Bachelor Thesis/ Semester Project - FS2017

Visualization of large-scale simulation data – Where big data meets big world

EnerPol, LEC’s system-wide, bottom-to-top, integrated framework simulates the geographically-indexed production, transmission and demand of electricity and gas, as well as urban flows on the scale of a region, country or continent. Using detailed physical, technical and financial models, the technical operation of infrastructure, the needs for development, and economic perspectives can be evaluated. One of the important parts of that evaluation is visualization of data received from a simulation. During the simulation, large amount of data is generated and stored in various formats. That data need to be assessed further, but due to its amount, manual approach is not a deal. Currently EnerPol lacks built-in capabilities to visualize simulation results and various third-party tools like MATLAB or QGIS are used. The goal of this project is to bring visualization of simulation results into the EnerPol framework to make analysis process faster and more convenient, to let a researcher be focused on the actual results.

The first part of this project includes an analysis of the output data from various simulation modules in order to find common patterns. Based on that analysis, the output data can be standardized for unified visualization in a more efficient way. Another part of the project includes research on available tools for data visualization with geographical binding. Simulated data has

dimensions across time and space axes, so appropriate technologies should be used to simplify exploring of the results. That could be 2D or 3D technologies with layered maps rendering. The last part is an integration of visualization technologies into the EnerPol framework. The project comprises 20% data analysis and standardization, 20% investigating and simulation using existing tools, and 60% programming. The interested student should be highly motivated and interested in large-scale simulation process, programming, energy and economics. Good programming skills (Python, C++) are advantageous. Don’t miss this great opportunity to obtain or improve your programming skills!

Contact: Saprykin Aleksandr, Institut für Energietechnik, LEC, ETH Zürich, ML J 41.2, Sonneggstrasse 3, CH-8092 Zürich, T: +41 44 632 6834, email: saprykin@lec.mavt.ethz.ch