and solar.
Ian Hiskens, professor of
electrical
engineering
and
computer science, said the
energy transition has several
impacts on the electric grid.
“The
main
issue
with
renewables
is
variability,”
Hiskens said. “Output for
a coal power station can be
fixed and controlled. If you
deal with a wind farm, you
have no control over the
output. The energy grid needs
to be upgraded to manage
fluctuations and variability.”
Pascal
Van
Hentenryck,
professor of industrial and
operations engineering and
the leader of the project,
said
the
change
alters
fundamentals
about
how
energy grids function.
“As we push the frontier as
to how much renewable energy
can be put in the network,
the basic assumptions of the
grids are no longer true,”
Van Henternyck said. “We
need to change the way the
system operates by altering
the algorithm that determines
the balance of electricity in
different places.”
As
an
example
of
an
alteration, he cited a possible
need to import and ship solar
energy from sunny places like
Arizona to elsewhere in the
United States.
Most existing test cases
that transmission operators
draw from have become “toy
problems”, Van Hentenryck
said,
making
them
not
necessarily
reflective
of
today’s complex networks.
To mitigate this dearth of
realistic data sets, the team
will embark on a multi-phase
two-year
project,
one
of
the seven funded by the $11
million Advanced Research
Projects
Agency-Energy
(ARPA-E) program run by the
Department of Energy.
The first phase of the project
involves
data
acquisition
and modeling. This includes
monitoring the life of existing
power networks to obtain a
year-long series of data. Since
retrieving
real
data
from
the United States is difficult
due to security concerns, the
group plans to partner with
French utility firm, Réseau
de
Transport
d’Électrique.
The data from French and
European
networks
then
have to be modeled into an
intelligible format.
For the modeling phase,
Hiskens,
a
former
power
engineer in Australia, said he
hopes to use his knowledge
about realistic power system
domains.
“We
are
interested
in
building
data
sets
with
numbers,
parameters
and
variables that are sensible
when
evaluated
from
the
perspective of a real power
system,” Hiskens said. “I will
be involved in making sure
that formats and structures
developed are sufficiently rich
to capture the idiosyncrasies
of power systems.”
However,
he
noted
the
difficulty in capturing the
uniqueness and intricacy of
power systems.
“Ultimately we need to
establish a format that is
complex, flexible yet useable.
This way, others who want
to work on power system
optimization can test new
algorithms based on the data
sets, building a community
pool of information.
Given
the
sensitivities
of
using
real
data,
Van
Hentenryck hiding some data
while interpreting the overall
picture will also be a challenge.
“We will have to use the
algorithm to obfuscate data
that is sensitive, such that the
real data is unrecoverable,”
Van Hentenryck. “Sometimes
we
get
aggregated
consumption profile, meaning
that we need to desegregate
the data into as fine-grained as
possible.”
The next phase of the
project would be to generate
synthetic benchmark data that
are not identical, but similar
to reality. Subsequently, the
team will have to validate its
processes and findings, as well
as place the test cases on an
accessible portal.
The
University
team
will also work closely with
researchers
from
the
Los
Alamos National Laboratory,
which has a long history
of
providing
capability
and support to the federal
government in modeling and
simulating power systems.
Russell Bent, who works
as a scientist in Los Alamos,
said
industry-academia-
government collaboration is
highly important in improving
the
United
States’
power
systems.
“My role at Los Alamos
is
to
develop
underlying
schemas that describe all the
components of power systems
in their complexity,” he said.
“We hope to take a closer
look at some of the synthetic
problems and test cases being
created and make sure there is
a realistic flavor to them.”
The ultimate goal, Bent said,
is to build better, more efficient
algorithms and computational
methods for federal customers
— the transmission operators.
Van Hentenryck said the
grant will largely go into
recruiting
and
sponsoring
manpower for the project.
Currently,
researchers
from
Columbia
University
and California Institute of
Technology
are
working
alongside the University team.
He said he hopes to assemble
a team of 15 to 20, comprising
undergraduate,
graduate,
Ph.D. and post-doc students.
Though there are multiple
milestones that the team is
expected to reach, the project’s
ultimate success in power
optimization is indeterminate
at this point, researchers said.
Van
Hentenryck
likened
the project to an exploration
phase.
“We know where we are
going, but we don’t know
what we are going to find,”
he said. “So here we are going
to generate these test cases,
but we don’t really know how
well we can solve them or if
the solution can be scalable
for
future
networks
that
incorporate more renewable
energy.”
Nonetheless, he said, he is
excited about the potential of
the project.
“It’s not every day that you
can change the world.”
3-News
University students
receive Hopwood
Awards
The University Hopwood
Awards program recently
bestowed almost $29,000 to
students who entered the Avery
and Jule Hopwood Underclassmen
Contest for creative writing.
These awards are the oldest
writing awards for college-level
writers, and are supported by an
endowment from University alum
Avery Hopwood, a Broadway
playwright from the 1920s. The
writer gave one-fifth of his estate
to the University in hopes of
encouraging creative writing.
The University has given over
3,200 students a total of over
$3,000,000, according to the
LSA Hopwood Awards Program
website. Famous playwright and
creative author, Arthur Miller has
also won Hopwood Awards.
Winners received awards based
on categories such as fiction,
nonfiction and poetry.
A ceremony for the award-
winners was held Wednesday in
the Rackham Amphitheater with
a reading by Marge Piercy, four-
time Hopwood Award winner.
Children with
half- and step-
siblings exhibit
aggressive habits
About one in six children living
in the United States live with half-
or step-siblings just before they
enter kindergarten, according to
recent University research.
Paula Fomby, a sociologist at
the Institute for Social Research,
conducted the study and found
that these children also behave
more aggressively more often than
children who do not live with half-
or step-siblings.
Though many similar studies
have focused on how family
complexity affects children’s
development and look at the
marital status of the parents and
their relationship to the children
living in the home, Fomby said
most of the children with complex
sibling relationships do not live
with step-parents. Rather, they
often live with a single mother or
both biological parents.
The study used data from
a sample of nearly 6,500 U.S.
children and their families. Other
factors that explained the increased
aggression in some children include
financial resources, the mother’s
parenting style and the absence of
either parent.
‘U’ endorses
HPV vaccination
as preventative
measure for cancer
The University Comprehensive
Cancer Center joined 69 other
top cancer centers across the
country in releasing a statement
encouraging people to receive
the human papillomavirus
vaccination as a preventative
measure for cancer. The
statement is in response to low
vaccination rates among all
demographics.
Low national vaccination
rates have resulted from a lack
of physicians recommending the
vaccine to their patients and a
misconception in parents who do
not realize the vaccine’s potential
to be effective in preventing
certain types of cancers.
The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention released
information stating that HPV
infections are the cause of nearly
27,000 cancer diagnoses in the
country. Though girls have
more often received the vaccine
than boys, still no more than 40
percent of girls and 21 percent
of boys have received all three
recommended doses.
Ted Lawrence, director of
the University Comprehensive
Cancer Center, said in a press
release that the goal of the center
is to conquer cancer, and by
encouraging people to receive the
HPV vaccine, the center becomes
closer to achieving that goal.
—ALEXA ST. JOHN
NEWS BRIEFS
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Thursday, January 28, 2016 — 3A
MARINA ROSS/Daily
Owner of Antelope Antiques & Coins Karl Lagler poses in front of his merchandise at his shop on Wednesday.
opinion
the
state
has
done
nothing on it,” Petainen said.
“Today Snyder promised to work
harder on these issues, hold him
to it if he’s not recalled.”
“He has consistently ignored
the environment as he aimed for
profits. But in the process, he
forgot about his true customer.
His customers should not have
been the businesses, but the
people
of
this
great
state,”
Petainen added.
1,4-dioxane has been linked
to cancer and can cause nervous,
liver and kidney damage in large
amounts.
The
Environmental
Protection
Agency
linked
a
dioxane concentration of 3.5
parts per billion in groundwater
to a one in 100,000 incidence rate
of cancer in a 2010 report.
According
to
Kristen
Schweighoefer, the Washtenaw
County Environmental Health
director, computer models show
the plume is also slowly moving
eastward and northeast, which
may reach Ann Arbor’s principal
water sources of Barton Pond
and the Huron River after an
extended time frame.
“There is some thought that
the plume may eventually reach
Barton
Pond
or
the
Huron
River,” Schweighoefer wrote in
an e-mail. “The timeframe is not
known, but may be decades or
hundreds of years or more away.”
She added there are monitoring
systems in place to prevent this
contamination from reaching the
public.
During the public commentary
period of the Jan. 19 Ann Arbor
City Council Meeting, Ann Arbor
resident Kai Petainen connected
the Flint crisis to Ann Arbor’s
contamination in urging the city
council push for more state action
regarding the underground hole
of dioxane (called a plume), and
criticized Gov. Rick Snyder’s (R)
lack of response to it.
Ann
Arbor
Environmental
Coordinator
Matthew
Naud
said though dioxane has been
detected in private wells, routine
tests of city water have never
detected any dioxane, let alone
any near the hazard threshold of
3.5 parts per billion maintained
by the EPA.
“For anybody drinking city
water, there is no risk,” Naud
said. “That being said, there are
areas in the county where it is
showing up in private wells … in
subdivisions outside the city there
is a chance of contamination.”
Despite assurances that there
was no immediate risk and that
this issue is completely separate
from
Flint,
both
Naud
and
Schweighoefer said the crisis in
Flint has drawn more attention to
their work regarding the dioxane
plume.
“(The
1,4-dioxane
contamination) is a different
situation
from
the
lead
contamination
in
Flint,”
Schweighoefer
wrote.
“There
has
certainly
been
more
attention to the situation here
and the ongoing actions since the
WATER
From Page 1A
GRANT
From Page 1A
to be a hybrid between the
two known North American
mammoth
species:
the
Columbian mammoth and
the woolly mammoth.
Fisher said he is most
excited about what this
discovery can uncover about
early human’s relationships
with mammoths.
“I think the most exciting
thing and most important
thing is the nature of human
impact on these animals,”
he said. “The early people
who immigrated to this
continent were seeing these
animals
and
they
were
critical to their livelihood.
We are humans; we are
interested
in
our
own
history.”
As part of the discussion,
the
museum
directors
asked
for
suggestions
from the public on how to
display the specimen. The
museum already plans to
display the entirety of the
skull and create a mold and
cast of the tusk to place
into the skull. The tusks
were removed from the
skull in order to safely dry
and study them.
Rountrey
also
said
a
larger
project
on
fossil
display by the Museum of
Natural History is currently
underway, which aims to
create 3D models of the
University’s collection of
fossils to be viewed online.
Rountrey
said
this
is
important
because
it
would
allow
researchers
to examine fossils without
having to physically move
them, risking damage.
“The models are valuable
not just in making a nice
website,” he said. “They
serve in some ways to
protect the specimen.”
LSA
freshman
Bailey
Rousseau said he found the
concept of a hybrid species
fascinating.
“I
think
it’s
pretty
interesting how it might be
a hybrid of the two known
pachyderm-like
species
from the Ice Age,” he said.
Kira Berman, assistant
director of the Museum of
Natural History, said the
discovery is a thrilling one
for the University.
“It’s just so exciting to
have such a large exciting
fossil that’s found so close,”
she said. “It has such an
importance in terms of what
we know about Michigan’s
prehistory.”
MAMMOTH
From Page 1A
by those individuals are usually
small, she added — typically
around $5,000 to $10,000.
Thus, the “crisis” really only
affects those who have a low
income following graduation
or an incomplete education,
Dynarski said.
“In my opinion, if there is a
crisis of any sorts, it’s a crisis of
low earnings in our country,”
she said. “We lack a safety net
to handle a very large number
of people who are receiving
very low earnings and who
cannot handle even $5,000 in
debt as a result.”
Chopra
said
from
his
experiences, which he said
had given him a “consumer
financial market perspective,
other bills and responsibilities
contribute to the student debt
problem and debt alone is not
the issue.
“When
someone
is
delinquent on their student
loans, it is often just one side of a
broader array of shocks that are
happening in their life: fighting
to keep paying rent, struggling
to make payments on their car
loan … the trauma that they’re
managing is something that we
always have to keep at the top
of mind,” he said.
Chopra also noted various
policies
currently
being
pursued
to
counteract
his
definition of the issues with
student debt, specifically citing
loan repayment plans.
“This is a broad expansion of
affordable loan modifications
… that allow borrowers to pay
a reasonable amount of income
to manage those times of
distress,” he said.
Along
with
whether
a
student
debt
crisis
exists,
another question for Chopra
and Dynarski came both from
multiple
audience
members
and online viewers: “Why not
make college free?”
Chopra said there is an effort
to essentially make community
college free or nearly free,
arguing that if society believes
getting a degree is critical for a
person’s future, it needs to be
readily available.
Last
January,
President
Barack
Obama
proposed
making two years of community
college free for students who
met certain requirements. The
proposal is currently stalled
before committee in Congress,
and faces a significant uphill
battle in both chambers given
that both are GOP-controlled.
Chopra
noted
that
how
tuition is made free and also
to whom it is made free needs
to be taken into account when
considering
free
college
proposals, adding that people
with lower incomes should not
view cost as an impediment.
Dynarski said historically
college has been free, citing
nominal costs in the ‘60s and
‘70s. Free community college,
she said, would be a return to
that era.
Referring
back
to
the
discussion
about
the
debt
crisis, she added that free
college would be an effective
way of controlling it because
many minorities and first-
generation
college
students
attend community colleges.
Public
Policy
graduate
student Joshua Rivera, who
attended the event, said he
enjoyed
the
back-and-forth
engagement
between
the
speakers regarding a relevant
topic.
“I am deeply interested in
education policy and I thought
that it was a wonderful event,”
he said. “It’s nice to have
Professor
Dynarski,
who’s
been writing in the field very
extensively in The New York
Times, but also to have someone
who’s going to work for the
Department
of
Education
(Chopra) give their perspective
and so it was interesting and
humorous to see them kind of
engage in these issues and their
respective roles.”
DEBT
From Page 1A