Overview
Personal Profile
Richard Macwan is a senior researcher with the Energy Security and Resilience Center. His work is focused on cyber-physical systems security of electric grids and smart grid technologies, providing expertise at the intersection of cybersecurity and power systems. Macwan's primary research interests include the development of physics-based algorithms and technologies for increasing the cyber resilience of power grids, as well as the development of realistic cyber-physical test bed environments for the assessment of such technologies. Prior to NLR, Macwan was a senior research engineer at the Information Trust Institute, where he led research efforts on projects funded by the U.S. Department of Energy that aimed to detect and mitigate the potential impact of cyber-related threats to power grids. Additionally, Macwan served as the lead power research engineer for the Cyber-Physical Experimentation Environment for a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program that aimed to enable blackstart recovery of the power grid from a national scale cyberattack on the U.S. energy sector's critical infrastructure. Macwan has been involved in a wide range of research efforts in power systems—from analyzing the impact of geo-magnetic disturbance to the generation of synthetic power grid models for research and experimentation.
Research Interests
Physics-based algorithms and technologies for cyber resilience of power grids
Cyber-physical test bed environments
Professional Experience
Senior research engineer – power, Information Trust Institute, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign (2013–2020)
Research assistant, Polytechnic Institute of New York University (2011–2012)
Assistant manager of electrical engineering, Essar Engineering Services Ltd. (2008–2009)
Education/Academic Qualification
Bachelor, Electrical Engineering, Gujarat University
Master, Electrical Engineering, Polytechnic Institute of New York University
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Collaborations and Top Research Areas From the Past 5 Years
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Cyber-Informed Engineering Power Generation Guide: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER)
Venkataramanan, V., Williams, G., Hatic, D., Etigowni, S., MaGill, C., Solanki, B., Martin, M., Macwan, R., Welch, J., Yockey, P., Gellner, J., Rawson, S., Evans, R. & Meng, J., 2026, 60 p.Research output: NLR › Technical Report
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ARM-IRL: Adaptive Resilience Metric Quantification Using Inverse Reinforcement Learning: Article No. 103
Sahu, A., Venkataramanan, V. & Macwan, R., 2025, In: AI (Switzerland). 6, 5, 28 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
1 Scopus Citations -
Designing Future Energy Systems with Generative AI
Glaws, A., King, R., Emami, P., Buster, G., Benton, B., Zhang, X., Zamzam, A., Venkataramanan, V. & Macwan, R., 2025, In: Computing in Science and Engineering. 27, 4, p. 8-18 11 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
3 Scopus Citations -
Requirements Framework for Cyber-Informed Engineering: Cyber-Informed Engineering
Etigowni, S., Macwan, R. & Welsh, J., 2025, 27 p.Research output: NLR › Technical Report
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VPP Cybersecurity: Stakeholder Roles and Responsibilities
Macwan, R., 2025, 19 p.Research output: NLR › Presentation