Doctoral Dissertation Research: Stakeholder interactions in innovating electric grids

脱碳是气候政策的一个重要目标，也是一个严重依赖电力基础设施作为减少温室气体排放手段的目标。不同的利益相关者强调实现共同目标的不同手段，从涉及自动使用算法的智能技术，到涉及科学家和工程师更一致监控的方法。本项目旨在评估电气化项目中各利益相关者的关注和希望。它测试了文化人类学中的理论，以了解参与程度（国家与实验室与社区）和优先事项（以人为中心与以环境为中心）如何影响对电气化目标和结果的理解。它有助于培养科学文化人类学的博士生，其结果将广泛传播给学术界和非学术界的读者。研究人员使用参与者观察和半结构化访谈来回答以下研究问题：1)电气工程师在建设电气基础设施方面遇到了哪些挑战？如何解决这些问题？2)数据科学家在电力基础设施的设计和创新中扮演什么角色？他们在这个过程中加入了什么额外的目标？3)其他利益相关者（如居民和政策制定者）如何理解并寻求为这一过程做出贡献？这些问题的答案将提供与塑造电力基础设施相关的见解，并将告知我们在共同目标的背景下不同观点如何融合和分歧的理解。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。

Decarbonization is an important goal of climate policy and one that relies heavily on electrical infrastructure as a means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Different stakeholders emphasize different means of achieving a common goal, from smart technologies involving automated use of algorithms, to approaches involving more consistent monitoring by scientists and engineers. This project aims to evaluate the concerns and hopes of various stakeholders in electrification projects. It tests theories in cultural anthropology to understand how level of involvement (state versus lab versus community) and priorities (person- versus environment-centered) shape understandings of electrification goals and outcomes. It contributes to the training of a doctoral student in scientific cultural anthropology and its results will be disseminated widely to academic and non-academic audiences. The researchers use participant observation and semi-structured interviews to answer the following research questions: 1) What challenges do electrical engineers perceive in building electrical infrastructure? How are these resolved? 2) What role do data scientists play in contributing to design and innovation of electrical infrastructure? What additional goals do they incorporate into this process? 3) How do other stakeholders, such as residents and policymakers, understand and seek to contribute to this process? Answers to these questions will provide insights that are relevant to shaping electrical infrastructure and will inform our understanding of how different perspectives converge and diverge in the context of shared goals.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.