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Bio

Serena Kim is an assistant professor in the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) at NC State University. Her research explores the intersection of data science and collective action, with a focus on energy and infrastructure policy. She is interested in how the public perceives and adopts distributed energy resources, including rooftop solar, battery storage, and electric vehicle charging. She develops software, tools, and models that integrate diverse data sources with machine learning and artificial intelligence to address real-world challenges, such as improving infrastructure resilience and supporting data-informed energy transitions.

Her published work has appeared in the Journal of Computational Social Science, Energy Policy, Applied Energy, SSM – Population Health, EPJ Data Science and Policy Studies Journal among other peer-reviewed journals. Her research has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Grist, and other media outlets.

Before joining NC State, Serena was a research associate in the College of Engineering, Design, and Computing, and a scholar in residence in the School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado Denver. Over her four years there, she taught graduate courses on data analytics.

Projects

• Collaborative Approaches to Electrification, Load Growth, and Demand Management in Rural Electric Co-ops (CARESL). Supported by the Alfred Sloan Foundation, $500,000. 2026 – 2028.
• E-VIBES: Integration of Electric Vehicles and the Grid (https://evibes.us). Supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Strengthening American Infrastructure Program (Award # 2324421), $750,000. 2023 – 2026.
• Data for Growing Representative Justice and Co-Stewardship in Institutional Diverse Communities (https://ecostewardship.org). Supported by U.S. Forest Service (USFS), $170,000. 2023 – 2025.
• Public Perception of Renewable Energy (https://solarsentiment.org)
• Spatial Distribution of Rooftop Solar Systems
• Global Diffusion of Renewable Energy Policies

Website

https://serenakim.org

Research Group

https://aerislab.org – Analytics for Energy Resilience, Infrastructure, and Systems (AERIS) Lab

Selected Publications

“Sentiment analysis of solar energy in U.S. cities: A 10-year analysis using Transformer-based deep learning.” JOURNAL OF COMPUTATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE (2025).

“Spatial distribution of solar PV deployment: an application of the region-based convolutional neural network,” EPJ DATA SCIENCE (2023).

“Electricity peak shaving for commercial buildings using machine learning and vehicle to building (V2B) system,” APPLIED ENERGY (2023).

“Public sentiment toward solar energy—opinion mining of twitter using a transformer-based language model,” SUSTAINABILITY (2021).

“Institutional arrangements and airport solar PV,” ENERGY POLICY (2020).

“Updating the institutional collective action framework,” POLICY STUDIES JOURNAL (2020).

Teaching

• PA 515 Research Methods and Analysis – Course Website (Spring 2026)
• PA/GIS 541 Geographic Information Systems for Public Administration – Course Website (Spring 2026)
• PA 766 Advanced Quantitative Research in Public Administration – Course Website (Fall 2024)
• PA 765 Quantitative Research in Public Administration

Office Hours

By Appointment

Area(s) of Expertise

Research Methods, Data Science, Energy Policy, Public Health and Environment