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Cybersecurity Red-Blue Team Challenge

This summer's cybersecurity challenge will be a hands-on cybersecurity hacking and defending exercise conducted in a training ground network. Glen and a team of three other interns will be challenged to test their skills in both defending and attacking network systems after spending the early weeks of their internship learning new skills.

Cybersecurity is a complex topic with many potential areas for interns to explore. This year’s Red - Blue Team Challenge is designed up front to have lots of time to play and explore and learn how to grow hacking and defending skills. Glen will be working hands-on to help demystify some of the more obtuse aspects of cybersecurity.

Glen will develop a solid foundation of network and Linux security skills that can be applied to wide ranges of services and systems. In the second half of the internship interns will develop some more advanced cybersecurity skills with firewalls and proactive security scanning and intrusion detection.

The final product will be to develop and conduct a Red - Blue Team Challenge event with invited participation from other ACEP interns, as well as faculty, staff and students from across the UAF campus to participate, and pass on the experience of their internship on to others.

Exploring Geothermal-to-X Potential: Strategic Pathways for Sustainable Arctic Maritime Refueling

Data Librarian

Liam's project focuses on data collection and analysis, which have always been critical to ACEP’s mission and research style. ACEP's Data and Cyberinfrastructure Management team (DCM, aka "Data Ducts") includes software developers, mathematicians, spatial analysts, open science enthusiasts, and experts in information security and the deployment of computer infrastructure. The types of research projects supported are equally varied. 

This summer, Liam will support existing ACEP projects with expertise in metadata preparation, documentation, data processing pipelines, or spatial data. Liam's work will focus on ensuring reproducible research and creating data resources that are Findable-Accessible-Interoperable-Reusable (FAIR). This work will help ACEP refine its current data handling capacity and offer ways to improve research in the future. 

Visualizing Complex Electrical Events

Manuel's project explores how modern hybrid grids respond to disturbances, and how the response can be visualized.

Renewable technologies drive the electrification of energy systems, dealing with short circuits or faults becomes critical to the stability of the grid. What happens during a fault or other electrical disturbance? How do power electronics and diesel generators return the grid to a normal state? These questions are hard to answer because of the variety of equipment that comprises the grid and the speed with which fault conditions develop and, hopefully, resolve. Investigations involve high-frequency measurements that generate enormous amounts of data.

The Power Systems Integration Laboratory at the Energy Test Facility on the UAF campus can emulate an isolated hybrid wind, solar, diesel, and battery energy storage grid. This grid can be modified for test scenarios such as load steps, change in generation mix, and even faults. The response of the grid is measured by embedded sensors. Manuel's internship project aims to transform these measurements into interactive visualizations that tell a meaningful story to researchers. Manuel will be dealing with large data in formats such as netCDF or super-high resolution output .mat formatted data (from oscilloscopes, for example), and may create graphs or data-driven dashboards. Solutions that build off of the lab's existing R visualization tool will be explored with coordinated support from ACEP's Energy Test Facility staff and Data and Cyberinfrastructure Management team.

Geothermal Greenhouse Gas Life Cycle Assessment

Sidney's project aims to evaluate the greenhouse gas (GHG) outputs during the lifecycle of geothermal power plants. There are many GHG life cycle studies for different energy generation technologies, and in previous studies, all different geothermal technologies were evaluated as one. The National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) made an effort several years ago to assess the GHG lifecycle of different geothermal technologies. Since the study was executed, there has been an increased development in the geothermal field. Sidney and others aim to update the previous study and include new emerging geothermal technologies such as magmatic geothermal or closed-loop geothermal radiators.

Sidney will develop a report on the GHG emissions through the lifecycle of different geothermal technologies. This includes the construction phase, production phase, and decommissioning of the infrastructure at the end of the lifetime. The report's main goal is to compare the different geothermal technologies in terms of emissions. This will also help compare different geothermal options with other energy generation technologies. Furthermore, the report will highlight the technological development over time, focusing on GHG emissions. 

It's �þ�����Ƶ the People: Beneficial and Equitable Electriciation

Dana's project seeks to understand how Alaska's transition to more affordable energy can work for everyone -- not just in terms of technology, but also in how people experience and benefit from it.

There are many ideas on how to transition to lower-cost, lower-carbon, more-local sources of energy. Alaskans are exploring electric vehicles (EVs), heat pumps, and other electrification technologies to help with this. In addition to the technological challenges and implementation best practices, we need to know how these technologies will work for people. What potential inconveniences are unacceptable? What is the value placed on being able to precisely choose when energy will be used for a task (i.e., if someone wakes up ready to take a hot shower, and the water comes out lukewarm because of load shifting to balance renewables on the grid, is there an amount of financial compensation in the world that can make that acceptable?) Who exactly is benefiting from the transition to new technologies, and in what ways?

We do not want to leave people behind in an energy transition. It may save customers money and reduce emissions if most people are able to switch to EVs and use renewable energy, but if some people are left behind in this transition, and their needs unmet, this is unfair. We need more information to make sure that engineering solutions benefit all members of society.

Dana's project builds on previous work which developed an outline of survey instruments to answer some of these questions for two specific projects: 1) funding electric vehicle chargers in rural Alaska and 2) developing controls to shift home loads to times of more renewable energy availability. In this project Dana will practice ethical research with human subjects and working with community partners and community members to further develop and gather survey information. Dana will also analyze data and present the results.

Cybersecurity Red-Blue Team Challenge

This summer's cybersecurity challenge will be a hands-on cybersecurity hacking and defending exercise conducted in a training ground network. Ela and a team of three other interns will be challenged to test their skills in both defending and attacking network systems after spending the early weeks of their internship learning new skills.

Cybersecurity is a complex topic with many potential areas for interns to explore. This year’s Red - Blue Team Challenge is designed up front to have lots of time to play and explore and learn how to grow hacking and defending skills. Ela will be working hands-on to help demystify some of the more obtuse aspects of cybersecurity.

Ela will develop a solid foundation of network and Linux security skills that can be applied to wide ranges of services and systems. In the second half of the internship interns will develop some more advanced cybersecurity skills with firewalls and proactive security scanning and intrusion detection.

The final product will be to develop and conduct a Red - Blue Team Challenge event with invited participation from other ACEP interns, as well as faculty, staff and students from across the UAF campus to participate, and pass on the experience of their internship on to others.

Green Energy in Mariculture

Shellfish and seafood farming in Alaska is at an inflection point. Due to a $49 million investment from the Build Back Better program, the industry is poised for rapid growth. Without intervention, it would expand with dependence on fossil fuels and conventional energy technologies. The Green Energy in Mariculture project is a rare opportunity to provide the industry with efficiency and renewable energy considerations as it grows.

Over 2024 and spring of 2025, the University of Alaska green energy in mariculture team compiled information documenting baseline energy use in mariculture in Alaska. The data include qualitative interviews with farmers and processors, semi-quantitative surveys, and quantitative data logs of fuel use. Emma's project will work with all three data types to understand current energy use and identify promising energy efficiency measures.

After identifying a sample of potential efficiency measures, Emma will communicate with the GEM project team, farmers, and technology providers to narrow the list to two-three of the most feasible and impactful opportunities. With support from the GEM team, Emma will then develop a mathematical model to quantify the energy savings, emission reductions and economic impact of implementing the efficiency measure at scale.

The final product will be a report that describes the efficiency opportunities and quantifies the impact. Emma will present the results to the farmers and technology providers, and the report will be integrated into the final Green Energy Plan developed to be finalized by the GEM team in 2026.

Fairbanks Energy Field Guide

Fairbanks is full of interesting energy infrastructure and history. This includes both fossil energy infrastructure such as the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System and the youngest coal-powered plant in the United States, renewable technology such as the Eva Creek wind farm, and energy storage and protection infrastructure that enables the integration of diverse fuel sources such as the Golden Valley Electric Association battery. These features of the built environment may go unnoticed but are both technically and historically significant.

Matteo's project will document and share interesting facts that tell the stories of some of these features of the Fairbanks environment. The project will include a combination of local field work and archival research. Matteo will create a field guide that can be used by high school students living in or visiting Fairbanks and other individuals interested in Fairbanks energy infrastructure.

Cybersecurity Red-Blue Team Challenge

This summer's cybersecurity challenge will be a hands-on cybersecurity hacking and defending exercise conducted in a training ground network. Elliott and a team of three other interns will be challenged to test their skills in both defending and attacking network systems after spending the early weeks of their internship learning new skills.

Cybersecurity is a complex topic with many potential areas for interns to explore. This year’s Red - Blue Team Challenge is designed up front to have lots of time to play and explore and learn how to grow hacking and defending skills. Elliott will be working hands-on to help demystify some of the more obtuse aspects of cybersecurity.

Elliott will develop a solid foundation of network and Linux security skills that can be applied to wide ranges of services and systems. In the second half of the internship interns will develop some more advanced cybersecurity skills with firewalls and proactive security scanning and intrusion detection.

The final product will be to develop and conduct a Red - Blue Team Challenge event with invited participation from other ACEP interns, as well as faculty, staff and students from across the UAF campus to participate, and pass on the experience of their internship on to others.

Valuation of a Distributed Energy Resource Management System for Northern Utility

Mackenzie's project involves working with the local utility -- Golden Valley Electric Association (GVEA). Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems (DERMS) are tools or programs that enable distributed energy resources and certain types of loads, like electric hot water heaters or heat pumps, to be controlled to change their output to provide important grid ancillary services to the electric grid. These DERMS can be run by utilities, such as GVEA in Fairbanks, to provide grid ancillary services which can facilitate greater adoption of distributed energy resources (such as residential solar energy) and provide greater value than just energy to the utility to support reliable electric grid operations.

GVEA’s mission is to safely provide its member-owners with reliable electric service, quality customer service, and innovative energy solutions at fair and reasonable prices. The cooperative operates and maintains 3,261 miles of transmission and distribution lines, 35 substations and nine generating facilities. Its system is interconnected with Fort Wainwright, Eielson Air Force Base, Fort Greely, the University of Alaska Fairbanks and all electric utilities in the Alaska Railbelt, which extends from Homer to Fairbanks. GVEA’s peak load in 2018 was 196.6 megawatts (MW). The system peak of 223 MW was set in December 2007.

GVEA is interested in performing a valuation of a DERMS program. Mackenzie's project and valuation will include: collecting information about what DERMS platforms are available, collecting the costs to run such a program, determining what grid services could be provided by DERMS, determining what the technical capabilities of those grid services could be, and performing a historical back-cast of how often services from a DERMS program could have been used by GVEA. The outcome of the valuation will be an estimation of the costs to run a DERMS program and how often and how the services from a DERMS program could be used by GVEA.

Mackenzie's project will aim to collect and organize information and manage, manipulate, and analyze lots of data.

Distributed Solar Energy Real-Time Forecasting for Northern Utility

Golden Valley Electric Association (GVEA) has approximately 5 MW of distributed solar energy spread through its service area. Currently, this distributed energy is not forecasted or directly accounted for in day-ahead scheduling of generation and load. GVEA would like to create a forecaster to estimate the day-ahead hourly energy production that could be expected from distributed solar energy. Many methods could be used to tackle this challenge.

GVEA’s mission is to safely provide its member-owners with reliable electric service, quality customer service, and innovative energy solutions at fair and reasonable prices. The cooperative operates and maintains 3,261 miles of transmission and distribution lines, 35 substations and nine generating facilities. Its system is interconnected with Fort Wainwright, Eielson Air Force Base, Fort Greely, the University of Alaska Fairbanks and all electric utilities in the Alaska Railbelt, which extends from Homer to Fairbanks. GVEA’s peak load in 2018 was 196.6 megawatts (MW). The system peak of 223 MW was set in December 2007.

In addition to a distributed solar energy forecaster, there is lots of information that can be collected from GVEA’s historical distributed solar energy data. GVEA is interested in learning more about the typical behavior of distributed solar energy in its service area and creating educational materials for both internal and public use. For example, GVEA is interested in creating a “duck curve” diagram showing how the increase in distributed solar energy in the system has changed the summer load profile, and how that will change with more distributed solar energy in the system.

 

Green Energy in Mariculture

Shellfish and seafood farming in Alaska is at an inflection point. Due to a $49 million investment from the Build Back Better program, the industry is poised for rapid growth. Without intervention, it would expand with dependence on fossil fuels and conventional energy technologies. The Green Energy in Mariculture project is a rare opportunity to provide the industry with efficiency and renewable energy considerations as it grows.

Over 2024 and spring of 2025, the University of Alaska green energy in mariculture team compiled information documenting baseline energy use in mariculture in Alaska. The data include qualitative interviews with farmers and processors, semi-quantitative surveys, and quantitative data logs of fuel use. Shane's project will work with all three data types to understand current energy use and identify promising energy efficiency measures.

After identifying a sample of potential efficiency measures, Shane will communicate with the GEM project team, farmers, and technology providers to narrow the list to two-three of the most feasible and impactful opportunities. With support from the GEM team, Shane will then develop a mathematical model to quantify the energy savings, emission reductions and economic impact of implementing the efficiency measure at scale.

The final product will be a report that describes the efficiency opportunities and quantifies the impact. Shane will present the results to the farmers and technology providers, and the report will be integrated into the final Green Energy Plan developed to be finalized by the GEM team in 2026.

 

Electric Vehicles in the Arctic

People have concerns about the performance of electric vehicles in Alaska's harsh winter conditions, and how EVs might integrate in rural Alaska. We are crowdsourcing data from EVs on the road in Alaska as well as from the conventional cars, trucks, ATVs, snow machines and boats that are operated in rural Alaska communities. Analysis of this data will allow us to help individuals and communities make informed decisions on where EVs might bring benefits to Alaskans.

Ajey's project will help Alaskans make informed decisions about a new technology. The results of this work could help communities ensure that their energy transition equitably saves money and reduces emissions, which might not happen without foresight and planning with good information. Electrification of transportation would allow vehicles to use energy from river hydrokinetics, solar, wind, and other technologies explored by researchers at ACEP, tying this work to other research at ACEP.

Ajey's project will use and expand on literature research skills, data analysis/visualization and python coding skills, as well as writing/story-telling skills.

Heat Pump Economic Analysis

Utilities managing microgrids in Alaska stand to benefit significantly from encouraging adoption of beneficial electrification technologies such as heat pumps in their customer base. For customers, heat pumps can help offset high-priced heating fuels such as fuel oil and reduce harmful indoor emissions by fuel switching from wood. Moreover, heat pumps contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, aligning with broader sustainability objectives. More recently, several microgrid communities across Alaska have received federal funding to install heat pumps in communities across Southeast, Southcentral, coastal and Northwest Alaska over the next three years. As these communities install heat pumps across homes in Alaska, it is critical for these communities to understand the impacts and opportunities for heat pumps in Alaska microgrids.

Bennett will conduct a research study to determine the economic and financial impacts, and analyze the costs and benefits of heat pump installations in Alaska microgrids on utilities and their customers. Previous work identified rate structures which can be beneficial for utilities and customers to encourage heat pump adoption. This research will understand the impacts of such rate structures on communities and their adoption behavior.

Bennett's project will include literature review, data analysis and presentations of the final project.

 

Introduction to Hydrokinetic Field Work

This internship gives a student the opportunity to work at an active hydrokinetic test site, in the Pacific Marine Energy Center (PMEC) shop, and on other oceanographic or inter-rivine projects doing field work, data collection, problem solving, and other tasks that a student would often learn when they enter the workforce in a related field. This internship includes a lot of hands-on work with tools, different materials, and a wide range of instruments used in hydrological data collection. Students will spend several days job shadowing a PMEC engineer and a PMEC project manager to see how projects work from start to finish. Students will scale up 3D model of the Tanana River Test Site (TRTS) from a small model to a larger scale model and add additional TRTS infrastructure to the model. This internship will take place in the field (day trips), with some office work, and possible remote field work in Galena, Alaska.

Cybersecurity Red-Blue Team Challenge

This summer's cybersecurity challenge will be a hands-on cybersecurity hacking and defending exercise conducted in a training ground network. Nebiyou and a team of three other interns will be challenged to test their skills in both defending and attacking network systems after spending the early weeks of their internship learning new skills.

Cybersecurity is a complex topic with many potential areas for interns to explore. This year’s Red - Blue Team Challenge is designed up front to have lots of time to play and explore and learn how to grow hacking and defending skills. Nebiyou will be working hands-on to help demystify some of the more obtuse aspects of cybersecurity.

Nebiyou will develop a solid foundation of network and Linux security skills that can be applied to wide ranges of services and systems. In the second half of the internship interns will develop some more advanced cybersecurity skills with firewalls and proactive security scanning and intrusion detection.

The final product will be to develop and conduct a Red - Blue Team Challenge event with invited participation from other ACEP interns, as well as faculty, staff and students from across the UAF campus to participate, and pass on the experience of their internship on to others.