Research Engineer and Postdoctoral Research Associate Positions

The Utah Smart Energy Laboratory (U-Smart) has immediate openings for a Research Engineer and two Postdoctoral Research Associate positions.

The Research Engineer position responsibilities include: Further develop, run simulations, maintain, and troubleshoot the hardware-in-the-loop testbed at U-Smart for various research and educational activities; Conduct research and participate in projects on cyber security and resilience of power distribution systems. The ideal candidate should have a demonstrated experience and background on working with hardware-in-the-loop simulation setups, and power system monitoring, control, protection and networking equipment, as well as prior background on power distribution system analysis with distributed energy resources. A Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering is preferred but applicants with M.Sc. degrees and at least 3 years of work experience will be considered for the position.

Two Postdoctoral Research Associates will work on:  1) developing solutions for integrating building energy flexibility and distributed energy resources in power distribution systems operation. 2) developing cyber security solutions for power distribution systems.

The positions come with a competitive benefit package and salary commensurate with experience.  The positions are available immediately, but the start date is negotiable, with initial appointment of one year, which is renewable for three years.

​More information and the online application form for the Research Engineer position ​is available at: https://utah.peopleadmin.com/postings/139749
More information and the online application form for the Postdoctoral Research Associate positions ​is available at: https://utah.peopleadmin.com/postings/139750

Applications will be reviewed immediately, and the posting is open until the position is filled.

U-Smart organized the 2022 IEEE PES Grid Resilience Workshop

The Utah Smart Energy Laboratory (U-Smart) in collaboration with the IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) organized the 2022 IEEE PES Grid Resilience Workshop on September 8, 2022, in person at the University of Utah. The workshop was broadcasted live to virtual attendees. For more information about the workshop and agenda please visit: https://usmart.ece.utah.edu/2022-grid-resilience-workshop/

Workshop photos:

Opening for Ph.D. Students

The Utah Smart Energy Laboratory (U-Smart) at the University of Utah has an immediate opening for two Ph.D. Students on: 1) integrating building and community energy flexibility in power distribution systems operation, 2) cyber-physical resilience of power distribution systems.

The ideal candidates would have expertise in machine learning methods, control theory, mathematical optimization, and hardware-in-the-loop simulation, with applications in power systems.

The successful applicants will receive Research Assistant positions, along with tuition waiver and medical benefits, to earn their Ph.D. degree at the ECE Department at the University of Utah.

If interested to join us, please fill out the online application form. We will review the applications and get back to select applicants to set up an interview.

Read more about our lab values, and research projects.

Also read more about why Utah is such an incredible place to live and get your Ph.D.: https://www.ece.utah.edu/future-students/#why-utah

 

Dr. Parvania named a Presidential Scholar at University of Utah

Dr. Masood Parvania is named a Presidential Scholar at the University of Utah. The award recognizes the extraordinary academic accomplishments and promise of up to four mid-career faculty, providing them with financial support to advance their teaching and research work.

Presidential scholars are selected each year, and the recipients receive $10,000 in annual funding for three years. The program is made possible by a generous donor who is interested in fostering the success of mid-career faculty.

More information about the recognition: University of Utah announcement, College of Engineering News

El Hariri Receives Best Paper Award

Dr. Mohamad El Hariri, Research Assistant Professor at U-Smart, received the best paper award at 2020 Resilience Week for his paper on Implementation of IEEE Standard 1547-2018 for DER Communication Interface using Data Distribution Service .

In this paper, a publish-subscribe data-centric communication scheme with automatic network discovery is selected to implement the DER local communication interface to support the interoperability requirements for information exchange specified in the IEEE standard 1547-2018. Implementation of the proposed communication scheme over a real communication network shows that the selected communication scheme enables true plug-and-play interoperability by automatically discovering joining DERs, and therefore, enhances the system’s scalability.
Read more about this award at ECE news.

Dr. Khatami receives Outstanding Dissertation Award

Dr. Roohallah Khatami receives 2020 Outstanding Dissertation Award of the College of Engineering and department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Utah. Dr. Khatami defended his Ph.D. dissertation, titled “continuous-time optimization of power systems operation”, on August 2019, and published a total of 20 journal and conference papers during his Ph.D. studies. Congratulations Roohallah!

Jacob Collins receives 2020 John W. Estey Outstanding Scholar Award

Jacob Collins, Senior Undergraduate Student at the U-Smart lab receives the 2019-2020 IEEE PES John W. Estey Outstanding Scholar Award from the IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) Scholarship Plus Initiative. The IEEE PES John W. Estey Outstanding Scholar Award is distributed annually to the top PES Scholars in each of the six IEEE U.S. regions and Canada. More information about IEEE PES John W. Estey Outstanding Scholar Award: https://www.ee-scholarship.org/about-the-scholarship/john-w-estey-award/2019-20-estey

Jacob is a senior student in ECE department and the NROTC program at the University of Utah, and is working as a student engineer at Rocky Mountain Power. Jacob is currently working on his Senior project at the U-Smart lab and is expected to graduate in May 2020.

 

 

Parvania Receives 2019 Faculty Recognition Award

Dr. Parvania receives a 2019 Faculty Recognition Award from the Career & Professional Development Center at the University of Utah.

Nominated by students, the award aims to recognize faculty members who have contributed to career development or exploration of students in University of Utah.

The awardees were recognized during the awards banquet held on April 2, 2019, at the University of Utah Alumni House.

More information at https://attheu.utah.edu/facultystaff/rewarding-professionals/.