Course Restructuring and Laboratory Development in Power Electronics and Electric Drives

德州农工大学金斯维尔分校（TAMUK）的电气工程专业提供电力电子作为选修课，电机作为必修课。由于越来越多的人认为这些课程是过时的，其中所涵盖的材料已经过时，电机课程的学分已经减少，近年来有明显的迹象表明，这些课程的学生人数减少。然而，电力行业对训练有素的电力工程师的需求持续增长！因此，该项目的目标是通过引进使用数字控制和数字信号处理（DSP）的最新实验室来振兴这些课程。此次重组的目标包括：1）通过将电力电子和电力驱动与基于数字和DSP的控制相结合，以这种方式提供有关电力电子和电力驱动的必要信息; 2）使重建的课程具有吸引力和令人兴奋; 3）确保最高的教育质量;以及4）为学生准备工业以及高级课程。由于这些课程的修订，产生了更多的训练有素的电力工程师，以满足现代电力工业的需求。课程重组和实验室开发是基于明尼苏达大学（UMN）开发的材料和方法。材料和方法已被证明是成功的UMN通过在电力电子和电气驱动课程，并在这些课程的表现显著增加的本科生人数。该项目主要针对德克萨斯州南部地区的少数民族本科生，但在该地区的化学加工行业和电气公司工作的专业工程师也可以从这些课程中受益。

The electrical engineering program at Texas A&M University- Kingsville (TAMUK) offers power electronics as an elective course and electric machinery as a required course. Due to increased perception that these courses are old-fashion and the materials covered in them are out-of-date, the credit hours of electric machinery courses have been reduced, and there is evident from recent years that shows a reduction in the number of students enrolling in these courses. However, the power industry demand for trained power engineers continues to grow! Hence, the objective of this project is to revitalize these courses with the introduction of start-of-art laboratories using digital control and digital signal processing (DSP). The goals of this restructuring include 1) to provide the requisite information about power electronics and electric drives in such a way by combining them with digital and DSP based control; 2) to make the reconstructed courses appealing and exciting; 3) to ensure the highest quality of education; and 4) to prepare students for industry as well as for advanced courses. As a consequence of these course revisions, a larger supply of trained power engineers is produced to meet modern power industry needs. The course restructuring and laboratory development are based on the materials and approaches developed at the University of Minnesota (UMN). The materials and approaches have been demonstrated to be successful at UMN through the significantly increased number of undergraduate students enrolled in the Power Electronic and Electric Drives courses and in their performance in these courses. This project is mainly targeting minority undergraduate students in South Texas area but working professional engineers in the chemical process industries and in the electric companies in this area can also benefit from taking these courses.