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

每年，由于世界变暖和随之产生的极端天气事件，由于电网中断和电力线引发森林野火，造成数十亿美元的损失。为了解决这一严重和经济上的破坏性问题，这笔资金为奥尔巴尼的纽约州立大学和康涅狄格大学提供资源，以探索建立一个两个站点的天气创新和智能能源和弹性（WISER）的产学研合作研究中心。该中心的重点是结合大学，工业和公共部门的优势，智力能力和资源，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。该中心还将解决与气候/天气有关的可再生能源（如风能和太阳能）的电网整合问题，以及树木生物力学问题。后一个问题是至关重要的，因为倒下的树木是电力线和Transformer损失的最大原因之一，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营实体进行合作，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。主题和潜在的中心研究重点将被讨论，并将确定那些对工业最重要的因素，在此基础上建立一个可行的中心。这项工作的更广泛影响包括劳动力培训，学生参加大学教师提出的与行业相关的基本竞争前研究项目;通过与机构实体的各种伙伴关系，参与代表性不足的群体，重点是从服务不足的人口中招募和再培训学生;以及改善该国经历极端天气事件的地区的国家电网的可靠性。产学合作研究中心，如奥尔巴尼大学和康涅狄格大学提出的专注于极端天气和国家电网可靠性的研究中心，是大学之间的强大伙伴关系;私营部门;政府;非营利组织;和当地社区。这些中心作为联盟运作，重点是大学教师和学生开展基础研究，解决集体工业和社区的需求，项目由会员费和中心成员的其他财政捐款资助。在这一结构中，大学的知识力量、基础设施和学生才能集中在真实的世界问题上，这些问题是经济中需要创新以克服个体实体无法克服的概念和技术障碍的一个部分的关键利益。拟议的规划会议将使有关各方聚集一堂，听取原型中心领导层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。参加计划会议的人员还将帮助中心制定研究路线图和研究重点，以最好地满足中心集体成员最迫切的需求。该奖项反映了NSF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.