Michael F Ahern
Mike leads WPI's Academic and Corporate Engagement group. This includes developing, fostering, and managing strategic relationships with industry in a comprehensive manner and across academic disciplines, delivering long-term, measurable outcomes that result in mutual economic value. Reporting to the Provost within Academic Affairs, the group includes Corporate Partnership Account Executives, Program Developers, and the Biomanufacturing Education and Training Center.
Mike also regularly serves as an adjunct instructor in WPI's Foisie Business School. He teaches an undergraduate course in Data Analysis for Decision Making and has taught Risk Management and Decision Making at the graduate level. Each summer, Mike teaches Financial Literacy in WPI's Frontiers Program for High School students. Mike also develops and delivers customized professional development courses at corporations.
From 2015 to 2020, Mike led WPI research teams as part of U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency funded initiatives to improve U.S. Power Grid Cybersecurity.
Mike brings over 40 years of professional experience to this role. Over 30 years of his career have been in the electric and gas utility business, 7 of them as a corporate executive at a Fortune 500 firm, Eversource Energy (then Northeast Utilities). Mike joined WPI as the Director of Power Systems in 2012.
Mike earned his Bachelor's Degree from WPI in 1978, a Master of Science degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1981, and a Master of Business Administration degree from Resselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1987.
News
Media Coverage
Michael Ahern, director of Power Systems and instructor in the Foisie Business School, wrote an op-ed published by the Telegram & Gazette stressing the vulnerabilities inherent in the U.S. electrical power system. In "Urgent Action Needed to Protect the Nation's Power Grid," Ahern describes the grid’s problematic infrastructure and ways to guard against cyberattack.
Michael Ahern, director of power systems and program director in Academic and Corporate Engagement, wrote an article in T&D World detailing what he sees as the seven issues facing the modernization of the nation’s power delivery system. Spoiler alert: the top challenge is people: utility companies and related organizations face difficulty in attracting and retaining the highly skilled talent they need to meet the growing demands of the grid.