Events Listing

Energy Data Analytics through the Lens of Graph Signal Processing

The  availability  of  large  volume  of  energy  data  in  smart grids provides new opportunities to improve their critical functions. The energy data, by nature, bear structures due to the underlying interactions among the components of the system, which can be the result of physics of the electricity as well as operational, policy-based, and cyber functionalities governing these systems. A new perspective and technical paradigm in analyzing energy data can be built through the fast-growing field of Graph Signal Processing (GSP).  GSP extends the classical signal processing techniques and tools to irregular graph domain, which makes it suitable for analyzing structured data and the dynamics of systems with interconnected components. By defining signals over the vertices of a graph, namely graph signals, the interactions and dynamics of measurements in smart grids can be modeled, captured and analyzed through the lens of rich GSP tools and techniques. In this talk, GSP-based approaches in addressing two problems in smart grids including cyber and physical stress detection and localization as well as power system state information recovery will be presented.  For the first problem, the effects of various cyber and physical stresses in vertex, graph-frequency and joint vertex-frequency GSP domains will be discussed, which will form the foundation for the proposed GSP-based techniques for detection and locating of stresses. Recovering the state of unobservable power system components due to cyber attacks or limited meter availability is also an important problem, which will be formulated and discussed as a graph signal reconstruction problem. The tools and techniques from GSP can have wide range of applications and similar techniques can be applied to other structured data and systems.

About Professor Mia Naeini

Mia Naeini is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of South Florida (USF). Before joining USF, she was an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at Texas Tech University (TTU). She received her Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering with a minor in Mathematics from University of New Mexico (UNM) in 2014. Her research interests include leveraging data analytics, network science, signal processing, graph signal processing and graph-empowered machine learning to integrate security and reliability measures as well as socio-behavioral models into the design and control of cyber physical- human (CPH) systems with a focus on smart grids. Her research has been supported by various funding agencies, including National Science Foundation (NSF), Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and Florida Center for Cybersecurity. She has received TTU New Faculty Award in 2017 for excellence in teaching and research, one of the Best Conference Papers at the IEEE PES General Meeting in 2022, and the NSF CAREER award in 2023. She has served as the associate editor of the IEEE Communication Letters and as the chair and technical program committee member of several workshops and conferences in the area of power and communication systems. She is a senior member of IEEE.

Join us for a workshop to improve your skills in professional and academic email writing! You likely send many emails every single day! How do you know if your recipient is reading them as you intended? If you've ever wondered how formal to make your email, what's appropriate for academic and professional settings, or whether "kindly," "regards," or "sincerely" is the best choice, this workshop can help you write strong emails.

This workshop is being offered simultaneously in-person and online. Please register to let us know you're coming, and so we can make sure you have the relevant details in order to join in-person or online.
All UMN Twin Cities International Students are welcome to join.

https://z.umn.edu/Feb7EmailWorkshop

This workshop is a collaboration between UMN Student English Language Support and UMN Career Services. Please email Jane, International Career Consultant, at sitt0036@umn.edu if you have questions.

Get ready for the CSE Spring Career Fair!

More than 160 companies and organizations will be available to meet with you one-on-one as they search for new employees and interns. Registration is now open.

Register for the Spring 2023 CSE Career Fair

Although pre-registration is not required, it is encouraged so that you may research employers attending the fair and receive updates. 

You are also encouraged to attend drop-in appointments to ask your career fair questions and for quick resume reviews. Zoom drop-ins will be held on Mondays and Fridays, and in-person drop-ins will be held in Lind Hall Room 105 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays spring semester. For more information and updates, visit the CSE Career Fair website.

For questions contact CSE Career Services by email: csecareer@umn.edu or phone: 612-624-4090.

Recommended for all ages

The red planet takes center stage as the Bell Museum kicks off Space Fest 2023: Going the Distance with a special star party! Outside, there will be telescopes set up to observe Mars and our favorite deep-space objects (weather permitting). Inside, you can explore hands-on activities, and experience the thrill of going the distance with the original Apollo missions in the planetarium.

Registration and further event details

Registration is required to attend the event

Join this session to prepare for the upcoming career fairs! This virtual event will feature helpful tips and information from presenters from ISSS and Career Services. All UMN international students who are attending spring career fairs are welcome to attend (including UMN system campuses). A recording will be made available. You must register via Zoom to receive the link to join. There will be two sessions of this workshop offered within the month of February 3 and February 21. We encourage you to attend one of the sessions.

Registration links for the events:

Friday, February 3, 12pm-1pm CT 
Zoom Registration 

Tuesday, February 21, 4pm-5pm CT 
Zoom Registration 

Please email UMN International Career Consultant, Jane, with any questions about this session at sitt0036@umn.edu.

Developing a Robust Workforce in Electric Power Engineering by Democratizing Technical Education

Just as we are facing an unprecedented climate crisis, the United States is simultaneously facing an educational crisis in the electric power sector. This rapidly growing series of industries is widely believed to be crucial to addressing our environmental challenges, as well as associated national security concerns. Study after study over the past decade has concluded that expanding the U.S. transmission grid will play a key role in decarbonizing the country’s electricity system. Charting the $2.5 trillion pathway to a zero-carbon US economy, as a variety of studies have shown, would require a massive workforce of electric power engineers. Hundreds of thousands need to be trained over the next five to ten years. Yet, along with the need for more engineers comes a demographic shift—a declining number of students graduating from high schools will begin in 2025. To address the need for students, we urgently need to motivate and incentivize young people—many of whom are deeply passionate about the environment and concerned about combating climate change. If we can interest students early in their lives in the benefits of electrical power and the need for improvement of our electrical infrastructure, we can show them how to direct their passions into meaningful, secure, and financially rewarding careers. Continuing the work, we’ve already begun at the University of Minnesota, we propose to jumpstart a national network of Centers for Electric Power Engineering Education to promote a multi-prong approach to creating a robust workforce in electric power engineering.

This presentation will describe our proposed approach where that democratizing technical education allows us to bring it to tribal and rural communities who otherwise would not have access to it, as well as to historically and systemically marginalized urban communities. Another vital component of this proposal is the international dissemination of information and educational resources since these challenges are not limited to the United States. Most importantly, this is more than a presentation; rather, it is meant to be a dialog to solicit your input as we proceed in this uncharted territory.

About Regents Professor Ned Mohan

Ned Mohan is a Regents Professor in the ECE department at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, where he has been teaching for the past forty-seven years. He is a member of the U.S. and the Indian National Academies of Engineering, and was recently awarded the IEEE James H. Mulligan, Jr. Educational medal. His six textbooks have been translated into a total of nine languages. His research is at the interface of power electronics and power systems, and he is incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to graduate fifty-two PhDs to date.

Interested in getting leadership experience? Interested in helping plan and coordinate IEEE events? The IEEE subcommittee leaders will be hosting an event planning meeting and subcommittee info session in the IEEE room. Please RSVP so we can make dinner arrangements. Can't make it in-person? Join us virtually through Zoom (link available on registration). Stop by anytime and we'll fill you in. 

Join the WIE kick-off event for the new semester. On Thursday, January 26th at 5:30 PM, come and experience a warm and inviting atmosphere with hot chocolate and delicious cookies in Kenneth H. Keller Hall 2-260.This is a great opportunity for current members to connect and those interested in joining IEEE WIE to learn more about the organization and upcoming events. So come on down and network with like-minded individuals while indulging in hot cocoa and sweets, and discover the opportunities available through IEEE WIE. Please RSVP to attend the event.
 

Novel Wireless Bioelectromagnetic Agents: towards Whole-Brain Readouts of the Mammalian Nervous System with minimal invasiveness 

There is currently a concerted effort to develop the necessary technologies to record and stimulate neural activity across the entire volume of the mammalian brain. Recent engineering advancements have propelled electrode- and optical-based devices, achieving nanometer scale spatial resolution and impressive signal-to-noise ratio and temporal response. However, these probes usually require a tethered connection and provide access to relatively small areas in the nervous system. Developing modalities for whole-brain direct recording and stimulation of neural signals, will allow neuroscientists and neurologists to study and treat the brain network directly and as a whole, and will surely elevate brain science and medicine to new heights. I will describe the development of wireless, implantable electronic probes that are able to transduce electromagnetic fields in the brain, as well as the application of molecular agents for large volume in vivo measurements of neurotransmitter dynamics in live mammals. These strategies pave the way towards functional studies of neural activity across wide brain regions with molecular and electrophysiological specificity.

Details on the seminar and speaker bio

Join IEEE UMN today for board games, dinner provided by Sawatdee, and a chance to connect with your fellow ECE peers. We will have games, both digital and analog, and you will have the opportunity to meet and chat with chapter members about school, hobbies, and more. We look forward to working with you and helping you achieve your goals.