UAlbany, National Grid Leaders Discuss Partnership Opportunities at ETEC
ALBANY, N.Y. (November 1, 2023) – Last week, leaders from National Grid visited UAlbany for partnership discussions and a well attended panel event on the "Future of the Energy Sector: Technology, Trends, Risks and Opportunities."
There were roughly 80 professionals from National Grid at the ETEC research and development center over two days, Tuesday and Wednesday, for partnership conversations with UAlbany representatives from the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity (CEHC), the College of Nanotechnology, Science, and Engineering (CNSE), the Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences (DAES) and the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center (ASRC). The focus was to map out areas of mutual interest with an eye to broadening and deepening the growing cooperation between the university and National Grid.
The panel discussion on Wednesday was attended by National Grid professionals, along with faculty, staff and students from CEHC, CNSE, DAES, ASRC and across campus. Panelists focused on the problems associated with more frequent and severe weather due to climate change, the importance of AI, and the opportunities and challenges for the energy sector that come with using emerging tech. They also discussed how educational institutions, like UAlbany, can prepare students for a career in the industry.
The moderator of this event was Dan Stevens, vice president for resilience and crisis management for National Grid.
"This growing partnership, between UAlbany and National Grid, showcases that the opportunities are endless, not just in terms of developing the future workforce, but in terms of shared research and interests in doing projects together with state and local community government," Stevens said. "I would love to see us have a much more collaborative space of information sharing between the University and National Grid."
According to Eric Stern, professor and faculty chair at CEHC who coordinated of the visit on behalf of the university, "The conversations during the Partnership Summit clearly demonstrated the power of the enormous multi-disciplinary capability concentrated in ETEC and some of the ways that the university can partner with industry to innovate and engage the grand challenges we face as a nation and a planet."
National Grid is already providing internships and applied learning opportunities to CEHC students related to the energy sector and has interest in adding to those opportunities in the near future.