Pursue research on areas of the significant anticipated growth of funding and economically
disruptive technologies. Currently funded research by the faculty members of the Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science department at the University of Wyoming, Laramie,
WY, is concentrated in four research areas.
The long-term goal of power system research in EECS is to provide better power system monitoring and operation with the support of signal processing, advanced Computing, and intelligent control. Current faculty have diverse and interdisciplinary areas of expertise to accomplish this goal, including statistical signal processing, high-performance Computing, power system dynamic analysis, machine learning, data modeling, power system control, and renewable energy integration. There are three main directions of this work: a) developing and supporting techniques for more advanced measurement devices and systems for the power grid; b) data analytics for the monitoring and operations of power systems; and c) stability analysis, optimization, and control for power grids with high penetrations of renewable energy resources.
Advances in artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) and convergence with high-performance computing (HPC) are making possible the automation of many knowledge worker tasks leading to the possibility of sweeping changes in various economic sectors like energy, transportation, advanced robotics, rural health, and agriculture. The current faculty have active research grants in using AI/ML+HPC and Quantum Computing to address specific grid stability problems, smart emergency vehicle protection, production of advanced materials, automated machine learning, collaborative human-robot planning, weather modeling, and fertilizer/produce measurement using drones. The funding agencies are NSF, NASA, NOAA, WYDOT, and seed grants from several private industries.
The security, resilience, stability, and gained efficiencies of systems and processes within our society require fundamental and applied research which intersects with the entire computing spectrum, including the research areas proposed for the new Department. While interconnected computational networks have existed for the past 50 years, advances in edge devices with efficient communication techniques have embedded diverse computation sensing/decision making devices as critical components within our society. Current research activities in the EECS department at UW include Autonomous Swarms, Security of AI/ML systems, Industrial Control Systems, and Blockchain. Existing research partners span industry, DoE (labs), and federally entities interested in fundamental research and workforce development.
Areas of computing disciplines concerning images, computer graphics, 2D/3D models, data processing and visualization, displays, and interactivity are foundational to most computing applications, systems, and state-of-the-art facilities. Current research activities in VIC at the University of Wyoming include Computer Vision, Augmented/Virtual/Mixed Reality (AR/VR/MR-XR), 3D User Interfaces, Mobile and Emerging Computing, and Human-Computer Interaction. VIC being very new, current research activities at UW are in the infancy stages, and faculty have attracted an NSF REU grant for VR training, a patented and FDA-approved AR-based medical device commercialized by the industry partner.
