summer happenings
CURENT’s Annual Conference
CURENT recently hosted nearly 200 people in Knoxville
for the center’s 2014 Industry Conference & NSF/DOE
Site Visit.
The event covered five days and brought together
industry affiliates, academic experts, and federal
agency representatives to discuss the research
progress and direction in the center. The Industry
Conference portion provided CURENT’s member
companies and other interested industry affiliates with
the opportunity to interact with the center’s faculty and
students. Additionally, the Site Visit brought program
managers and a “Site Visit Team” from the National
Science Foundation and the Department of Energy
to review progress and offer suggestions on future
research.
Plenary guest speakers came from ABB, EPRI, Google,
and NY-ISO, and dual sessions in both power systems
and power electronics provided attendees with a wide
variety of ongoing projects at CURENT. Attendees also
toured the center’s labs and took part in a demo of
CURENT’s recently-completed hardware testbed, which
allows testing of various power system architectures
and provides demonstrations of monitoring, control,
actuation and visualization technologies.
2014 was also a funding renewal year for CURENT, and
NSF & DOE Site Visit Team recently recommended the
center for renewal funding through 2016 following the
Industry Conference & Site Visit.
Welcome to Our Newest Industry Partners!
Adventures in STEM for Girls
Twenty-five middle school girls spent a week
this summer at CURENT for the center’s
Adventures in STEM summer camp.
The camp gives girls the opportunity to
explore a variety of STEM fields, including
electrical engineering, biology, and math.
This year, the girls designed a small-scale
transmission grid, worked with 3-D printers,
and took a field trip to ORNL’s Advanced
Manufacturing Lab and the American Museum
of Science and Energy.
Some students traveled from over 100 miles
away to Knoxville, making the third year
of Adventures in STEM its most successful
rendition yet!
Research Experience Highlights
On July 18th, CURENT wrapped up its summer
research programs with a poster symposium
that displayed the work of 18 high school
students, 3 middle school teachers, 3 high
school teachers, and 14 undergraduate
students.
The undergraduate students represented
universities from across the country including
Auburn, Georgia Tech, RPI, Swarthmore
College, University of North Carolina,
University of Oklahoma, University of Puerto
Rico, and Washington State University.
ERC Program Bi-Annual Meeting
October 26th - 28th, 2014
• Hyatt Regency Crystal City
• Arlington, Virginia
• 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM EST
For More Information
•
contact us
Min H. Kao Building, Suite 555
1520 Middle Drive
Knoxville, TN 37996
www.nsferc2014.com
865.974.9720 (ph.)
865.974.9723 (fax)
[email protected]
“This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation and Department of Energy
under Grant No. 1041877. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are
those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.”
newsletter Spring 2014
7