In recent years, there is a rapid advancement of power electronics technologies and their industry applications. This development is particularly crucial to meet the pressing demands of distributed energy resources (DER), including renewable energy integrations, energy storage systems, and electric vehicles. In these applications, innovations in power electronic converter topologies and operational strategies can result in higher efficiency, improved reliability, and reduced physical footprint. Power electronics technologies play a vital role in addressing challenges within today's grids, encompassing energy management, system reliability, and efficient energy conversion. This presentation will specifically focus on recent advancements that tackle these challenges. It will cover various aspects, such as converter topology, design, and advanced control methods, including model predictive control and multi-rate-based techniques suitable for the high switching frequency of WBG-based power converters. Furthermore, it will explore the development of innovative topologies and modulation approaches inspired by graph theory-based methodologies.