Dr. Herbert L. Ginn, Associate Professor, awarded Office of Naval Research grant

Dr. Herbert L. Ginn, Associate Professor, in the Department of Electrical Engineering, has recently been awarded a research grant of $700,000 for his project, " Investigation of Distributed Versus Centralized Control of Power Electronic Converters in a Naval Test System". This three year project is funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR). The program will support two to three graduate students in the Ph.D. program. The work will provide the students with interdisciplinary research opportunities in the area of shipboard power systems. Such systems are a type of Microgrid with many of the same challenges that face researchers in the SmartGrid area.

The main objective of the research is to develop and demonstrate multi-agent system (MAS) distributed control versus centralized control to coordinate systems of power electronic converters with the goal of achieving flexible management of energy flow in Naval shipboard distribution systems. A second objective of the research is to design, test, and evaluate a human systems interface that serves to optimize the collaborative human and intelligent agent management of energy systems in real- time. This holistic human/distributed agent power system control approach will provide future Naval platforms a power system control that is more survivable, flexible, and efficient.

Dr. Ginn joined USC in August of 2010 as a tenured Associate Professor. He is a member of the Power and Energy research group (http://vtb.engr.sc.edu/) within the Electrical Engineering Department; the research group includes about 35 graduate students, a dozen undergraduate students, five professors, and several post-docs and support staff. It is one of the most successful groups in the department, the college, the university, and indeed in the nation. The group has four dominant research thrusts:

Power electronics and controls for advanced marine power systems, for Grid-connected Advanced Power Electronic Systems, and for renewable energy sources and systems Characterization and modeling of power semiconductor devices Integration of signal processing and information technologies with power electronics and power systems Computational environments for design and virtual prototyping of multidisciplinary dynamic systems