Ahad Esmaeilian, Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University, was awarded the Demonstration of Energy & Efficiency Developments (DEED) Student Research Grant provided by American Public Power Association.
The DEED program is dedicated to improving the operations and services of public power utilities by supporting and demonstrating its members’ innovative activities through research, funding and education. Goals of the scholarship program are to introduce students to career opportunities in public power, support students entering technical programs and majors in short supply and high demand by the utility industry and to provide assistance to DEED members who sponsor scholarships.
Esmaeilian was awarded the grant for his research, “Application of Intelligent Methods to Estimate Weather-Related Power Outages on Distribution System.”
Esmaeilian received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Tehran in 2009 and 2011, respectively, both in electrical engineering. He is currently working as a research assistant under the supervision of Dr. Mladen Kezunovic in the Power Systems Control and Protection Laboratory. His main research interests are wide area power system protection, fault location and application of intelligent methods to power system monitoring and protection.
He also received the 2015 ConocoPhillips Graduate Fellowship, 2016 IEEE IAS Myron Zucker award and the 2016 Golden Key International Honor Society Research Grant.