NC STATE UNIVERSITY - Key Persons

Bio Aranya Chakrabortty received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY in 2008, following which he was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA. In 2010, he joined the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at North Carolina State University, where he is currently a professor. His research interests lie at the intersection of control theory and electric power systems, focusing on various research problems pertaining to integration of renewable energy (wind, solar, energy storage) in the power grid, and their impacts of dynamics, system identification, and control. Recently, he has also started taking an active research interest in the area of real-time data-driven monitoring and control of power grids, especially along the lines of multi-agent reinforcement learning and game theory. He is a Senior Member of IEEE, and a 2019 NCSU Faculty Scholar. He received the NSF CAREER award in 2011. He is currently serving as a program director at the US National Science Foundation (NSF) where he manages a wide range of research portfolio on energy, infrastructures, and climate change solutions.

Bio Dr. Nowell is an organizational and community psychologist who studies the design and governance of networks in responding to complex policy issues.

Bio Dr. Montoya's research interests involve developing bio-mediated stabilization approaches to improve the sustainability and resiliency of infrastructure. Applications of microbial induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) on which she has focused include infrastructure subjected to natural hazards, such as earthquake-induced liquefaction and coastal/offshore erosion, and mitigating storage-related hazards of energy-related wastes. Specifically, her research program has focused on elucidating the performance of MICP cemented geomaterials, including: 1) shear response and volumetric behavior, 2) erosion behavior, and 3) physico-chemical influences of MICP.

Job Titles:

• Professor

Individual and interlinked SDGs: higher education institutions and metro area sustainability performance , INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABILITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION Historical industrial transitions influence local sustainability planning, capability, and performance , Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions (2023) Institutional stability and change in environmental governance , POLICY AND POLITICS (2023)

Job Titles:

• CO / Professor and Director - Blue Economy Innovation Program
• Professor and Director - Blue Economy Innovation Program
• Professor of Marine Biogeochemistry

Bio Chris Osburn is Professor of Marine Biogeochemistry in the Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences at North Carolina State University. Previously, he was a Research Chemist at the United States Naval Research Laboratory. His research interests span carbon and nitrogen cycling across the aquatic continuum and focus on the biogeochemistry of organic matter in surface waters and how optical and chemical properties of organic matter can be used to understand global change. Over the past 10 years he has studied the biogeochemical consequences of extreme weather events on coastal waters; impacts of organic matter sources on coastal water quality; effects of sea level rise on organic matter fluxes from tidal wetlands; and formation of recalcitrant organic matter in the ocean. Recent interests have focused on reuse of data in support of entrepreneurship related to economic development for sustainable and resilient coastal communities.

Job Titles:

• Assoc Professor

Deborah's research investigates the role of design in improving our collective understanding of science among different stakeholders, communities, and knowledge domains, using methodologies that include: visual storytelling; knowledge mapping; data visualization; and participatory-user experience design, in tandem with digital technologies that foster engagement.

Job Titles:

• Professor & ASSIST Center Deputy Director
• Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and University Faculty Scholar

Dr. Alper Bozkurt performs research on how microsystems based tissue interfaces and physiological monitoring systems can be used to wirelessly interact with animals and crops that is raised in agricultural fields to enable new phenotypical data for smarter farming. This is one of the on-going efforts under Integrated Bionic MicroSystems Laboratory (iBionicS Lab) which has a vision to introduce conceptually novel animal-plant-machine interfaces to bridge artificial systems with biological organisms towards the next generation bionic cyber-physical systems. Such cyber-physical systems would be the building blocks of a new era where everything is connected to each other through the Internet of Things. Biography: Alper Bozkurt is a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and University Faculty Scholar at NC State University. He received a Ph.D. degree from Cornell University in 2010 working with Prof. Amit Lal on DARPA's Hybrid Insect Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems program. His research team at NC State performs research on connecting biological organisms to the cloud to solve real life engineering problems in innovative ways. The ongoing funded projects include "insect-machine-interfaces" with remotely controlled biobotic insects for exploration and mapping after natural disasters, "canine-machine interfaces" to enable a computer assisted canine training system and remotely interact with canines and "plant-machine interfaces" to record biopotentials and impedances on crops and trees to monitor their stress response. His recent achievements were covered by media including BBC, CNN, National Geographic, Discovery Channel and Reuters. Bozkurt is a recipient of Calhoun Fellowship from Drexel University, Donald Kerr Award from Cornell University, Chancellor's Innovation Award and William F. Lane Outstanding Teacher Award at NC State, the CAREER Award from National Science Foundation, IBM Faculty Award, IEEE Sensors Council Young Professional Award and was included in Popular Science Magazine's Brilliant 10 list. His research team received best paper awards from The US Government Microcircuit Applications & Critical Technology Conference, IEEE Body Sensor Network Conference and IEEE Sensors Conference. Dr. Bozkurt joined NCSU in August 2010. His research interests include development of microscale sensors, actuators and methodologies to unlock the mysteries of biological systems with an aim of engineering these systems directly or developing new engineering approaches by learning from these systems. His work related to Coastal Resilience Initiative includes behavioral monitors for mussels, physiological sensors for fishes, stress detection in plants and smart trapping of insects. His team develops novel sensors and provides wireless electronics prototyping support.

Job Titles:

• Goodnight Distinguished Professor, Director Coastal Resilience and Sustainability Initiative

Job Titles:

• Administrative Support

Job Titles:

• Unpaid Emeritus

Bio Mo-Yuen Chow earned his degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (B.S., 1982); and Cornell University (M. Eng., 1983; Ph.D., 1987). Dr. Chow is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at North Carolina State University. Dr. Chow was a Changjiang Scholar at Zhejiang University. Dr. Chow's recent research focuses on distributed control and management, smart micro-grids, batteries, and mechatronics systems. Dr. Chow has established the Advanced Diagnosis, Automation, and Control Laboratory. He is an IEEE Fellow, the Co-Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Trans. on Industrial Informatics 2014-2018, Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics 2010-2012. He has received the IEEE Region-3 Joseph M. Biedenbach Outstanding Engineering Educator Award, the IEEE ENCS Outstanding Engineering Educator Award, the IEEE ENCS Service Award, the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society Anthony J Hornfeck Service Award, and the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society Dr.-Ing. Eugene Mittelmann Achievement Award. He is a Distinguished Lecturer of IEEE Industrial Electronics Society.