How did you become interested in power electronics?
The battery charger.
My interest in power electronics was born after I designed a buck converter for two AA NiMh batteries as part of my power electronics class project. Although lab-work was a regular part of electrical engineering courses at Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ), that particular power converter design was the first unique lab activity that actually allowed me to think myself as an engineer and a designer instead of thinking myself as a student. The application of the classroom theory in designing the converter was considerably more different than doing lab experiments following the lab manuals, because the procedure of the latter was fairly mechanical while the former required a lot of reading, researching and understanding. The transformation from the world of theoretical knowledge to the world of application was therefore intimidating and arduous; there were some phases of the project which were very frustrating, like not-easily-detectable circuit simulation errors. The art of designing power electronics circuit however absorbed me so much that I was determined to build a functioning battery charger, and at the end of the semester, my one was the only battery charger that properly functioned. My persistence succeeded.
My interest for power electronics then led me to choose building a full bridge dc-dc power converter as my senior year design project. The converter was supposed to be used as the motor controller of the TAMUQ Hybrid in Progress Vehicle to be participated in 2011 Formula SAE competition. This project helped me to build on what I have learned in the battery charger design project, because it was an expansion of that project and thus naturally required a lot more independent study and research. This converter can run the motor both in reverse and forward direction and at the same time accommodate both forward and reverse regeneration. In this project I have learned how to identify the needs of a system, analyze requirements, develop specifications and functional decompositions, investigate similar projects, select components for the circuit, design protection circuits and compare engineering trade-offs. The most important activity was the requirement of integrating inter-disciplinary skills as the micro-controller design required the use of knowledge from courses like digital logic and computer architecture.
Although I became interested in power electronics during my senior year, I nonetheless have taken all the courses in communication and signal processing that TAMUQ offered.
Go back to questions.
My interest for power electronics then led me to choose building a full bridge dc-dc power converter as my senior year design project. The converter was supposed to be used as the motor controller of the TAMUQ Hybrid in Progress Vehicle to be participated in 2011 Formula SAE competition. This project helped me to build on what I have learned in the battery charger design project, because it was an expansion of that project and thus naturally required a lot more independent study and research. This converter can run the motor both in reverse and forward direction and at the same time accommodate both forward and reverse regeneration. In this project I have learned how to identify the needs of a system, analyze requirements, develop specifications and functional decompositions, investigate similar projects, select components for the circuit, design protection circuits and compare engineering trade-offs. The most important activity was the requirement of integrating inter-disciplinary skills as the micro-controller design required the use of knowledge from courses like digital logic and computer architecture.
Although I became interested in power electronics during my senior year, I nonetheless have taken all the courses in communication and signal processing that TAMUQ offered.
Go back to questions.
