A New Paradigm for Collaborative Research and Education in Sustainable Energy Systems and Supporting Information Technologies

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The proposed collaborative research emerges from the PIs efforts over several years of collaboration with researchers around the world through conferences and short-term visits. In particular, initial endeavors have focused on collaboration with African researchers through a series of conferences on the African continent and more recently through research exchanges at U.S. universities. The objective in this proposal is to engage in more substantial exchanges and to help develop a research and education infrastructure that can take advantage of a wealth of under-utilized knowledge and man-power in Africa as well as a region whose energy and information technology infrastructure can be used as a test bed. We believe the proposed center can serve as a model of international cooperation in research and education. The specific research will be directed toward sustainable energy systems and the required information technology infrastructure.The main objectives of the proposed work will be to: address challenges faced by African nations in developing the electric supply system, and thus, provide new perspectives and ideas for U.S. engineering problems, encourage interest from U.S. students in international projects, particularly among under represented groups. take advantage of areas of expertise within electric power systems that are more advanced in Africa, for example, the greater reliance on distributed generation technologies due to the weaker transmission links, provide an opportunity to give U.S. students a different perspective on engineering issues, thus, enhancing their educational experience, utilize a large well-educated pool of manpower in Africa that is not being fully engaged and thus more efficiently perform important research, and effectively use the existing U.S. research and education infrastructure in training US students as well as students on the African continent.