Migrating birds have stowaway passengers: invasive ticks could spread novel diseases around the world

Ticks have always travelled on migrating birds — but the rising temperatures of the climate crisis mean they may now survive at their destination, and so could the pathogens they carry

Frontiers

Ticks travel light, but they carry pathogens with them. When they parasitize migrating birds, these journeys can take them thousands of miles away from their usual geographic range. Historically, they haven’t been able to establish themselves, due to unsuitable climate conditions at the other end of their long journeys. But now, thanks to the climate crisis, it’s getting easier for ticks to survive and spread, potentially bringing novel tick-borne pathogens with them.

“If conditions become more hospitable for tropical tick species to establish themselves in areas where they would previously have been unsuccessful, then there is a chance they could bring new diseases with them,” said Dr Shahid Karim of the University of Southern Mississippi, lead author of the article in Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology.

Hitch-hiking ticks

Ticks are very effective disease vectors, connecting humans and domestic animals to diseases carried in wild reservoirs like Lyme disease, and parasitizing birds — especially migratory birds — allows them to travel very long distances. The changes to global temperatures caused by the climate crisis are now making it easier for some ticks to establish themselves as invasive species. Establishment can be very rapid: for example, the Asian long-horned tick was first detected in New Jersey in 2017 and has since been found in 14 other states.

“Geographic distribution is changing very rapidly in many tick species,” said Dr Lorenza Beati of Georgia Southern University, a coauthor of the study. “For some migrating exotic ticks, global warming may create conditions at their northern destination that are similar to their usual range. If warmer climatic conditions are combined with the presence of suitable vertebrate hosts for all tick life stages, the chance of establishment is going to increase.”

To investigate tick dispersal through migrating birds, scientists set up nets at six locations where birds stop to rest along the northern Gulf of Mexico. Each bird was ringed with a band carrying an identification number, measured, and examined to check its physical condition and look for ticks. When ticks were found, these were removed and preserved for later DNA analysis to confirm the species and identify the micro-organisms they carried.

The scientists divided the birds into three categories — residents, short-distance migrants, and long-distance migrants – and mapped out the different species’ geographic distributions to understand where they could have picked up ticks. This highlighted just how far ticks could be carried: mean dispersal distances rose as high as 5000km.

However, parasitism turned out to be relatively low. Nearly 15,000 birds were sampled, almost 2,000 of them more than once, yet only 421 ticks were collected from 164 birds. Although 18 different species of tick were identified — including several neotropical species not established in the US — just four species accounted for 81% of the ticks identified by the scientists. Short-distance migrants carried more ticks than long-distance migrants.

Bacteria under the microscope

The scientists then analyzed the bacteria carried by the ticks. The most common bacteria were Francisella bacteria, which are endosymbionts that help ticks function. Higher levels of Francisella bacteria in a tick have previously been associated with lower levels of Rickettsia or Cutibacterium.

The second most abundant bacteria were Rickettsia species, which could indicate that they have a symbiotic relationship with ticks which is currently unknown to us. Parasitizing migrating birds, which travel long distances, demands significant energy expenditure from the ticks attached to the birds: it may be that the Rickettsia species help them cope somehow. Some species of Rickettsia can cause diseases in humans, including spotted fevers, but we don’t yet know if invasive species of tick are likely to transmit these diseases to humans.

To understand the full impact of bird-assisted tick dispersal, the scientists explained, we need more research. It’s especially important to find out whether birds act as reservoirs by carrying tick-borne diseases when they aren’t hosting ticks.

“Not only could these ticks bring new pathogens, but if they manage to establish themselves in the US, they could become additional vectors of pathogens already present in this country or maintain pathogens in wildlife reservoirs which can then become sources of infection,” said Karim. He recommended that people protect themselves with insect repellent and check themselves for ticks after walking in tick-infested areas.

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Journal

Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

DOI

10.3389/fcimb.2024.1472598 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Ticks without borders: Microbiome of immature Neotropical tick species parasitizing migratory songbirds along northern Gulf of Mexico

Article Publication Date

18-Nov-2024

COI Statement

The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.

ANGRY AMERIKANS

National Poll: Some parents need support managing children's anger

Seven in 10 parents say they sometimes set a bad example for managing anger, some worry their child’s anger will cause problems

Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan

 

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Parents of children ages 6-12 report different strategies to help children manage intense emotions.

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Credit: Sara Schultz, University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health

ANN ARBOR, Mich. –  Many parents are all too familiar with angry outbursts from their children, from sibling squabbles to protests over screen time limits.

But some parents may find it challenging to help their kids manage intense emotions. One in seven think their child gets angrier than peers of the same age and four in 10 say their child has experienced negative consequences when angry, a new national poll suggests.  

Seven in 10 parents even think they sometimes set a bad example of handling anger themselves, according to the University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health.

"Children often react intensely to minor frustrations since they’re still building emotional regulation skills. Without guidance on how to express these feelings appropriately, it can lead to disruptive behaviors, problems at school, and strained relationships,” said Mott Poll co-director Sarah Clark, M.P.H.

“Parents play an important role in teaching children how to process and manage their anger productively. But some parents may need guidance themselves on the best strategies to do this.”

The nationally representative report is based on 1,031 responses from parents of children ages 6-12 surveyed in August 2024.

Some children express anger more often

While more than a third of parents feel their child has gotten better at managing anger, 12%  worry that their child’s anger will cause problems for them. More parents of boys than girls say that in the past year their child has experienced negative consequences when angry, including hurting themselves or others, having problems with friends, or getting in trouble at school.

Fourteen percent of parents also think their child gets angry more often than same-aged peers – and these parents are more likely to feel that they could be modelling bad anger management, worry that their child’s anger will cause problems, and report their child has experienced negative reactions when angry.

“Children who feel or express emotions strongly may feel different from others, and if they are shamed for their anger, it could make it much worse,” Clark said. “It’s important for parents to let children know that getting angry does not make them a bad person and that they just need to learn to manage it."

But parents may not always use effective strategies through these challenges, with one in three parents saying they haven’t received advice about helping children learn anger management.

And although more than three fifths of parents report their child’s school has teachers or counselors who help children learn to manage their anger, less than half say the school provides information for parents on this topic.

More findings from the report plus strategies to help children process anger more effectively:

Help children identify go-to calming tools

Parents polled endorsed a variety of strategies to help their child deal with anger or frustration.

These strategies include cool-off activities like drawing, counting to ten or deep breathing, thinking about something happy to keep calm, meditation or mindfulness or moving away from other people.  

Some children also benefit from a physical outlet for their anger, like ripping paper or squeezing a stress ball – which more parents of boys encouraged than parent of girls. Others may just need an opportunity to vent and be heard.

“For many children, effective strategies involve taking some type of break from the momentary frustration, allowing the opportunity to calm down and regain control,” Clark said. “There’s no magic strategy that works for every child so it’s helpful for parents to seek out different sources of information and advice and try different approaches.”

Recognize what’s behind the anger

Most parents polled recognize their role in helping prevent angry outbursts.

To help their child avoid getting angry or frustrated, parents say they often try to ensure they get enough sleep and exercise, help identify and avoid triggers and avoiding overscheduling.

Children's anger also often stems from feelings of fear or disappointment that they lack the skills to express calmly.

“Anger is often a secondary emotion or a response to underlying feelings,” Clark said. “Understanding this may help adults approach situations with empathy and patience.”

Model calm responses to anger

Most parents polled acknowledged they sometimes set a bad example on managing anger.

By acknowledging their feelings and apologizing, parents can demonstrate effective anger management strategies for their children to use when they get too angry, Clark says.

Adults may consider narrating their self-soothing techniques, such as saying, “I’m feeling frustrated, so I’m going to take a deep breath.”

“Just as it’s natural for children to experience anger, adults do too,” Clark said. “When parents feel they’ve set a bad example, they have a valuable opportunity to turn the situation into a teachable moment.”

Provide positive reinforcement

Clark recommends encouragement when parents notice children handling their anger constructively. Specific praise, such as “that’s great that you took deep breaths instead of yelling,” reinforces use of coping tools.

“Rewarding children for successfully managing a frustrating situation can send a positive message,” she said. “However, punishing a child for getting angry or frustrated will be ineffective unless parents emphasize the importance of using strategies to manage their frustration.

“Some children have temperaments that make them more prone to frustration, leading to quicker and more intense reactions.”

While it’s important to validate feelings, she says, parents should also set clear boundaries on aggressive behavior like hurting others or breaking things.

Take a pulse on children’s anger management at school

Children may face different challenges and frustrations at school than at home, Clark notes.

“At school, children have less control. They’re around peers, don’t have their own space, are forced to follow someone else’s schedule, and they can’t avoid things that make them upset,” Clark said. “It’s important for parents to understand how their children express emotions in this environment outside of home.”

She recommends parents use school conferences to ask how their child handles day-to-day frustrations and inform teachers about strategies that work best at home but could be adapted for the school setting.

Seek professional help if needed

If a child’s anger becomes severe, frequent, or unmanageable, it may be helpful to consult a therapist or counselor.

Children experiencing underlying issues, such as anxiety, trauma, or learning challenges, may have more difficulty managing anger, Clark says. Professional support can provide them with tailored strategies and support families in managing these behaviors effectively.

 

 

The Role of Interculturalism in higher music education – Global artistic citizenship

Music students benefit from engaging in intercultural dialogue, collaboration, and community-based projects

University of the Arts Helsinki

By reimagining educational practices to include diverse cultural perspectives and community engagement, institutions can cultivate a new generation of artists who are not only skilled musicians but also empathetic and socially responsible global citizens, says a new study by the University of the Arts Helsinki. 

A recent study published in the Nordic Research in Music Education journal explores the transformative potential of integrating interculturalism and community engagement into higher music education. The research, conducted by Professor Nathan Riki Thomson from the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki, examines how these elements impact students’ learning experiences, outcomes, and societal contributions, fostering a new generation of globally-minded artists. 

The study, titled Global artistic citizenship: (Re-)imagining interculturalism, collaboration, and community engagement as central elements of higher music education, delves into the effects of prioritizing interculturalism within music education curricula.  

By engaging music students in intercultural dialogue, collaboration, and community-based projects, the new study by the University of the Arts Helsinki underscores the importance of fostering intercultural humility and creating inclusive environments that transcend traditional cultural boundaries. Thomson argues that such approaches not only enrich students’ educational experiences but also prepare them to contribute meaningfully to a diverse and interconnected world. 

Deeper understanding of different cultures 

The research drew data from three contexts of intercultural learning environments, including  graduates of a degree programme in global music, as well as current students participating in an intercultural arts camp and a refugee community project as part of their studies. 
 
These contexts involved students in projects that required them to collaborate with local communities and engage in intercultural exchanges. They included performances, workshops, and collaborative compositions that brought together diverse cultural perspectives.  

Findings emerge in terms of the ways intercultural learning environments impact students’ sense of global artistic citizenship, develop extra-musical skills, provide opportunities to engage with societal issues, and expand professionalism, enhancing the ability to create a career and engage with the changing world.  

More inclusive and equitable learning environments 

This research emphasizes the critical role of higher music education in promoting global citizenship and intercultural understanding. The study suggests that integrating interculturalism into music education can lead to more inclusive and equitable learning environments, ultimately benefiting both students and the broader society. 

Thomson highlights several key recommendations for higher music education institutions. These include incorporating interculturalism into the curriculum, providing opportunities for students to engage in community-based projects, reimagining admissions processes, and fostering an environment that encourages open dialogue and intercultural exchange. By adopting these practices, institutions can help students develop the skills and qualities necessary to actively work across borders and boundaries, engage in dialogue and collaboration with different peoples, sonic environments, and places, and successfully navigate and contribute to an increasingly globalized world. 

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Journal

Nordic Research in Music Education

DOI

10.23865/nrme.v4.6236 

Method of Research

Case study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Global artistic citizenship: (Re-)imagining interculturalism, collaboration, and community engagement as central elements of higher music education

 

First globally broadcast remote robot-assisted laparoscopic hysterectomy

KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.

 

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The surgical team and the Edge Multi-Port Endoscopic Surgical Robot MP1000 (Edge MP1000) surgical system

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Credit: Wei Zhang

Telemedicine offers patients in isolated regions the convenience of remote consultation and treatment, alleviating issues related to the uneven distribution and development of medical resources. However, the implementation of remote surgery still faces technical and operational hurdles, primarily revolving around data transmission speed and surgical precision.

In a study published in the in the KeAi journal Intelligent Surgery, researchers from China completed a remote robot-assisted laparoscopic hysterectomy across 1,200 km by using the Edge Multi-Port Endoscopic Surgical Robot MP1000 (Edge MP1000) and 5G communication technology. The surgery, which was broadcast live across the network, demonstrates the feasibility of this technology, and marks a new stage in remote medical technology.

The surgeon was located at the Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital in Beijing. Operation instructions were entered using the surgical console, and were then transmitted via the dedicated network data line to the slave console in Wuhan and converted into actual operative actions. The three-dimensional images captured by the endoscope from the slave console served as visual signals, and were transmitted back to the surgeon console's screen in real time via a 5G network dedicated line, forming a closed-loop operation. 

Notably, the remote communication host system of the surgical robot was capable of monitoring and recording the surgical process and network status, while providing intelligent assistance functions. There was sufficient interaction between the teams on both sides, allowing smooth communication and tacit cooperation.

“This achieved the specific requirements of low latency, high precision and high reliability for surgical operations,” says Yuanguang Meng, lead researcher of the case report. “Data showed that the bidirectional latency during the surgery was only 19 ms, with a maximum jitter of about 3 ms in rare moments, and a frame drop rate of approximately 0.2%.”

The patient recovered well postoperatively and was discharged on the fourth day with no postoperative complications.

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Contact the author: Wei Zhang, zw6676@163.com

The publisher KeAi was established by Elsevier and China Science Publishing & Media Ltd to unfold quality research globally. In 2013, our focus shifted to open access publishing. We now proudly publish more than 100 world-class, open access, English language journals, spanning all scientific disciplines. Many of these are titles we publish in partnership with prestigious societies and academic institutions, such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).

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Journal

Intelligent Surgery

DOI

10.1016/j.isurg.2024.09.001 

Method of Research

Case study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Feasibility and safety evaluation of ultra-remote robot-assisted laparoscopic hysterectomy

COI Statement

Professor Yuanguang Meng and Wei Zhang are the editorial board members for Intelligent Surgery and were not involved in the editorial review or decision to publish this article. All authors declare that there are no competing interests.

 

Common way to test for leaks in large language models may be flawed

UVA researchers collaborated to study the effectiveness of membership inference attacks

University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science

 

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This slide shows how a membership inference attack might start. Assessing the product of an app asked to generate an image of a professor teaching students in “the style of” artist Monet could lead to inferences that one of Monet’s bridge paintings assisted the AI’s training.

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Credit: David Evans, UVA Engineering

Large language models are everywhere, including running in the background of the apps on the device you’re using to read this. The auto-complete suggestions in your texts and emails, the query responses composed by Gemni, Copilot and ChatGPT, and the images generated from DALL-E are all built using LLMs.

And they're all trained on real documents and images.

Computer security expert David Evans at the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science and his colleagues recently reported that a common method that artificial intelligence developers use to test if an LLM’s training data is at risk of exposure doesn’t work as well as once thought. 

Presented at the Conference for Language Modeling last month, the paper states in its abstract, “We find that MIAs barely outperform random guessing for most settings across varying LLM sizes and domains.”

What’s an MIA? A Leak? 

When creating large language models, developers essentially take a vacuum cleaner approach. They suck up as much text as they can, often from crawling sections of the internet, as well as more private sources, such as email or other data repositories, to train their artificial intelligence applications to understand properties of the world in which they work. 

That’s important when it comes to the security of that training data, which could include writing or images millions of internet users posted. 

The possibilities for vulnerability, either for content creators or for those who train LLMs, are expansive.  

Membership inference attacks, or MIAs, are the primary tool that AI developers use to measure information exposure risks, known as leaks, explained Evans, a professor of computer science who runs the Security Research Group at UVA and a co-author of the research.

Evans and recently graduated Ph.D student Anshuman Suri, the second author on the paper, who is now a postdoctoral researcher at Northeastern University, collaborated with researchers at the University of Washington on the study. 

Anshuman Suri, who shared first authorship on the paper, is now a postdoctoral researcher at Northeastern University. The UVA researchers collaborated with researchers at the University of Washington on the study. (Contributed photo)

The study was supported by the National Science Foundation’s Center for Trustworthy Machine Learning.

The main value of a membership inference test on an LLM is as a privacy audit, Evans explained. “It is a way to measure how much information the model is leaking about specific training data.

For example, using adversarial software to assess the product of an app asked to generate an image of a professor teaching students in “the style of” artist Monet could lead to inferences being generated that one of Monet’s bridge paintings assisted the AI’s training.

“An MIA is also used to test if — and if so, by how much — the model has memorized texts verbatim,” Suri added.

Given the potential for legal liability, developers would want to know how solid their foundational pipes are. 

This slide shows how a membership inference attack might start. Assessing the product of an app asked to generate an image of a professor teaching students in “the style of” artist Monet could lead to inferences that one of Monet’s bridge paintings assisted the AI’s training. (Contributed)

How Private Is That LLM? How Effective is That MIA?

The researchers performed a large-scale evaluation of five commonly used MIAs. All of the adversarial tools were trained on the popular, open-source language modeling data set known as “the Pile.” A nonprofit research group called EleutherAI released the large language model collection publicly in December 2020.

Microsoft and Meta, along with major universities such as Stanford, have all trained the LLMs of selected applications on the data set.

What’s in the training data? Subsets of data collected from Wikipedia entries, PubMed abstracts, United States Patent and Trademark Office backgrounds, YouTube subtitles, Google DeepMind mathematics and more  — representing 22 popular, information-rich web locations in total.

The problem is that language data is not like records for training a traditional model, so it is very difficult to define what a training member is.

The Pile was not filtered based on who gave consent, although researchers can use Eleuther’s tools to refine the model, based on the types of ethical concerns they might have.

“We found that the current methods for conducting membership inference attacks on LLMs are not actually measuring membership inference well, since they suffer from difficulty defining a good representative set of non-member candidates for the experiments,” Evans said. 

One reason is that the fluidity of language, as opposed to other types of data, can lead to ambiguity as to what constitutes a member of a dataset. 

“The problem is that language data is not like records for training a traditional model, so it is very difficult to define what a training member is,” he said, noting that sentences can have subtle similarities or dramatic differences in meaning based on small changes in word choices. 

“It is also very difficult to find candidate non-members that are from the same distribution, and using training time cut-offs for this is error-prone since the actual distribution of language is always changing.”

That’s what has caused past published research showing MIAs as effective to in fact be demonstrating distribution inference instead, Evans and his colleagues assert. 

The discrepancy “can be attributed to a distribution shift, e.g., members and non-members are seemingly drawn from identical domain but with different temporal ranges,” the paper states.

Their Python-based, open-source research is now available under an umbrella project called MIMIR, so that other researchers can conduct more revealing membership inference tests. 

Worried? Relative Risk Still Low

Evidence so far is that inference risks for individual records in pre-training data is low, but there is no guarantee. 

“We expect there is less inference risk for LLMs because of the huge size of the training corpus, and the way training is done, that individual text is often only seen a few times by the model in training,” Evans said.

At the same time, the interactive nature of these types of open source LLMs does open up more avenues that could be used in the future to have stronger attacks. 

“We do know, however, that if an adversary uses existing LLMs to train on their own data, known as fine-tuning, their own data is way more susceptible to error than the data seen during the model’s original training phase,” Suri said.

The researchers’ bottom line is that measuring LLM privacy risks is challenging, and the AI community is just beginning to learn how to do it.

Publication Information

“Do Membership Inference Attacks Work on Large Language Models?” by Michael Duan, Anshuman Suri, Niloofar Mireshghallah, Sewon Min, Weijia Shi, Luke Zettlemoyer, Yulia Tsvetkov, Yejin Choi, David Evans and Hannaneh Hajishirzim, was published for peer review July 10, before being accepted for the Conference on Language Modeling, held Oct. 7-9 at the University of Pennsylvania.

 

Language comprehension impacts medical prescriptions for Ontario's long-term care Francophone, Allophone residents: uOttawa study

Findings in BMC Geriatrics highlight importance of a workforce delivering culturally and linguistically concordant care to avoid inappropriate prescribing of antipsychotics

University of Ottawa

Patients living in linguistically discordant long-term care homes in Ontario are at higher odds of being inappropriately prescribed psychosis medication, says a new University of Ottawa study highlighting the importance of delivering care in the patient’s preferred language.

Researchers from the University of Ottawa’s Department of Family Medicine and the Institut de Savoir Montfort concluded Francophone and allophone residents were more likely to experience inappropriate prescription of antipsychotics compared to English-language patients in a similar setting. Linguistic discordance occurs when care cannot be delivered in a patient’s preferred language.

“The findings of this studynorth_eastexternal link add to the growing body of evidence supporting the notion that language discordance is a social determinant of health contributing to adverse events and poor patient outcomes,” says lead author Dr. Lise Bjerre, who alongside Dr. Peter Tanuseputro, conducted the population-based study of nearly 200,000 long-term care residents in Ontario over the span of nearly a decade.

“The findings highlight the importance of having a diverse workforce capable of delivering culturally and linguistically concordant care.”

According to Dr. Bjerre, the effects of language barriers could be mitigated by:

• Asking individuals to specify their preferred language, which could be achieved by having this information on the patient’s health card.
• Modifying processes to favour matching of patients to facilities and providers who can provide care in residents’ preferred language.
• Ensuring multilingual staff and/or trained interpreters are readily available.
• Training staff in French to better serve official language minority communities across the country (such as the program exists at uOttawa’s School of Pharmacy).

“Furthermore, collecting language data at the population level for both patients and health care providers – for example, by including the patient’s preferred language on the health care card, which is done in some provinces (Prince Edward Island) would facilitate evaluating the provision of language-concordant health care and how it relates to patient outcomes in different settings,” adds Dr. Bjerre, the University of Ottawa and Institut du Savoir Montfort Chair in Family.

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Journal

BMC Geriatrics

DOI

10.1186/s12877-024-05446-8 

Method of Research

Meta-analysis

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

The impact of patient-facility language discordance on potentially inappropriate prescribing of antipsychotics in long-term care home in Ontario, Canada: a retrospective population health cohort study

 

Swanson School of Engineering selected to receive $3.3 million to develop new electricity transmission technology

Funding is part of $11 million in funding from Department of Energy for High Voltage Direct Current Transmission Projects

University of Pittsburgh

 

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Part of the Swanson School's one-of-a-kind Electric Power Technologies Lab at the Energy Innovation Center.

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Credit: John Altdorfer/Swanson School of Engineering

This announcement was originally published by the Department of Energy.

The University of Pittsburgh is among four groundbreaking high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission research and development projects that are selected to receive a total of $11 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Electricity (OE) and Office of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (EERE). The awards are part of the Innovative DEsigns for high-performAnce Low-cost HVDC Converters (IDEAL HVDC) funding opportunity.

Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering will lead a $3.3 million university/industry partnership using artificial intelligence to optimize an HVDC converter design for increased power density and decreased cost.

“The Swanson School is proud to lead this important effort with our partners, the Pennsylvania State University, Eaton, HICO-Hyosung, and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL),” said Brandon Grainger, associate professor, Eaton Faculty Fellow, and PI of the program at the Swanson School. “By utilizing our unique Electric Power Technologies Lab (EPTL) at the Energy Innovation Center (EIC) in Pittsburgh’s Lower Hill District, our goal is to design, build, and test a 13.8kVac to 25kVdc power converter necessary for this transmission technology.” Grainger, who is director of the EPTL, is also Associate Director of the Energy GRID Institute and Co-Director of the Advanced Magnetics for Power and Energy Development (AMPED) Consortium with its founder, Paul Ohodnicki, associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science.

According to DOE, these projects will help to affordably integrate more renewable energy generation on land or far from shore (e.g., offshore wind) onto the grid via HVDC lines, reduce transmission system costs by 35 percent by 2035, and promote widespread technology adoption. OE is providing $8.1 million in funding and $3 million is coming from EERE.  

“This grant presents a great opportunity for us to explore and apply the modern HVDC R&D approach, with artificial intelligence-assisted design, to achieve the most demanding performance metrics while reducing costs,” explained YuAnn Li, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Pitt and a Pitt Co-PI. “AI provides excellent computing capability to flash forward on innovative power converter topologies and control, that previously would not be able to be achieved.”

The IDEAL projects are primed to help reinvent the power grid, which serves as an interstate highway for high-voltage electricity. HVDC transmission systems are more efficient than traditional alternating current (AC) transmission systems to deliver electricity over long distances at a lower cost while minimizing power losses.

“This was a highly competitive program, and our region should be proud to have received this significant support from DOE,” noted Fang Z. Peng, R.K. Mellon professor of electrical and computer engineering, director of Pitt’s Energy GRID Institute and a Pitt Co-PI. “Thanks to the investments in our one-of-a-kind facilities at the EIC, Pitt has become a national leader in HVDC research and development as well as high voltage power electronic systems.”

DOE further explained that many renewable resources are in remote locations on land or planned far from shore (e.g. offshore wind), and HVDC transmission provides a cost-effective solution for renewable integration onto the grid. And high-voltage transmission can more capably transfer power between different regions of the country without disrupting the frequency of either system, also helping to reduce delivery costs.

“Pitt has been a leader in transformative electric power engineering research for more than a century, and technologies like HVDC will take the U.S. and the world in a new direction for safe, efficient, and secure electric power transmission and distribution,” said David Vorp, Senior Associate Dean for Research & Facilities at the Swanson School of Engineering and John A. Swanson Professor of Bioengineering. “The Pitt laboratories at the EIC have evolved into a remarkable site where we can partner with industry, utilities, and academia to develop game-changing power products.”

Other IDEAL HVDC Projects include:

• GE Vernova Advanced Research: $3.3 million to develop a low-cost HVDC transmission access point substation to reduce HVDC life cycle costs by >30%. TAPS aims to provide access to affordable renewable energy to underserved and underrepresented communities.  
• Sandia National Laboratories: $1.8 million to increase the power density and reduce cost of HVDC converter stations by 10% by developing a technology of smaller 1.7 kilovolt (kV) switches that can be operated as a single 10 kV switch in a converter.  
• Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University: $3 million to investigate promising circuit technologies to upgrade the existing HVDC converter design. This approach aims to reduce direct material technology costs by 15-20%.  

These selections are the first actions taken to support DOE’s HVDC COst REduction (CORE) Initiative, to improve grid resilience, security, and operation flexibility.  

“This represents another step forward in our mission to modernize the nation’s electric grid," said Gene Rodrigues, Assistant Secretary for Electricity. "By investing $11 million in innovative HVDC transmission projects, we're accelerating adoption of an innovative technology that can create pathways to integrate more low- cost renewable energy onto the power grid. This ensures that reliable, resilient, secure and affordable clean energy is available and accessible to all Americans.”  

Jeff Marootian, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, agreed. He said, “A modern grid requires a transmission network that can offer access to a diverse range of clean energy resources across geographic regions. These investments will help our efforts to improve energy reliability for consumers by better integrating both land and offshore power sources like wind onto the grid.”  

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