About CREATE Laboratory

Immediate Opening: we are currently hiring multiple postdoctoral researchers and fully funded Ph.D. students. We are particularly interested in the following areas, 1) power distribution system estimation, visibility, optimization, and resilience, and 2) smart grid technologies including advanced grid monitoring and management and integration of DERs. If you are interested, please do not hesitate to contact me. 

Cyber-Physical Resilience Empowering A Transformative Energy Future (CREATE) Lab is a part of the Eversource Energy Center and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Connecticut (UConn).

Our mission is to develop the next generation of cyber-physical intelligence for grid digitalization, electrification, and decarbonization via collaborations with partner universities, the power industry, and national labs. Our research interests include cyber-physical power system modeling, monitoring, renewable energy integration, uncertainty quantification, learning, dynamics, stability control, and cyber security with DERs. CREATE is currently funded by a multitude of projects from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, National Laboratories, the Department of Defense, ISO New England, Eversource Energy, Dominion Energy, etc.

About UConn: UConn is a flagship university frequently ranked as a top-25 public R1 research university in the US and tied for 58th best national university in the 2023 U.S. News & World Report rankings. The university has been recognized as a Public Ivy.

Openings: We are always looking for talented Ph.D. students and postdocs with full financial support. Visiting professors/scholars and students are also welcome. Self- or government-funded students with research skills and established academic performance are highly encouraged to apply. Please refer to here if you are interested in working with us.

News and Updates

  • 12/2024 Dr. Zhao has been elevated to the prestigious Fellow of IET (Institution of Engineering and Technology)! Fellowship is the prestigious IET membership level awarded only to individuals who have demonstrated recent significant achievement(s) sustained at high levels for a period of at least five years in engineering, technology, or related disciplines relevant to the IET (usually within the last 10 years).
  • 11/2024 Congrats to Yansong’s successful Ph.D. defense! Dr. Yansong Pei will move to Michigan State University for one year as a postdoc. This is the third PhD graduate from CREATE lab!
  • 11/2024 Dr. Zhao’s Google Scholar citations reached 10,000, a big milestone! Appreciations go to all my students, mentors, collaborators, and colleagues!
  • 11/2024 Dr. Zhao received the 2024 IEEE CT Section Outstanding Early Career Academic Member Award for his “outstanding contributions to the development of advanced estimation, control and machine learning techniques for electrical power energy system reliability and resiliency”.
  • 11/2024 Tong Su’s paper “Grid-enhancing technologies for clean energy systems, “Nature Reviews Clean Technology” was accepted to Nature Reviews Clean Technology! It will show up in the journal’s inaugural volume!
  • 10/2024 Invited Ezra Systems Seminar at Cornell University on “Data-Model Convergence for a More Reliable and Resilient Cyber-Physical Power System with High Penetration of Inverter-based Resources“.
  • 09/2024 Dr. Zhao is listed as one of the 2024 World’s Top 2% Scientists released by Stanford University in both Single-Year and Career tracks with a rank of 16056 (28158 last year) released by Stanford University. My subfield rank in Energy is in the top 0.1%.
  • 08/2024 Congrats to Bendong’s successful Ph.D. defense! Dr. Bendong Tan will stay with us for one year as the postdoc. This is the second PhD graduate from CREATE lab!
  • 07/2024 We have joined the The Ocean Energy Safety Institute (OESI)!
  • 06/2024 Dr. Zhao is selected for the 2024 Gulf Research Program Early-Career Research Fellowship of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
  • 06/2024 Soroush Vahedi and Alaa Selim, have been selected for the Eversource Clean Energy & Sustainability Innovation Program Fellowship.
  • 05/2024 Dr. Zhao is selected for the Early Career Outstanding Engineer recognition from the 2024 US National Academy of Engineering Symposium, one of the 100 invitees across all engineering fields.
  • 05/2024 Our TF paper “Distribution System Behind-the-Meter DERs: Estimation, Uncertainty Quantification, and Control” has been accepted to IEEE Transactions on Power Systems! This is a great teamwork!
  • 05/2024 Recognized by IEEE PES in celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month’s 2024 theme of “Advancing Leaders Through Innovation.”
  • 05/2024 Chaired the IEEE PES Connecticut Chapter to win the 2023 IEEE PES High Performing Chapter Award!
  • [New project] “DOE Grid Resilience Analysis and Climate Change Impacts (GRACI)” selected by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Grid Deployment Office (GDO).
  • Our paper “A Lagrange-multiplier-based Reliability Assessment for Power Systems Considering Topology and Injection Uncertainties,” IEEE Trans. Power Systems, 2024, is now one of the Hot Paper according to Web of Science since May 2024-in the top 0.1% of papers in the field within the past two years.
  • Our paper “A Physics-Guided Graph Convolution Neural Network for Optimal Power Flow,” IEEE Trans. Power Systems, 2024, is now one of the Hot Paper according to Web of Science since May 2024-in the top 0.1% of papers in the field within the past two years.
  • Our paper “Reinforcement Learning and its Applications in Modern Power and Energy Systems: A Review,” Journal of Modern Power Systems and Clean Energy, 2020, is now one of the most Highly Cited Paper according to Web of Science since May 2024-in the top 1% of papers in the field.
  • 05/2024 Congratulations to Bendong Tan, Yansong Pei, Alaa Selim, and Tong Su for receiving the Summer Predoctoral Fellowship!
  • 05/2024 Ankur‘s paper “Development of Cyber-Physical Security Simulation Testbed in RTDS using Modbus Communication” received the Best Paper Award from IEEE PES General Meeting 2024! Great collaborations with EVersource Energy!
  • 05/2024 Ketian‘s paper “Power System Overloading Risk Assessment Considering Topology and Renewable Uncertainties” received the Best Paper Award from IEEE PES General Meeting 2024! Great collaborations with ISO New England!
  • 05/2024 Soroush‘s paper “Resilience Assessment for Distribution Systems during Hurricanes: A Learning-Based Framework” received the Best Paper Award from IEEE PES General Meeting 2024! Great collaborations with LBNL and ORNL!
  • 05/2024 Dr. Zhao was appointed Technical Committee Program Chair (TCPC) of IEEE PES Renewable Systems Integration Coordinating Committee.
  • 04/2024 Government Market News reported our CyberCARED: University-based research centers focusing on energy sector cybersecurity
  • 04/2024 Dr. Zhao has been listed as Ranking of Top Scientists by Research.com
  • 04/2024 “Aggregating Buildings as Virtual Power Plant-Architectural Design, Supporting Technologies, and Case Studies,” is among the top 10 most-cited papers published in IET Energy Systems Integration.
  • 04/2024 Bendong received the Summer Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship!
  • 04/2024 Fox 61 reported our DOE CyberCARED: UConn gets federal funding for new cybersecurity center.
  • 04/2024 CT News Junkie reported our DOE CyberCARED: UConn One Of Six Universities To Receive Federal Funding For New Cybersecurity Centers.
  • 04/2024 CyberCARED project has been reported by GovTech at New Regional Centers Focus on Electrical Grid Cybersecurity.
  • 03/2024 [New project] Our $3.6M project “CyberCARED: Northeast University Cybersecurity Center for Advanced and Resilient Energy Delivery” has been selected for an award by DOE’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER).
  • 03/2024 Our IEEE PES Technical Report “Application of spatio-temporal data-driven and machine learning algorithms for security assessment,” PES-TR104 under AMPS committee received the 2024 IEEE PES Technical Committee Working Group Recognition Award for Outstanding Technical Report.
  • 03/2024 Dr. Zhao is promoted to be the Castleman Term Professor in Engineering Innovation!
  • 02/2024 Alaa is the Department Winner of the 10th Annual UConn College of Engineering Poster Competition!
  • 02/2024 Haoyi’s first journal paper “Online Model-Free DER Dispatch via Adaptive Voltage Sensitivity Estimation and Chance Constrained Programming” was accepted to IEEE Transactions on Power Systems!
  • 02/2024 Alaa Selim won the 2024 IEEE-ECE Poster Competition Second Place Award and Soroush Vahedi got the Third Place Award. Great job!
  • 02/2024 Alaa and Soroush have been selected as an Explore Phase competitor in the DOE EnergyTech University Prize 2024!
  • 01/2024 Dr. Zhao chaired a new IEEE PES Technical Report “Cyber-Physical Interdependence for Power System Operation and Control” published in IEEE PES Resource Center.
  • 01/2024 Bendong received the Excellent Reviewer Award from the Journal of Modern Power Systems and Clean Energy.
  • 01/2024 Alaa received the NSF travel grant award for the Texas Power and Energy Conference 2024.
  • 01/2024 Welcome Dr. Gang Cheng to join our group as a postdoc!
  • 01/2024 Ankur has been promoted to Assistant Research Professor. Congratulations!
  • 01/2024 Alaa Selim received the 2023 IEEE PES Connecticut Chapter Outstanding Chapter Volunteer Award.
  • 01/2024 Bendong Tan received the 2023 IEEE PES Connecticut Chapter Outstanding Young Engineer Award!
  • 01/2024 Dr. Zhao chaired the technical report “State Estimation for Integrated Energy Systems: Motivations, Advances, and Challenges”-TR118 to win the 2024 IEEE PES Technical Committee Working Group Recognition Award for Outstanding Technical Report.
  • 12/2023 Our group received multiple recognitions from the flagship journal IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, including the 2023 Outstanding Paper Award for Yitong Liu’s paper, Outstanding Reviewer Awards for Bendong Tan and Tong Su as well as the Outstanding Associate Editor Award for Dr. Junbo Zhao. Great teamwork!
  • 12/2023 We have a new interesting review paper “Challenges and Pathways of Low-carbon Oriented Energy Transition and Power System Planning Strategy: A Review” accepted to IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering.
  • 11/2023 [New project] Our project on distribution system visibility and control with Clarkson University has been selected by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) for funding. Congrats to the team!
  • 11/2023 Alaa and Soroush won Second Place in the IEEE PES Ideathon 2023 competition. Congratulations!
  • 11/2023 Ketian has successfully defended his PhD dissertation. It is officially Dr. Ketian Ye! Big congrats and best wishes for your next journey at NREL. This is also the first Ph.D. graduate from our group!
  • 11/2023 Dr. Zhao chaired the technical report “Behind-The-Meter Distributed Energy Resources: Estimation, Uncertainty Quantification, and Control”-TR111 to win the 2023-2024 IEEE PES Technical Committee Working Group Recognition Award for Outstanding Technical Report.
  • 11/2023 [New project] Our project “DLR-RENEW: Dynamic Line Rating Robust Validation, Enhancement and Field Demonstration in New England with Changing Weather and Offshore Wind Integration” has been selected by U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Electricity for funding.
  • 10/2023 Soroush and Alaa were selected for the John Lof Leadership Academy Scholar 2023-2025!
  • 10/2023 Jinxian received the Student Poster Award-Second Place for the work “A Graph Convolutional Network for Active Distribution System Considering Measurement Spatial and Temporal Correlations” at the 55th North American Power Symposium (NAPS) 2023.
  • 10/2023 Paper “B. Tan, J. B. Zhao, M. Netto, V. Krishnan, V. Terzija, Y. Zhang, “Power System Inertia Estimation: Review of Methods and the Impacts of Converter-Interfaced Generations,” International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems, vol. 134, no. 107362, 2022″ received the 2023 Best Paper Award from International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems-only 5 papers are selected out of the 1500 publications in the past 2 years.
  • 10/2023  Paper “T. Wang, W. Liu, J. B. Zhao, X. Guo, V. Terzija, “A rough set-based bio-inspired fault diagnosis method for electrical substations,” International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems, vol. 119, no. 105961, 2020.” received the 2022 Best Paper Award from International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems-only 5 papers are selected out of the 1500 publications in the past 2 years.
  • 10/2023 Dr. Zhao is listed as one of the 2023 World’s Top 2% Scientists released by Stanford University in both Single-Year and Career tracks with a rank of 28158 (35398 last year) released by Stanford University. My subfield rank in Energy is in the top 0.1%. More details can be found here.
  • 09/2023 [New SEL Donation] Thanks to the generous donations from SEL, we have received multiple equipment to build a hardware-in-the-loop and software-defined network solution platform for cyber-physical system security. These include 1) Software network driven switches  (SEL-2740S); 2) SEL 3530 Real-Time Automation Controller, 3) SEL 3620 Ethernet Security Gateway, 4) SEL 2411 Programmable Automation Controller, 5) SEL 751 Feeder Protection Relay, 6) SEL-421  PMUs / SEL-2240 Modular PMU and 7) SEL-2404 Satellite-Synchronized Clock.
  • 09/2023 [New project] Collaborative project “An Innovative Suite of Physics-informed Learning Tools for Real-time DER System Data Analytics (AI-PhyX)” with Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been funded by U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER).
  • 09/2023 [New project] Collaborative project “Cybersecure and Data-Efficient Sharing Systems for Cloud-based DER Operation and Control” with Brookhaven National Laboratory has been funded by U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER).
  • 09/2023 Appointed as the Webmaster of the IEEE PES Analytical Methods for Power Systems (AMPS) committee.
  • 08/2023 Ph.D. student Alaa Selim won the Future Climate Venture Studio Fellowship (Fall 2023)!
  • 08/2023 Tong Su’s paper “Probabilistic Physics-Informed Graph Convolutional Network for Active Distribution System Voltage Prediction” is accepted by IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
  • 08/2023 [New project] Our collaborative proposal “ASCENT: From sensors to multiscale digital twin to autonomous operation of resilient electric power grids” has been awarded by the National Science Foundation. Congrats to the team of NJIT (PI), Havard University, Princeton University, University of Connecticut, and Purdue University!
  • 08/2023 Appointed as the Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications (IF=4.4).
  • 07/2023 Dr. Zhao received the 2022 Outstanding Associate Editor Award from the Journal of Modern Power Systems and Clean Energy (IF=6.3).
  • 07/2023 Bendong received the Conference Participation Award from The Graduate School with $750 Prize.
  • 07/2023 Dr. Zhao is the founding Chair of the new IEEE PES Working Group on Distribution System Behind-The-Meter DERs: Visibility, Analytics and Control under the IEEE PES Distribution System Analysis Subcommittee. We look forward to your participation and contribution! Please do not hesitate to contact me if you are interested.
  • 07/2023 [New project] We have a new project with Dominion Energy on developing robust distribution system state estimation tools.
  • 07/2023 [New project] Our proposal “U.S. Department of Energy Onsite Energy Technical Analysis and Support Center (DOE OE-TASC)” has been selected for funding. Thanks to the leadership of professor Ravi Gorthala (PI)!
  • 07/2023 Jinxian’s first accepted journal paper “Deep Multi-fidelity Bayesian Data Fusion for Probabilistic Distribution System Voltage Estimation with High Penetration of PVs” in IEEE Transactions on Power Systems!
  • 07/2023 Yingqi’s paper “Robust learning-assisted data-driven congestion management via sparse sensitivity estimation,” received the Best Paper Award from 2023 IEEE IAS Industrial and Commercial Power System Asia Conference.
  • 06/2023 Ketian’s paper “Physics-Informed Sparse Gaussian Process for Probabilistic Stability Analysis of Large-Scale Power System with Dynamic PVs and Loads,” IEEE Trans. Power Systems, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 2868-2879, 2023. received the 2023 IEEE PES Technical Committee Prize Paper Award.
  • 05/2023 Ph.D. student Haoyi Wang and undergraduate student Paul Zambrzyckigot the 2023 Eversource Clean Energy & Sustainability Innovation Program Fellowship and each will receive $2500 for developing an innovative behind-the-meter PV forecasting technique. Great teamwork!
  • 05/2023 Dr. Zhao chaired the IEEE Task Force on Power System Dynamic State and Parameter Estimation to win the prestigious Society-level 2023 IEEE PES Outstanding Working Group for Outstanding Technical Report Award.
  • 05/2023 We have a new IEEE Task Force on Dynamic Parameter Visibility: Identifiability, Algorithms and Uncertainty Quantification and look for your participation!
  • 05/2023 Ketian got the pre-doctoral fellowship!
  • 05/2023 Tong Su’s conference paper received the Best Paper Award from IEEE PES General Meeting 2023. Great job!
  • 05/2023 Bendong’s paper “Debiased Uncertainty Quantification Approach for Probabilistic Transient Stability Assessment” is accepted to IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
  • 04/2023 Tong Su’s first paper “Deep Sigma Point Processes-Assisted Chance-Constrained Power System Transient Stability Preventive Control” after joining UConn has been accepted to IEEE Transactions on Power Systems. Great job!
  • 04/2023 Yansong and Bendong received the GE Fellowship for Excellence 2023-2024!
  • 03/2023 Yitong received the Next Gen Scholar GE Fellowship! Great achievement!
  • 03/2023 [New project] Thanks to the generous gift donation from NEC Labs America!
  • 03/2023 Dr. Zhao received the 2023 AAUP Research Excellence Award-Early Career!
  • 03/2023 Dr. Zhao’s collaborative paper “Data-driven Optimal Power Flow: A Physics-Informed Machine Learning Approach” received the 2022 Best Paper recognition from IEEE Transactions on Power Systems. Only 5 papers out of the past about 1500 publications were selected for this recognition.
  • 03/2023 Dr. Zhao’s paper “Roles of Dynamic State Estimation in Power System Modeling, Monitoring and Operation” received the 2022 Best Paper recognition from IEEE Transactions on Power Systems. Only 5 papers out of the past about 1500 publications were selected for this recognition.
  • 03/2023 Bendong received the Oustanding Reviewer recognition from IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
  • 02/2023 [New project] CREATE lab got two new DOE grants on transmission system reliability and resiliency.
  • 02/2023 Dr. Zhao received the 2022 Excellent Young Subject Editor Award from the CSEE Journal of Power and Energy Systems (IF=7.1)
  • 02/2023 Paper-H. Wang, K. Hou, J. B. Zhao, X. Yu, H. Jia, Y. Mu, “Planning-Oriented Resilience Assessment and Enhancement of Integrated Electricity-gas System Considering Multi-type Natural Disasters“, Applied Energy, vol. 315, no. 1188, 2022 has been listed as the Highly Cited Paper according to Web of Science since Jan 2023.
  • 02/2023 Dr. Zhao led the IEEE Power & Energy Magazine special issue on “Dynamic Grid State and Parameter Visibility: Enabling the Next Generation of Energy Management System”. Enjoy your reading!
  • 01/2023 Dr. Zhao received the 2022 Outstanding Associate Editor Recognition from the flagship journal in Power and Engineering Field-IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
  • 01/2023 Welcome Dr. Ankur Srivastava to join CREATE lab as a postdoc!
  • 01/2023 Dr. Zhao received the IEEE PES Connecticut chapter 2022 Outstanding Engineer Award with the citation: For outstanding contributions to the research and development of advanced grid modernization technologies for renewable energy integration and electric reliability and resilience.
  • 12/2022 Yansong’s first paper “Multi-Task Reinforcement Learning for Distribution System Voltage Control With Topology Changes” is accepted by IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid.
  • 12/2022 Two papers “Transferable Deep Kernel Emulator for Probabilistic Load Margin Assessment With Topology Changes, Uncertain Renewable Generations and Loads” and “Data-driven Time-varying Inertia Estimation of Inverter-based Resources” from Bendong have been accepted by IEEE Transactions on Power Systems!
  • 12/2022 [New project] “Probabilistic Power System Risk Assessment with Uncertain Renewable Generations and Loads” with ISO New England.
  • 11/2022 Dr. Zhao’a paper “A rough set-based bio-inspired fault diagnosis method for electrical substations” is one of the Top 5 Highly Cited Papers in the International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems.
  • 11/2022 Dr. Zhao received the 2022 Excellent Editor Award from IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering.
  • 11/2022 Jinxian’s paper “Multi-fidelity Gaussian Process for Distribution System Voltage Probabilistic Estimation with PVs,” received the Best Paper Award from the 6th IEEE Conference on Energy Internet and Energy System Integration!
  • 11/2022 Proactive project highlighted on PV magazine!
  • 11/2022 [New project] Our project $4.4M project “Proactive: Predictive Community Outage Preparedness and Active Last Mile Visibility Feedback Autonomous Restoration,” has been selected by DOE Solar Energy Technology Office for funding!
  • 10/2022 Yingqi’s two-part series papers have been accepted to IEEE Transactions on Power Systems. Great job!
  • 10/2022 Dr. Zhao started a new position as the Research Scientist at National Renewable Energy Laboratory under the UConn-NREL partnership.
  • 10/2022 Bendong’s paper is accepted to IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
  • 10/2022 Bendong received the Best Paper Award from IEEE PES ISGT 2022. Big congrats!
  • 10/2022 Dr. Zhao is listed as one of the 2022 World’s Top 2% Scientists released by Stanford University in both Single-Year and Career tracks with a rank of 35398 (50056 last year) released by Stanford University. My subfield rank in Energy is 695, i.e., the top 0.2% among 321,394. More details can be found here.
  • 10/2022 [New project] Thanks to the generous gift donation from NEC Labs America!
  • 09/2022 Welcome two visiting Ph.D. students Zhe Zhang and Lingyu Chen from Wuhan University.
  • 10/2022 [New project] Dr. Zhao received the UConn research excellent program support!
  • 09/2022 Dr. Zhao received the Special Achievement Award from the UConn Provost office.
  • 08/2022 Welcome four new Ph.D. students to CISGRL: Tong Su, Haoyi Wang, Soroush Vahedi, and Srinath Nangavaram Santhanam!
  • 07/2022 Dr. Zhao received the UConn Research Excellence Program funding support.
  • 07/2022 Dr. Zhao has been elected as the new Secretary of the IEEE PES AMPS Distribution System Analysis Subcommittee.
  • 07/2022 Alaa received the Conference Participation Award from The Graduate School with $750 Prize. Great job!
  • 07/2022 Ketian’s paper “Stochastic Power System Dynamic Simulation and Stability Assessment Considering Dynamics from Correlated Loads and PVs” has been accepted by IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications.
  • 06/2022 Ketian’s two papers “Physics-Informed Sparse Gaussian Process for Probabilistic Stability Analysis of Large-Scale Power System with Dynamic PVs and Loads” and “Data-Driven Probabilistic Voltage Risk Assessment of MiniWECC System with Uncertain PVs and Wind Generations using Realistic Data” were accepted to IEEE Transactions on Power Systems. Great job!
  • 06/2022 Dr. Zhao has been appointed as a member of the IEEE PES Society-Level Awards Committee representing RSICC.
  • 06/2022 Dr. Zhao gave an invited webinar to Malardalen University on “Physics-Informed Learning for Power System Optimization and Control.”
  • 05/2022 Dr. Zhao has been appointed as the Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering under the Emerging Network area, especially for cyber-physical systems and energy networks. We look forward to your contributions.
  • 05/2022 Dr. Zhao has been featured on UConn Today for my 2022 IEEE PES Outstanding Young Engineer Award.
  • 05/2022 Dr. Zhao received the prestigious 2022 IEEE PES Outstanding Young Engineer Award with the citation“For developments in robust dynamic state and parameter estimation, physics-informed learning and uncertainty quantification, and cybersecurity for power systems”.
  • 05/2022 Yansong’ paper “Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning for Realistic Distribution System Voltage Control using PV Inverters” received the Best Paper Award from IEEE PES General Meeting 2022. Great job!
  • 05/2022 Bendong’s paper “Explainable Bayesian Neural Network for Probabilistic Transient Stability Analysis Considering Wind Energy” received the Best Paper Award from IEEE PES General Meeting 2022. Great job!
  • 05/2022 Our paper A rough set-based bio-inspired fault diagnosis method for electrical substations has been listed as the Highly Cited Paper and Hot Paper, i.e., Top 0.1% according to Web of Science since May 2022.
  • 04/2022 Alaa has received the Third Prize in the annual ECE poster competition. Great job!
  • 02/2022 Dr. Zhao is appointed as the Associate Director of Eversource Energy Center for Grid Modernization and Strategic Partnerships
  • 02/2022 Dr. Zhao is appointed as the Chair of the IEEE PES Connecticut Chapter.
  • 01/2022 Our first IEEE TF paper Power System Dynamic State Estimation: Motivations, Definitions, Methodologies and Future Work received the 2021 IEEE Transactions on Power Systems Best Paper Award!
  • 01/2022 Bendong received the 2021 Outstanding Reviewer Award from IEEE Transactions on Power Systems!
  • 01/2022 [New project] Our DoD ESTCP proposal with NREL entitled “Physics-Informed Intelligent and Proactive Building Load Management for Energy Resilience” has been selected for funding. Congrats to the team!
  • 01/2022 Dr. Zhao is appointed as the Technical Committee Program Chair (TCPC) of IEEE PES Renewable Systems Integration Coordinating Committee. 
  • 01/2022 Bendong’s paper “Distributed Frequency Divider for Power System Bus Frequency Online Estimation Considering Virtual Inertia from DFIGs,” has been accepted to IEEE Journal on Emerging and Selected Topics in Circuits and Systems!
  • 12/2021 Yansong‘s paper “Data-Driven Distribution System Coordinated PV Inverter Control Using Deep Reinforcement Learning” received the Best Paper Award from the 2021 IEEE Sustainable Power and Energy Conference.
  • 10/2021 Dr. Zhao is appointed as North America regional editor for IET Renewable Power Generation.
  • 10/2021 Dr. Zhao is listed as the 2021 World’s Top 2% Scientists released by Stanford University in both Single-Year and Career tracks with a rank of 50056 (65042 last year) released by Stanford University. My subfield rank in Energy is in the top 0.4% among 229,150. More details can be found here.
  • 09/2021 Our paper “Deep Reinforcement Learning Enabled Physical-Model-Free Two-Timescale Voltage Control Method for Active Distribution Systems” has been accepted by IEEE Trans. Smart Grid.
  • 08/2021 Our paper “Reinforcement Learning and its Applications in Modern Power and Energy Systems: A Review” has been selected for the 2020 Best Journal Paper Award by the Journal of Modern Power Systems and Clean Energy (Impact Factor 3.265). Congrats to Di Cao!
  • 08/2021 Dr. Zhao received the 2020 Excellent Associate Editor Award from the Journal of Modern Power Systems and Clean Energy.
  • 07/2021 Ketian’s paper received the IEEE IAS I&CPS ASIA 2021-Best Student Paper Award! Congrats!
  • 07/2021 Bendong’s first journal paper on “Power System Inertia Estimation: Review of Methods and the Impacts of Converter-Interfaced Generations,” has been accepted by the International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems.
  • 07/2021 [New project] “DeepMining for Distribution Grid Visibility with High Penetration of DERs” by Eversource Energy.
  • 06/2021 [New project] New Department of Energy project with my colleague Dr. Zhenhua Tian (PI).
  • 06/2021 Dr. Zhao is featured in MSU maroon memo about the 2020 IEEE PES Outstanding Engineer Award.
  • 06/2021 Dr. Zhao received the 2021IEEE PES Outstanding Volunteer Award for dedicated volunteer service to promote activities, increase visibility and number of members, and educate the next generation of power engineering students.
  • 05/2021 Ketian started his summer internship at National Renewable Energy Lab on Uncertainty Quantification and Probabilistic Net-Load Forecasting.
  • 05/2021 Ketian’s second paper “Global Sensitivity Analysis of Large Distribution System with PVs using Deep Gaussian Process” is accepted by IEEE Trans. Power Systems.
  • 05/2021 New accepted paper “Robust Deep Gaussian Process Probabilistic Electrical Load Forecasting Method Under Anomalous Conditions” on IEEE Trans. Industrial Informatics.
  • 05/2021 New accepted paper “A Novel Non-Uniform Frame Structure Model for Power System Disturbance Propagation Analysis” on IEEE Trans. Power Systems.
  • 05/2021 IEEE TF paper “Dynamic State Estimation for Power System Control and Protection” has been accepted to IEEE Trans. Power Systems.
  • 04/2021 Bi Liu’s paper “Robust Nonlinear Controller for Wind Turbine Generator Drivetrain Torsional Oscillation under Large Disturbances” received the Best Conference Paper Award at IEEE PES General Meeting 2021, the flagship conference in the power and energy field. Great work, Bi!
  • 04/2021 Ph.D. student Ketian Ye’s paper “Data-driven Global Sensitivity Analysis of Three-Phase Distribution System with PVs” received the Best Conference Paper Award at IEEE PES General Meeting 2021, the flagship conference in the power and energy field. Great work, Ketian!
  • 04/2021 Dr. Zhao received the Young Scientist Award at the 2021 International Conference on Energy, Electrical and Power Engineering sponsored by IEEE and IEEE PES.
  • 04/2021 Dr. Zhao has been listed as 2020 World’s Top 2% Scientists with a rank as 65042 released by Stanford University, see more details here.
  • 04/2021 Two papers were accepted to IEEE Trans. Industrial Informatics.
  • 03/2021 IEEE TF Paper “Power System Dynamic State Estimation: Motivations, Definitions, Methodologies and Future Work” has been listed as a Highly Cited Paper according to Web of Science. We have 4 highly cited papers in total.
  • 03/2021 Ketian’s first paper “A Data-Driven Global Sensitivity Analysis Framework for Three-Phase Distribution System with PVs” has been accepted by IEEE Trans. Power Systems. Great job!
  • 03/2021 New project “Data-Driven Decision Making under Uncertainties with High Share of Variable Distributed Energy Resources” is funded by the US Department of Energy and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under the AGM program.
  • 03/2021 New Project “Modeling and Analytics for WI Near Term Resilience and Reliability,” has been funded by the US Department of Energy and National Renewable Energy Lab under the GLMC program.
  • 03/2021 Dr. Zhao received the Research Excellence Award from the ECE department at MSU.
  • 02/2021 Dr. Zhao joined IEEE PES Renewable Systems Integration Coordinating Committee as the webmaster. Looking forward to your contributions.
  • 02/2021 Paper “Surrogate Model Enabled Deep Reinforcement Learning for Hybrid Energy Community Operation” is accepted to Applied Energy. Congrats to Xiaodi.
  • 02/2021 Paper “A Novel Deep Reinforcement Learning Enabled Multi-band PSS for Multi-Mode Oscillation Control” is accepted to IEEE Transactions on Power Systems. Congrats on the great work by Guozhou!
  • 02/2021 We have 6 papers accepted to IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting, 2021. Congrats to my students and collaborators.
  • 02/2021 We have a new IEEE Task Force on State Estimation for Integrated Energy Systems under IEEE PES Energy Internet Coordinating Committee (EICC). If you are interested in this TF, please do not hesitate to contact me.
  • 02/2021 You’re welcome to contribute technical articles and newsletters to the IEEE Technical Committee on Cyber-Physical Systems.
  • 02/2021 Dr. Zhao received the 2020 IEEE PES Outstanding Engineer Award.
  • 02/2021 Dr. Zhao is appointed as the Chair of IEEE PES Mississippi Chapter.
  • 02/2021 Paper “Data-Driven Resilient Automatic Generation Control Against False Data Injection Attacks” is accepted to IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics. Congrats to Chunyu.
  • 01/2021 Paper “Hybrid Deep Learning for Dynamic Total Transfer Capability Control” is accepted to IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
  • 01/2021 Paper “Attention Enabled Multi-agent DRL for Decentralized Volt-VAR Control of Active Distribution System Using PV Inverters and SVCs,” is accepted to IEEE Trans. Sustainable Energy.
  • 01/2021 Paper “Data-Driven Subsynchronous Oscillation Identification Using Field Synchrophasor Measurements,” is accepted by IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery. We have used a large amount of field PMU data for this effort and believe it provides a lot of industry insights. Enjoy your reading [here]!
  • 01/2021 Paper “Nonlinear Virtual Inertia Control of WTGs for Enhancing Primary Frequency Response and Suppressing Drivetrain Torsional Oscillations,” is accepted to IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
  • 12/2020 Paper “Robust Nonlinear Controller to Damp Drivetrain Torsional Oscillation of Wind Turbine Generators,” is accepted to IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy.
  • 12/2020 Dr. Zhao received the Top 3 Associate Editor Award from IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid.
  • 12/2020 Four IEEE Transactions papers were accepted for publication. Congrats to my collaborators.
  • 12/2020 Dr. Zhao is appointed as the Chair of the Education Committee at IEEE Mississippi Chapter.
  • 12/2020 New IEEE TF “Risk Mitigation for Bulk Power System Operation” organized by Dr. Hong Chen, Dr. Masood Parvania, and Dr. Junbo Zhao has been approved by IEEE PES Power System Operation, Planning, and Economics Committee. Please contact me if you are interested in joining us.
  • 12/2020 Dr. Zhao’s Presentation “AI for Cyber-Physical Power System Operation and Control with DERs,” to IEEE Worcester and Springfield Chapters.
  • 11/2020 New project “Reorg: Resilience and Stability Oriented Cellular Grid Formation and Optimization for Communities with Solar PVs and Mobile Energy Storages” has been recommended for funding by the Department of Energy. Congrats to the team!
  • 10/2020 IEEE Transactions on Power Systems and TF on Dynamic State and Parameter Estimation will co-organize a webinar on “Dynamic State and Parameter Estimation for Power System Monitoring, Modeling, Operation, Control and Protection“ on 11:00 AM-1:30 PM ET, November 6, 2020. Please register them using [link 1] and [link 2]. Both links need to be registered.
  • 10/2020 Ketian Ye has obtained the travel grant from the College of Engineering for attending NAPS 2021. Congrats!
  • 09/2020 Our TF paper “Roles of Dynamic State Estimation in Power System Modeling, Monitoring, and Operation” has been accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Power Systems. This is another milestone of the TF on Power System Dynamic State and Parameter Estimation.
  • 09/2020 Dr. Zhao is appointed as the Associate Editor of the Journal of Modern Power System and Clean Energy. Welcome to your submissions.
  • 08/2020 Our paper “An Analytical Method for Disturbance Propagation Investigation based on the Electromechanical Wave Approach” has been accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
  • 08/2020 Our paper “Real-time LCC-HVDC Maximum Emergency Power Capacity Estimation Based on Local PMUs” has been accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Power Systems. Congrats, Long!
  • 07/2020 Our paper “A Planning-oriented Resilience Assessment Framework for Transmission Systems under Typhoon Disasters” has been accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid.
  • 06/2020 Our paper “Robust Adaptive Decentralized Dynamic State Estimation with Unknown Control Inputs using Field PMU Measurements” won the Best Paper Award for the flagship IEEE Power and Engineering Society General Meeting, 2020.
  • 06/2020 Welcome your submissions to “12th Asia-Pacific Power and Energy Engineering Conference (APPEEC 2020)“
  • 06/2020 Paper “Data-driven Optimal Power Flow: A Physics-Informed Machine Learning Approach” has been accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
  • 05/2020 Paper “A Multi-agent Deep Reinforcement Learning Based Voltage Regulation using Coordinated PV Inverters” has been accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
  • 05/2020 Paper “A Novel Hybrid Short-Term Load Forecasting Method of Smart Grid Using MLR and LSTM Neural Network” has been accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics.
  • 03/2020 Dr. Zhao received the Best Reviewer Recognition from IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
  • 03/2020 Paper “Application of Detectability Analysis for Power System Dynamic State Estimation” has been accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
  • 03/2020 New project “Load Sculptor” with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has been funded by DOE.
  • 03/2020 New project “Cascading failure discovery with electromechanical wave” with Argonne National Laboratory has been funded by DOE.
  • 02/2020 Two papers for the International Journal of Electric Power and Energy Systems have been accepted.
  • 02/2020 New project “Grid Data Integration Development and Demonstration” has been funded by DOE Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
  • 1/23/2020 Dr. Zhao has been appointed as the Editor of IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid.
  • 1/10/2020 Our paper “Coherency Identification for Wind-Integrated Power System using Virtual Synchronous Motion Equation” has been accepted to IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
  • 1/10/2020 Dr. Zhao has been appointed as the Editor of IEEE Transactions on Power Systems and IEEE Power and Engineering Letters.
  • 12/2019 New IEEE TF on Cyber-Physical Interdependence for Power System Operation and Control has been approved. Dr. Zhao is the chair. If you are interested in making contributions, please send me an email.
  • 12/2019 Dr. Zhao received the Best Reviewer Award from IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid.
  • 11/2019 Dr. Zhao has been elevated to IEEE Senior Member.
  • 11/2019 New IEEE TF on Evaluation of Distribution System State Estimation Performance has been approved. Jens and I will serve as the chairs. If you are interested in making contributions, please send me an email.
  • 11/2019 Our paper “Correlation-Aided Robust Decentralized Dynamic State Estimation of Power Systems with Unknown Control Inputs” has been accepted by IEEE Trans. Power System.
  • 11/2019 New projects-Two DOE AGM proposals have been recommended for funding. Congrats to the team!
  • 10/2019 Our paper “A Computational Attractive Interval Power Flow Approach with Correlated Uncertain Power Injections” has been accepted by IEEE Trans. Power System. Congrats, Liu!
  • 10/2019 Our paper “Distribution-level Robust Energy Management of Power Systems Considering Bidirectional Interactions with Gas Systems” has been accepted by IEEE Trans. Smart Grid.
  • 10/2019 We have three papers listed as Highly Cited Paper according to Web of Science.
  • 10/2019 Our paper “Robust Ensemble Kalman Filter for Medium Voltage Distribution System State Estimation” has been accepted to IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement.
  • 10/2019 Our paper “A Dynamic Wavelet-based Robust Wind Power Smoothing Approach Using Hybrid Energy Storage System” has been accepted to the International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems.
  • 09/2019 Welcome Ketian Ye to join our team as a Ph.D. student.
  • 08/2019 New project for DOE/PNNL has been funded. Congrats to the team!
  • 07/2019 Our paper “Robust Unscented Kalman Filter for Power System Dynamic State Estimation with Unknown Noise Statistics” has been listed as the Highly Cited Paper according to Web of Science.
  • 06/2019 Our paper “Unscented Kalman Filter-based Unbiased Minimum-Variance Estimation for Nonlinear Systems with Unknown Inputs” has been accepted by IEEE Signal Processing Letters.
  • 06/2019 New project-NSF proposal has been recommended for funding. Congrats to the team!
  • 05/2019 Our two papers “A Robust Iterated Extended Kalman Filter for Power System Dynamic State Estimation” and “Fault Diagnosis of Electric Power Systems Based on Fuzzy Reasoning Spiking Neural P Systems” have been listed as the Highly Cited Paper according to the Web of Science.
  • 04/2019 Our paper “Constrained Robust Unscented Kalman Filter for Generalized Dynamic State Estimation” has been accepted to IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
  • 03/2019 Our paper “A Theoretical Framework of Robust H-infinity Unscented Kalman Filter and Its Application to Power System Dynamic State Estimation” has been accepted by IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing.
  • 02/2019 Our paper “Probabilistic Power Flow Calculation and Variance Analysis based on Hierarchical Adaptive Polynomial Chaos-ANOVA Method” has been accepted by IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
  • 01/2019 Our IEEE TF paper “Power System Dynamic State Estimation: Motivations, Definitions, Methodologies and Future Work” has been accepted to IEEE Transactions on Power Systems. This paper may serve as a milestone for power system state estimation.
  • 01/2019 Received the Best Reviewer Award from IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
  • 11/2018 Our paper “Robust Parameter Estimation of the French Power System Using Field Data” has been accepted to IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid.
  • 9/2018 Our paper “A Decentralized H-infinity Unscented Kalman Filter for Dynamic State Estimation Against Uncertainties” has been accepted by IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid.
  • 8/2018 Our proposal submitted to LLNL has been approved for funding!
  • 8/2018 Our paper “Online TTC Estimation using Nonparametric Analytics Considering Wind Power Integration” has been accepted by IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
  • 6/2018 Our paper “Statistical and Numerical Robust State Estimator for Heavily Loaded Power Systems” has been accepted by IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
  • 5/2018 I have been appointed as the Associate Editor of IET Generation, Transmission & Distribution.
  • 4/2018 I have been appointed as the Associate Editor of International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems.
  • 4/2018 Our paper “Vulnerability of the Largest Normalized Residual Statistical Test to Leverage Points” has been accepted by IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
  • 3/2018 Our paper “A Robust Generalized-Maximum Likelihood Unscented Kalman Filter for Power System Dynamic State Estimation” has been accepted by the IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing.
  • 2/2018 Our paper “A Generalized False Data Injection Attacks Against Power System Nonlinear State Estimator and Countermeasures” has been accepted by IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
  • 1/2018 Our paper “A Robust State Estimation Framework Considering Measurement Correlations and Imperfect Synchronization” has been accepted by IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
  • 12/2017 Our paper “Robust Frequency Divider for Power System Online Monitoring and Control” has been accepted to IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
  • 12/2017 Our paper “Power System Robust Decentralized Dynamic State Estimation Based on Multiple Hypothesis Testing” has been accepted by IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
  • 10/2017 Our paper “A Framework for Robust Hybrid State Estimation with Unknown Measurement Noise Statistics” has been accepted by IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics.
  • 10/2017 Our paper “Assessing Gaussian Assumption of PMU Measurement Error Using Field Data” has been accepted to IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery.
  • 10/2017 Our paper “A Novel Cascading Faults Graph Based Transmission Network Vulnerability Assessment Method” has been accepted by IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
  • 10/2017 Our paper “Calibrating Parameters of Power System Stability Models using Advanced Ensemble Kalman Filter” has been accepted by IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
  • 09/2017 Finished my three-month summer internship at the PNNL.
  • 08/2017 Our paper “A Robust Iterated Extended Kalman Filter for Power System Dynamic State Estimation” is the top 6 most popular paper in August 2017 of the IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
  • 07/2017 Our paper “A Robust Iterated Extended Kalman Filter for Power System Dynamic State Estimation” is one of the most popular papers in July 2017 of the IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
  • 06/2017 Our proposal entitled “Dynamic State and Parameter Estimation Based on Robust Unscented Kalman Filters for Power System Monitoring and Control” has been funded by NSF [link].
  • 05/2017 Gave a talk at PNNL about “Robust Power System Dynamic Paradigms Using Synchorphasor Measurements”.
  • 05/2017 Gave a talk at Dominion Virginia Power about “Robust Power System Dynamic State Estimation Using Synchorphasor Measurements”.
  • 03/2017 Our paper “Dynamic State Estimation with Model Uncertainties Using H-infinity Extended Kalman Filter” has been accepted by IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
  • 02/2017 Our paper “Power System Real-Time Monitoring by Using PMU-Based Robust State Estimation Method” is one of the most popular papers in January 2017 of the IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid.
  • 01/2017 Our paper “Robust Dynamic State Estimator to Outliers and Cyber Attacks,” has been accepted for presentation at the IEEE PES General Meeting, July 16-20, Chicago, 2017.”
  • 01/2017 Our paper “Power System Real-Time Monitoring by Using PMU-Based Robust State Estimation Method” is one of the most popular papers in December 2016 of the IEEE Trans. Smart Grid. [link]
  • 11/2016 Our paper “Robust Time-Varying Load Modeling for Conservation Voltage Reduction Assessment” has been accepted to IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid. [link]
  • 11/2016 Our paper “Enhanced Robustness of State Estimator to Bad Data Processing Through Multi-Innovation Analysis” has been accepted by IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics. [link]
  • 11/2016 Our paper “A Robust Iterated Extended Kalman Filter for Power System Dynamic State Estimation” has been accepted to IEEE Transactions on Power Systems. [link]
  • 10/2016 Our paper “Robust Forecasting Aided Power System State Estimation Considering State Correlations” has been accepted to IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid. [link]
  • 09/2016 Our paper “A Robust Prony Method Against Synchrophasor Measurement Noise and Outliers” has been accepted to IEEE Transactions on Power Systems. [link]
  • 08/2016 Our paper “Robust Detection of Cyber Attacks on State Estimators Using Phasor Measurements” has been accepted to IEEE Transactions on Power Systems. [link]
  • 05/2016 Our paper “Robust Voltage Instability Predictor” has been accepted to IEEE Transactions on Power Systems. [link]
  • 01/2016 Our patent “A composite power quality disturbances automatic identification method” ZL201310204610.9 has been granted.
  • 01/2016 Our paper “A Two-stage Robust Power System State Estimation Method with Unknown Measurement Noise” has been accepted to IEEE PES GM 2016.
  • 01/2016 Our paper “A robust extended Kalman filter for power system dynamic state estimation using PMU measurements” has been accepted by IEEE PES GM 2016.
  • 12/2015 Our paper appeared in IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, “Forecasting-Aided Imperfect False Data Injection Attacks Against Power System Nonlinear State Estimation”. [link]
  • 12/2015 Our paper has appeared in IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, “Power System Real-Time Monitoring by Using PMU-Based Robust State Estimation Method”. [link]
  • 11/2015 Our paper “Short-Term State Forecasting-Aided Method for Detection of Smart Grid General False Data Injection Attacks” has been accepted by IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid.[link]