Undergraduate research and the smart grid: REU-Site: Engineering the Grid

Leda Lunardi

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Conference: 2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Publication Date: June 23, 2013
Start Date: June 23, 2013
End Date: June 26, 2013
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: NSF Grantees' Poster Session
Tagged Topic: NSF Grantees Poster Session
Page Count: 11
Page Numbers: 23.1277.1 - 23.1277.11
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--22662
Permanent URL: https://sftp.asee.org/22662
Download Count: 274

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Leda Lunardi NC State University

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Leda Lunardi has been a professor since 2003 at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC. She received her B.S. and M.S. in Physics from the University of Sao Paulo (USP), Sao Paulo, Brazil. She earned her Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University. After graduation she spent 19 years in industry: mostly at AT&T (then Bell Labs), and JDS Uniphase, before joining academia. From 2005 to 2007 she served as program director for the Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS) Division in the Engineering Directorate of the National Science Foundation (NSF) in Arlington, VA. She was the director of Graduate Programs of the ECE Department in 2007, before joining the leadership team of Gen 3 NSF-ERC Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management (FREEDM) Systems Center. There she led the Education Program from 2008-2011, and leads the REU-site “Engineering the Grid.” She has served on several IEEE executive and technical committee conferences, national and international governments’ ad-hoc committees for grants and projects reviews. She has authored and co-authored more than 100 publications and conference proceedings; been granted five patents; and given invited talks, plenary addresses, and short courses at conferences. She was elected an IEEE Fellow in 2002, and received the IEEE Photonics Society Engineering Achievement Award in 2000. For the last five years she has been involved in engineering undergraduate research programs at NC State.

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Abstract

“REU-site: Engineering the Grid”The Engineering the Grid program is a ten-week summer program for undergraduates with an annualcohort of 10 students for 3 years. The students are recruited nationwide with special emphasis onwomen and underrepresented minorities as well as from institutions that have limited undergraduateresearch opportunities. This Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program is by naturemultidisciplinary composed of faculty from different engineering departments, physical sciences andmathematical sciences among others. Students work with faculty and graduate student mentorsengaged in cutting edge research involving the energy production and alternative energy, as well asmaterials sciences and electronic devices processing. By participation in professional developmentseminars on responsible professional conduct for engineers and research ethics, diversity awareness, aswell as the graduate school application process, students network with other programs on campus.Participants along with their graduate mentors become role models with their involvement in a systemof “Each one-mentor-one”, interacting with high school teachers and students from a rural, underservedschool district. Undergraduate students reinforce their learning in the research environment by sharingtheir experiences with high school students and assisting teachers to incorporate new concepts in theclassroom. Assessment results from program surveys will be presented on impact of mentorship, post-graduation career choices, and participation in the coordinated activities.

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Lunardi, L. (2013, June), Undergraduate research and the smart grid: REU-Site: Engineering the Grid Paper presented at 2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia. 10.18260/1-2--22662