IDEAS Lab

I joined the Interdisciplinary Energy Analytics for Society (IDEAS) Research Lab in September 2023, where I conduct research under the guidance of Dr. June Lukuyu. We explore the intersections of energy systems, data analytics, and societal impact, developing innovative approaches to understand and improve electricity access, reliability, and resilience. Read more about our work here.

Research Projects

Extreme weather raises outage risk across Accra and heat lowers voltage in vulnerable neighborhoods

This project examined how extreme weather affects power outages and voltage quality in Accra, Ghana. Using two years (2022–2023) of high-frequency, customer-level grid measurements and weather data, we characterized the spatial and temporal distribution of grid disturbances and investigated how weather-related impacts varied across neighborhoods with different levels of climate vulnerability.

Read our blog post: When Climate Shocks Collide with Grid Failure

How Much Data Does a GNN-Based Outage Prediction Model Need?

This ongoing project investigates the use of graph neural networks (GNNs) to predict power-outage states on sparsely monitored distribution networks, with a focus on data-constrained settings in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Evaluating Deep Learning Pipelines for Predicting Electricity Prices in Renewable-Dominated Markets

Completed for the Introduction to Deep Learning Applications course, this project compared end-to-end and multi-stage deep-learning pipelines for day-ahead and real-time electricity-price forecasting in Spain. Using market data from 2015–2018, we evaluated Transformer and attention-based CNN–BiLSTM models. The end-to-end pipeline reduced MAE and MAPE by approximately 50%, with the Transformer performing best for day-ahead forecasting and the CNN–BiLSTM performing best for real-time forecasting. Deliverables included a project paper, a poster presentation, and a code repository.

Collaborators: Ahana Mukherjee and Eliane Nirere

Conferences

September 2026

I will present my ongoing research on graph neural networks for power-outage prediction and grid resilience at the Rwanda Climate Science Symposium in Kigali, Rwanda, on September 22–23, 2026.

October 2025

I attended the INFORMS Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA to present on my research work titled Bridging Climate Risk and Grid Resilience for Equitable Energy Transitions in Africa.

July 2024

I had the opportunity to attend the 2024 IEEE-PES General Meeting right here in Seattle. After attending a wide range of sessions, I drew inspiration for my research and explored exciting potential directions for future work. It was also an incredible chance to connect with leading experts and fellow researchers, expanding my network and sparking new collaborations.

Mentorship

Undergraduate Mentorship, Summer ‘26

I provided weekly mentorship to an undergraduate ECE student interested in pursuing a career in power systems. Our meetings focused on building foundational knowledge of power-system concepts, discussing relevant learning materials, and addressing technical and conceptual questions as they arose.

Undergraduate Capstone Project, Winter & Spring ‘26

I served as the faculty mentor for an undergraduate capstone project team that worked on battery energy storage strategies for the University of Washington’s campus electrical distribution system. The project, developed in collaboration with GE Vernova, explored how storage can help shift electricity use during peak demand and reduce grid congestion. Simulation and analysis were carried out using OpenDSS and HomerGrid. I had weekly meetings with the team to support their progress and provide technical guidance. The work culminated in a final capstone project report and a poster presentation at the UW ECE ENGINE Showcase.

Clean Energy Bridge to Research, Summer ‘24

In the summer of 2024, Ahana and I served as mentors in the Clean Energy Bridge to Research program, which promotes clean energy research among UW undergraduates. Over eight weeks, we worked with Lillian and Biniyam, both Computer Science majors, on two projects: analyzing mini-grid customer payment patterns in Western Uganda and examining inequities in access to heating and cooling infrastructure across Seattle.

Awards/Fellowships

Cascade Energy Scholarship

In April 2025, I was awarded the Cascade Energy Scholarship through the Renewable Energy Scholarship Foundation.

The award ceremony was held at the University of Washington’s Clean Energy Testbeds - and I was honoured to meet Erik Holman (Executive Vice President of Operations and Delivery) and Victoria Sonoda-Casper (Executive Assistant) of Cascade Energy. Cascade Energy specializes in energy efficiency and decarbonization solutions. You can read more about my award on their website.

I also got the chance to meet other students, researchers, and industry partners in the renewable energy space.

Affiliations

eGUIDE

I am affiliated with the eGUIDE (Electricity Growth and Use in Developing Economies) Initiative, which comprises researchers from various institutions and seeks to help develop data-driven techniques to improve electricity planning and operations in developing regions, partnering with utilities to deploy solutions and build local capacity. Read more about our work here.