I-SENSE Impact: From Learning to Code to Helping Power Florida Forward
by Nicole G Nussbaum | Thursday, May 14, 2026
When Brittny Freeman first joined I-SENSE, he wasn’t a seasoned researcher or an experienced programmer. What he did have was a willingness to push himself into unfamiliar territory and learn.
After graduating from Florida Atlantic University with his undergraduate degree, Freeman began working at Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) as an associate engineer. But he quickly realized he wanted something more aligned with his interests in data science and renewable energy.
Motivated to pivot toward those emerging fields, Freeman pursued a minority student fellowship that enabled him to return to graduate school and led him to I-SENSE under the mentorship of faculty fellow Yufei Tang, Ph.D.
“I joined I-SENSE because I saw an opportunity to get involved in two state-of-the-art research areas: data science and renewable energy,” said Freeman. “I knew that I could specialize in both and become a subject matter expert in a niche area with high growth potential right before it began to really take off.”
At I-SENSE, Freeman focused his research on applying signal processing and machine learning to detect faults in wind and ocean-current turbines. His work combined electrical engineering concepts with data science techniques to predict failures in renewable energy systems before they actually occurred.
Beyond the technical research, the most transformative part of his experience was learning how to teach himself difficult concepts and adapt to new challenges within the supportive I-SENSE environment. He said, “I-SENSE gives its students every opportunity to be successful, and the and the onus is on them to make the most out of it.”
Today, Freeman works at FPL as a senior project manager and data scientist, where he analyzes large-scale operational data to help improve company performance and customer satisfaction. His day-to-day work involves identifying ways AI can help business units operate more efficiently, save money and improve reliability across the power grid.
One project he is particularly passionate about focuses on reducing outage response times so that customers’ power can be restored more quickly after service interruptions.
“The skillset I’m most thankful for cultivating is learning how to learn. Regardless of whether my learning endeavor was rooted in coding, data analysis, mathematics or physics-based concepts, the support that I-SENSE provided helped me develop the confidence and self-assurance to weather my early bouts with imposter syndrome when I first started working for the company,” said Freeman.
Even now, he still relies on habits he developed during his research years at I-SENSE, including reading academic papers to better understand unfamiliar problems and spark new ideas.
Looking back, Freeman sees his time at I-SENSE as a turning point — one that reshaped both his confidence and career trajectory for the better.
Now working in a role that combines data science, engineering and real-world infrastructure problem-solving at FPL, Freeman encourages current students to take full advantage of the opportunities and resources available to them.
“If I can do it, you can do it better,” said Freeman. “Because, in addition to the I-SENSE support network, you also have ChatGPT and Claude AI to assist you with your learning endeavors. There is no reason why you can’t be great.”