WCGEC Energy Systems Research Workshop: Building a Collaborative Research Roadmap

February 06, 2026

The Winston Chung Global Energy Center (WCGEC) held an Energy Systems Research Workshop on January 30 at the Bourns College of Engineering, bringing together faculty, researchers, and center leadership to highlight recent advances in energy systems research. The workshop opened with remarks from Chris Lynch, Dean of the Bourns College of Engineering, followed by an overview of recent energy systems research activities and externally funded projects presented by the WCGEC Co-Director for Energy Systems, Dr. Hamed Mohsenian-Rad. The program featured presentations from WCGEC Energy Systems Seed Grant awardees, representing five projects and ten PIs and co-PIs.

The workshop emphasized opportunities for collaboration across research centers and disciplines. Short talks by leadership from WCGEC Energy Materials, CE-CERT, RAISE, and CRIS highlighted areas of complementary expertise and potential joint initiatives. The workshop concluded with a review of findings from a pre-workshop survey, followed by group discussion and brainstorming to help shape WCGEC’s Energy Systems research roadmap.

The workshop also highlighted the breadth of expertise within WCGEC in the Energy Systems area, spanning theory, sensing, control, data analytics, policy, and real-world deployment across multiple scales. This collective expertise positions the Center to pursue impactful, collaborative research efforts across a wide range of energy system challenges. Key areas of expertise include:

Power systems analysis and operation
Power systems sensing, monitoring, and instrumentation
Power systems control, optimization, and decision-making
Power electronics and inverter-based resources
Distribution systems and distributed energy resource (DER) integration
Microgrids and islanded systems
Renewable energy integration (solar, wind, and other resources)
Energy storage systems (stationary and mobile)
Electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, and vehicle-to-grid technologies
Demand response and customer engagement
Grid resilience, reliability, and extreme events
AI, machine learning, and big data analytics for energy systems
Cyber-physical security of energy systems
Energy markets, pricing, and economics
Energy policy, regulation, and techno-economic analysis
Buildings- and community-scale energy systems
Data centers and other large energy consumers
Hydrogen and other alternative energy carriers

Slides from the workshop presentations are available below for reference.

8:00 — 8:30 AM	Breakfast and Registration
8:30 — 8:40 AM	Welcome and Overview of Recent Activities (Slides) Hamed Mohsenian-Rad, Co-Director WCGEC Energy Systems
8:40 — 8:50 AM	Bourns College of Engineering Remarks Chris Lynch, Dean
8:50 — 9:10 AM	Seed Grant, Yuanhang Zhu and Bhargav Rallabandi (Slides)
9:10 — 9:30 AM	Seed Grant, Luat Vuong and Markus Petters (Slides)
9:30 — 9:50 AM	WCGEC Research Staff (Slides) Amir Masoumi, Postdoc Energy Systems
9:50 — 10:00 AM	Cross-Center Collaboration Talk – WCGWEC Energy Materials (Slides) Juchen Guo, Co-Director WCGWEC
10:00 — 10:10 AM	Break
10:10 — 10:20 AM	Cross-Center Collaboration Talk – RAISE (Slides) Amit Roy Chowdhury, Director of RAISE
10:20 — 10:40 AM	Seed Grant, Yue Dong and Nanpeng Yu (Slides)
10:40 — 11:00 AM	Seed Grant, Nanpeng Yu, Yuzhou Chen, Shujie Ma (Slides)
11:00 — 11:20 AM	Seed Grant, Vishwa Saragadam and Hamed Mohsenian-Rad (Slides)
11:20 — 11:30 AM	Break
11:30 — 11:40 AM	Cross-Center Collaboration Talk – CE-CERT (Slides) Don Collins, Director of CE-CERT
11:40 — 11:50 AM	Cross-Center Collaboration Talk – CRIS (Slides) Konstantinos Karydis, Director of CRIS
11:50 AM — 12:20 PM	Research and Collaboration Roadmap (Survey Results)

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