6 | LEHIGH ALUMNI BULLETIN | FROM THE NEST Can you explain the work the ACES team is doing? Our center is focused on enabling energy independence through electrification. We’re doing research on cutting-edge technology, working on practical workforce solutions and common-sense policy approaches that are going to help American communities take charge of their energy future and achieve energy independence through electrification. Electrification is to essentially promote a higher use for electricity in our energy consumption. ... Electrification also describes new use cases for electricity, things like AI data centers or controlled environment agriculture or smart manufacturing facilities. All of this collectively is driving up electricity demand in the near future. How will the community see an impact from the work you’re doing? We want to be able to deliver local solutions to electrification as much as possible and ensure that electrification gives the use case and the users, or the community members, more affordable power, more resilient power and more reliable power as well. ACES held the “Innovating Energy and Water Solutions for Tomorrow’s AI Data Centers” symposium in October. Why was it important for Lehigh to host that event? This is—regionally, at the state level and also at the national level—one of the most pressing energy discussions going on right now. As a center that’s talking about these topics, we feel we’re the right entity to convene a discussion around this. … It’s relevant, because Pennsylvania is putting its stake in the ground where data centers are concerned. … We want to be sure that as it happens here in Pennsylvania, it does so in a sustainable way. The dialogue needs to start now, and then the activities and the solutions need to follow. Does being an R1 research university help ACES? The folks who are involved in ACES have been very active for decades here at Lehigh. To be R1, that level of engagement does bring opportunities for us. In the case of data centers, for example, the recent $20 billion Amazon investment announcement includes engagement of R1 universities. It’s an exciting time for Lehigh. Shalinee Kishore: ‘Deliver Local Solutions to Electrification’ Director of the new Center for Advancing Community Electrification Solutions (ACES), the Iacocca Chair and professor of electrical and computer engineering discusses her team’s work and its impact. Four Questions DOUGLAS BENEDICT / ACADEMIC IMAGE
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