SESAME - UWEE Research

Introduction to theory and methods of analysis in the use of typical apparatus to generate, transmit, utilize energy in electrical form. Includes conventions of circuit description, balanced polyphase circuits, complex power concept, transformer, fundamentals of electromechanical energy conversion, practical synchronous induction and commutator machines, an introduction to power electronics circuits.

EE 452: Power Electronics Design

Power electronics is among those areas of electrical engineering whose importance is expected to grow dramatically over the next years and decades. Whether one considers the emerging hydrogen economy, all-electric cars, high-performance computer power supplies, energy efficient technologies, or renewable energy – state-of-the-art power electronics is central to all designs. The course prepares students for these exciting opportunities. The course covers fundamentals, has a strong design orientation, and provides continuity to advanced topics.

Key areas covered include power electronic devices, power electronic building blocks, DC-DC converters, feedback control, power factor correction, isolated switch-mode power supplies, magnetics, AC-DC and DC-AC conversion, and utility applications. At the beginning of the course, instances of building blocks that frequently occur in power electronic circuits are discussed. This helps students to solve complex problems by referring to these building blocks. Throughout the course, strong attention is paid to the integration of control system design as part of power electronics solutions. Results of ongoing research on teaching power electronics supported by the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research are taken into account.

Students deepen the knowledge acquired in the classroom through intensive soft- and hardware laboratory work as well as a major final design project based on students' proposals. In particular through the final project, students not only acquire valuable technical expertise, but also boost their soft skills. Students learn to devise a project plan, to deal with logistics, to manage time and other resources, to communicate results effectively and develop team-working skills.

Matt Hodge, Matt Grossman, and Betty Nguyen in the laboratory of course EE 452

EE 559: Computer-Aided Analysis and Simulation of Electric Circuits and Networks

The contents covers the theory and the implementation of methods for the computer-aided analysis and simulation of electric circuits and networks. Discussed are lumped and distributed parameter device modeling, nodal analysis, construction of network model, piecewise linear approximation of nonlinear characteristics, computational steps of simulation, simulator design, numerical integration, accurate and efficient simulation of switching, fast solution of nodal equation systems.