UVM Senior Nick Totten’s final semester is wrapping up nicely with a prestigious scholarship award and an equally impressive job offer.
Totten, who will graduate this May with a degree in electrical engineering and a minor in computer science, was announced this past month as a recipient of a scholarship from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers—more commonly known as IEEE (pronounced ‘eye-triple-E’).
As the world's largest technical professional organization, IEEE comprises 39 technical societies, each dedicated to advancing technology in its respective field. Among them is the Power & Energy Society (PES), which sponsors the Scholarship Plus Initiative that honored Totten.
The Initiative recognizes undergraduate students in IEEE-related fields who are high achievers with strong GPAs and distinctive extracurricular commitments to the power and energy field. This year, only 244 students were selected from over 110 U.S. and Canadian universities.
“The PES Scholarship Plus Initiative provides scholarships and real-world experience to undergraduates who are the very individuals who will one day develop new green technologies, build the smart grid, and change the way we generate and utilize power,” PES stated in the announcement.
Scholarship recipients receive up to $10,000 toward educational expenses along with networking connections with industry professionals. For his application, Totten received letters of support from Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) professors Mads Almassalkhi and Sam Chevalier.
During his time at UVM, Totten participated in research aimed at optimizing distribution grid power flows using advanced modeling and simulation tools under the mentorship of Assistant Professor Amrit Pandey. Continuing a well-established culture of collaboration with the Vermont energy industry, Totten had the opportunity to apply his skills and fresh perspective at VELCO (Vermont Electric Power Company) as an intern with their innovation team, focusing on reactive power resources.
"Nick joins a growing list of Electrical and Computer Engineering students to land this national honor," said Almassalkhi, "He serves as an excellent example of the talent and opportunity our students bring to the Vermont energy industry with new ideas on a broad range of disciplines, including energy systems, power engineering, data analysis, computing, and machine learning."
Coinciding with the scholarship is the news of his post-graduation position at ISO New England—essentially the "major leagues" of power distribution in the Northeast. A nonprofit Independent System Operator (ISO) and Regional Transmission Organization (RTO), ISO New England serves as the “air-traffic controller” for power transmission systems across the six New England states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
Among the organization’s core responsibilities are ensuring that supply and demand are balanced in real-time across the region and managing the competitive wholesale electricity market, where generators sell power, capacity, and other services.
Following a well-deserved post-graduation respite this summer, Totten will join ISO New England as a transmission planning engineer. In this essential role, he will study and forecast power system attributes such as generation and load growth, infrastructure resilience, and adaptation to new technologies.
“During his time at UVM, Nick has demonstrated both a strong desire and a clear aptitude for making an impact in the field of power systems,” said Pandey. “His research on distribution grid state estimation did exactly that for a local utility, Vermont Electric Cooperative, and I am confident that his contributions at ISO New England will be equally impressive.”