Join us on Wednesday, October 27 & Thursday, October 28 (11am – 5pm each day) via WebEx for CURENT’s Annual Industry Conference. Since we are “graduating,” we won’t be having the Annual Site Visit anymore, but the Annual Industry Conference will continue.      

Agenda

Registration – Please register so that we know how many people to expect. 

Go to the webpage for information about presentations and bios for Keynote Speakers and Industry Panelists.  

August 12, 2021

Inclusion Training with Dr. Denise Driscoll

Training Title: Understanding Bias in Team Situations:  The Importance of Detection and Skilled Responding   

Date: Friday, Aug. 27th

Time: 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm via ZOOM

Class size is limited to 20 people. If you are interested in attending this training, please register here. 

Description:  In an increasingly global and diverse world, we need more practical and experiential,yet engaging and safe, ways to learn to be more inclusive team members and leaders in diversity-potential teams.   For example, at some point, you are sure to face a situation where a team member says or does something biased, and you need to be aware enough to detect, and skilled enough in responding, that you can then take appropriate action—especially if you are the team leader.  In this virtual workshop, we will 1. Introduce what bias is and when it occurs; 2. Have you watch a short video clip with built-in instances of biases that vary along an implicit-explicit dimension; 3. Put you in a break-out room to discuss with a few other participants what biases were detected and what the various responses to biased instances were; and, 4. Conclude with what is known about de-biasing teams and improving both your detection and responding skills.  This ability to effectively respond to bias in teams is particularly a valuable skillset for anyone who wants to be an inclusive leader and/or benefit from diverse teams.      

Bio:   Denise M. Driscoll holds a doctoral degree in social psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara (1992) and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Indiana University (1986).  Currently, she is Director of Diversity and Inclusion at a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center called CISTAR (Center for Innovative and Strategic Transformation of Alkane Resources) in Purdue’s School of Chemical Engineering, an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychological Sciences in Purdue’s College of Health and Human Sciences, and a Faculty Affiliate in Purdue’s Brock-Wilson Center for Women in Management in the Krannert School of Management.  Dr. Driscoll is also President and Owner of Diversity Competency LLC, a consulting company that she launched in 2008.  

For over 30 years now, Dr. Driscoll has actively worked on diversity and culture of inclusion (DCI) issues by:  1. teaching courses; 2. doing research; 3. creating and facilitating workshops; 4. assessing workplace culture and DCI programs; 5. grant-writing and running associated programs; 6. advising universities, non-profits, and companies on best DCI practices; and 7. mentoring individuals about how to be inclusive leaders.   

Haiguo Li was awarded a 2021 Best Presentation Certificate by APEC. This certificate is given to researchers who have made outstanding presentations. Click here for a total list of APEC 2021 Technical and Dialogue Best Presentation Award Winners.

Congratulations to Haiguo Li!

Soaking Up the Sun 

by Kevin Bogle

(See the original article in Tennessee Engineer)

As more solar power is being generated and used than ever before, managing its growth, and the policies governing its use, requires a better understanding of the factors driving that growth.

Now, an interdisciplinary team from UT is researching the residential adoption and use of solar panels at the intersection of socio-economics, politics, science, and engineering.

“This project is designed to investigate the characteristics of American residents who have installed solar panels on their homes and why they did so,” said co-PI Chien-fei Chen, research associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science in CURENT. “This could be enormously useful for managing the evolving US power grid and understanding barriers to greater use of renewable resources.”

Using satellite data from DeepSolar—provided by Stanford University—the team identified the number of solar installations per household and total area of installations across service areas of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). An initial analysis by the team showed that low-income assistance programs contribute to residential solar adoption in all areas, especially in cities, and higher electricity prices in general are more closely associated with higher adoption rates, especially in rural and suburban areas.

An additional early finding revealed demographic factors such as income, education, and age to be important factors, but incentives programs aimed at homeowners, the physical suitability of climate and home (suitable rooftop) in the area, and the potential financial savings also play a strong role.

“The use of satellite data has been critical for identifying several hot spots of solar adoption that previous studies likely overlooked, said Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering Xueping Li. “For instance, instead of focusing on counties with high levels of solar adoption, we are identifying the communities within those counties that are hot spots.”

“Interestingly, census tracts with a higher level of racial diversity tend to have higher adoption rates, especially in rural areas,” added Chen.

With these initial findings, the team then expanded their analysis to include all counties in the US and performed regionally specific spatial analysis using maps from the platform ArcGIS. They used a machine learning approach called Random Forest to help sift through thousands of possible drivers of solar adoption.

“There are a large number of diverse factors that are correlated with residential solar adoption, and these factors differ by geographic region and community characteristics,” said computer science master’s student Gerald Jones.

“Random Forest allowed us to let the data guide us to the factors that were most important in a particular area. The data set contains over 300 variables and the analysis allowed for a ranking of each variable’s predictive importance which helped in selecting a set of variables to start with.”

After refining the model, they compared the results to a statistical and sociological approach to explain the “whys” of solar adoption.

“Results of the regression models indicated that solar adoption is more common in suburban areas,” said Chen.

Last December, the team surveyed 2,300 Tennessee residents serviced by TVA, asking whether they had any previous experiences with rooftop solar and identifying variables related to adoption (financial, environmental, physical, or a lack of considering the option), based on the discrete choice experiment in the survey. Trust in the utility, data privacy concerns, satisfaction with the price of electricity, and interest in other energy-saving programs were also measured.

“Households earning over $150,000 are around three times more likely to purchase rooftop solar as those earning between $50,000 to $75,000 after controlling for age, gender, and home ownership status,” said Associate Professor of Economics and co-PI Scott Holladay. “These results illustrate distributional issues around rooftop solar where high-income households are more likely to take advantage of the benefits of rooftop solar.”

The team also used respondents’ locations to estimate which parts of the grid are most likely to see increases in rooftop solar. One finding showed residents in Tupelo, Mississippi, for example, are around four percent more likely to purchase a system than those in Bowling Green, Kentucky, while holding system characteristics constant.

“It was interesting because few studies have looked at how the utility-customer relationship that was built elsewhere outside the solar projects could impact residents’ intention to adopt rooftop solar,” said post-doctoral researcher with CURENT, Xiaojing Xu.

Finally, participants were asked to choose from different combinations of financial savings and carbon-emission reductions. This information will be used to develop a decision-making curve from which the researchers could estimate the public’s overall probability of adopting rooftop solar systems in given conditions.

In the project’s final phase, the team will combine the results of DeepSolar and the TVA survey to understand the dynamic interplay between customer incentives to invest in solar generation systems and utility incentives to invest in new resource and transmission assets.

“Our ultimate goal is to determine how to efficiently and equitably integrate residential solar generation onto the electric grid,” said Associate Professor of Economics Charles Sims, the project’s PI. “Achieving these goals requires a clear understanding of what drives customers to adopt solar, and this project has moved us closer to this goal. The next step is to determine how utilities should respond to and adapt to the spread of this new emerging technology.”

Dr. Hantao Cui Gives CURENT Power and Energy Seminar on Fri., April 23

Dr. Hantao Cui, University of Tennessee, will present the CURENT Power and Energy Seminar (ECE 496 and 691) on Friday, April 23 from 1:00 pm to 1:50 pm. The seminar will be available via ZOOM. The ZOOM link will be sent to CURENT students and faculty through email. Contact Wendy if you need a link.

Presenter: Dr. Hantao Cui, University of Tennessee

Title: Recent Software and Computing Techniques for Power Engineering

Abstract: This talk will give an overview of recent software and computing techniques for power engineering. Techniques to be introduced include the hardware CPU vectorization and GPU parallelization, eco-system level Python and Julia computing packages, and software engineering tools such as git and docker. This talk is for students and scholars with an interest in power engineering and computing. 

Bio: Dr. Hantao Cui is currently a Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he received his Ph.D. in 2018. He will join Oklahoma State University as an assistant professor in the Fall of 2021. He is the author of the power system modeling and analysis software ANDES and Chief Technologist of the CURENT Large-Scale Testbed, a winner of the 2020 R&D 100 Awards. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Modern Power Systems and Clean Energy and an Outstanding Reviewer of 2019 for the IEEE Transactions on Power Systems. His research interests include software engineering, computing, dynamic performance, and cybersecurity for energy systems. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE.

The CURENT Power and Energy Seminar will resume in August 2021. 

Dr. Xiaojing Xu, University of Tennessee, gives CURENT Power and Energy Seminar on Friday, April 9

Dr. Xiaojing Xu, University of Tennessee, will present the CURENT Power and Energy Seminar (ECE 496 and 691) on Friday, April 9 from 1:00 pm to 1:50 pm. The seminar will be available via ZOOM. The ZOOM link will be sent to CURENT students and faculty through email. Contact Wendy if you need a link.

Presenter: Dr. Xiaojing Xu

Title: Two routes of decision-making in energy consumption

Abstract: This talk will discuss the two routes (central vs. peripheral) of decision-making in energy-consumption, supported by empirical studies. The presenter hopes to broaden the view of engineering students by considering factors other than technology features and financial incentives.

Bio: Dr. Xiaojing Xu, PhD in Experimental Psychology, a former researcher from CURENT. Xiaojing is interested in decision-making and pro-social behavior research, particularly in energy-environmental issues and solutions. Her research investigates how factors other than financial incentives affect decision-making. Her work as been published in journals such as Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Energy Policy, Energy, Energy Research and Social Science, Journal of Environmental Psychology, Building and Environment and more.

Upcoming seminars are: 

Apr. 16 – TBA

Apr. 23 – Industry Seminar – Rob Lefebvre, Oak Ridge National Laboratory 

Dr. Xiong “Bill” Yu and Dr. Yue Li, Case Western University, Give CURENT Power and Energy Seminar on Friday March 26

Dr. Xiong “Bill” Yu and Dr. Yue Li, Case Western University, will present the CURENT Power and Energy Seminar (ECE 496 and 691) on Friday, March 26 from 1:00 pm to 1:50 pm. The seminar will be available via ZOOM. The ZOOM link will be sent to CURENT students and faculty through email. Contact Wendy if you need a link.

Presenter: Dr. Xiong “Bill” Yu, Opal J. and Richard A. Vanderhoof Professor and Chair, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Case Western Reserve University

Title: Innovative Multiscale Sensing for Bridge Scour Failure Risk Mitigation

Abstract: Bridge scour, which describes the process of soil erosion around bridge foundation, is responsible for over 60% of bridge failures. Existing design methods for bridge scour prediction are based on laboratory experimental data and simplified 1D or 2D computational models.  These lead to significant errors in bridge scour depth estimation, which either compromises the safety of bridge or makes the design to be overly conservative.  This presentation will introduce the recent progresses in my research group to advance bridge scour research and practice from innovative sensing aspects.  Bio-turbulent flow sensor is being developed to help understanding the effects of flow turbulence on soil erosion. An innovative Time Domain Reflectometry sensor is designed for structural health monitoring of bridge scour under the field conditions for decision support.   The sensing strategy is integrated with advanced 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models to evaluate the effects of flow fields on scour process.  Integrate advanced sensors calibrated with simulation model allow to build a holistic monitoring framework for bridge scour depth prediction and bridge failure risk mitigation. 

Bio: Dr. Xiong (Bill) Yu is the Opal J. and Richard A. Vanderhoof Professor of Civil Engineering, Case Western Reserve University.  His research emphasizes the use of interdisciplinary approaches to address the engineering problems in geosystem and civil infrastructure. His research activities include multiscale and multiphysics processes in geomaterials, smart sensors and materials, intelligent infrastructure and systems and bio-inspired engineering. He is the PI of over 40 research projects funded by federal, state agencies and private industry.  He is a recipient of a NSF CAREER award in 2009.  Dr. Yu has published around 300 papers in journals and referred conference proceedings, a number of which have received awards and recognitions. He is committed to graduate student mentorship and many of his students have successfully launched academic careers, including 2 received NSF CAREER awards.   He was elected as Fellow of ASCE in 2015.  Among the awards and recognitions, he is a recipient of Case School of Engineering Faculty Research Award in 2019 and 2012 respectively, and Faculty Innovation Award in 2018.  For professional service, Dr. Yu serves on the editorial board of a few journals, as chair of the ASCE Geo-Institute Engineering Geology and Site Characterization committee, as president/immediate past president of the International Association of Chinese Infrastructure Professionals, as Chair of Case School of Engineering Executive Committee.  He currently serves as the chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Presenter: Dr. Yue Li, Leonard Case Jr. Professor in Engineering, Department of Civil and Environment Engineering, Case Western Reserve University

Title: Risk-based management of electric power distribution systems subjected to hurricane and tornado hazards

Abstract: Extreme events, especially weather-related events, are the leading cause of power outages in many countries around the world. Hurricanes and tornadoes are especially destructive and have caused billions of dollars in direct losses due to damage to power systems and indirect losses due to power outages. There is, therefore, a need to implement risk management strategies to reduce such losses and ensure that power systems are reliable and resilient. This talk presents a framework for risk management of electric power distribution systems subjected to hurricane and tornado hazards. Methods for hazard analysis and component- and system-level risk analysis are discussed. Two case studies are presented to demonstrate the application of the framework. Various risk mitigation strategies such as the use of alternative pole material, targeted hardening of systems, regular preventive maintenance, and enhancement of design are considered in the case studies. Risk and cost-benefit analysis methods are presented to evaluate the effectiveness of the various mitigation strategies.

Bio: Dr. Yue Li is the Leonard Case Jr. Professor in Engineering at Case Western Reserve University. He earned his Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in 2005. Dr. Li’s research interests include resilient civil infrastructure and sustainability, natural and man-made hazard mitigation. He is the Section Editor of ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering, associate editor of ASCE Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities. He is also on the Editorial Board of Structure Safety, and Journal of Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure. He is the chair of ASCE/SEI committee on Risk Assessment of Structural Infrastructure Facilities and Risk-Based Decision Making and was the chair of ASCE/SEI committee on Multiple Hazard Mitigation, and Design of Wood Structures. He received the Case School of Engineering Graduate Teaching Award in 2020, the Fulbright Award in 2013, Outstanding Paper Award of the ASCE Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities in 2012, and Michigan Technological University Research Excellence Fund Award in 2008. He has worked as a structural engineer and was involved in the design of the new international terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

Upcoming seminars are: 

Apr. 2 – Spring Recess – No Seminar

Apr. 9 – Dr. Xiaojing Xu, University of Tennessee

Apr. 16 – TBA

Apr. 23 – Industry Seminar – Rob Lefebvre, Oak Ridge National Laboratory 

CURENT PhD Student Yu Yan Gives CURENT Power and Energy Seminar on Friday, March 19

Yu Yan, a PhD student at CURENT at the University of Tennessee, will present the CURENT Power and Energy Seminar (ECE 496 and 691) on Friday, March 19 from 1:00 pm to 1:50 pm. The seminar will be available via ZOOM. The ZOOM link will be sent to CURENT students and faculty through email. Contact Wendy if you need a link.

Presenter: Yu Yan, University of Tennessee

Title: Zero-Voltage-Switching Analysis in Dual-Active-Bridge Converter

Abstract: Zero-Voltage-Switching (ZVS) has been widely applied in wide band gap (WBG) devices based high-switching-frequency converters, for instance, dual-active-bridge (DAB) isolated DC-DC converter, which consists of two H-bridges. To secure ZVS for all eight switches, previous literature mostly focuses on half bridge to analyze switching transitions, which, however, is rather incomplete due to ignoring impact of modulations strategies and cannot fulfill all circumstances. The whole H-bridge is used as a unit to analyze ZVS transient process, addressing the ZVS setting in different modulation strategies. The minimal initial inductor energy to complete the ZVS process is also quantified, which in return can reduce the transformer current thereby enhancing the efficiency. Furthermore, the accurate ZVS transition time is derived incorporating with the non-linearity of switch output capacitance, which can be further used to set the dead-band time.

Bio: Yu Yan received his Bachelor’s degree in 2016 and his Master’s degree in 2018, both in Electrical Engineering and Automation from Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), Beijing, China. Since 2019, he has been a PhD candidate in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Tennessee Knoxville, His research interest includes battery chargers and PV systems.

Upcoming seminars are: 

Mar. 26 – Industry Seminar – Dr. Yue Li and Dr. Xiong Yu, Case Western Reserve University

Apr. 2 – Spring Recess – No Seminar

Apr. 9 – TBA

Apr. 16 – TBA

Apr. 23 – Industry Seminar – Rob Lefebvre, Oak Ridge National Laboratory 

Weikang Wang, University of Tennessee, Presents the CURENT Power and Energy Seminar on Friday, March 12

Weikang Wang, a PhD student at CURENT at the University of Tennessee, will present the CURENT Power and Energy Seminar (ECE 496 and 691) on Friday, March 12 from 1:00 pm to 1:50 pm. The seminar will be available via ZOOM. The ZOOM link will be sent to CURENT students and faculty through email. Contact Wendy if you need a link.

Presenter: Weikang Wang, University of Tennessee

Title: Advanced Wide-Area Monitoring System Design, Implementation, and Application

Abstract: Wide-area monitoring systems (WAMSs) provide an unprecedented way to collect, store and analyze ultra-high-resolution synchrophasor measurements to improve the dynamic observability in power grids. The presentation focuses on designing and implementing a wide-area monitoring system and a series of applications to assist grid operators with various functionalities. First, a synchrophasor data collection system is developed to collect, store, and forward GPS-synchronized, high-resolution, rich-type, and massive-volume synchrophasor data. a distributed data storage system is developed to store the synchrophasor data. A memory-based cache system is discussed to improve the efficiency of real-time situation awareness. In addition, a synchronization system is developed to synchronize the configurations among the nodes. Second, a novel lossy synchrophasor data compression approach is proposed. This section first introduces the synchrophasor data compression problem, then proposes a methodology for lossy data compression, and finally presents the evaluation results. The feasibility of the proposed approach is discussed. Third, a novel intelligent system, SynchroService, is developed to provide critical functionalities for a synchrophasor system. Functionalities including data query, event query, device management, and system authentication are discussed. Finally, the resiliency and the security of the developed system are evaluated. Fourth, a series of synchrophasor-based applications are developed to utilize the high-resolution synchrophasor data to assist power system engineers to monitor the performance of the grid as well as investigate the root cause of large power system disturbances. Lastly, a deep learning-based event detection and verification system is developed to provide accurate event detection functionality. This section introduces the data preprocessing, model design, and performance evaluation. Lastly, the implementation of the developed system is discussed.

Bio: Weikang Wang received his B.E. degree in computer science from North China Electric Power University in 2016. He started his Ph.D. study at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in August 2016. His research interests include wide-area monitoring, bulk power system awareness, machine learning, and big data analytics. He has authored more than 30 publications in IEEE’s TII, TSG, TPS, TIE, TPD, etc.

Upcoming seminars are: 

Mar. 19 – Yu Yan, University of Tennessee, and Yu Su, University of Tennessee  

Mar. 26 – Industry Seminar – Dr. Yue Li and Dr. Xiong Yu, Case Western Reserve University

Apr. 2 – Spring Recess – No Seminar

Apr. 9 – TBA

Apr. 16 – TBA

Apr. 23 – Industry Seminar – Rob Lefebvre, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Jingjing Sun and Jin Zhao Present the CURENT Power and Energy Seminar on Friday, March 5

Jingjing Sun and Jin Zhao, both graduate students at CURENT at the University of Tennessee, will present the CURENT Power and Energy Seminar (ECE 496 and 691) on Friday, March 5 from 1:00 pm to 1:50 pm. The seminar will be available via ZOOM. The ZOOM link will be sent to CURENT students and faculty through email. Contact Wendy if you need a link.

Presenter: Jingjing Sun, University of Tennessee

Title: Emulation of Voltage Sag Event of a Data Center Power Distribution System

Abstract: Data centers have become a widespread power electronics (PE) load, with significant impact on the power grid. In order to investigate the data center load characteristics and help evaluate the grid dynamic performance, this work develops a data center power emulator based on a reconfigurable PE converter-based hardware testbed (HTB). A generalized discrete model is proposed to establish the emulator that is implemented in two voltage source inverters (VSIs). The accuracy of the emulator has been verified experimentally in a regional network. Dynamic performances during voltage sag events are emulated and discussed. The proposed power emulator provides an effective, easy-to-use tool to better design the data center and study the power system.

Bio: Jingjing Sun was born in Shandong, China. She received the B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China, in 2016, and the M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA, in 2018.  Since 2016, She has started to work towards Ph.D degree under supervision of Dr. Leon M. Tolbert at the department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA. Her research focuses on data center power system modeling and emulation, application of wide bandgap (WBG) devices, high-efficiency power supply design, high-frequency soft-switching power converters.

Presenter: Jin Zhao, University of Tennessee

Title: Spatio-temporal Coordination of Load Restoration Considering Renewable Energy Participation

Abstract: The work is inspired by the southern Australia blackout and Arizona-Southern California blackout. It handles the decision-making problem in the RES penetrated uncertain load restoration process, the multi-level grid coordination problem, and the multi-time scale decision coordination problem. Firstly, a utility-based load restoration optimization method is proposed to deal with the decision-making problem under uncertain conditions. Secondly, a decentralized load restoration scheme is proposed in order to realize efficient restoration coordination in the coupled transmission and distribution (T&D) system. Finally, a conditional value-at-risk based two-stage receding horizon method is proposed for the efficient dynamic load restoration decision-making in the RES penetrated T&D system. The goal of the series of studies is to properly apply RES to speed up the load recovery. The validity of the research results has been verified in actual power systems such as the northeast grid of Shandong Province and Dongying T&D system, China.

Bio: Jin Zhao received the B.E. and Ph.D. degrees from Shandong University, Jinan, China, all in the electrical engineering, in 2015 and 2020, respectively. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at The University of Tennessee (UTK), USA. She was a research assistant at The University of Hong Kong (HKU), China. She was also a visiting Ph.D. student and postdoctoral researcher at Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Denmark. Her research interests include power system resilience, transmission & distribution system restoration, renewable energy integration, power system optimization, deep learning and reinforcement learning.

Upcoming seminars are: 

Mar. 12 – Weikang Wang, University of Tennessee and TBD – TBA

Mar. 19 – Yu Yan, University of Tennessee, and Yu Su, University of Tennessee  – TBA

Mar. 26 – Industry Seminar – Dr. Yue Li and Dr. Xiong Yu, Case Western Reserve University

Apr. 2 – Spring Recess – No Seminar

Apr. 9 – TBD – TBA

Apr. 16 – TBD – TBA

Apr. 23 – Industry Seminar – Rob Lefebvre, Oak Ridge National Laboratory – TBA

Nan Duan, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Gives CURENT Power and Energy Seminar on Fri., Feb. 26

Dr. Nan Duan, Research Staff Member at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and former CURENT student, will present the CURENT Power and Energy Seminar (ECE 496 and 691) on Friday, February 26 from 1:00 pm to 1:50 pm. The seminar will be available via ZOOM. The ZOOM link will be sent to CURENT students and faculty through email. Contact Wendy if you need a link.

Presenter: Dr. Nan Duan, Research Staff Member, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Title: Agile Co-simulation for Cyber and Energy System Security

Abstract: This talk will provide an overview of the Agile Co-simulation for Cyber and Energy System Security (ACCESS) platform that is being developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. ACCESS is an effort for streamlining cyber-physical modeling of modern energy systems. Use cases including Distributed Energy Resource (DER) control, Advance Metering Infrastructure (AMI) modeling and Collaborative Autonomy (CA) algorithm will be introduced. In addition to cyber-physical modeling, ACCESS also facilitates High-performance computing (HPC) enabled transmission and distribution (T&D) co-simulation. An HPC implementation of T&D co-simulation will also be presented as a precursor for large scale transmission, distribution & communication (TDC) co-simulation.

Bio: Nan Duan received his B.S. in automation from Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China, M.Eng. in control engineering from Beihang University, Beijing, China and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA, in 2010, 2013 and 2018, respectively. He was a research assistant at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA from 2015 to 2017 and a research fellow at GE Global Research, Niskayuna, NY, USA from May to Jul. 2017. He joined Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Jan. 2018 as a postdoc and was converted to a research staff member in Jun. 2019. He is currently leading (PI) a cross-project effort on energy system co-simulation and a DOE AGM project on load modeling. His research interests include power system modeling, high-performance computing, parallel-in-time methods, nonlinear systems, numerical integration methods, machine learning and synchrophasor applications.

Upcoming seminars are: 

Mar. 5 – Jingjing Sun and TBD, University of Tennessee – TBA 

Mar. 12 – Weikang Wang and TBD, University of Tennessee – TBA

Mar. 19 – Yu Yan and TBD, University of Tennessee  – TBA

Mar. 26 – Industry Seminar – TBD – TBA

Apr. 2 – Spring Recess – No Seminar

Apr. 9 – TBD – TBA

Apr. 16 – TBD – TBA

Apr. 23 – TBD – TBA

Yang Huang and Ximu Zhang Present the CURENT Power and Energy Seminar on Friday, February 19

Yang Huang and Ximu Zhang, both CURENT graduate students under Dr. Kevin Bai at the University of Tennessee, will present the CURENT Power and Energy Seminar (ECE 496 and 691) on Friday, February 19 from 1:00 pm to 1:50 pm. The seminar will be available via ZOOM. The ZOOM link will be sent to CURENT students and faculty through email. Contact Wendy if you need a link.

Presenters: Yang Huang, University of Tennessee, and Ximu Zhang, University of Tennessee

Title: A Hybrid Modulation Scheme with Online Peak Common-mode Current Prediction for Three-phase Motor Drive System

Abstract: As various modulation schemes own different merits and drawbacks, applying single method in full modulation range is not an optimal solution. Combine several PWMs with respect to specific operation scenarios is one balanced approach. A hybrid modulation scheme is proposed to realize a multi-factor determined modulation scheme that taking common-mode and differential-mode performance, system loss into consideration. Specifically, for common-mode performance, a smart controller that can actively evaluate the CM performance through artificial intelligence will be introduced. Machine learning methods are employed to actively analyze three popular PWMs (SVPWM, AZSPWM, and DPWMMin) on chip. In this way we can based on the torque and speed command to online determine the best PWM patterns and switching frequency with minimum requirements of computation resources.

Bio: Yang Huang was born in Chongqing, China. He received the B.S. degree from Southeast University, Nanjing, China in 2016, and the M.S. degree from the University of Michigan-Dearborn, MI, USA in 2018. He is currently pursuing a Power Electronics Ph. D degree in CURENT power electronics group with Professor. Kevin Bai. His research interests include on-board EV charger and fast charger design, motor drive techniques and common-mode noise reduction.

Bio: Ximu Zhang was born in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. He received the B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University in 2018, and the M.S. degree in Computer & Information Science from the University of Michigan-Dearborn, MI, USA in 2019. He is currently pursuing a Ph. D degree in CURENT power electronics group with Professor. Kevin Bai. His research interests include machine learning and deep learning, and application of Machine Learning/Deep Learning in electric vehicles.

Upcoming seminars are: 

Feb. 26 – Industry Seminar – TBD – TBA

Mar. 5 – Jingjing Sun and TBD, University of Tennessee – TBA 

Mar. 12 – Weikang Wang and TBD, University of Tennessee – TBA

Mar. 19 – Yu Yan and TBD, University of Tennessee  – TBA

Mar. 26 – Industry Seminar – TBD – TBA

Apr. 2 – Spring Recess – No Seminar

Apr. 9 – TBD – TBA

Apr. 16 – TBD – TBA

Apr. 23 – TBD – TBA

Dr. Lisa Yamagata-Lynch Gives CURENT Power and Energy Seminar on Feb. 12

Dr. Lisa Yamagata-Lynch,  University Ombudsperson for the Office of Ombuds Services, University of Tennessee, will present the CURENT Power and Energy Seminar Series (ECE 496 and 691) on Friday, February 12 from 1:00 pm to 1:50 pm. The seminar will be available via ZOOM. The ZOOM link will be sent to CURENT students and faculty through email. Contact Wendy if you need a link.

Presenter: Dr. Lisa Yamagata-Lynch,  University Ombudsperson for the Office of Ombuds Services, University of Tennessee

Title: Understanding and Addressing Academic/Workplace Conflict

Summary: Have you ever been in conflict and had to do something about it? To make it worse, did the conflict become confusing and unclear, leaving you unsure of what you could do about it? You are not alone!

In this session, Dr. Yamagata-Lynch will help participants gain an understanding of why conflict situations make them feel so uncomfortable and learn how to take advantage of communication strategies designed to address conflict. Topics include psychological safety, understanding conflict, and communication strategies for addressing conflict.

Bio: Dr. Lisa Yamagata-Lynch is the University Ombudsperson for the Office of Ombuds Services at the University of Tennessee (UT), Knoxville and serves faculty, staff, and graduate students. She is a Certified Organizational Ombudsman Practitioner® (CO-OP). She is a certified trainer in VitalSmarts Crucial Conversations and Crucial Accountability. Additionally, she is a Tennessee Rule 31 General Civil Mediator. As a faculty Lisa holds the rank of Professor in the Educational Psychology and Counseling Department. She received her doctoral degree from Indiana University in Educational Psychology as well as Instructional Systems Technology. She has experience in developing and growing revenue generating online programs. Lisa has served in several leadership roles as a program coordinator, director of graduate studies, as well as an academic department associate head. She has been involved in diversity, engagement, and inclusion at UT through her leadership in the Commission for Women and as a contributing member in various diversity initiatives. Lisa’s teaching and research interests are in the field of Learning, Design and Technology and her expertise is in instructional design, instructional technology, educational technology, and Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT). In 2010, Lisa published her book with the title Activity Systems Analysis Methods for Understanding Complex Learning Environments, which is highly cited by scholars interested in engaging in qualitative research about human performances and organizational systems.

Upcoming seminars are: 

Feb. 19 – Ximu Zhang and Young Huang, University of Tennessee – TBA

Feb. 26 – Industry Seminar – TBD – TBA

Mar. 5 – Jingjing Sun and TBD, University of Tennessee – TBA 

Mar. 12 – Weikang Wang and TBD, University of Tennessee – TBA

Mar. 19 – Yu Yan and TBD, University of Tennessee  – TBA

Mar. 26 – Industry Seminar – TBD – TBA

Apr. 2 – Spring Recess – No Seminar

Apr. 9 – TBD – TBA

Apr. 16 – TBD – TBA

Apr. 23 – TBD – TBA

Dr. Anne Skutnik Gives CURENT Power and Energy Seminar on Fri., Feb. 5

Dr. Anne Skutnik, Education and Outreach Coordinator for CURENT, will present the CURENT Power and Energy Seminar Series (ECE 496 and 691) on Friday, February 5 from 1:00 pm to 1:50 pm. The seminar will be available via ZOOM. The ZOOM link will be sent to CURENT students and faculty through email. Contact Wendy if you need a link.

Presenter: Dr. Anne Skutnik, Education and Outreach Coordinator, CURENT, University of Tennessee 

Title: “Health and Wellness Check-In” 

Summary: In this talk, Dr. Skutnik will help you “check-in” about your stress levels, learn a bit about how to manage stress, and talk about good sleep practices. These skills are especially relevant during this unprecedented time and we at CURENT are committed to trying to make sure our students have resources available to them to help them survive and thrive. 

Bio: Anne Skutnik is the Education and Outreach Coordinator at CURENT.  She is also the Engagement and Outreach Coordinator within Tickle College of Engineer’s Office of Academic and Student Affairs and serves as the chair of the Tickle College Outreach Subcommittee.  She received her PhD in Learning Environments and Educational Studies from the University of Tennessee Knoxville.  Dr. Skutnik’s research focuses on engineering outreach as a complex human activity and the development of self-efficacy in K-12 outreach participants and facilitators.

Upcoming seminars are: 

Feb. 12 -Lisa Yamagata-Lynch, University Ombudsperson for the Office of Ombuds Services, University of Tennessee – Conflict in the Workplace

Dr. Yilu Lu Awarded 2020 IEEE PES Wanda Reder Pioneer Power Award

CURENT is proud to announce that Dr. Yilu Lu is the 2020 IEEE PES Wanda Reder Pioneer Power Award Recipient. 

Yilu Lu is a Professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) and Governer’s Chair at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as well as Deputy Director of CURENT. IEEE honored Dr. Liu with this award for her innovative contributions and leadership in sychropopular-based wide area monitoring and control systems. 

See the IEEE article. 

Learn more about Yilu Liu and other IEEE PES Award recipients by downloading the awards program here.

Dr. Hanto Cui Kicks off Spring 2021 Power and Energy Seminar Series

Dr. Hantao Cui will present the first seminar of the Spring 2021 Power and Energy Seminar Series (ECE 496 and 691) on Friday, January 29 from 1:00 pm to 1:50 pm. The seminar will be available via ZOOM. The ZOOM link will be sent to CURENT students and faculty through email. Contact Wendy if you need a link.

Presenter: Dr. Hantao Cui, Research Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Tennessee 

Title: “Software-Enabled Large-Scale Cyber-Physical Power Systems Testbed” 

Abstract: With the integration of renewable energy, communication systems, and wide-area controls, modern electric power systems are being transformed into cyber-physical systems for delivering reliable and low-cost energy. However, existing power system simulation software based on differential-algebraic equations (1) cannot capture the cyber-characteristics and (2) require extensive programming efforts to implement renewable models. This talk starts from the design of the CURENT Large-Scale Testbed, a closed-loop cyber-physical co-simulation testbed, by integrating software components through distributed messaging and software-defined networks. Next, the talk will shift to the design, implementation, and software engineering practices of the physical system simulator, ANDES, with a symbolic-numeric framework for rapidly prototyping complex dynamic models. The proposed testbed and simulator demonstrate capabilities for modeling, hardware-in-the-loop simulation, and control in renewable energy systems and inspires multi-disciplinary research such as cybersecurity and high-performance computing. 

Bio: Hantao Cui is currently a Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he received his Ph.D. in 2018. He is the author of the power system modeling and analysis software ANDES and Chief Technologist of the CURENT Large-Scale Testbed, a winner of the 2020 R&D 100 Awards. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Modern Power Systems and Clean Energy and an Outstanding Reviewer of 2019 for the IEEE Transactions on Power Systems. His research interests include software engineering, computing, dynamic performance, and cybersecurity for energy systems. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE.

Upcoming seminars are: 

Feb. 12 -Lisa Yamagata-Lynch, University Ombudsperson for the Office of Ombuds Services, University of Tennessee – Conflict in the Workplace