Proud of the 2026 graduating class of the Lyle School of Engineering and the exceptional work presented by Sreshta Ghosh, Bianca Barreiro, Sam Stankard, and Radha Chitgopkar on “Utility Substation Health Trend Analysis” under the guidance of Prof. Eli Olinick of Southern Methodist University. This also marked the first graduating class of the Senior Design Projects supported through the Dr. Richard S. Barr Senior Design Scholarship Endowment established by Dr. Nandlal & Sheila Singh.
We extend our sincere appreciation to Matt Williamson, Engineering Services Manager at Oncor Electric Delivery, for serving as an incredible source of industry knowledge and guidance throughout the project, and to Nand Singh for mentoring and supporting the students during their project journey.
After analyzing a sample of more than 5 million inspection and maintenance data points related to substation performance across electric utilities in the United States, one of the project’s most significant findings revealed that nearly 97% of abnormal observations resulted in work-order creation — helping utilities mitigate outages, reduce unnecessary field visits, lower major repair costs, and improve the accuracy and effectiveness of asset inspections.
The presentation reflected a remarkable blend of requirements gathering, analytics, professionalism, and real-world engineering insight. It was truly rewarding to see these students apply data-driven methodologies to improve the reliability of utility assets and maintenance decision-making in such a meaningful way. Congratulations once again to this talented graduating class. Wishing them continued success as they begin the next chapter of their professional journeys!
Originally published on minmaxtech.com .