Our group studies engineered and economic systems that are impacted by earth system processes. We do this to: 1) improve understanding of new risks across sectors and scales; and 2) design approaches for mitigating these vulnerabilities.

We combine engineering, operations research, statistics, and machine learning to build high fidelity, mechanistic models of real systems. We use these models to simulate system dynamics under uncertainty and stress, typically in high performance computing environments. From these simulations we measure system reliability and economic outcomes, with the ultimate goal of informing optimal system design and/or management strategies.

We are especially interested in technological transitions in energy systems and understanding the vulnerability of energy systems to extreme events and deliberate attacks. Much of our work is ultimately aimed at supporting real-world decision-making regarding management of/ investment in energy infrastructure, and we frequently interact with and collaborate with actual stakeholders (e.g., electric power utilities, regulators). Students in our group gain modeling and analytical skills and sector-specific knowledge– as well as a professional network spanning academia, government, and the private sector– that they can leverage to pursue a range of post-graduate employment opportunities.

Interested in joining?

If you: are interested in working on relevant, cross-cutting projects that deal with the power grid, extreme events, and financial/economic markets; and you can code; and you like highly quantitative research, feel free to reach out.

It doesn’t hurt that Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill (the “Research Triangle”) is a great, and pretty affordable place to live.

Jordan Kern, Assistant Professor
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
North Carolina State University
Campus Box 7906
Raleigh, NC 27695-7906 USA
email: jkern [at] ncsu [dot] edu