The Role of Power Electronics in Future Energy Systems and Green Industrialization

The Department of Electrical Engineering invites you to a seminar by Professor Malik Elbuluk from the University of Akron, Akron, Ohio, USA.

Abstract

One important aspect of clean energy or green industrialization is the search for technologies that can reduce the major environmental impact of present energy sources. Alternative energy sources (AES) like micro-turbines, photovoltaic (PV), fuel cells, wave energy and wind turbines seem to meet the requirement for clean energy. Integrating these on-site generating sources into the larger electric power system grid, known as distributed energy resources (DER), can provide a more reliable and better quality power to consumers, increase the overall efficiency of the distribution system, and reduce the need for infrastructure associated with new or aging central generation power systems.

Most of these energies are converted to electrical energy using power electronics converters. Also, AES provide clean energy for non-grid connected or stand-alone applications such as transportation systems in electric and hybrid vehicles, all electric aircrafts and ships and high-speed trains. In all applications grid-connected or stand alone, power electronic converters are needed to interface the energy sources to the various loads. Therefore, power electronics are vital to the future energy systems and process of green industrialization.

Biography

Dr. Malik E. Elbuluk is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Akron where. Previously he taught at North Carolina State University. He earned MS, EE and DSc degrees, all in electrical engineering, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He received the BSc (Honors) degree in electrical engineering from the University of Khartoum. Dr. Elbuluk is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Ohio. He has been involved in research and development at NASA Glenn Research Center and Ohio Aerospace Institute (OAI), where he was a Summer Research Fellow from 1991 to 2011. His research at NASA includes modeling and simulation of the Space Station Freedom (SSF), the Power-By-Wire (PBW), the Power Electronic Building Blocks (PEBB), the Starter/Generator and Sensorless Control of Electromechanical Actuators (EMA) for the More-Electric-Aircraft (MEA), Extreme Temperature Power Electronics for Deep Space Missions and Aircraft Engines, and recently in Advanced Energy Systems at the NASA GreenLab Research Facility.

Dr. Elbuluk was an ABET evaluator for programs in electrical engineering from 1999 to 2006. Since 2004, he has served on the Committee for the Fundamental of Engineering Examination at the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. He is an active senior member of IEEE and has published regularly in IEEE conferences and transactions. He also constantly reviews papers for IEEE conferences and transactions, and has organized and chaired a number of conference sessions for the Power Electronics, the Industry Application and the Industrial Electronics Societies. He was an associative editor for the IEEE Transactions in Power Electronics, the IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications and editor-in-chief for the Manufacturing Systems and Development Department of IAS Transactions. He served as a member of the Executive Board of the Industry Application Society and the Chair of Manufacturing Systems and Development Department.