Stephanie Stockar receives ORAU Powe Award

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering assistant professor, Stephanie Stockar, has been named a recipient of the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award from Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU). ORAU is a consortium of Ph.D. granting academic institutions that promotes collaborative partnerships to enhance scientific research and education in the U.S.

Stockar is one of just 35 recipients of this year’s award. The award provides seed funding for research and professional growth of junior faculty members at ORAU institutions. Winners of the Powe award receive a one-year, $5,000 research grant from ORAU that is matched by the recipient’s member institution.

“I know how competitive this award is for Junior Faculty, and I am honored to have been selected this year,” Stockar said.

Stockar plans to start a research program combining physics-based modeling, data analytics and machine learning in order to optimize electric and thermal loads in interconnected commercial buildings.

“According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in 2019, total end-use energy consumption by the residential and commercial sector was almost 30-percent of the total U.S. end-use yearly energy consumption,” Stockar said.

Her project aims to accelerate widespread deployment of energy saving technologies in commercial buildings.

“If successful, this work will support the effort of reducing the environmental impact associated with the energy utilization in building by exploiting synergies given by Distributed Energy Resources,” said Stockar.