Webinars
While the PELS continues to maintain a listing of technical experts in the power electronics field who are available for Chapters and conferences, it also invites authors of outstanding technical papers to present webinars. The objective of PELS webinars is to educate PELS members about the area of power electronics.
Professional Development: PELS is pleased to honor one hour of Professional Development training for attending a webinar. Upon completion of the session, please submit a request for a certificate. The certificate will be emailed to the address provided within ten business days. Please email any questions to the IEEE Continuing Education Department.
Upcoming Webinars
Tuesday, 3 October 2023 (10:00 AM ET): "Leveraging Machine Learing to Enhance the Smartness of Modern Electric Drives" by Panagiotis Kakosimos, ABB Corporate Research Center, Sweden
Abstract: The industrial landscape has recently experienced a remarkable revolution due to advanced digital technologies. By leveraging the power of data analytics, we can now gain valuable insights into the performance of industrial systems. Industrial drives, for example, already accumulate all the required information to control electric machines. These signals include but are not limited to phase currents, their magnitude, phase shift and frequency, and temperatures. Integrating machine learning models responsible for predicting the evolution of those directly collected or implicitly derived parameters can enhance their intelligence even further.
In this webinar, we will explore how this integration can be realized in industrial embedded systems. Specifically, we will focus on data-driven thermal modeling of power electronics modules and induction motors. The discussion will encompass different approaches, ranging from traditional linear models to deep neural networks. Evaluation metrics will be used to assess the performance and feasibility of the investigated methods in industrial settings. By comparing these methodologies, we aim to identify the most effective approaches for estimating internal temperatures in electric powertrains and how this information can be valuable for condition monitoring and performance optimization. Finally, we will discuss the practical implementation of these models, highlighting their potential impact on real-world applications.
Biography: Panagiotis Kakosimos (Panagiotis.kakosimos@se.abb.com) earned the B.Eng. and M.Sc. degrees from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in 2009, and the Ph.D. degree from the National Technical University of Athens, in 2013, all in electrical engineering. Following his Ph.D., he served as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Manchester and an Assistant Research Scientist at Texas A&M University at Qatar. Since 2018 he has been a Principal Scientist at ABB Corporate Research Center in Sweden. His current research involves control of power electronics and electric drives, digital solutions for next-generation electric powertrains, and engineering artificial intelligence into real-world systems.
Thursday, 5 October 2023 (10:00 AM ET): "Compact Converters using GaN HEMTs for Pulsed Power Applications" by Harish Sarma Krishnamoorthy, University of Houston, United States
Abstract: Pulsed power applications require the delivery of high-energy pulses in a controlled and efficient manner. Power converters need to be specifically designed to meet the demanding requirements of pulsed power systems, providing precise voltage and current regulation, fast switching capabilities, and high power density. Power supplies for pulsed power applications contribute to the advancement of various fields, including aerospace, defense, medical, and subsurface characterization.
This talk will begin with the introduction of major pulsed power applications and then focus on two of the critical ones – radar and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy – from a power conversion perspective. Then, the speaker will detail a 2-stage converter architecture and the design of the individual stages (isolated and non-isolated) using GaN HEMTs for these applications. This will be followed by a description of the challenges faced while designing compact (~100 W/in3), fast (< 1 µs load transients), and high-temperature (>150 oC) capable pulsed power supplies. The talk will conclude by discussing some preliminary results from the thermal cycling tests conducted on the GaN devices and the characterization of their effective activation energy.
Biography: Dr. Harish Krishnamoorthy (Senior Member, IEEE) received his B.Tech. degree from the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, National Institute of Technology (NIT) Tiruchirappalli, India, and his Ph.D. degree from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), Texas A&M University, College Station, USA, in 2008 and 2015, respectively. From 2008 to 2010, he worked at GE Energy, Hyderabad, India, and received the Lean 6-Sigma Green Belt certification. From 2015 to 2017, he was with Schlumberger, Texas, USA. He also briefly worked at Ford and Google. Since August 2017, Dr. Krishnamoorthy has been a faculty in the ECE department of the University of Houston (UH), where he is currently an Associate Professor.
Dr. Krishnamoorthy has 100 conference/journal papers in refereed publications, one granted U.S. patent, and four U.S. patent applications. He also contributed to a book chapter for the IET. He is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics and the Standards Liaison for the IEEE PELS TC7. He is also on the organizing committees of several IEEE conferences such as ECCE-2023, INTELEC-2024, etc. He received the UH College of Engineering’s Research Excellence Award in 2022 and Teaching Excellence Award in 2021. He was named an ‘OTC Emerging Leader’ by the Offshore Technology Conference and an Early Career Research Fellow by the Gulf Research Program of the US National Academies, both in 2022. In 2023, Dr. Krishnamoorthy received the NSF CAREER Award and the IEEE PELS Young Professional Exceptional Service Award.
His main research interests include high-density power electronics and the reliability of GaN/SiC-based converters.
Abstract: Power electronics are essential for power conversion of Photovoltaic (PV) systems. In that regard, the reliability of power electronics systems strongly affects the availability and consequently the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of PV energy. According to field experience, the power electronics systems (e.g., PV inverter) are among the most fragile parts in PV systems that contribute to a majority of system downtime. With the demand to further reduce the cost of PV energy, the reliability of power electronics in PV systems needs to be improved to reduce the (unexpected) failure in field operation. This calls for a better design methodology as well as a proper control strategy.
This presentation aims to address the reliability challenge and solution for power electronics in PV applications. It will start with identifying key components and their stress parameters in the PV inverter. Then, an approach to analyze the reliability of power electronics in PV applications will be introduced and demonstrated with a practical example of microinverters from industry application. Moreover, emerging control solutions to further enhance the reliability performance of the power electronics in PV applications will be demonstrated in this presentation.
Biography: Ariya Sangwongwanich received the B.Eng. degree in electrical engineering from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, in 2013, and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degree in energy engineering from Aalborg University, Denmark, in 2015 and 2018, respectively. He is currently working as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, where he is a Vice-Leader of Photovoltaic Systems research program. His research interests include control of grid-connected converters, photovoltaic systems, reliability in power electronics, and multilevel converters. He was a Visiting Researcher with RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany in 2017 and University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom in 2023. Dr. Sangwongwanich was the recipient of the Danish Academy of Natural Sciences’ Ph.D. Prize and the Spar Nord Foundation Research Award for his Ph.D. thesis in 2019.
Past Webinars
Looking for a past webinar? All past webinars can be accessed and watched on-demand at the PELS Resource Center - it's also free for PELS members!
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