Yicheng (Catherine) Wang won the student ARPA-E PITCHES Competition this week at the US Department of Energy’s ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit in Washington, D.C.  She pitched her research with Dr. Kristen Schell and Prof. William (Al) Wallace on optimizing distributed energy resources to support both social and physical infrastructure recovery after a natural disaster, entitled “Ghosting the Grid: Smarter Energy Deployment for Interconnected Infrastructure.”

This research demonstrates how using mathematical optimization can prioritize energy flow to both social and physical infrastructure, manage stored energy in batteries and microgrids to keep essential systems running even when the grid is down. It balances multiple energy sources - solar, wind, nuclear, and battery - based on availability, cost, and system interdependencies, resulting in faster recovery, reduced blackouts, and a more resilient grid that adapts to disasters.

As the winner of the competition, she delivered her pitch on the mainstage of the summit, in front of thousands of leading industry leaders, investors, academic researchers, and government policymakers. She is also pictured with both the Acting Director of ARPA-E, Dr. Daniel Cunningham (left), and Shane Kosinski (Deputy Director for Operations, ARPA-E).