DSU to study electric vehicle charging

A Dakota State University assistant professor has received a grant to study new technology related to electric vehicles.  

Dr. Bhaskar Rimal, an assistant professor of Computer and Cyber Sciences at Dakota State, has received a 90-thousand dollar Competitive Research Grant from the state Board of Regents to study the new technology.  Work on the one-year grant begins in August.

The project will help solve two problems with electric vehicles – charging management and communications.  

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, in 2015 the transportation sector held 27-percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Rimal said this statistic indicates the need for the widespread adoption of intelligent transport systems, which can reduce carbon emissions and improve air quality, with impacts on both quality of life and healthcare costs.

Rimal said this grant will contribute scholarly research in the field at national level, support the agenda of potential external funding agencies, produce significant new research capacity for researchers, and generate tech transfer and commercialization opportunities for South Dakota and Dakota State.   It will also create opportunities for the graduate and undergraduate student researchers working on the project.

Rimal hopes that after the grant is completed, he will be able to extend the progress in the future, with a bigger scale research project with the National Science Foundation.