Fulbright Scholar Extends Relationship Between UToledo, South African University

A South African neighborhood is exploring a solution to the country's systemic blackouts with the expertise of an electrical engineer on faculty at The University of Toledo.

Dr. Ngalula Sandrine Mubenga returned this semester to UToledo's College of Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, where she engaged students and advanced research on renewable energy systems as a Fulbright Scholar beginning in July 2025. The experience laid the foundation for a continuing relationship between UToledo and University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), most notably through a pilot project she initiated in collaboration with a municipal electric utility company to support electrical grid resilience through the installation of solar cells on residential rooftops.

As that project now advances to a neighborhood framework, Mubenga expects to bring on a graduate student to assist with data management and analysis at UToledo.

"This is an exciting project with the potential to make a real difference in South Africa," said Mubenga, who remains on faculty as a visiting senior research fellow at Wits, which the Center for World University Rankings ranked as the No. 1 university in Africa in 2026. "I'm looking forward to continuing to develop the relationship between UToledo and Wits and City Power in the spirit of the Fulbright Program."

A Growing Community of Fulbright Alumni at UToledo

More than 400,000 individuals have studied, taught or completed research abroad through the Fulbright Program since it was established under the U.S. Department of State in 1946. The program supports the exchange of ideas, establishment of people-to-people connections and collaborative work to address complex global challenges.

The Fulbright Scholar Program specifically supports college and university faculty, administrators and researchers, as well as artists and professionals, with fellowships that enable U.S. Scholars to go abroad and Visiting Scholars to come to the United States. Fulbright Scholars engage in cutting-edge research and expand their professional networks, often continuing research collaborations started abroad and laying the groundwork for forging future partnerships between institutions.

Mubenga joins a growing community of Fulbright alumni at UToledo, including Dr. Karie Peralta, an associate professor of sociology in the Judith Herb College of Arts, Social Sciences and Education, who explored community engagement policies and practices this spring at the Dominican Republic's Universidad Instituto Superior de Agricultura.

Dr. Aniruddha Ray, an associate professor in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, is currently advancing his research on microscopy-based studies of cellular processes at Kyoto University in Japan.

Applied Expertise to Improve Grid Resilience

Mubenga, who earned her bachelor's, master's and doctoral engineering degrees at UToledo before joining the College of Engineering faculty in 2018, is an expert in renewable energy, electricity regulation and battery management systems, including the electric vehicles on which she and her on-campus colleagues instruct students using specialized equipment designed to prepare them for careers in a rapidly changing automotive industry.

As a Fulbright Scholar at Wits, in addition to sharing her expertise in classrooms and conference halls, she applied that expertise to an issue affecting quality of life in South Africa - rolling blackouts that result from electrical load shedding, a tactic that the electric utility company in Johannesburg employes to prevent overloading the electric grid.

Mubenga engaged partners at Wits and at City Power Johannesburg to explore one potential solution in a system of small-scale embedded generation and net metering. This system sees solar cells installed on residential rooftops, which generate power that's stored in nearby batteries. Any excess power feeds into the broader electric grid, helping to improve grid resilience by better balancing supply and demand.

Beyond mitigating overload, and in turn load shedding, the system offers clear incentives to homeowners. They keep their own lights on during a blackout, thanks to the nearby batteries. They're also compensated for the excess power they generate.

Plans to expand a pilot project from a single residence to a neighborhood encompassing approximately 600 residences began before Mubenga returned to UToledo. As those technical and regulatory plans now come to fruition, with the export tariff expected to be set in November, at which point registered solar systems owners will be compensated, she remains engaged with the project and her partners at Wits and City Power.

"The technical and consumer data we're beginning to collect will inform the next steps of this project," Mubenga said. "I expect numerous opportunities for myself, my students and my college to engage in this process going forward, and I'm grateful for the relationship that my Fulbright experience established between UToledo and Wits."