GW Engineering faculty, including Professors of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Payman Dehghanian and Can Korman, regularly organize outings to provide students with valuable experiences beyond the classroom, enhancing their academic and practical knowledge. On May 8 and 9, 2024, Dehghanian and Korman, along with Drs. Hasan Mehrjerdi and Orkhan Karimzada (who were visiting from ADA University), led a group of students on an exciting tour of Honeywell and Duke Energy in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The attendees included 14 ECE graduate students, mostly M.S. Electrical Engineering students from Azerbaijan studying power engineering, and doctoral students from Dehghanian’s research team at the GW SmartGrid Laboratory. These students received an informative tour of each company’s facilities and were briefed on various power engineering technologies.
The team of ECE graduate students and faculty arrived in Charlotte, NC, just hours after a tornado passed through the area, causing large power outages. During their visit, Duke Energy was hard at work restoring electric power but still took the time to give them a tour of their microgrid facility. This gave the students a firsthand look at challenges in power systems resilience, which, according to Korman, is an important topic in the students’ M.S. curriculum.
“At the time of our visit to Duke Energy’s facilities, the company was already in the midst of restoring electric power to many of its customers. Despite this challenge, their staff and management were generous enough to give us a tour of their microgrid facility and answer many of the questions posed by students, albeit for a shorter duration than originally planned,” said Korman. “The students were able to observe firsthand the importance of power system resilience and some of the challenges faced by power companies in the face of natural disasters. The GW faculty and students are thankful to Duke Energy for the opportunity to visit their microgrid facility.”
Overall, Dehghanian and Korman say the trip was very rewarding for all attendees and also strengthened GW Engineering’s relations with both organizations. This trip would not have been possible without the coordinated efforts of all involved. Faculty members leading the visit would like to thank the ECE Department for sponsoring the trip, the staff of Honeywell and Duke Energy for hosting the GW team, and the efforts of doctoral student Ben Vergara for coordinating the trip logistics.