The University of Texas Permian Basin College of Engineering was recently awarded a grant from the Department of Defense for nearly $300,000.
The grant is awarded to universities that are Minority Serving Institutions (MSI). The funds will be used to purchase specialized simulators for research and education.
“We are so grateful to have been selected for this award,” College of Engineering professor, Omar Beg said in a news release. “This funding will allow us to usher in a new era of research and education for our students and our region.”
The goal of this project is to promote research and education in artificial intelligence for modern electric power distribution systems. Students in all stages of their education, from kindergarten through 12th grade to undergraduate college students, will benefit from this funding. Summer camps will be available for school-aged students. A new summer research project will be created for electrical engineering undergraduate students who will be trained to model electric power distribution systems using advanced simulators. They will observe the simulators’ behavior under cyber-attacks and faults, the release said.
“Application of artificial intelligence for control and cyber-security of modern power systems is a new research domain. The simulators purchased out of this grant will be a great step toward advancement of research and education in this filed. This will distinguish us from other universities,” Beg added.
Beg also explained that the Department of Electrical Engineering hopes to create a graduate program. This artificial intelligence equipment will play a major role in establishing graduate level research in the College of Engineering.
