SPARK Lab researchers within the Power and Energy Institute of Kentucky (PEIK) and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Kentucky (UK) Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering received the Best Poster Award for a paper at the 2025 IEEE International Transportation Electrification Conference (ITEC), which was held in Anaheim, CA. The main author of the paper is Steven Poore, PhD candidate and NSF GR Fellow. He worked together with UK colleagues Grant Fischer, USP/ANP for PhD student and Rosemary Alden, PhD candidate and NSF GR Fellow. The team also included Evan Jones, who graduated with a PhD after serving as a GAANN DoEd Fellow at UK, and is currently with Duke Energy. The group of authors also includes utility technical advisor and collaborator Aron Patrick, Senior Director of Research and Development for PPL Corporation, and the faculty advisor of all the students, Dan M. Ionel, PhD, ECE Professor and L. Stanley Pigman Chair in Power, Director of the SPARK Lab and of the PEIK Institute.
The awarded poster was based on the paper entitled “Cluster-based Volt/Var Optimization on a Utility Distribution Feeder with Forecasted EV Penetration.” The reported research was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), PPL Corporation, the Lighthouse Beacon Foundation and L. Stanley Pigman Chair in Power Endowment at University of Kentucky. A premier conference of IEEE, ITEC, focuses on transportation of electrification including components, systems, standards, and grid technologies for electric vehicles. The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) is headquartered in New York City and is the world's largest association of technical professionals with almost half a million members.
The SPARK Lab researchers also participated as exhibitors (see photo) and presented papers that have been published in the conference proceedings. The papers are based on research sponsored, in addition to the aforementioned organizations, by NASA, the Leverhulme Trust, QM Power, and Ansys Inc.
Author’s manuscript versions are available directly from the above links on the SPARK website at UK and will also be available from the UKnowledge online database.
