I-CPIE's 2024: The Year in Outreach

I-CPIE’s faculty and staff honed their event-planning skills in 2024 as they hosted a variety of visitors, from undergraduate researchers to industry leaders, to Lehigh University’s campus. These events helped bring the institute’s research activities and key concerns–cyber physical infrastructure and energy–to a broader audience. They also serve to expand the institute’s network of partners and open up more discussions of research topics and the social implications of that research. Such events also bring students into the network, and in some cases help them enter the broader engineering workforce.

I-CPIE Director Shalinee Kishore says, “2024 was an exciting year in regard to the outreach work that I-CPIE did. We connected with a range of stakeholders for our research projects, hosted career and workforce development events, and heard from leading experts on viable pathways towards secure, reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy systems.”

Kathryn Zerfuss,  I-CPIE’s faculty and staff honed their event-planning skills in 2024 as they hosted a variety of visitors, from undergraduate researchers to industry leaders, to Lehigh University’s campus. These events helped bring the institute’s research activities and key concerns–cyber physical infrastructure and energy–to a broader audience. They also serve to expand the institute’s network of partners and open up more discussions of research topics and the social implications of that research. Such events also bring students into the network, and in some cases help them enter the broader engineering workforce.

I-CPIE Director Shalinee Kishore says, “2024 was an exciting year in regard to the outreach work that I-CPIE did. We connected with a range of stakeholders for our research projects, hosted career and workforce development events, and heard from leading experts on viable pathways towards secure, reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy systems.”

Kathryn Zerfuss

Kathryn Zerfuss, Pennsylvania utilities commissioner, visited Lehigh in April to talk to students about careers in the energy and utilities sector. She brought with her a panel of three PPL employees: Katelyn Arnold, Regulatory Strategy and Compliance; Matt Wallace, Grid Modernization; and Carole Obando-Derstine, Data Governance in Transmission and Substations. They were joined by Lehigh University’s Shalinee Kishore, I-CPIE director and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The panel discussed their individual backgrounds and career pathways in the energy sector, considered Pennsylvania’s energy landscape, and talked about recent changes in regulations and technology. The panel ended with Zerfuss strongly recommending careers in the energy field, and utilities in particular, to the audience. The group then adjourned to the STEPS atrium for refreshments and networking.

Read more about the panel. 

Scott Tinker

The renewable energy world holds infinite promise and numerous perils, many related to global inequities and often replicating those originated by legacy oil: rich countries “go green” at the expense of poor counties, says Dr. Scott Tinker, Professor at  the Jackson School of Geoscience, University of Texas Austin, and chairman of Switch Energy Alliance. Tinker made this point during an April lecture featuring a series of well-constructed graphs and charts, and led his audience to ponder their options, as engineers and the future workforce, in creating renewable energy in a more equitable and just manner.

Read more about Tinker.

ACES Workshop

Early in the year, a core group of I-CPIE faculty received a planning grant from the university to develop a university research center, ACES (Center for Advancing Community Electrification). As part of this effort, they hosted a two-day workshop on Lehigh’s Campus in October, bringing together members of industry, academia, national labs, and federal agencies, as well as members of the Lehigh community.

Discussions touched on technology transfer, water and energy connections, electrification of smart buildings and transportation, utility-level renewable energy logistics, electric transit technologies, and the global and local effects of energy policies.

A highlight was a graduate student poster session, which let visitors see the range and depth of research at Lehigh.

Find out more about Lehigh’s CatModeling university research center and interdisciplinary institutes. 

STEM-SI Research Program

In its fourth year, STEM-SI (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Summer Institute) again assembled a diverse group of undergraduate students from Lehigh and other universities to develop their research skills. Working in STEM fields from bioengineering to structural engineering, students developed their projects under the guidance of faculty mentors. They also participated in faculty seminars, during which they learned about the faculty mentors’ research paths and projects, and professional development seminars led by Career Services. This year’s cohort also attended a talk by Lehigh Valley native and State Representative Pete Schweyer, who talked about his own career path and achievements, and answered questions from the students. The summer program ended with Research Day in August, as students presented research posters and discussed their projects with faculty, visitors, and fellow students.

Learn about the program’s history, research day and expo.

I-CPIE also hosted visitors from industry and government agencies.

Team Pennsylvania

Among these were Team Pennsylvania, headed by Abby Smith. Team PA is a nongovernmental organization that brings together cross-sector groups to create partnerships that can enhance the state’s economy. During the November 2023 visit, the Team PA group met with a variety of Lehigh people, including Provost Nathan Urban, representatives of all three Interdisciplinary Research Institutions, and Government Relations leadership.

Bobby Noble, EPRI

In February 2025, Bobby Noble, EPRI Program Manager, presented a talk to students, faculty, and colleagues about the challenges of renewable energy, focusing on hydrogen, "Decarbonization Pathways: How Dispatchable Gas Turbines Are Critical for Our Energy Trilemma." He also met with I-CPIE Director Shalinee Kishore, Co-Associate Director and Energy Research Director Carlos Romero, and toured the Lehigh campus.

Chenlin Li, DOE BETO

In July 2023, Department of Energy Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) Program Manager Chenlin Li visited Lehigh’s Energy Research Center, directed by Carlos Romero, and gave a talk titled “Recent Research and Development Activities in Sustainable Bioenergy Feedstocks” to both a physical and virtual audience. She spoke about BETO’s efforts in sustainable bioenergy feedstocks and the office’s efforts to “turn the carbon we have into the carbon we need.” She is now the Renewable Carbon Resources Program Manager at BETO.