IUCRC Planning Grant University at Albany: Center for Weather Innovation and Smart Energy and Resilience (WISER)

每年，由于全球变暖和随之而来的极端天气事件越来越频繁，电网中断和电力线引发的森林野火造成了数十亿美元的损失。为了解决这一严重且具有经济破坏性的问题，这笔资金为纽约州立大学奥尔巴尼分校和康涅狄格大学提供了资源，以探索建立一个两地的产学联合作研究中心，研究天气创新和智能能源与弹性（WISER）。该中心致力于结合大学、工业和公共部门的优势、智力和资源，通过预测模型解决电网可靠性和减少极端天气事件造成的电网中断方面的一些最大问题。该中心还将研究与气候/天气相关的可再生能源（如风能和太阳能）的电网整合问题，以及树木生物力学问题。后一个问题至关重要，因为倒下的树木是造成电力线和变压器损坏的最大原因之一，导致当地停电。通过中心规划会议，奥尔巴尼大学和康涅狄格大学及其管理人员将与广泛的公用事业和其他公共和私人实体接触，以确定和讨论集体需求，目标是创建一个可行的研究路线图和相关的研究重点，合作伙伴愿意参与和资助。将讨论主题和潜在的中心研究重点，并确定对行业最重要的主题，并在此基础上创建可行的中心。更广泛的影响包括劳动力培训，让学生参与由大学教师提出的与行业相关的、基础的、竞争前的研究项目；通过与机构实体的各种伙伴关系，让代表性不足的群体参与进来，重点从服务不足的人群中招募和再培训学生；在经历极端天气事件的地区，提高国家电网的可靠性。产学研合作研究中心是大学之间强有力的合作伙伴关系，比如奥尔巴尼大学（University of Albany）和康涅狄格大学（University of Connecticut）提出的专注于极端天气和国家电网可靠性的研究中心；私营部门;政府;非营利组织;还有当地社区。这些中心作为财团运作，专注于大学教师和学生进行基础研究，解决集体行业和社区需求，项目由中心成员的会员费和其他财政捐款资助。在这个结构中，智力；基础设施;大学的学生才能集中在现实世界的问题上，这些问题对需要创新来克服个体实体无法克服的概念和技术障碍的经济部门至关重要。计划会议将召集有关各方，听取中心原型领导描述中心的价值主张和希望成为中心成员的实体的潜在投资回报。参加规划会议的人员还将帮助中心制定研究路线图和研究重点，以最好地解决中心全体成员最紧迫的需求。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Every year, with increasing frequency due to a warming world and the concomitant generation of extreme weather events, billions of dollars are lost due to electrical grid outages and powerlines triggering forest wildfires. To address this serious and economically devastating issue, this funding provides resources for the State University of New York in Albany and the University of Connecticut to explore the formation of a two-Site industry-university cooperative research center for Weather Innovation and Smart Energy and Resilience (WISER). The Center is focused on combining the strengths, intellectual capacity, and resources of universities, industry, and the public sector to tackle some of the largest problems in electrical grid reliability and reduction of grid outages caused by extreme weather events, via predictive models. The Center will also address issues of grid integration for climate/weather-related renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, as well as tree biomechanics. The latter issue is critical to include because falling trees are one of the biggest causes of powerline and transformer loss, causing local power outages. Through a Center planning meeting, the University at Albany and the University of Connecticut and their administrators will engage a broad spectrum of utilities and other public and private entities to identify and discuss collective needs with the goal of creating a viable research roadmap and associated research thrusts in which partners are willing to participate and fund. Topics and potential Center research thrusts will be discussed, and those of highest importance to industry will be identified upon which a viable Center can be created. Broader impacts of the work include workforce training where students participate in industry-relevant, basic, pre-competitive research projects proposed by university faculty; the engagement of underrepresented groups via various partnerships with institutional entities focused in recruiting and retraining students from underserved populations; and improvements in the reliability of the nation’ electrical grid in areas of the country experiencing extreme weather events. Industry-university cooperative research centers, like the one proposed to be focused on extreme weather and the reliability of the nation’s electrical grid by The University of Albany and University of Connecticut, are powerful partnerships between universities; the private sector; government; non-profits; and local communities. These Centers operate as consortium focused on university faculty and students carrying out fundamental research that addresses collective industry and community needs and where projects are funded by membership fees and other financial contributions from Center members. In this construct, the intellectual power; infrastructure; and student talent of universities is focused on real world problems of critical interest of a segment of the economy in need of innovation to overcome conceptual and technological hurdles individual entities are unable to overcome themselves. The planning meeting proposed will bring together interested parties to hear proto-Center leadership describe the Center’s value proposition and potential return-on-investment of those entities wishing to become members of the Center. Those at the planning meeting will also help the Center create a research road map and research thrusts that best address the most pressing needs of the collective membership in the Center.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.