News & Events

10-25-17

Caltech's Hixon Writing Center team has expanded to include two STEM writing specialists, Christina Birch who has a PhD in biological engineering from MIT and Erin Burkett who has a PhD in geophysics from UC Davis. Hixon director Susanne Hall describes, “now a student in any scientific discipline can come into the writing center and get help on their academic writing from a tutor with firsthand experience of the styles and genres of scientific communication." The center has also begun a partnership with the Division of Engineering and Applied Science (EAS) to bring STEM writing instruction directly into classrooms. "Communication is of fundamental importance for students today, but it's hard to learn in isolation," Professor Adam Wierman says. "Being able to partner with Hixon to embed writing and communication into my course allowed us to teach students at the moment they needed it.” [Caltech story] [ENGenious snap shot on new EAS course E111]

Tags: CMS Adam Wierman Christina Birch Erin Burkett Susanne Hall

06-23-17

Adam Wierman, Professor of Computing and Mathematical Sciences; Executive Officer for Computing and Mathematical Sciences; Director, Information Science and Technology, has been chosen by the Associated Students of the California Institute of Technology (ASCIT) to receive a 2017 ASCIT Teaching Awards. These awards recognize individuals who inspire and motivate students, are approachable, and present course material effectively and efficiently. [Caltech story]

Tags: honors CMS Adam Wierman

06-15-16

Graduate student Navid Azizan Ruhi, working with Professor Wierman, has won the Best Student Paper at the 2016 Greenmetrics Workshop for his paper, Opportunities for Price Manipulation by Aggregators in Electricity Markets. The objective of the workshop is to explore how improvements to or new uses of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can improve the environmental, economic and/or social sustainability of ICT systems, networks, and applications and of non-ICT processes. [Read the paper]

Tags: honors CMS Adam Wierman Navid Azizan Ruhi

06-03-16

Graduate student Xiaoqi Ren, advised by Professor Adam Wierman, has won a Resnick Institute Research Fellowship. At Caltech, her research focuses on optimization of today's large scale data centers, including scheduling, energy usage and sustainability, and market design. A major focus of her work is developing algorithms and markets to encourage participation of data centers in demand response programs, allowing large scale data centers to serve as virtual energy storage for the grid.

Tags: honors CMS Adam Wierman Xiaoqi Ren

05-31-16

Computing and Mathematical Sciences student Nand Kishore, mentored by Professor Adam Wierman, is a recipient of the 2016 Henry Ford II Scholar Award. He is passionate about using machine learning to help solve some of the most complex problems in the world. The Henry Ford II Scholar Award is funded under an endowment provided by the Ford Motor Company Fund. The award is made annually to engineering students with the best academic record at the end of the third year of undergraduate study.

Tags: honors CMS Henry Ford II Scholar Award Adam Wierman Nand Kishore

12-17-15

Caltech’s smart grid team led by Professors John Doyle, Steven Low, and Adam Wierman along with their collaborators have been awarded $3.9 million for an Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) Network Optimized Distributed Energy System (NODES) project entitled "Real-time Optimization and Control of Next-Generation Distribution Infrastructure."  NODES is ARPA-E’s new program focused on enabling more than 50% usage of renewable power on the grid. The Caltech team will develop a comprehensive distribution network management framework that unifies real-time voltage and frequency control at the home/distributed energy resource controllers’ level with network-wide energy management at the utility/aggregator level. [Learn more]

Tags: EE energy CMS Adam Wierman John Doyle Steven Low

10-19-15

The power network of the future—also known as the smart grid—will have to be much more dynamic and responsive than the current electric grid, handling tremendous loads while incorporating intermittent energy production from renewable resources such as wind and solar, all while ensuring that when you or I flip a switch at home or work, the power still comes on without fail. An interdisciplinary group of engineers, economists, mathematicians, and computer scientists, including Professors Steven Low and Adam Wierman are working to develop the devices, systems, theories, and algorithms to help guide this historic transformation and make sure that it is properly managed. [Caltech feature]

Tags: EE research highlights CMS Adam Wierman Steven Low

05-14-15

Computing and Mathematical Sciences student Taokun (Xander) Zheng, mentored by Professors Alan Barr and Adam Wierman, is a recipient of the 2015 Henry Ford II Scholar Award. Xander is working on a network project utilizing photographic media. The Henry Ford II Scholar Award is funded under an endowment provided by the Ford Motor Company Fund. The award is made annually to the engineering student with the best academic record at the end of the third year of undergraduate study.

Tags: honors CMS Henry Ford II Scholar Award Adam Wierman Taokun Zheng Alan Barr

06-04-14

Iris Z. Liu, a senior student in Computer Science advised by Mathieu Desbrun and conducting research with Adam Wierman, is the recipient of the 2014 Bhansali Prize. The Bhansali Prize is awarded to an undergraduate student for outstanding research in Computer Science in the current academic year.

With increased incorporation of renewable energy in the energy grid, energy supply becomes more intermittent. As energy demands increase, demand peak periods become more problematic for energy providers. These problems of fluctuating supply and demand necessitate demand response programs. Iris’ research with Professor Adam Wierman focuses on data centers as a particularly promising industry for demand response. Through a series of simulations, she has shown that data centers provide as much (or even more) flexibility as large-scale storage when incentivized correctly. She has compared the voltage violations and generation costs of data centers versus large-scale storage, given a particular network, demands, and loads. Through this research, she was able to highlight the potential for using data centers as demand response resources.

Tags: honors CMS Mathieu Desbrun Adam Wierman Iris Liu

06-03-14

Undergraduate student Dae Hyun Kim, working with Professor Adam Wierman, is the recipient of the 2014 Henry Ford II Scholar Award. Dae Hyun is studying computer science with broad interests including computer graphics and machine learning, as well as mathematics and neuroscience. This summer, he plans to work with Professor Shinsuke Shimojo in applying a novel eigenvector based method of analyzing brain dynamics to study inter-brain dynamics in social interaction. The Henry Ford II Scholar Award is funded under an endowment provided by the Ford Motor Company Fund. The award is made annually to the engineering student with the best academic record at the end of the third year of undergraduate study.

Tags: honors CMS Henry Ford II Scholar Award Adam Wierman Dae Hyun Kim