Doctoral Dissertation Research: Stakeholder interactions in innovating electric grids

Decarbonization is an important goal of climate policy and one that relies heavily on electrical infrastructure as a means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Different stakeholders emphasize different means of achieving a common goal, from smart technologies involving automated use of algorithms, to approaches involving more consistent monitoring by scientists and engineers.

This project aims to evaluate the concerns and hopes of various stakeholders in electrification projects. It tests theories in cultural anthropology to understand how level of involvement (state versus lab versus community) and priorities (person- versus environment-centered) shape understandings of electrification goals and outcomes. It contributes to the training of a doctoral student in scientific cultural anthropology and its results will be disseminated widely to academic and non-academic audiences.

The researchers use participant observation and semi-structured interviews to answer the following research questions: 1) What challenges do electrical engineers perceive in building electrical infrastructure? How are these resolved? 2) What role do data scientists play in contributing to design and innovation of electrical infrastructure? What additional goals do they incorporate into this process? 3) How do other stakeholders, such as residents and policymakers, understand and seek to contribute to this process?

Answers to these questions will provide insights that are relevant to shaping electrical infrastructure and will inform our understanding of how different perspectives converge and diverge in the context of shared goals.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.