This proposal requests support for student travel to the 44th North American Power Symposium (NAPS) conference held at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in September 2012.
The North American Power Symposium was held in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, in the Illinois Conference Center at the I Hotel from September 9 to 11, 2012. Highlights of the program included free student housing, a Sunday tour to the Lincoln museum, house and tomb in Springfield, meals and refreshments for the two-day technical conference, and a student paper contest. NAPS is unique in its focus on students preparing and presenting technical papers. This year, about 200 people registered and out of this, 156 students were students. The symposium provided a unique opportunity for interaction among students, academia and power industry to promote and discuss technical challenges in power and energy, and complex systems, sensing, communication and control as well as its economic. The symposium gave many students their first opportunity at research presentations. Further, the symposium encouraged discussion of systematic integration of research and teaching. Highlights of the program are as follows: The plenary sessions included: Monday Plenary Talk: Dr. G. Heydt, Prof. of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering, "The History of the North American Power Symposium" Tuesday Plenary Talk: Ms. Wanda Reder, Vice President of the Power Systems Services Division at S&C Electric Company and 2008-2009 IEEE Power and Energy Society President, "Lighting the Way to a Smarter Grid" The Monday Night Symposium Banquet at the I Hotel included Invited Talk: Dr. Robin Podmore, President of IncSys, "Accelerating Your Career in the Power Industry" The student paper contest had the following three graduate student winners: First Place: Mr. Alexander Borden, University of Wisconsin, Madison, for the paper entitled "Determining Power System Modal Content of Data Motivated by Normal Forms" Second Place: Mr. Omar Urquidez, Texas A&M University, for the paper entitled "Targeted Conversion of AC Lines to DC Lines for Improved Power System Dispatch" Third Place: Mr. Kushal Dave, for the paper entitled "Analyzing Techniques for Increasing Power Transfer in the Electric Grid"
