“Cornell ECE professor Lang Tong receives grant from National Science Foundation to study the US Smart Grid”

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $1.9M grant to a team of researchers from Cornell University, UC Berkeley, and Georgia State University to study computation and information hierarchy of future smart grids. The principal investigator of this grant is Lang Tong, the Irwin and Joan Jacobs Professor in Engineering from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University.

The electric grid in the United States has evolved over the past century from a series of small independent community-based systems to one of the largest and most complex cyber-physical systems today. However, the established conditions that made the grid an engineering marvel are being challenged by major changes, including the worldwide efforts to address issues of sustainability and climate change. The overall project objective is to support high penetrations of renewable energy sources, community based micro-grids, and the widespread use of electric cars and smart appliances.

The multidisciplinary research team includes:

• Cornell University’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering:
  • Lang Tong
  • Robert Thomas
• Cornell University’s Department of Computer Science:
  • Ken Birman
• Cornell University’s Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management:
  • Tim Mount
• UC Berkeley 's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS):
  • Pravin Varaiya
• Georgia State University’s Department of Computer Science:
  • WenZhan Song