The e-GUIDE Initiative is a collaborative effort spanning five leading universities—University of Massachusetts Amherst, Carnegie Mellon University, Columbia University, Rochester Institute of Technology, and the University of Washington. Through this partnership, students engage in applied research that addresses critical challenges in underserved communities, working at the intersection of energy access, sustainable development, and data-driven solutions.

This page highlights the impactful work conducted by students in our lab over the past academic year under the e-GUIDE Initiative. Explore the following summary documents to learn more about their research contributions and the real-world challenges they are helping to solve.

Research update: Strategies for managing peak demand through diverse load integration and targeted load shedding. By Yuezi Wu:

• Managing Peak Demand Days to Reduce Mini-Grid Generation Costs
• Derisking Mini-Grid Generation Investment Through Diverse Load Integration

Research update: Surveys overstate electricity spending by low-income households, leading to potential missteps in energy policy decisions. By Joel Mugyenyi:

• Miscounting the Poor: How Survey Data Overstates Electricity Spending in Rwanda.

Research update: Surveys in informal settlements found widespread use of mixed polluting fuels, with growing adoption of electric boiling—mainly for bathing and pre-cooking—to save time and cut fuel use. By Vongaishe Mutatu:

• Standard Fuel Use and Uptake of e-cooking and e-boiling in Nairobi’s Informal Settlements

Research update: Data analysis and machine learning to map irrigation in Zambia’s dambos reveal that, while models overestimate irrigated land, this method helps identify energy needs for future grid or mini-grid connections.. By Hasan Siddiqui:

• Irrigation in Zambia Eastern Province