OU Engineer, Collaborators Named Semifinalists in Department of Energy's Solar Competition

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Farrokh Mistree, the L.A. Comp Chair and professor in the School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Farrokh Mistree (photo), the L.A. Comp Chair and professor in the School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, and five collaborators comprise “The CyberBorgs,” a research team selected as semifinalists in the software track for the Department of Energy's American-Made Solar Prize competition. They also won in the Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion contest that focuses on disadvantaged communities.

Mistree and Janet K. Allen, the John and Mary Moore Chair and a professor in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, collaborate on a research program on rural development with CyberBorgs teammates Ashok Das of SunMoksha Clean Energy in India and John Hall at the University at Buffalo. The team's entry for the DOE competition is based on a technology developed by SunMoksha.

The CyberBorgs are Mistree, Hall, Das and Ayushi Sharma with SunMoksha, Jit Mukherjee with Baanda, Inc., and Claudia Maldonado with Atrevida Science. The team will develop a cyber-physical-social digital platform to manage microgrids supplying electricity to urban and rural communities.

“In the U.S., the solution will serve the disadvantaged communities in remote Native American areas and low- and medium-income localities,” Mistree said. “Renewable sources of energy in the microgrids would ensure climate mitigation and sustainable development of humankind.”

Learn more about the competition here.



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