You can hear about applying bio-inspired design to improve the resilience of power grids with Texas A&M Engineering’s podcast SoundBytes Season 1 Episode 29. It was also featured with ASME “How the Food Web Can Keep the Electricity Flowing” (Sep 29, 2020 by Jean Thilmany) and “How Food Webs May Improve Electric Grids” (Dec 5, 2022 by Michael Abrams), as well as Texas A&M’s College of Engineering “Pursuing greater resilience through nature-inspired power grids.”

This work started with a seed grant from Texas A&M University’s Energy Institute and is partially supported by funding and a collaboration with Sandia National Lab that is looking at cyber-physical power systems and a grant by the DOE.

Physical Power Transmission Systems:

(2024) Huang, H., H. V. Poor, K. R. Davis, T. J. Overbye, A. Layton, A. E. Goulart, and S. Zonouz. “Toward Resilient Modern Power Systems: From Single-Domain to Cross-Domain Resilience Enhancement.” Proceedings of the IEEE 112(4): 365-398. DOI: 10.1109/JPROC.2024.3405709

(2023) Huang, H., Z. Mao, *V. Panyam, A. Layton, and K. Davis. “Ecological Robustness-Oriented Grid Network Design for Resilience Against Multiple Hazards.” IEEE Transactions on Power Systems. DOI: 10.1109/TPWRS.2023.3262501

(2022) Huang, H., Mao, Z., Layton, A., and Davis, K. R., “An Ecological Robustness Oriented Optimal Power Flow for Power Systems’ Survivability,” IEEE Transactions on Power Systems. DOI: 10.1109/TPWRS.2022.3168226

*Panyam, V. (2019-Dec) “Bio-inspired design for robust power systems.” Mechanical Engineering M.S. Thesis, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX.

(2019) *Panyam, V.; Huang, H.; Davis, K.; Layton, A. “Bio-Inspired Design for Resilient Power Networks.” Applied Energy, 251. DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.113349

(2012) A Layton, J J Reap, B Bras, and M Weissburg. Layton, A.; Bras, B.; Weissburg, M.  Correlation between thermodynamic efficiency and ecological cyclicity for thermodynamic power cycles. PLoS ONE, 7:1–7, 2012. [open access online]

(2021) *Foster, A.; Huang, H.; M. R. Narimani; *L. Homiller; K. Davis; A. Layton. Ecological Uniqueness for Understanding Component Important in Power Grids. 2021 IEEE Texas Power and Energy Conference (TPEC). College Station, TX, USA. (virtual due to COVID-19) DOI: 10.1109/TPEC51183.2021.9384955

(2021) Huang, H.; *V. Panyam; M. R. Narimani; A. Layton; K. Davis. Mixed-Integer Optimization for Bio-Inspired Robust Power Network Design. 52nd North American Power Symposium (NAPS). Tempe, AZ, USA. (virtual due to COVID-19) DOI: 10.1109/NAPS50074.2021.9449755

(2019) *Panyam, V.; H. Huang; K. Davis; A. Layton. An ecosystem perspective for the design of sustainable power systems. The 26th CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering. F. Zhao. West Lafayette, IN, USA.

(2019) *Panyam, V.; H. Huang; B. Pinte; K. Davis; A. Layton. Bio-inspired design for robust power networks. 2019 IEEE Texas Power and Energy Conference (TPEC). College Station, TX, USA.

Cyber-Physical Power Systems:

(2025) Huo, X., J. Leiden, *E. Payne, A. Layton, and K. Davis. “Cyber-Physical Intrusion Response: The Role of AI in Resilient Power System Operation.” Oxford Energy Forum. May 2025, Issue 145.

(2025) *Payne, E., S. Sun, S. Hossain-McKenzie, N. Jacobs, K. Davis, A. Layton. “Utilizing Bio-Inspired Metrics for Real-Time Detection of Denial-of-Service Attacks.” 25th Annual Conference on Systems Engineering Research (CSER). Long Beach, CA, USA.

(2025) *Payne, E., S. Hossain-McKenzie, N. Jacobs, K. Davis, A. Layton. “BiOpCPS: A Bio-inspired Method for Resilient Cyber-Physical Power System Interface Optimization.” 25th Annual Conference on Systems Engineering Research (CSER). Long Beach, CA, USA.

(2024) *Payne, E., S. Hossain-McKenzie, N. Jacobs, K. Davis and A. Layton, “Analyzing Cyber-Physical Modularity and Interdependence Using Bio-Inspired Graph Modeling.” IEEE Access. DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3450368

(2024) Sun, S., H. Huang, *E. Payne, S. Hossain-McKenzie, N. Jacobs, H. Vincent Poor, A. Layton, and K. Davis. “A Graph Embedding-Based Approach for Automatic Cyber-Physical Power System Risk Assessment to Prevent and Mitigate Threats at Scale.” The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Cyber-Physical Systems: Theory & Applications. DOI: 10.1049/cps2.12097

(2024) *Chatterjee, A., H. Huang, R. Malak, K. Davis, and A. Layton. “Extending Ecological Network Analysis to Design Resilient Cyber-Physical System of Systems.” IEEE Open Journal of Systems Engineering. DOI: 10.1109/OJSE.2024.3368921

(2024) Jacobs, N., S. Hossain-McKenzie, S. Sun, *E. Payne, A. Summers, L. Al Homoud, A. Layton, K. Davis, and C. Goes. “Leveraging Clustering Techniques for Cyber-Physical System Analysis to Enhance Disturbance Characterization.” The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Cyber-Physical Systems: Theory & Applications. 1-15. DOI: 10.1049/cps2.12087

(2024) *Payne, E.; Sun, S.; Layton, A.; Davis, K.; Hossain-McKenzie, S.; Jacobs, N. “Insight Into Cyber Information Flow Interdependencies Using Bio-inspired Topologies.” 58th Annual Conference on Information Sciences & Systems. Princeton, NJ, USA.

(2023) Sun, S.; *Payne, E.; Layton, A.; Davis, K.; Hossain-McKenzie, S.; Jacobs, N. “Bioinspired and AI DeepWalk Based Approach to Understand Cyber-Physical Interdependencies of Power Grid Infrastructure.” North American Power Symposium (NAPS). Asheville, NC, USA.

(2023) Hossain-McKenzie, S.; N. Jacobs; A. Summers; *A. Chatterjee; A. Layton; K. Davis; H. Huang. “Toward the Characterization of Cyber-Physical System Interdependencies in the Electric Grid.” Power and Energy Conference at Illinois (PECI). Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA. DOI: 10.1109/PECI57361.2023.10197709

(2021) *Chatterjee, A.; Huang, H.; Davis, K.; Layton, A. “A Multigraph Modeling Approach to Enable Ecological Network Analysis of Cyber Physical Power Networks.” 2021 IEEE International Conference on Communications, Control, and Computing Technologies for Smart Grids (SmartGridComm) – Control and Operations for Smart Grids Symposium. Aachen, Germany. (virtual due to COVID-19) DOI: 10.1109/SmartGridComm51999.2021.9631989

(2021) Huang, H.; *Chatterjee, A.; Davis, K.; Layton, A. “An Investigation into Ecological Network Analysis for Cyber-Physical Power Systems.” 2021 IEEE International Conference on Communications, Control, and Computing Technologies for Smart Grids (SmartGridComm) – Cyber Security and Privacy Symposium. Aachen, Germany. (virtual due to COVID-19) DOI: 10.1109/SmartGridComm51999.2021.9632310

(2019) *Chatterjee, A.; A. Layton. Bio-Inspired Human Network Design: Multi-Currency Robustness Metric Formulation Inspired By Ecological Network Analysis. ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences (IDETC). Anaheim, CA.

Satellite Networks:

(2024) *Duffy, A.; Layton, A. “Satellite Network Architecture Performance: Setting the Stage for Bio-Inspired Network Design.” Conference on Systems Engineering Research (CSER). Tucson, AZ, USA. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-62554-1_32

*Duffy, A. (2022-Dec) “Design and Analysis of Satellite Network Architectures for Ecological Resilience.” Energy M.S. Thesis, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX.

Microgrids:

(2023) *Chatterjee, A.; *A. Bushagour; A. Layton. “Resilient Microgrid Design Using Ecological Network Analysis.” 21st Annual Conference on Systems Engineering Research (CSER). Hoboken, New Jersey, USA. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-49179-5_41

Thermodynamic Power Cycles:

(2019) *Panyam, V.; Layton, A. “A quantitative engineering study of ecosystem robustness using thermodynamic power cycles as case studies.” PLOS ONE, 14(12), p. e0226993. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0226993 [open access online]

(2018) *Panyam, V.; *T. Dave; A. Layton. ASME 2018 International Design Engineering Technical Conference, Understanding Ecological Efficiency and Robustness for Network Design Using Thermodynamic Power Cycles. Quebec City, Canada.