ECE Elements Newsletter 2012 - Electrical and Computer ...

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Dr. Jamshidi Receives Globalization AwardDr. Jamshidi with Dean Agrawal after receivingthe 2012 President’s Distinguished Achievementfor Advancing Globalization AwardT Chair Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering,was awarded the 2012 President’s Distinguished AchievementAward for Advancing Globalization by Dr. Ricardo Romo, inrecognition of Dr. Jamshidi’s involvement in the global arenaand development of links with global institutions.Since joining UTSA in 2006, Dr. Jamshidi has promotedexpanded UTSA’s prominence abroadRecently, Dr. Jamshidichaired the World Automation Congress (WAC) in PuertoVallarta, Mexico. WAC 2012 was themed “Green Energy fora Green Environment” and was dedicated to Dr. Mario Molina,winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Speakers from allover the world attended, representing 15 countries, includingAustralia, Mexico, Italy, Japan, Germany, Hungary, Greece,Spain, Portugal, and Canada, among others.At the event, Dr. Jamshidi presented Dr. Molina with theWAC Dedication Award for his work on climate change andinvolvement with the Congress. Dr. Jamshidi also invited Dr.Molina to speak about global warming and climate changeat UTSA in January 2013 and is creating an endowmentfor UTSA ECE and chemistry students on behalf of Dr.UTSA’s scholarship fund. Dr. Jamshidi also attended the IEEEInternational Conference on Systems of Systems Engineering(SoSE) 2012, of which he is the founding chair, in Genoa,Italy. The theme of the Conference was “cooperative andcompetitive distributed decision making for complex dynamicsystems.” Dr. Jamshidi presented his keynote speech entitled,“Distributed Renewable Energy Systems: System of SystemsMo Jamshidi with fellow panelist from European Union nations from UKand Germany at the recent 2012 INCOSE Symposium in Rome, Italy. Mopresented the progress of T-AREA-SoS European Commission grant onof EC, Dr, Alkis KonstantellosrepresentedUTSA’sAutonomousControlEngineering.In additionto theseinternationalconferences,Dr. Jamshidiis responsiblefor UTSA’spartnership withLoughborough,Purdue Universityfor the Trans-Dr. Jamshidi presents Dr. Mario Molina withthe World Automation Congress DedicationAwardAtlantic Research and Education Agenda on Systems of Systems(T-AREA-SoS), a 24-month, € 500,000 project that seeks toanalyze international research agendas to prepare concretejoint research and development initiatives for internationalcollaboration. According to the project’s website, “it is a basicpremise of this proposal that SoS engineering includes...the consideration of societal needs and issues within theThis initiative therefore seeks to help the USA partner with theglobal community in order to improve the societal impact of thedevelopment and management of large complex systems in arange of sectors.For questions about any of these conferences or projects, or to access Dr.Jamshidi’s textbooks and some of his journals online, please visit http://wacong.org/freepublicationsbymojamshidi/ or contact Mo Jamshidi atmoj@wacong.org.This award is to recognize, encourage, and reward those individualswho through their efforts significantly expanded UTSA’sinvolvement in the global arena. -UTSA President, Ricardo Romowww.ece.utsa.edu
Powering the Future: Solar Power, SmartGrids and Cyber SecurityThe solar test bed at the Main Campus of UTSAProfessorsKelley, MoJamshidi, HariKrishnaswami,and RamKrishnanhave beencollaboratingon University ofTexas at SanAntonio’s solarpanel systemsince 2010,recently seeing it to completion in Spring 2012. After receivinggrants from multiple sources, including the Texas SustainableEnergy Research Institute, CPS Energy, the Department of Energycomponents of the grid both at the main campus and at thedowntown campus, these researchers have installed 170 kw DCof solar power, which is integrated into UTSA’s main power grid.sustainable power to the university and generates an estimatedenergy savings of $65-80k per year, in addition to reducingthe university’s carbon emission by 695,000 pounds per year.is that it providesthese researchersa local test-bedto study andanalyze real-timephotovoltaic (PV)power information.Using areal-time wirelesssensor network thatmeasures more than800 data signalsA temperature monitor is part of the new solar powersystem at the University of Texas at San Antonio.Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-Newsper second andcan communicateto advancedmeters and dataloggers at the point of interconnection allows the team to detectstatistical prediction of future power output and store power inenergy storage devices for up to 10 years. The solar test bedenables these researchers to investigate new generations of smartgrid functionalities, such as voltage regulation and dynamic realpower and reactive power control via wireless network control.As Dr. Krishnaswami explains, “The power output of a PVsystem is inherently variable and creates system instability. Thesources of variability come from many different uncorrelatedand uncertain factors such as solar radiation measures, weatherpatterns, temperatures, air quality and geographical separation.A calculation of the system’s output variability on any spatial andtemporal resolution and would provide utility system planners andoperators better data to reliably operate the grid.”Moving forward, Dr. Kelley, lead PI, will focus on thesolar microgrids, smart grid system optimization, smart gridinfrastructure on cloud data centers enabling communication,information mining, and wireless sensor networks for monitoringand control.Dr. Hari Krishnaswami’s focus will be monitoring the controlaspects of the grid, such as energy storage and solar forecasting,under high solar penetration in order to be able to effectivelyintegrate this technology into the main power grid. He has alsoobtained a grant from the University of Minnesota for $25,000and from UTSA for $12,500 to create a teaching lab that hasenabled the department to create a new program concentrationin Electrical Power Engineering, beginning Fall 2012.Dr. Jamshidi’s focus is on the main campus solar grid,ensuring a distributed and secure smart grid. He analyzes how tomake control elements for better home and building management.Dr. Krishnan focuses on the cyber security aspects ofAdvanced Metering Infrastructure using wireless and semi-wirelesssmart grid information and transmission. Development in this areawill result in energy users having the ability to remotely view andadjust consumption needs on a daily basis, and it will give energyproviders the ability to connect and disconnect power remotelyrather than manually, as those needs arise, thus increasing bothRemote solar test bed metersPhoto: Ram Krishnan| 7
Page 1 and 2: ELECTRICAL & COMPUTERENGINEEERING20
Page 3 and 4: Message from the ChairIt is with gr
Page 5 and 6: NSF CAREER Award Supercharges Wang
Page 7: Training throughhands-on Experience
Page 11 and 12: Last year, the NSF awarded nearly $
Page 13 and 14: Outstanding Graduate Research Award
Page 15 and 16: Chris Weldon, an ElectricalEngineer
Page 17 and 18: ECE Faculty DirectoryQIAN, CHUNJIAN
Page 19 and 20: Active Sponsored Research FY 2010-1

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