many of the Forum’s sessions, guiding conversations so that experts and audiences meet halfway.

Education

M.S., Electrical Engineering — University of South Florida
B.S., Electrical Engineering — Florida Atlantic University
A.A., Electrical & Electronics Engineering — Broward College

Power distributionGrid reliabilityTau Beta Pi

Co-founder & Moderator

Eng. Obed Dorile

Operations Planning Engineer, California ISO California, USA

Pierre Obed Dorile is a power system engineer at the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), where he works on operations planning, day-ahead reliability assessments, outage studies and contingency analysis that keep the bulk electric grid secure. He is a NERC-certified Reliability Coordinator and a Fulbright alumnus.

His research on voltage stability and the security of wind-dominated power systems has been published in several papers. Earlier in his career in Haiti, he worked as an energy engineer for Digicel, an electrical engineer for GB Group and a field engineer at the E-Power thermal plant. He speaks Haitian Creole, French, English and Spanish.

Education

M.S., Electrical Engineering (Power Systems) — University of Arkansas
B.S., Electrical Energy Systems — University of the West Indies, St. Augustine
Mathematics — École Normale Supérieure, State University of Haiti

Grid operationsEnergy marketsFulbright

Co-founder

Dr. Marc-Ansy Laguerre

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Rice University Houston, Texas, USA

Marc-Ansy is a civil engineer specializing in earthquake engineering. He earned his Ph.D. at Rice University, where he is now a postdoctoral research associate in Civil and Environmental Engineering and has taught structural analysis as an adjunct lecturer.

He is a Fulbright Scholar and a Purdue Trailblazers in Engineering Fellow. Before graduate school he served as an assistant project manager at the Inter-American Development Bank in Port-au-Prince and taught mechanics at the State University of Haiti. He cares about connecting engineering research with public policy and education.

Education

Ph.D., Civil Engineering (Earthquake Engineering) — Rice University
M.S., Civil Engineering — University of Pittsburgh
Graduate Certificate, Latin American Social & Public Policy — University of Pittsburgh
B.S., Civil Engineering — State University of Haiti

Earthquake engineeringPublic policyFulbright

Have expertise worth sharing?

We are always looking for guests who can open up their field to a wider audience. Reach out to one of our founders and tell us what you would like to talk about.

Contact a founder Browse past talks