Creating a More Resilient Energy Grid Through Artificial Intelligence

Stony Brook University professor Peng Zhang, a SUNY Empire Innovation professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is leading a statewide team of collaborators in developing "AI-Grid," an artificial intelligence-enabled, autonomous grid designed to keep power infrastructure resilient from cyberattacks, faults and disastrous accidents. The work is part of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Convergence Accelerator Program, which supports and builds upon basic research and discovery that involves multidisciplinary work to accelerate solutions toward societal impact. In September 2020, the program launched the 2020 cohort, which included AI-Grid as a phase 1 awardee and grant funding of a $1 million to further AI-Grid research from an idea to a low-fidelity prototype. The Convergence Accelerator recently selected teams for phase 2, to focus on expanding the solution prototype and to build a sustainability plan beyond the NSF funding. Under phase 2, a new $5