Power Networks

Benjamin Schäfer of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology explores **Braess’s paradox**—the surprising phenomenon where adding a new connection to a network can actually make the system perform worse. From traffic jams to electric power grids, the episode examines how new or upgraded connections can unexpectedly redirect flows, create vulnerabilities, and complicate the design of reliable infrastructure.

Guest

Benjamin Schäfers: Benjamin Schäfer received his Diplom degree in Physics from the University of Magdeburg, Germany in 2013. Pursuing his Ph.D. in Göttingen (Germany) London (United Kingdom) and Tokyo (Japan), he received his Ph.D. degree in physics in 2017 from the University of Göttingen. He has worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen, Germany, the Technical University Dresden, Germany and as a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Research Fellow at Queen Mary University of London. In 2021 he worked as Associate Professor in Physics at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. Since 2022, he is leading a Young Investigator Group on Data-Driven Analysis of Complex Systems at the KIT, Germany, where he also holds an Assistant Professorship since 2023. He investigates power systems with the help of (explainable) machine learning and stochastic modelling.