Saifur Rahman is the director of the Advanced Research Institute at Virginia Tech where he is the Joseph Loring Professor of electrical and computer engineering. He also directs the Center for Energy and the Global Environment at the university. From 2009-2013 he served as a vice president of the IEEE Power & Energy Society and a member of its Governing Board. He is a member-at-large of the IEEE-USA Energy Policy Committee. Professor Rahman was the chair of the US National Science Foundation Advisory Committee for International Science and Engineering from 2010 to 2013. Between 1996 and 1999 he served as a program director in engineering at NSF. In 2006 he served as the vice president of the IEEE Publications Board, and a member of the IEEE Board of Governors. He is a distinguished lecturer of IEEE PES, and has published in the areas of smart grid, conventional and renewable energy systems, load forecasting, uncertainty evaluation and infrastructure planning. URL: www.saifurrahman.org

Manisa Pipattanasomporn is an adjunct faculty at Virginia Tech’s Advanced Research Institute. She serves as one of the principal investigators (PIs) of multiple research grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Energy, on research topics related to smart grid, microgrid, energy efficiency, load control, renewable energy and electric vehicles. Her research interests include renewable energy systems, energy efficiency, distributed energy resources, and the smart grid. URL www.ari.vt.edu/manisa

Murat Kuzlu is an assistant professor at Virginia Tech’s Advanced Research Institute. He received his B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering from Kocaeli University, Turkey, in 2001, 2004, and 2010, respectively. From 2005 to 2006, he worked as a Global Network Product Support Engineer at the Nortel Networks, Turkey. In 2006, he joined the Energy Institute of TUBITAK-MAM (Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey – The Marmara Research Center), where he worked as a senior researcher at the Power Electronic Technologies Department. His research interests include smart grid, demand response, smart metering systems, wireless communication and embedded system. URL: www.muratkuzlu.org

Yonael Teklu received the B.Sc.E.E. degree from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, in 1981 and the M.Sc.E.E. degree from Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA, in 1994. He is currently the Information Technology Officer at Virginia Tech’s Advanced Research Institute providing computational and computer network support for the research faculty and students at the institute. His research activities involve energy systems planning, as well as renewable and distributed generation systems.

Xiangyu Zhang is a PhD student at Virginia Tech. He received his M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering in 2014 from Tsinghua University, China, and received his B.S. degree in 2012 from Wuhan University, China. Xiangyu had experience working on projects from the State Grid of China related to renewable energy integration and power system cascading failure. Currently at Virginia Tech, Xiangyu’s research interests are in the area of automated/transactive control strategies for smart buildings, demand response, building energy management and Internet of Things.

Rajendra Adhikari completed his Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from, Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Nepal in 2012. He worked in Nepal Power Engineering Society as a Research Assistant for a year, then on Nepal Electricity Authority as an Electrical Engineer for four months, before moving over to the United States for his PhD in Electrical Engineering at Virginia Tech in Fall 2014. His research interests are in the area of smart buildings, energy efficiency, demand response, transactive control and renewable energy.

Aditya Nugur received his B.Tech degree in Electrical and Electronics engineering from National Institute of Technology, Warangal in 2013. He worked as an electrical engineer at mahindra and mahindra for 2 years 4 months where he has commissioning experience of over 60 MWp solar power. Currently, he is a Research Assistant at Virginia Tech – Advanced Research Institute. Aditya’s research interest focuses on smart grid, energy efficiency, cybersecurity, and Internet of things.

Mengmeng Cai is a PhD student at Virginia Tech, Advanced Research Institute. She completed her M.S. degree at Smart Grid Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education, Tianjin University, China in 2015 and received her B.S. degree in 2012 from Hunan University, China. She had experience on both Photovoltaic Interver control strategy and embedded system development. Her current research interests include building energy management system, renewable energy integration and modeling & control of Smart Grid.