Workshop on CPS Education with Emphasis on the Power Grid, to be held in Arlington, VA, July 26-27, 2014

Kansas State University, Manhattan KS

Investigators

Abstract

Workshop on Cyber Physical Systems Education with Emphasis on the Electric Power Grid The past decade has seen many new advances in electric power and energy field. Specifically, newer smart grid technologies are being implemented, the share of renewable energy has increased multi-fold, and electric vehicles are gradually gaining popularity. Due to integration of these new technologies, operation of power systems has become more complex. Every aspect of power from generators to consumers now requires computers for operation and management. As a result of these developments, power systems have become large cyber-physical systems (CPS). As the power system becomes more complex, there will be continuing need to integrate advances in the cyber-physical systems area into operation, control, and design of power systems. This also poses the task of preparing the workforce of the future prepared to face the challenges of operating and managing the complex grid of the future. The goal of the proposed workshop is to tackle this task by examining the current state of affairs and proposing new educational concepts and ideas for the future. Although majority of the participants will be from the power and energy area, selected experts from the computations, communications, and control areas will be invited to participate in the workshop. This will allow the participants to learn about best practices in other areas to implement in power and energy systems. The workshop will focus on the latest advances in power and energy systems and CPS with a goal of integrating them for education of the future generation of engineers. The workshop will result in new strategies and ideas to fulfill these needs. Strategies identified through the workshop will result in educational content, which will promote better preparation of the future generation of power and energy engineers. These engineers will be prepared to operate the power and energy systems more efficiently. This will further lead to economic wellbeing of the country. The workshop will be conducted over a two-day period (July 26 and 27, 2014) in Washington DC prior to the IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting (GM 2014). The outcome of the workshop has potential to impact the educational needs of the future in the power and energy area with integration of CPS concepts. A report of the workshop will be placed on the IEEE Power, Energy Education Committee web site for wider distribution.