Four electrical engineering students receive IEEE PES Scholarships

Four Clemson University students have received awards from the IEEE PES Scholarship Plus Initiative, including one who won the John W. Estey Outstanding Scholar Award.

The Estey Award, the most prestigious of the honors, went to Michael Walters, who is on track to graduate this year. In addition to Walters, the three Clemson students who received PES Scholarships are Jacob Bittinger (2024), Carson Crooke (2025) and Samuel Langenfeld (2025).

The award comes from IEEE’s Power & Energy Society.

The Clemson winners are among the 82 high-achieving students, all majoring in electrical engineering, to receive scholarships through the initiative, according to IEEE.

The students will receive a financial award and one year of IEEE PES student membership and have the opportunity to be mentored by leading professionals in the power and energy industry.

The John W. Estey Outstanding Scholar Award is distributed annually to the top PES Scholar in each of the six IEEE U.S. regions and Canada. Walters won the award for Clemson’s home, Region 3.

Each Estey Award winner receives $6,000 for school expenses, IEEE and IEEE PES student membership for the upcoming year, up to $1,000 in travel honorarium to attend the IEEE PES Annual General Meeting and a plaque.

The Estey Award is named for the past chief executive officer of S&C Electric Company.

“These scholarships are a testament to our dedication to nurturing talent and shaping the next generation of leaders in electrical engineering, as well as the hard work of our students,” said Hai Xiao, chair of the Holcombe Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “I congratulate Michael, Jacob, Carson and Samuel on these well-deserved honors.”

Here are more details about Michael Walters, courtesy of Kumar Venayagamoorthy, Duke Energy Distinguished Professor of Power Engineering and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering:

Walters is active in undergraduate research in the Real-Time Power and Intelligent Systems Laboratory under the guidance of Venayagamoorthy. Venayagamoorthy recruited Walters from Venayagamoorthy’s smart grid class, ECE4160. Walters was part of a National Science Foundation (NSF) program called Research Experiences for Undergraduates. He was also among students under an NSF project titled “Research Capacity Building via Secure and Efficient Hardware Implementation of Cellular Computational Networks.” Walters’ research focuses on the development of a digital twin using artificial intelligence methods for Clemson’s 1-megawatt solar photovoltaic plant. Walters has authored or co-authored two IEEE conference papers resulting from his summer research.

One was published at the 2023 IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence, Dec. 5-8, 2023 in Mexico City. That citation is: Walters M, Yonce J, Venayagamoorthy GK, “Data-Driven Digital Twins for Power Estimations of a Solar Photovoltaic Plant”, IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence (SSCI), Mexico City, Mexico, Dec. 5-8, 2023.

The other paper was published at the 55th Annual North American Power Systems Symposium, which was held Oct. 15-17, 2023. That citation is: Yonce J, Walters M, Venayagamoorthy GK, “Short-Term Prediction of Solar Photovoltaic Power Generation Using a Digital Twin”, 55th Annual North American Power Systems Symposium (NAPS), Asheville, NC, USA, Oct. 15-17, 2023.