1. Kansas State University
  2. »Division of Communications and Marketing
  3. »K-State Today
  4. »Wu awarded Lucas-Rathbone Professorship in Engineering

K-State Today

July 12, 2022

Wu awarded Lucas-Rathbone Professorship in Engineering

Submitted by Grant Guggisberg

Hongyu Wu

Hongyu Wu, Michelle Munson-Serban Simu Keystone research scholar and associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, has been awarded a Lucas-Rathbone Professorship in Engineering at K-State. The five-year appointment carries annual funding to be used in support of his designation as a highly regarded K-State educator and researcher in the Mike Wiegers Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Wu came to K-State in 2016 after two and a half years as a research engineer in the Power Systems Engineering Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Before that, he spent three years as a senior research associate at the Robert W. Galvin Center for Electricity Innovation at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Wu earned his doctorate from Xi'an Jiaotong University in China in 2011.

His current research focuses on machine learning applications in energy systems, power grid integration of wind and solar energy, smart grid cyber-physical security and energy management systems. He recently received a $500,000 Faculty Early Career Development, or CAREER, award from the National Science Foundation for a project to enhance the attack resiliency of cyber-physical power grids. He is an NSF Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, or EPSCoR, research fellow and received the Outstanding Assistant Professor Award from the Carl R. Ice College of Engineering in 2019. He and his team won three best conference paper awards and one national collegiate competition. He also serves as an associate editor in IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid and IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics.

The professorship honors Michael SP Lucas, former electrical and computer engineering professor, and Donald E. Rathbone, former dean of the College of Engineering, as well as promotes the recruitment and retention of the highest quality faculty for the college.