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UPEL Students Awarded Best Poster at APEC 2014 | Utah State University Power Electronics Lab
USU College of Engineering
UPEL AMPED team published a paper, titled ‘Active balancing system for electric vehicles with incorporated low voltage bus’, at APEC, the annual conference for Applied Power Electronics and Exposition. AMPED team comprises graduate students Muhammad Muneeb, Kelly Hathaway, Post-doc researcher Michael Evzelman, and Prof. Regan Zane. The work highlights research in control of power converters associated with the battery management system (BMS) in order to improve battery pack lifetime and reduce cost and weight. This paper presented an architecture that uses modular dc-dc bypass converters to perform active battery cell balancing and to supply current to auxiliary loads, eliminating the need for a separate HV-to- LV high step-down dc-dc converter in electric vehicles. The modular architecture, which achieves continuous balancing of all cells, can be used with an arbitrary number of cells in series, requires no control communications between converters, and naturally shares the auxiliary load current according to the relative state-of-charge (SOC) and capacities of the battery cells. This will yield improved performance and actively balance all cells so that they will degrade uniformly to the end of their life. These capabilities have the potential to significantly reduce initial battery pack cost and weight and increase the value of the battery pack for second use applications.
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UPEL Students Recognized by ECE Department | Utah State University Power Electronics Lab
USU College of Engineering
Chandler Austin and Kevin Kennedy were recently recognized by the ECE department for academic excellence.
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USU Student Branch Hosts S-PAC 2014 | Electrical and Computer Engineering | College of Engineering
USU College of Engineering
On March 22, 2014 the IEEE Student Branch at Utah State University hosted the first annual Student-Professional Awareness Conference (S-PAC) at the USU campus. The conference was attended by more than 170 students from Electrical, Computer and Mechanical Engineering. Keynote speakers included Jonathan Chew, a Walt Disney Imagineer, and Mike Andrews from IEEE Region 6. The purpose of S-PAC is to “increase professional awareness among engineering students.” Workshops during the conference focused on teaching practical skills and included “Finding Internships” and “Job Offer Negotiation” by USU Career Services, “Teach Yourself MATLAB” by students in the IEEE council, and “Starting as a Consultant” by Kelly Wigington, a USU alumni. The highlight of the conference was a Q&A session with a panel of Engineers. Students were invited to ask questions from the panel about working as an Engineer, developing professional skills and learning to innovate. The IEEE USU Student Branch is currently in the planning stages for S-PAC 2015. Check back on our branch website for more information as it is available.
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REU Site Program | EED
USU College of Engineering
This ten-week summer program provides undergraduate students in a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) discipline with intensive experience in engineering education research, such as how learners’ experience, background, and perception play a role when they learn engineering knowledge and skills. The program provides research experience for undergraduates (REU) and is not an internship. The program is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and hosted by Utah State University (USU) in Logan, Utah, a beautiful city nestled between two mountain ranges.
The central focus of this summer research program is on self-regulated learning (SRL). When confronted with a problem or task, a learner usually begins with generating thoughts, feeling, and actions to attain the best solution to that problem. The self-generated thoughts, feeling, and actions are called self-regulated learning. Numerous studies suggest that SRL is a significant predictor of a learner’s academic performance. This ten-week program consists of a nine-week research on the USU campus (starting on June 9, 2014) and subsequent one-week at-home activities with research assignments. During the program, REU students will work with faculty mentors and their graduate students on four emerging research projects that focus on self-regulated learning in engineering education. REU students will participate in workshops, a research symposium, and a rich variety of social and recreational activities.
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Microelectronics Seminar Series | Utah State University Power Electronics Lab
USU College of Engineering
A seminar series is being held in the lab on the topic of microelectronics with application to Power Electronics. The seminar will be held over a period of four weeks before the fall semester starts.
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Dr. Zeljko Pantic Joins UPEL | Utah State University Power Electronics Lab
USU College of Engineering
UPEL is proud to announce that Dr. Zeljko Pantic will be joining the ECE Faculty this fall at Utah State University.Dr. Pantic completed his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at North Carolina State University, and will be working in the area of Wireless Power Transfer at UPEL. Dr. Pantic will also be teaching the Introduction to Power Electronics (ECE 5930) this fall.
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Kevin Kennedy Recognized as ECE Department Outstanding Pre-Professional Student | Utah State University Power Electronics Lab
USU College of Engineering
Kevin was recognized by the Electrical and Computer Engineering department as this year's Outstanding Pre-Professional Student. This award is given each year at the Pre-Professional, Junior and Senior level by a comittee which selects each student from among their top peers. Kevin is an undergraduate research student at UPEL, where he is assisting development and hardware evaluation of high performance bidirectional DC-DC power converters as part of a contract with Raytheon and the Office of Naval Research.
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USU Hosts Navy, Raytheon and GE for BDPC Program Review | Utah State University Power Electronics Lab
USU College of Engineering
The USU Power Electronics Lab (UPEL) hosted the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Compact Power Conversion Technologies (CPCT) Bi-directional Power Conversion (BDPC) Phase II final program review on 11/8/2012. In attendance were Navy program managers and reviewers and program team members from Raytheon, GE, University of Colorado and Utah State University. The review meeting included a laboratory demonstration of all program hardware and a general UPEL lab tour with student presentations and hardware demonstrations. The visit marks a major milestone for UPEL as the first official opening of the lab for a formal program visit and public tour. The day concluded with an off-site tour and demonstration of the wirelessly powered Aggie Bus hosted by Dr. Hunter Wu, Director of the Wireless Power Transfer program at USU.
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USU Project Receives Significant Department of Energy Grant | Utah State University Power Electronics Lab
USU College of Engineering
The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded Utah State University a $3 million grant to develop technology that could dramatically improve the battery performance of electric vehicles.
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Dr. Regan Zane Joins the ECE Department as a USTAR Professor | Utah State University Power Electronics Lab
USU College of Engineering
The ECE Department is pleased to announce that Dr. Regan Zane has joined us as a USTAR professor in the area of electrical power conversion. His work, funded by USTAR, DOE, and other sources, deals with efficient and bidirectional conversion of power levels.
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