News
2026
Stronger Sensing, Smarter Energy Systems (August 11, 2026)
Three 2026 R&D 100 Awards for Paul Ohodnicki and Kevin Chen: Photonic BMS for grid-scale batteries, TeleSENSE fiber manufacturing, and REFLEX for solid oxide fuel cells and electrolyzers.
Pitt’s Cyber Energy Center and Pitt Cyber to Host Their Second Transforming Cybersecurity Workshop (July 20, 2026)
Full-day workshop on cybersecurity for water, energy, and industrial control infrastructure. Daniel Cole and Erica Owen, co-organizers.
Creating a New Engine of Innovation (July 14, 2026)
NSF Regional Innovation Engines award to the Resilient Energy Technology and Infrastructure Consortium. West Virginia University leads, with Pitt and Carnegie Mellon and more than 60 regional partners, at $321 million in public and private funding.
Three Pitt Projects Receive $70,000 Grant Funding Through Manufacturing PA Innovation Program (July 14, 2026)
Two of the three projects are energy: Brandon Grainger on a reduced-inductance modular multilevel converter for HVDC systems, and Paul Ohodnicki on ferrite-based permanent magnets.
Designing the Future of Power Magnetics (July 2, 2026)
Fifth annual AMPED Consortium industry meeting at the Energy Innovation Center, held alongside the inaugural PSMA and AMPED power magnetics workshop.
Sensible Photonics and Pitt Selected by U.S. DOE for Demonstration at Idaho National Laboratory (June 17, 2026)
Fiber optic sensing for used nuclear fuel storage, selected by the Department of Energy Center for Used Fuel Research. Technology developed through an STTR collaboration led by Paul Ohodnicki.
IEEE Honors Pitt’s Fang Peng with Medal in Power Engineering (March 2, 2026)
Peng is the RK Mellon Endowed Chair Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of the Energy GRID Institute.
Paul Ohodnicki Named New Center for Energy Director at Pitt (February 2026)
Ohodnicki succeeds Heng Ban as permanent director of the university-wide Center for Energy.
Swanson School of Engineering Releases 2025 Annual Report (January 2026)
The report theme is excellence in energy, covering initiatives that extend the school’s century-plus legacy in the field.
2025
University of Pittsburgh Launches First-of-Its-Kind Undergrad Degree in Natural Gas, Renewables, and Oil Engineering (October 21, 2025)
The GRO program combines traditional oil and gas coursework with eight required renewable energy courses. Program design led by Robert Enick.
Powering Opportunities and Partnerships (September 16, 2025)
Surfaced in a newsroom sidebar only. Topic and energy relevance need to be confirmed.
Surviving Hostile Venus Conditions, Finding Rare Earths and Other Critical Metals (September 8, 2025)
Two 2025 R&D 100 Awards for Paul Ohodnicki and collaborators: VulcanAlloy, developed with NASA Glenn, CorePower Magnetics, and Raytheon, and the eMission Critical Sensor for rare earth and critical metals detection, developed with NETL.
Pitt Researchers Rewire the Energy Pathways of Turbulence (August 26, 2025)
Lei Fang and PhD student Xinyu Si demonstrate that the direction of turbulent energy flux can be reversed.
Building a Broader Cybersecurity Ecosystem (August 14, 2025)
Recap of the first Cyber Energy Center and Pitt Cyber workshop, held August 12, 2025, with more than 40 participants.
Advancing Infrastructure Sensing Through the INSITES Consortium (June 2, 2025)
Sensing for energy and infrastructure systems. Confirm framing before placing on the site.
Pitt Students Shine Bright in NREL Solar District Cup (May 27, 2025)
Student competition entry in solar district design.
Pitt’s Fang Peng Elected to National Academy of Engineering (February 12, 2025)
Recognized for contributions to high-power electronic technologies for advanced power grid and energy conversion.
2024
Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering Selected to Receive $3.3 Million to Develop New Electricity Transmission Technology (November 13, 2024)
IDEAL HVDC award from the Department of Energy. Brandon Grainger is principal investigator, with Penn State, Eaton, HICO-Hyosung, and NREL as partners.
A Nuclear Core at Pitt (September 18, 2024)
Profile of Tom Congedo and the Stephen R. Tritch Nuclear Engineering Program.
