College of Engineering News • Iowa State University

ECpE alum Vivek Kumar Singh recognized with 2020 NASPI Outstanding Student of the Year Award

Iowa State University Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECpE) alum Vivek Kumar Singh has been recognized with the 2020 North American SynchroPhasor Initiative (NASPI) Outstanding Student of the Year – Graduate-level award for performing significant work in using or advancing synchrophasor technology.

The mission of NASPI is to improve power system reliability and visibility through wide-area measurement and control, by fostering the use and capabilities of synchrophasor technology, according to their website.

“I was surprised to know that I was selected for this award, and I am deeply honored to receive this recognition from the NASPI group,” Singh said. Singh was also selected to receive the Iowa State Research Excellence Award in the fall of 2020. This award program recognizes graduate students for their outstanding research accomplishments, as well as their theses and dissertations. He was nominated for this award by ECpE Distinguished Professor Manimaran Govindarasu.

Singh has collaborated with the Army Research Laboratory (ARL), Hitachi-ABB Corp., General Electric (GE) Global Research, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) as part of his Ph.D. research. Singh has also won two best paper awards and one poster award for his research work and published several other research papers. He has also interned with the ARL and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Singh is currently working as a Research Associate at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL).

During his time with the United States ARL, Singh worked to develop a networked federation testbed for power grid cybersecurity. This work is highly recognized and appreciated by researchers and industry experts at the conferences (Resilience Week 2018, Resilience 2019) and technical seminars (EPRC Annual Meeting 2018 and 2019).

Singh worked at NREL during his summer internship from June to August 2019, working with the energy security and resilience group; he also developed an intrusion detection system for power grid, published two conferences and submitted one provisional patent based on the tasks completed.

Singh also worked with the Department of Energy (DOE)-funded project with Hitachi-ABB Corporation to develop an attack-resilient wide-area voltage control system (WACVS) in transmission grid.

At his current position with the Department of Power and Energy Systems at the INL, he is primarily involved in power system and cybersecurity-related projects, funded by DOE offices.

Singh has published 13 conference papers, one journal article, one article in Smart Grid Newsletter, two book chapters and submitted one patent. His Ph.D. work covers the detection of cyber intrusions.

and the application of necessary mitigation actions in communication-based wide-area controllers in the power system.

The national-level NAPSI Outstanding Senior Award is the consortium led by DOE, PNNL and Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).

“I express my sincere gratitude to my project collaborators from Hitachi-ABB Corporation, NREL, General Electric and ARL for guidance and support through the project collaborations,” Singh said.

“While working on multiple projects, I have made many good friends and continue to maintain good relationships with them. I am also thankful to Manimaran Govindarasu for mentoring and consistently supporting me during these five years of my Ph.D. journey,” he added.

 

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