IRES: Track I: U.S.-France Program for INverter-based And Cybersecure Control and Communication for eLEctric power system (PINNACLE)

The current workforce market is globally oriented; therefore, it is imperative that our students can compete for jobs not only within our borders, but also internationally. This IRES program, PINNACLE, builds on the PIs' decade-long history of collaboration with Grenoble Institute of Technology, whose electrical engineering program is ranked first in France.

PINNACLE trains and sends 18 U.S. students (6 each year) for 8 weeks to Grenoble to engage in research and extracurricular activities, including language instruction, several industry visits, and integration with an existing international internship program. A significant outcome of this program is producing well-rounded U.S. engineer-researcher workforce who are globally competitive.

Several industry partners of Grenoble have a very visible presence in the United States, e.g., RTE, Schneider Electric, and Siemens, which further helps with the workforce preparation of our scholars. A result of this program will be broadening the participation of underrepresented groups through our recruitment plan. We will disseminate our research outcomes broadly by pursuing both technical publications (reporting the research results) and educational publications (reporting the mechanics of the IRES program: its distinguishing factors, students' feedback, institutional impacts, support services, success measures, and demographics).

Furthermore, this work benefits our society and environment by (i) training the workforce required for efficient integration of renewable energy resources, (ii) increasing career interest in power system and the smart grid, and (iii) improving the quality and quantity of power engineering workforce.

This IRES program, PINNACLE, builds on the PIs' decade-long history of collaboration with Grenoble Institute of Technology, whose electrical engineering program is ranked first in France. PINNACLE trains and sends 18 U.S. students (6 each year) for 8 weeks to Grenoble to engage in research and extracurricular activities, including language instruction, several industry visits, and integration with an existing international internship program, in its G2Elab.

We include a contingency plan for possible travel restrictions. The overarching theme of students' research projects is to enable a massively inverter-based electric power system while addressing their control, communication, and cybersecurity requirements and challenges. As the power system transitions to include a larger share of renewables and inverter-based generation, it challenges conventional stability and control concepts.

Simultaneously, the electric power grid's growing dependency on information and communication technology (ICT) significantly increases its vulnerability to network unavailability and security issues. Therefore, ensuring timely and secure delivery of data is central to guaranteeing the performance of control, optimization, and supervisory systems. This work is expected to contribute to (i) algorithms to study the feasibility of interconnection of renewables to the power system, (ii) control and design of power systems, microgrids, and inverters in 100% renewables setting, and (iii) inverter and microgrid cybersecurity under communication-enabled strategies.

This is an area in which the U.S. PIs and French collaborators have complementary expertise. Under Grenoble mentorship, the U.S. students work on these research challenges.

Students' exposure to these problems, especially in a European context, is expected to help them think of innovative solutions to the similar challenges in the United States. Additionally, G2Elab has active collaborations with several industry partners, which facilitates industry tours and field trips. This program is mutually beneficial and strengthens our existing collaboration by providing a framework for conducting research projects of common interest.

We will recruit nationally for this program and expect that our program alumni will be a cohort of individuals with highly desired skills for industry and graduate programs.

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.