A new AI grid lab was opened by Siemens Energy. UCF professor Dr. Wei Sun, UCF Associate Vice President of Partnerships, Michael Harding and UCF PhD student Michael Wakim discuss the new lab. This package was aired on the April 17 newscast and was anchored by John Warner and Luis Perez.
Sabrina Hansen
Siemens Energy, a multinational energy company and Pegasus Partner of UCF, opened a new facility in Research Park on April 13 to use artificial intelligence to improve electrical grids.
The new 6,000-square-foot Grid AI Lab was part of a $1-billion investment by Siemens Energy in the United States, with the goal of “transforming how electrical grids are managed,” according to Transformer’s Magazine. The facility is next to the Siemens Energy Innovation Center Orlando campus on Research Parkway.
Dr. Wei Sun, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and the principal investigator for UCF on this lab, explained how AI works to improve the region’s electrical grid.
A video plays inside a Siemens Energy lab showcasing Noedra, the digital framework that relies heavily on AI to help reduce grid congestion. Siemens Energy is opening a new AI grid lab that will offer protection against extreme weather and security breaches for UCF power grids.
Emilie Gilbert
“So, AI is first using the data. You look at what already happened in history, so, you can use the data to do the prediction. That’s one of the most popular applications of predictive analysis to see is there something potential that will happen and based on a historical pattern,” Sun said.
Sun also said that it wasn’t the only way in which the technology was working to improve the grid. It also uses reinforcement learning to make decisions, meaning it takes historical and training data to train the models to have “intelligence.”
This is supposed to be a more efficient way to handle new solutions and to have trained AI to provide a solution faster and in real time, rather than a more complicated model that takes longer to recalculate, according to Sun.
Michael Harding, associate vice president of partnerships, said UCF sees this lab as necessary.
The team behind the new AI Grid Lab discusses the analytics of reshaping, grid planning and operations at Siemens Energy in Research Park on April 13.
Emilie Gilbert
Harding also shared that the long-term trajectory for introducing this lab is to provide more hands-on learning for students, applied learning experiences and internships for credit. He also said they are looking to up the skill of current Siemens Energy talent and find out what that looks like for an AI future.
“This was all a dream,” Harding said, “And so to see it all come together today is such a cool reality, and it’s going to give us unprecedented front row access as UCF students and faculty to see sort of what’s coming next.”