Mazumder, Shadmand receive over $2 million to secure electrical grid
Duo will help establish the Midwest Center for Microgrid Security
Mazumder, Shadmand receive over $2 million to secure electrical grid
UIC Distinguished Professor and Robert Uyetani Professor of Engineering Sudip K Mazumder and ECE Associate Professor Mohammad Shadmand received two U.S. Department of Energy grants to improve the security of the electrical grid.
“These projects demonstrate the world-class reputation of UIC in power electronics and systems with breakthrough works in novel hardware, resilient control, and modeling in next-generation energy-conversion systems such as solid-state transformers, grid-forming inverters, EV chargers, and more,” Mazumder said.
Cybersecurity in the Midwest’s electrical delivery system
At the local level, Mazumder and Shadmand, in collaboration with partners from other academic institutions, industry, and the government, will establish the Midwest Center for Microgrid Cybersecurity (2MC). Through the center, a set of new tools for improving the cybersecurity of the Midwest’s electricity delivery systems will be developed and demonstrated.
2MC will be a self-sustaining entity, producing multiple new tools and training endeavors for the electric energy sector through partnerships among stakeholders, including universities, trade organizations, energy sector vendors and operators, regulatory bodies, local governments, and DOE national labs. The center will create a more resilient energy delivery system focused on clean energy systems, next-generation smart grids, and overall energy delivery systems.
2MC proposes to develop innovative and modularized cybersecurity solutions that are easy to deploy and customize for technical transition purposes. The center will develop and demonstrate a full-spectrum cybersecurity solution from device level, to device cluster level, to system level for improving the cyber resilience of distributed power systems and microgrids.
The center will also deepen understanding of the individual differences of system operators that contribute to efficient cyberattack detection and response, and develop personnel selection and training plans that promote the cyber agility and accuracy of humans in the loop. 2MC will leverage tremendous resources to disseminate the research outcomes to stakeholders.
UIC’s portion of the grant is $1 million, and the award runs through September 15, 2026.
Improved authentication to secure the nation’s smart grid
Though the DOE grant “Public Key Cryptography and Physically Unclonable Functions-Based Authentication and Secret Key Establishment in Smart Grid,” Mazumder and Shadmand will address the reliable and secure operation of the nation’s smart grid by introducing innovative approaches for authentication.