UTSA will design data driven approaches and AI to better identify and mitigate cyber threats for IOT devices including smart meters.
(Sept. 18, 2019) -- Beginning in the Fall of 2019, faculty members at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) will conduct research to enhance green power generation and smart grid security. Through the strategic alliance between the Texas Sustainable Energy Research Institute (TSERI) at UTSA and CPS Energy, three new projects totaling approximately $750,000 will focus on improving grid security and resilience, solar energy generation and more efficient technology for power generation.
“We are thrilled to embark on these three new projects that aim to contribute to CPS Energy’s position as a key player in the new energy economy,” said Krystel Castillo, TSERI Director.
“We have been able to build knowledge and grow innovation through our partnership with UTSA over the past decade,” said Cris Eugster, CPS Energy’s Chief Operating Officer. “We expect these new projects to also bring new insights that will help us plan for the future of energy.”
The first project will develop a solar tracking system made of soft silicon rubber for building- integrated photovoltaic applications.
“This light-weight robotic system can be integrated into buildings’ facades, rooftops or windows to optimize solar energy collected by solar panels while regulating energy flow between indoor and outdoor environments. It will also provide privacy,” said Wei Gao, project lead and assistant professor in the UTSA Department of Mechanical Engineering. Gao will partner with Yongcan Cao, assistant professor in the UTSA Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering to complete the project.
The second project will produce a prototype of a clean energy technology for steam turbines, which currently generate over 80% of the nation’s energy. UTSA researchers set a goal to replace the water used in this cycle with supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2).
“A supercritical fluid behaves like both a gas and a liquid at the same time. The phases are indistinguishable and sCO2 happens to have some very convenient properties for power generation that lead to higher efficiency and smaller turbines compared to steam,” said Christopher Combs, the assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering who will lead this effort along with his co-investigators, Karan Bhanot (Finance), Sara Ahmed (Electrical and Computer Engineering) and Kiran Bhaganagar (Mechanical Engineering).
The third project will design data-driven and artificial intelligence approaches to better identify and mitigate cyber threats occurring on edge-cloud applications. The UTSA researchers will, particularly, focus on Internet of Things (IoT) devices including smart meters to verify the correctness and identify any security vulnerabilities in existing IoT devices as they interact with the smart grid. This project will be led by Paul Rad and Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, associate professors in the UTSA Department of Information Systems and Cyber Security in collaboration with Krystel Castillo.
CPS Energy has collaborated with TSERI for close to a decade on multiple efforts such as smart grid cybersecurity, solar forecasting, energy storage, smart buildings and clean energy technologies. These research projects have created learning and workforce development opportunities for UTSA students through summer internships that help them better transition into next-generation energy jobs and sustainability fields. CPS Energy employees will also serve as mentors to the professors and students who will be participating in these newly-announced projects.
TSERI was founded by UTSA in 2010 to leverage the university’s diverse knowledge in energy and related areas. The institute integrates scientific discovery, engineering innovation and policy deliberations with pragmatic implementation to realize the promise of tomorrow’s America as a global energy leader.
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Students, faculty and staff are invited to join UTSA's delegation at the annual César E. Chávez March for Justice in downtown San Antonio. Free transportation will be provided from the Main and Downtown Campuses, and all university community participants will receive a complimentary commemorative t-shirt (while supplies last)
1310 Guadalupe Street, San Antonio, TexasJoin UTSA Libraries and Museums to learn more about the publishing discounts available for UTSA researchers.
Virtual Event (Zoom)PubMed is an essential database for anyone conducting biomedical or health-related research. This workshop will teach attendees how to effectively navigate this free resource and locate peer-reviewed articles using advanced search features, MeSH subject headings, and Boolean operators.
Virtual Event (Zoom)Join us for a hands-on workshop about the basics of copyright, both in education and as a researcher. We’ll dispel some common copyright myths, differences between copyright law and other intellectual property law, and teach you how to apply a Fair Use checklist to your scholarly work.
Virtual Event (Zoom)In this workshop, we will explore sentiment analysis, a method for identifying feelings in text, whether the tone is positive, negative, or neutral.
Group Spot B, John Peace LibraryThe Urban Bird Project at UTSA will discuss urban bird populations, conservation efforts, and how you can get involved.
JPL Assembly Room (4.04.22,) Main CampusLearn to use the simple but powerful features of EndNote®, a citation management tool. In this hands-on workshop, participants will learn to setup an EndNote library, save references and PDFs, and automatically create and edit a bibliography.
Virtual Event ( Zoom)The University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.
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UTSA is a proud Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) as designated by the U.S. Department of Education .
The University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution situated in a global city that has been a crossroads of peoples and cultures for centuries, values diversity and inclusion in all aspects of university life. As an institution expressly founded to advance the education of Mexican Americans and other underserved communities, our university is committed to promoting access for all. UTSA, a premier public research university, fosters academic excellence through a community of dialogue, discovery and innovation that embraces the uniqueness of each voice.
