Date: Friday, April 19, 2013
Location: 1084 East Hall (3:00 PM to 4:00 PM)
Title: Some open problems in sustainable energy
Abstract: The topic of sustainable energy is timely and important, but extremely broad. There are opportunities for researchers of differing backgrounds to make substantial contributions with great potential impact.
In this talk, we survey a few topics of interest to mathematicians and computer scientists. In a "smart" electricity grid, the grid operator can sense and control not only the sources of electrical power, but also the users of electrical power. This results in a huge dynamical system with many agents. How should the operator manage the grid to maintain voltage near nominal levels and keep current and voltage in phase? What if solar and wind energy, which are much less predictable than other sources, contribute substantial power to the grid? How can a grid operator set prices to result in desired behavior? How can we safeguard the privacy and security of residential customers, when customer data is seen by others and when others can flip switches in the customer's home? If time permits, we will also consider issues outside the smart grid.
Speaker: Martin Strauss
Institution: University of Michigan
Event Organizer: 1st Year AIM Students millerpd@umich.edu
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