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

拟议的合作研究是通过与世界各地的研究人员通过会议和短期访问进行数年的合作努力而产生的。特别是，最初的努力侧重于通过在非洲大陆举行的一系列会议以及最近通过在美国大学进行研究交流来与非洲研究人员合作。这项提议的目标是进行更实质性的交流，并帮助发展研究和教育基础设施，以利用非洲以及其能源和信息技术基础设施可用作试验台的大量未得到充分利用的知识和人力资源。我们相信，拟建的中心可以作为国际研究和教育合作的典范。具体研究将针对可持续能源系统和所需的信息技术基础设施。拟议工作的主要目标将是：解决非洲国家在发展电力供应系统方面面临的挑战，从而为美国的工程问题提供新的视角和想法，鼓励美国学生对国际项目感兴趣，特别是在代表性不足的群体中。利用非洲电力系统内更先进的专业领域，例如，由于输电线路较弱，对分布式发电技术的更大依赖，为美国学生提供了一个机会，让他们对工程问题有不同的看法，从而提高他们的教育经验，利用非洲受过良好教育但尚未充分参与的大量人力，从而更有效地开展重要研究，并有效利用美国现有的研究和教育基础设施来培训美国学生以及非洲大陆的学生。

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.