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TE Challenge FAQ
1. How do organizations participate–where's the funding?
3. What kind of reporting is required?
4. What are the IPR-sharing requirements?
5. What is the long-term goal for the Challenge?
6. Why should we bring our research project into the TE Challenge?
7. Where is the prize? Isn't a Challenge supposed to be a competition?
Q. How do organizations participate–where's the funding?
A. Many groups are attaching their participation to existing projects, teaming up with other organizations to gain the benefits of collaboration with shared goals. Other teams find funding from one team member or another. We hope that as the Challenge proceeds that some other funding sources will become available.
Q. How to join the Challenge?
A. To join the Challenge, go to the Join link on the Collaboration site. Basically, just send an email to TEChallenge-info [at] nist.gov (TEChallenge-info[at]nist[dot]gov) with the basic information: who you are (organization and individual contact info) and then what your idea is (or your capabilities that you hope to bring to the table to potentially join a team). Note that joining the TE Challenge is not the same as registering for the Sept. 10-11 Kickoff event. Please go here for the Kickoff Event page. Everyone is welcome to the Kickoff even if you're not sure yet how you want to participate.
Q. What kind of reporting is required?
A. Our primary goal is to give a platform for teams to form and do exciting work and then share that with others. We do hope that teams will supply information that helps us (TE community) understand: What modeling and simulation tools were used for what purposes. What tool extensions were made or new co-simulations performed. What TE approaches were investigated and what results were found. What data resources were used, tools developed, exciting results found, collaborations formed, lessons learned, and other resources that might be used to build up the TE community.
Q. What are the IPR-sharing requirements?
A. Only share what you want to make public. Of course, the more that a team shares, the more everyone else can learn and the greater the benefit to moving TE forward as a whole. It is our goal to have an ongoing dialog and up- to-date information to serve Challenge participants and strengthen the Challenge process as it advances. The collaboration site will host TE Challenge announcements and updates, team/project information/developments, resources, links to relevant outside TE publications, etc.
Q. What is the long-term goal for the Challenge?
A. NIST has been working on Smart Grid standards interoperability for 6+ years. TE is about responsive demand for the next generation grid. We see the development of TE as slow process and this TE Challenge as Phase I of perhaps a multi-phase effort. Phase II would be more focused on specific projects that are identified as part of Phase I. Maybe 2+ years from now we will have more robust and interoperable simulation tools and be clearer on what TE approaches can work. Then we can have utilities piloting these approaches.
Q: Why should we bring our research project into the TE Challenge?
A: One of the greatest benefits of the Challenge is the collaboration. Together we can share our knowledge, resources and energy to collectively identify the way forward for TE: where are the gaps, how do we fill them, and what TE approaches can meet the grid challenges that we face? Bringing your research effort to the Challenge allows your project to gain from this collaboration, whether in refining research direction, finding unexpected partners for now or for next stage research, or strengthening the work in other ways.
Q: Where is the prize? Isn't a Challenge supposed to be a competition?
A: NIST Challenges do not seek to identify "winners". On the other hand, participants in our Preparatory Workshop noted that the participants themselves may form a committee that can evaluate the different team efforts and provide recognition for excellent work. This recognition would be part of our Summit meetings in 2016. The Summit meeting itself provides a platform for sharing the work results. In addition, we have plans to arrange a special edition of a research journal for publications based on research in the Challenge.