{"id":3625,"date":"2026-04-15T13:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T20:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/natlab.wsu.edu\/grid\/?p=3625"},"modified":"2026-04-15T13:36:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T20:36:00","slug":"new-distinguished-graduate-research-program-students-reflect-on-passion-for-energy-and-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/natlab.wsu.edu\/grid\/2026\/04\/15\/new-distinguished-graduate-research-program-students-reflect-on-passion-for-energy-and-research\/","title":{"rendered":"New Distinguished Graduate Research Program students reflect on passion for energy and research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DGRP Student Article<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Distinguished Graduate Research Program is a collaborative venture between Washington State University (WSU) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to give graduate students an opportunity to learn from academia and national laboratory researchers by having a joint education between the two institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AGI has welcomed three new students to the program over the past two years, Jacob Hastings, Casey Detlaff, and Marshal Ruzvidzo. All three students are in the first portion of the DGRP track, working on completing the academic portion of the program at WSU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marshal Ruzvidzo<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marshal Ruzvidzo is a PhD student in power systems engineering at WSU, bringing a background in electrical engineering from his undergraduate and master\u2019s degree. Ruzvidzo\u2019s specific area of research interest falls into the power system, dynamics, stability, and control space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about making sure the power grid is stable or reliable,\u201d Ruzvidzo said \u201cSo that\u2019s where I currently focus on, finding ways to make sure the power grid is more stable and reliable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ruzvidzo first got inspired to pursue engineering in his childhood, where he was interested in problem-solving. He had a particular fascination with cell phones, and how they facilitate conversation with someone far away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his undergraduate program, he took a course on power system analysis, which focused on how power is transmitted from generators to houses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThrough that course we\u2019re doing sort of a systematic way to analyze how the power flows, Ruzvidzo said. \u201cThrough mathematics and physics, you can actually design how things can flow in a mesh in a complicated way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ruzvidzo also mentioned that it can be taken for granted when lights are turned on, and that there is a lot of planning that goes into electrical engineering to ensure that power comes on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was so fascinated the power of mathematics,\u201d Ruzvidzo said. \u201cEngineers use to solve these kinds of problems to make sure that power is more reliable and it\u2019s going where it\u2019s needed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ruzvidzo is part of the 2025 DGRP cohort, jointly advised by Professor Mani Venkatasubramanian from WSU and Dr. Wei Du, the AGI Co-Director from PNNL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an excellent opportunity to have two advisors, one from WSU and the other one from PNNL,\u201d Ruzvidzo said. \u201cThis collaboration helped me to get multiple perspectives. My advisor at PNNL is equally involved with working with industry, so he can also give me advice on the research I\u2019m working on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ruzvidzo said that working with advisors who work closely with industry is helpful, because knowing real-world problems that need solving is important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSometimes you are in your lab creating your own problems that are non-existent, but my advisor can sometimes validate that \u2018Okay, this is what is happening in industry, this is a problem worth working on\u2019,\u201d Ruzvidzo said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Casey Detlaff<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Casey Detlaff is a PhD student in power systems engineering at WSU, also obtaining an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering at the same institution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Detlaff chose to pursue electrical engineering because of their interest in the circuits element of physics while in high school. During their undergraduate tenure at WSU, Detlaff participated in research with Dr. Anamika Dubey,the AGI Co-Director from WSU and completed an internship with Schweitzer Engineering Laboratory in Pullman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Detlaff chose WSU because of the variety of people in a big school, citing that there are a lot of things to do, but you can also find your niche. Detlaff also likes the focus that WSU has on the power grid and agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Detlaff is involved with the distribution systems lab, which focuses on power systems that are close to consumers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat’s going to be things like smart meters, electric vehicle charging, and rooftop solar; basically the power grid of a neighborhood,\u201d Detlaff said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Detlaff said that with emerging technologies in the electrical and power engineering fields, distributed generation has become a factor in the power grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDistributed generation means replacing one big power plant with many smaller power plants,\u201d Detlaff said. \u201cAdditionally, consumers may generate power with things like rooftop solar panels, sending power back into the grid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specifically, Dettlaff\u2019s research focuses on cybersecurity and data privacy in the power grid. This is becoming increasingly important as the grid gets “smarter” and more connected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Detlaff is part of the 2025 DGRP cohort and is jointly advised by Dr. Anamika Dubey through WSU and Dr. Md Touhiduzzaman through PNNL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor me, DGRP is a great fit because it gives me a direct path towards my goal, which is to work in a national laboratory,\u201d Detlaff said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Detlaff is excited to work in-person at PNNL and is excited for the move to the Tri-Cities and to make friends at PNNL. During their undergraduate program at WSU, Detlaff participated in spring practicum, which is a weeklong experience where power engineering students go to PNNL for a short internship experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was really inspired by that experience because I enjoyed the work culture and environment of the lab, where people had a lot of freedom and were very passionate,\u201d Detlaff said, \u201cEveryone was working on something different. People were all extremely self-motivated and driven in what they were working on. I felt like PNNL kind of became my dream job, like \u2018okay, let\u2019s shoot for something like that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jacob Hastings<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jacob Hastings is a PhD student in electrical engineering at WSU, also obtaining a bachelor’s degree in physics and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from WSU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hastings\u2019 area of research interests currently lies in the optimization of electric vehicle charging, especially looking into how to lessen the impact of increased loads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you have a lot of electric vehicles, whether it be in the case of individuals owning them or entire fleets of them for things like deliveries, what you will tend to have are times where they all come back close to the same time, and if you do the obvious thing which is plugging them in and charging them, that\u2019s going to be a significant jump to a load that didn\u2019t need to happen at current charging speeds,\u201d Hastings said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hastings said that the charging of electric vehicles doesn\u2019t always have to happen immediately, and if someone needs their car charged by 5am, it doesn\u2019t always need to start charging when it\u2019s plugged in at 5 p.m. He also mentioned that some financial benefits could occur if power companies could work with customers to optimize when charging happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow would that affect energy prices within a market?,\u201d Hastings posed hypothetically. \u201cHow would that affect strains on the distribution grid? How would that affect other limitations you might encounter?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In both Hasting\u2019s previous work in physics and current work in the engineering field lead to projects that he is proud of and motivate him to see the projects through to usage and deployment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith engineering, you have an idea, you work it through, and you might actually get to see it implemented and so the ability to do that is something that I feel passionate about, something that I feel is useful,\u201d said Hastings \u201cI know what it\u2019ll be for. I know what I can do with it, and I\u2019m excited about the impact it could have. You\u2019d be hard pressed to find someone working on something for the power system that wasn\u2019t in some way beneficial to everyone who uses electricity, right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hastings is part of the 2024 DGRP cohort, jointly advised by Dr. Anjan Bose through WSU and Dr. Monish Mukherjee through PNNL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe WSU side is absolutely providing this foundational knowledge that I completely needed coming in. I knew how electricity flowed from physics, but I didn\u2019t know a lot of the techniques that were being used,\u201d said Hastings. \u201cI didn\u2019t know a lot of the tools and tricks that have been utilized to make this insanely complicated thing that is the power grid accessible and able to be analyzed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hastings started working with PNNL during his master\u2019s program and appreciated the variety of backgrounds and specialties of the people he worked with at PNNL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA place like PNNL is very exciting, and that\u2019s why DGRP really appealed to me because I\u2019m already working on these projects where I can leverage what PNNL has and a lot of what PNNL does and with DGRP I can actually go in and meet the people, and that\u2019s the exciting next step,\u201d said Hastings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Distinguished Graduate Research Program is a collaborative venture between Washington State University (WSU) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to give graduate students an opportunity to learn from academia and national laboratory researchers by having a joint education between the two institutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25627,"featured_media":3505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[553],"tags":[],"wsuwp_university_location":[],"wsuwp_university_org":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/natlab.wsu.edu\/grid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3625"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/natlab.wsu.edu\/grid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/natlab.wsu.edu\/grid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/natlab.wsu.edu\/grid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25627"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/natlab.wsu.edu\/grid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3625"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/natlab.wsu.edu\/grid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3626,"href":"https:\/\/natlab.wsu.edu\/grid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3625\/revisions\/3626"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/natlab.wsu.edu\/grid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/natlab.wsu.edu\/grid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/natlab.wsu.edu\/grid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/natlab.wsu.edu\/grid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3625"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/natlab.wsu.edu\/grid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_location?post=3625"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_org","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/natlab.wsu.edu\/grid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_org?post=3625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}