NSF Engineering Research Center for Advancing Sustainability through Powered Infrastructure for Roadway Electrification (ASPIRE)

汽车驱动着我们的国民经济。仅在美国，它们每年运输超过110亿吨货物，行程超过3万亿英里。然而，汽车排放影响我们的环境和成本生活，油价波动造成经济波动。电动汽车（EV）为减少排放、稳定和降低成本提供了巨大的机会。然而，电动汽车的可行性和大规模充电需求仍然存在许多问题。NSF通过道路电气化动力基础设施推进可持续发展工程研究中心（ASPIRE）将采取全面的方法来消除里程和充电作为从乘用汽车到重型卡车的所有车辆类别的障碍。ASPIRE的方法是追求创新的无线和插入式充电和基础设施技术解决方案，为车辆提供电力-他们驾驶和停车的地方。其结果将是车辆上更小，更持久的电池，有效地无限的EV范围，以及无处不在的充电体验。电动汽车用户将不再关心何时、何地或如何充电，电动汽车的购买和运营成本将低于汽油和柴油电动汽车。NSF ASPIRE ERC的使命是实现运输和电力公用事业行业的可持续和公平变革，同时提高整体生活质量和健康。ASPIRE团队及其影响力将成为注入新技术并为未来的自动驾驶和电动车队做好准备的核心，因为我们作为一个国家投资重建我们老化的道路和电力基础设施。在ASPIRE的核心，是对学生和社区的基本关注。ASPIRE将支持从生活的各个方面到其计划的包容性途径，并培养一支经过专门培训的多元化工程队伍，以支持随后的跨行业转型。ASPIRE计划将导致技术进步，方法和工具的广泛公开传播，以及经过审查的预科，本科，研究生，专业和社区教育内容的庞大图书馆。NSF ASPIRE ERC建立在一个综合研究计划的基础上，以实现跨学科的融合和深度整合，促进创新和价值创造。研究重点，运输，采用，电力和数据（TAPD），与沉浸式工程劳动力发展，多样性和包容性文化以及创新生态系统组件紧密结合。通过无线和有线充电的无缝集成，ASPIRE的目标是采用集成系统的方法来共同优化交通和电力公用事业系统以及最终用户体验和生产力，从而大大偏离传统思维。这种方法发生在车辆，充电系统，路面和电力系统的电气-机械-热设计，网络和相互依赖系统的数据融合和动态优化，以及计量经济学，政策，用户接受度以及环境和社会影响的关系中。将在方法和材料方面获得新的基本见解，将充电基础设施整合到长寿命路面中。在离线和实时环境中解决大规模、非线性、非凸和NP难问题的新数据科学创新（跨电网和交通系统集成）将对系统设计和优化产生重大影响。将开发新的经济，行为和社会科学模型和框架，以使团队在考虑技术元素的社会，政策，消费者和市场视角时突破传统思维。ASPIRE ERC独特的整体和融合的研究方法对于推进和维持跨行业的公平转型至关重要。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。

Vehicles drive our national economy. In the U.S. alone, they transport more than 11 billion tons of freight and travel over 3 trillion miles per year. However, vehicle emissions impact our environment and cost lives, and fluctuations in oil prices create economic volatility. Electric vehicles (EVs) offer tremendous opportunity to both reduce emissions and stabilize and reduce cost. However, many questions persist on the viability of electric vehicles and the charging demands at scale. The NSF Engineering Research Center for Advancing Sustainability through Powered Infrastructure for Roadway Electrification (ASPIRE) will take a holistic approach to eliminating range and charging as barriers for electrifying all vehicle classes, from passenger cars to heavy duty trucks. ASPIRE's approach is to pursue innovative wireless and plug-in charging and infrastructure technology solutions that bring the power to the vehicles—where they drive and park. The result will be smaller and longer lasting batteries on vehicles, effectively unlimited EV range, and a ubiquitous charging experience. EV users will no longer be concerned with when, where, or how they will charge, and EVs will be less expensive to purchase and operate than their gasoline and diesel counterparts.The mission of the NSF ASPIRE ERC is to achieve sustainable and equitable change in the transportation and electric utility industries, while improving overall quality of life and health. The ASPIRE team and its influence will be central to infusing new technology and preparing for a future of autonomous and electric fleets as we invest as a nation to rebuild our aging roads and electric utility infrastructure. At the heart of ASPIRE, is a fundamental focus on students and community. ASPIRE will champion inclusive pathways from varied aspects of life into its programs and develop a diverse engineering workforce specially trained to support the ensuing cross-industry transformations. The ASPIRE programs will result in broad public dissemination of technology advances, methods, and tools, and a vast library of vetted precollege, undergraduate, graduate, professional, and community educational content.The NSF ASPIRE ERC is founded on a comprehensive research program to achieve convergence and deep integration across disciplines, fueling innovation and value creation. The research thrusts, Transportation, Adoption, Power, and Data (TAPD), are tightly coupled with immersive Engineering Workforce Development, Diversity and Culture of Inclusion and Innovation Ecosystem components. With seamless integration of wireless and wired charging, ASPIRE targets an integrated systems-of-systems approach to co-optimize transportation and electric utility systems and end-user experience and productivity, allowing significant departure from conventional thinking. This approach occurs at the nexus of electrical-mechanical-thermal design of vehicles, charging systems, pavements, and power systems, data fusion and dynamic optimization of networked and co-dependent systems, and econometrics, policy, user acceptance, and environmental and societal impacts. New fundamental insights will be gained in methods and materials to integrate charging infrastructure into long-life pavements. New data science innovations in solving large-scale, nonlinear, nonconvex, and NP-hard problems in offline and real-time settings (integrated across the electric grid and transportation systems) will have significant impact on systems design and optimization. New economic, behavioral, and social science models and frameworks will be developed to allow the team to breakout of conventional thinking when considering the societal, policy, consumer, and market perspectives of and integration with technology elements. The ASPIRE ERC’s unique holistic and convergent research approach is critical to advancing and sustaining the envisioned equitable transformations across the industries.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.