The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) will bestow John B. Goodenough of The University of Texas at Austin with the highest honor in the engineering profession for the groundbreaking creation of the lithium-ion battery.
Energy Systems
Associated Faculty
Associated Research Groups
This area involves research in the production, distribution, and use of electric energy, such as electromechanical devices for pulsed power applications, advanced electrical machines, power system-related analyses, simulation of power systems, energy system economics and optimization, open-access transmission, energy efficiency and demand-side management, power system harmonics, power quality, and power electronics.
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UT ECE professor Alexis Kwasinski in collaboration with the Rochester Institute of Technology has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant as part of the CyberSEES program for work on investigating techniques to power cellular network base stations from renewable sources such as wind turbines and photovoltaic modules.
UT ECE graduate student Chenchen Li recently won first prize in the 2013 FEKO Student Competition. Chenchen's research was "motivated by significant concerns in the radar community about the rapidly growing number of wind farms. These concerns arose from the time-varying radar clutter caused by wind turbines that can interfere with radar detection and tracking operations. Chenchen pointed out in his entry that it is important to understand the dynamic radar signatures from wind turbines in order to devise mitigation approaches."
The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin (UT ECE) has joined a strategic partnership with BP to support several leading-edge oil and gas industry research projects. BP has committed $4 million to the partnership with the potential for increased contributions as new studies are identified in the future.
UT ECE student Duehee Lee placed fourth in the IEEE Power and Energy Society Global Energy Forecasting Competition (GEFCom) in the Wind Power Forecasting Track. GEFCom2012 is the largest known energy forecasting competition to date. Not only does it bring together many new ideas to the energy-forecasting field from data scientists in many different industries but the competition data has already been used by scholars for benchmarking purposes. More than 200 teams submitted more than 2,000 entries focusing on hierarchical load forecasting and wind power forecasting.
Prof. Brian Evans gave a keynote talk at the International Conference on Communications and Information Technology on June 20, 2013, in Beirut, Lebanon, entitled "Smart Grid Communications".
Smart Grid systems intelligently monitor and control energy flows in order to improve efficiency and reliability of power delivery. A local utility would receive customer load profiles from smart meters, and adjust power generation and energy distribution accordingly. Smart meters could transmit usage data over powerline or wireless links once per minute.
UT ECE professor Ross Baldick recently addressed the historic failure of electric generators and recent rolling blackouts associated with ERCOT.
On Wednesday, February 2, 2011, ERCOT found it necessary to initiate rolling blackouts to cope with increased demand due to extremely cold temperatures and numerous unexpected power plant trips. Here on the UT campus the blackouts went unnoticed, as the UT Austin campus is powered by its own power station, but UT ECE Professor Mack Grady was hard at work analyzing real time grid data. On February 7th, Prof.
A message from Dean Gregory L. Fenves:
With the new year underway I want to reflect on what the Cockrell School of Engineering accomplished in 2010 and some of the challenges ahead. The accompanying video presents a sample of the amazing work by our students and faculty over the past year. I am proud of their achievements and am grateful to our alumni and friends for your support of the Cockrell School.
Graduate students at the University of Texas at Austin will play an integral part in the development of the power grid of the future for the Pecan Street Project, a leading sustainable energy research partnership between the University, Austin Energy, the City of Austin and high-tech companies, among others, that's aimed at reinventing how we get and use energy.
The University of Texas at Austin Solar Vehicles Team camped, pulled all-nighters and ran into some unique mechanical issues on their seven-day, solar-powered road trip adventure. Unlike other road warriors, these travelers spent the previous four years building their solar car together. And for the first time in 15 years, a UT car completed the 1,100 mile American Solar Challenge cross-country race.
In June, a group of engineering undergraduate students will drive from Tulsa to Chicago in a vehicle they designed, constructed, and tested. Running out of gas is one thing they won’t worry about.
Professors Baldick, Patzek and Edgar discuss the policy barriers, vivid realities and future strategies to close the gap between the need for diversified, sustainable energy and the steps toward that goal.
Understanding the Policy Barriers to Renewable Energy
ECE professors, Mack Grady and Surya Santoso, are collecting the data needed to truly integrate wind power into the existing power grid—and creating the first university-lead phasor measurement network in the country.
University of Texas professors, Mack Grady and Surya Santoso, are another step closer to truly integrating wind power into the existing power grid. They are heading a consortium of private and public entities to create the first university-lead phasor measurement network in the country.
Hurricane Katrina helped ECE power researcher, Alexis Kwasinski, formulate a new plan for the U.S. telecom system: a de-centralized telecom architecture that would have kept the lights and the phones on in New Orleans.
As the Texas’ electric grid operator prepares to add power lines for carrying future wind-generated energy, Dr. Surya Santoso is developing improved methods for determining the extent to which power from a wind farm can displace a conventional power plant, and how best to regulate varying wind power.