The interdisciplinary Center of Research Excellence in Design of Intelligent Technologies for Smartgrids (iCREDITS) received funding from the Centers for Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST) program at the National Science Foundation (NSF). The Center was established at New Mexico State University in 2014, with a $5 million grant awarded from the National Science Foundation and a second $5 million grant was received in 2019. Its goal is to serve as a center for innovative and responsive research and training in smartgrids.

NMSU iCREDITS is focused on increasing the participation of underrepresented minorities (URM) in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) while bringing together experts in computer science, electrical engineering,mathematics, and education. Phase I of the project established an epicenter of research and education at NMSU, and Phase II will serve as a catalyst for sustainable solutions to responding to gaps created by ever-changing technologies, threats posed by aging infrastructures, severe weather, and malicious intents, and the changes in energy production, technology policy, regulations, and customer needs. 

The grant is organized around three themes as well as an integration model.

Modeling, Operation, Integration is investigating the lack of standardized physical design and operation approaches for Customer-Centric Distribution-feeder Microgrids (CCDM) architectures and creates designs that balance sustainability, economy, and reliability.

Security and Resilience is exploring the necessary architectural frameworks to realize security and resilience, providing constraints on the models and algorithms from the other themes.

Data-Driven Decision Making is investigating implementation of the data-information-knowledge-decision flow to support coarse grained operation and control of CCDM, optimizing for resilience and enabling user-centered and transactive behavior.

More information on our research may be found on our Research page.

An integral part of the Center is to increase the participation of URM in STEM careers and research. To read more about our innovative educational and outreach activities, see our Outreach page.

Our research is inclusive and we welcome interested partners. Please see our Opportunities page for more information. 

This work is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grants HRD-1345232 and HRD-1914635. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations resulting from this work are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.