CREATE is a newly established research center focused on advancing the next generation of energy and autonomous technologies. The center is driven by the rapid changes in today’s power and energy systems, spurred by the aggressive decarbonization and electrification policies in Vermont and beyond. Concurrently, the development of new software algorithms in autonomy holds the potential to greatly enhance the dynamic capabilities, performance, and efficiency of engineered systems. At the intersection of these two focus areas of the proposed center (Power/Energy and Autonomy/Controls), CREATE develops technologies that enable resilient and responsive power and energy systems, as well as data-driven feedback control solutions. CREATE seeks to scale the impact of our research efforts in these focus areas to advance human knowledge and solve critical problems facing our society today.
Our Mission
Advance human knowledge and solve critical problems facing our society today in the broad areas of energy systems and autonomy.
- At their intersection, paradigm-shifting autonomous energy systems are designed, developed, optimized, and controlled to enable a sustainable energy future.
Scale the impact of research efforts in the broad areas of energy systems and autonomy to better serve people and the planet, including use-inspired research for Vermont’s industry & communities.
Center Goals
To Better Serve People and Planet
Modern society relies heavily on autonomous technologies and energy, and autonomous energy systems at their intersection. We use energy for heating/cooling our buildings and homes, for running our machines and electronics, and for transporting goods and people. Without energy, society as we know it would cease to exist. Yet, the use of fossil fuels for generating this energy during most of the period that modern society developed is unsustainable -- fossil fuels are a finite resource, and their combustion is creating massive climate change on a global scale. At the same time, autonomous technologies and control systems are transforming industries by increasing efficiency, reducing human error, improving safety, and enabling new capabilities that were previously unthinkable. In recent decades, engineered systems are becoming increasingly complex and so traditional methods for control and decision-making are no longer scalable. Motivated by the availability of vast amounts of data from these systems, our team will investigate data-driven and model-based control of complex systems, leveraging recently developed tools from system theory and machine learning. Finally, at the intersection of autonomy and energy, our group will carry out cutting-edge research in autonomous energy technologies, which will enable a sustainable energy future.
Who is CREATE?
Associate Professors Mads R. Almassalkhi and Hamid Ossareh are the Directors of CREATE and are joined by an interdisciplinary team from all the CEMS programs as well at The Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources.
Electrical and Biomedical Engineering
Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Biomedical Engineering
Power and Energy Systems, Control Systems, Mathematical Optimization, Renewable Energy Integration
malmassa@uvm.edu
Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Biomedical Engineering
Systems and control theory, constrained and predictive control, applications of control theory to automotive and power systems
hossareh@uvm.edu
Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Biomedical Engineering
Electric Grid Simulation and Optimization, Grid Cybersecurity, and Power Grid Computations
amritanshu.pandey@uvm.edu
Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Biomedical Engineering
Control, Estimation, Robotics, Stochastic Systems and Signal Processing
lduffaut@uvm.edu
Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Biomedical Engineering
Electrical Power Systems, Machine Learning, Network Optimization
schevali@uvm.edu
Mechanical Engineering
Professor • Department of Mechanical Engineering
Fluid mechanics and particulate flows, Renewable energy (wind energy, algae biofuels, solar panel dust mitigation), Complex systems, Vortex dynamics and vortex-structure interaction, Biofluid flows, Lagrangian and multiscale, computational methods, Thin-film flows
jmarsha1@uvm.edu
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Robotic locomotion in complex terrains, physics of granular materials, robophysics, organismal biomechanics, collective behavior, field robotics, mechanism design
laura.treers@uvm.edu
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Atomistic Simulations, Dynamics, Phononic Crystals, Topological States of Matter, Polymer Science, Nanoscale Heat Transfer
Jihong.Ma@uvm.edu
The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering • Principal Investigator, The SEE Lab
Energy sustainability and resiliency, Building and district energy systems, Bio-inspired design, Numerical modeling and simulation
kathryn.hinkelman@uvm.edu
Mathematics and Statistics
Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics & Statistics
Network Science, Complex Systems, Data Science and Machine Learning, Computational Social Science, Mathematical Modeling
james.bagrow@uvm.edu
Physics
Associate Professor, Department of Physics
Hybrid and organic photovoltaic device physics.
mwhite25@uvm.edu
Professor, Department of Physics • Department Chair
Experimental studies of condensed matter physics & Materials Science
rheadrick@uvm.edu
Computer Science
Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science
Machine Learning, Image & Video Processing, Deep Learning, Pattern Recognition, Computer Vision, Document Imaging & Digital Signal Processing.
Safwan.Wshah@uvm.edu
The Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources
Associate Professor • The Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources
Environmental Studies, Natural Resources, Environmental health, Community based research, Environmental policy, Natural resources, Arctic environment and health, Environmental health social movements, Environmental justice
bindu.panikkar@uvm.edu
Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education • David Blittersdorf Professor of Sustainability Science & Policy
Instructional programs: Environmental Studies; Natural Resources; Parks, Recreation and Tourism
Research: Ecological economics, sustainable development, systems modeling
Opportunities
Opportunities
Check back often as we share more opportunities for engagement and impact.
Our plans include:
- A CREATE Ph.D. Fellowship
- A monthly CREATE Seminar Series
- Create an Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) to develop and maintain structured partnerships
- Support CREATE faculty's active outreach, research, and infrastructure
Contact
Executive Director Mads R. Almassalkhi
Co-Director Hamid Ossareh