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Date:  Tue, April 25, 2017
Time:  10:00am-11:00am
Location:  Holmes Hall 389
Speaker:  Dr. Yuanzhang Xiao, postdoctoral fellow in Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Northwestern University.

Abstract:

Many critical infrastructures of societal impact, such as power systems, are undergoing dramatic changes. The efforts of modernizing these infrastructures include 1) introducing economic mechanisms (e.g., deregulating electricity markets) to improve their efficiency, and 2) reducing the carbon footprint (e.g., renewable energy in power systems, electric vehicles in transportation systems) to improve their sustainability. However, these efforts also impose challenges, such as strategic behavior (e.g., manipulation in electricity markets) and uncertainty (e.g., intermittency of renewable energy).

Using tools from game theory and learning theory, I will present some of my works towards addressing these challenges in the context of smart grids. First, I will talk about designing electricity markets that are resilient to strategic behavior. Then, I will talk about designing demand-side management programs that are resilient to uncertainty. Finally, I will outline future research directions.

Bio:

Yuanzhang Xiao is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Northwestern University. He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from UCLA in 2014, and B.S. and M.S. degrees from Tsinghua University in 2006 and 2009. He is the recipient of 2014 UCLA Dissertation Year Fellowship. He is broadly interested in game theory, mechanism design, and learning, and their applications in cyber-physical systems, such as smart grids, socio-technological networks, and communication networks.