Connor Aimone, a senior in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and minoring in mathematics at TAMU, won best thesis in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) category for the Texas A&M University Undergraduate Research Scholars Program. His thesis work was completed under the mentorship of Dr. Le Xie, a Smart Grid Center collaborator and assistant professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Aimone chose to focus on developing and testing mathematical models for voltage source converter based DC lines for transmission and distribution of power. The motivation behind this work revolved around finding an improved method for integrating renewable resources, such as wind or solar power. Improper connection of these energy sources into the nation’s power system has the potential to cause stability issues that would “crash” the power grid and leave large swaths of the community without electricity.