Narimani’s National Science Foundation Grant Will Fund Electrical System Research
JONESBORO – The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a grant to Dr. Rasoul Narimani, assistant professor of electrical engineering at Arkansas State University, to conduct research that will contribute to the reliability of electrical power systems.
Starting at the beginning of April, Narimani will serve as principal investigator for the two-year project, which attracted $175,000 from the NSF’s Division of Computer and Network Systems. The award is partially funded under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
“This project aims to strengthen dependability and robustness of the electric power grid by improving the capability to aggregate power system state estimation (PSSE) methods to monitor and assess the health of a power grid,” Narimani said in his project proposal.
Narimani, who joined A-State’s faculty in the College of Engineering and Computer Science in August 2021, completed his Ph.D. in electrical engineering at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. He also completed a post-doctoral appointment at Texas A&M University before moving to Jonesboro. His professional work includes membership in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the American Society for Engineering Education.
“The electric power grid is a cyber-physical system, essential for modern daily life. The grid is arguably the largest global engineered structure,” he also noted. “The goals of this project are to understand vulnerabilities intrinsic to traditional PSSE methods, and improve the dependability and robustness of PSSE algorithms to potentially disruptive conditions.”
The project extends recently developed power system optimization techniques to enable better situational awareness of the operations of the overall power system. Narimani and his research team will work with A-State’s outreach program, “P-20 Educational Innovation Center,” to share their research and encourage students to pursue careers in STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
The award reflects National Science Foundation's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
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