UNAM team joins ASU power ‘boot camp’

March 10, 2017

The term “microgrid” may not conjure excitement in the average person, but for organizations or people that stand to lose money, life, limb or living standards due to power outages, it does.

Microgrids can keep the lights on even after main power sources fail and they were the focus of a week-long “boot camp” held at Arizona State University’s Polytechnic campus this week for military veteran students and an academic trio from Mexico City. people working with solar panel UNAM doctoral students Fernanda Alvarez and Jose Fuentes, center (left to right), examine part of a microgrid solar-powered system alongside student veterans at Arizona State University’s Polytechnic campus, Wednesday, March 8, 2017, during the Microgrid Boot Camp. Photo by Peter Zrioka/ASU Download Full Image

Two doctoral students and a professor from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) joined the event organized by the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering and part of the U.S. Navy’s NEPTUNE energy research project with ASU.

“The microgrid boot camp is a 40-hour intensive, all-inclusive approach to microgrid education focusing on infrastructure basics,” said Nathan Johnson, assistant professor for the Fulton Schools at the Polytechnic campus and director of the Laboratory for Energy and Power Solutions. “This week and the involvement of UNAM is one example of how we’re taking our research and training to be a true global program. We’re on the early stages of developing global microgrid centers of excellence.”

NEPTUNE is an energy research project established with Department of Defense funding to break new ground in alternative energy while employing student veterans to assist and gain marketable skills. Veterans and other military-affiliated students are the primary audience but Johnson saw the benefit in having UNAM participate and continue the existing collaboration.

“For them to come up was more of a good opportunity,” Johnson said. “Given that UNAM and ASU have an exchange, this is part of their exchange to come work with us from an educational research standpoint. The work we’re doing with Cesár Angeles [UNAM lead professor], focuses on the problem of significant amount of solar on the grid. How do you effectively manage those with storage and advanced controls.”

Johnson said that part of the goal in partnering with UNAM is to develop energy simulations, hardware and then connecting them to “control the dial” and make sure it meets utilities’ safety and reliability requirements for one grid, and then for multiple ones connected together.

The objective of using microgrids is to provide quality, reliable stand-alone energy during a loss of power from the main grid — i.e., the main electric power infrastructure. Microgrid systems, which can be powered by solar or other energy, are being installed in hospitals, military bases, college campuses and have become very common in data centers, Johnson said. They can also be packaged and transported where needed during disaster response.

“So places that need to have 100 percent reliable power,” Johnson said. “They go down for seconds and it’s millions of dollars. For many of the small businesses and household consumers, the focus is on renewable energy and reduced electric bills.”

The boot camp included interactive tours, lessons, lectures and talks from corporate and other ASU partners. More importantly it enabled the exchange of perspectives and capabilities, a valuable aspect to the UNAM students.

“I’ve worked with photovoltaic systems, I’ve utilized these inverters, and utilized practically the same brand of panels, so it’s something that we know,” said UNAM doctoral electrical engineering student Jose Fuentes, about being familiar with some of the boot camp concepts and equipment. “What is interesting here is how easily the systems can be built and integrated quickly with the support needed to assemble everything and have it running within a semester or so.”

Another key aspect of the course is the focus on renewable energy, said Fernanda Alvarez, also a doctoral electrical engineering student at UNAM and a Colombia native.

“There are many parts in Mexico, Colombia, here and other places where due to distance or location, there isn’t quality access to energy,” Alvarez said. “Systems like these will obviously make life easier and give everyone the rightful access to electricity and quality of life.”

The Micogrid Boot Camp is one of six NEPTUNE projects at ASU. The acronym stands for Naval Enterprise Partnership Teaming with Universities for National Excellence. Locally, the program is a collaboration between ASU LightWorks, the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering and the Pat Tillman Veterans Center.

Jerry Gonzalez

Assistant Director, Media Relations and Strategic Communications

Gerardo.Gonzalez@asu.edu

Google, Uber make ASU a hot spot for mapping technology

Arizona State University has been more of a tech hub than ever, with tricked-out cars cruising under the Tempe campus' University Bridge while young men nearby lug gadget-heavy backpacks past Old Main.In separate projects, Uber and Google have been mapping a school that has become known for jet packs, robot swarms and NASA missions.Uber’s work involves self-driving cars with sensors and gadgets...

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Arizona Impact

Google, Uber make ASU a hot spot for mapping technology

Tempe campus

March 10, 2017

In separate projects, tech firms acquire images, data that have a range of possible uses in fitness, business, civic planning

In separate projects, Uber and Google have been mapping a school that has become known for jet packs, robot swarms and NASA missions.

Uber’s work involves self-driving cars with sensors and gadgets on the roof of a small SUV that otherwise don’t give any indication of what makes them unique on Tempe roads. The cars have a human behind the wheel.

Google, meanwhile, is expanding its Street View feature, capturing close-up images of all of ASU’s campuses. The feature on Google Earth and Google Maps allows users to zoom in and see accurate depictions of buildings and sidewalks, anything a pedestrian could see walking down the street.

Each relies on mapping technology that seems poised to expand.

“It is quite an amazing system,” said Stewart Fotheringham, a professor of computational spatial science in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning. Fotheringham teaches a class called Geographic Info Technologies (GIS 205), which introduces students to modern geographic information technologies, including cartography, GIS, remote sensing, global positioning systems and statistical analyses.

He explained how the technology works.

“The video recorders Google people carry around with them record 360 degrees and are linked to the U.S. GPS satellite system, which consists of 24 active satellites about 12,000 miles above the Earth,” Fotheringham said. “Distances to four or more of these satellites give location on the Earth, plus elevation, so when you type an address into Google Earth, it looks up the coordinates of this location in a huge database and retrieves the imagery associated with this location.”

The imagery consists of satellite photographs and pictures taken from planes for Google Earth. Video recordings are taken by people on foot or bike and by cameras mounted to cars for Google Street View.

Andrew Ortiz is one of the field operators who troops around under the weight of a nearly 70-pound pack to get the shots the technology relies on. He and Daniel Quach took turns under the Google Street View Trekkers, a backpack outfitted with a camera system that’s used where vehicles can’t go.

It can be a tough task. “Our tolerance has been building,” he said. “I could probably walk about 2½ miles (before taking a break.)”

Google’s field operators worked around Tempe campus on March 6, starting in the middle of an area and walking out in concentric circles snapping pics with about a dozen cameras on a ball array at the top of their packs. In a mile the array will take about 500 to 600 shots, according to Ortiz.

Before coming to ASU, Google personnel worked with the university to come up with a priority list. They will shoot interiors in certain buildings, like ASU Gammage, but not every building on campus.

Uber cars have rolled past the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Gammage and ASU’s School of Music, affectionately known as the “birthday cake building,” and the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering countless times since their program introducing the vehicles to the Valley began in February.

Driverless cars need far more detailed digital maps than cameras and radar alone can provide, and Uber is recording every curb, stop sign and building to ensure their system works effectively. The cars include a pair of engineers in the front seats as safety drivers, according to a report in the tech-focused publication The Verge.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has hailed Uber’s self-driving pilot, releasing a statement saying his state’s participation “is paving the way for new technology and new businesses.”

The emerging mapping technology has a range of uses and applications.

“It's used by Realtors and house buyers, in in-car navigation systems, and by planners,” Fotheringham said.

Google, for example, takes a constellation of images that anyone could access from GPS satellites, then applies 360 camera technology and manages the the logistics of capturing video imagery on every road and street it can access, Fotheringham said.

Google’s data sets are turning out to be useful, as well, said Trisalyn Nelson, director of the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning.

Google Maps Street View walker Andrew Ortiz, from San Jose, assembles and boots up the Trekker. The process takes about 10 minutes.