Collaborative Research: Development of a New Power Electronics Curriculum Relevant to Tomorrow's Power Engineering Challenges

参与机构：普渡大学和爱荷华州立大学项目描述该项目涉及一个正在开发新的电力电子课程的合作团队。它通过确定电力电子在解决未来发展可持续能源的巨大挑战中的作用，增强了这一主题的相关性。这一努力的重点是通过创建有助于吸引和教育工程专业学生的课程，满足能源行业对高素质人才日益增长的需求；解决电力行业严重的劳动力短缺问题。该计划有三个主要目标：(1)开发新的电力电子课程，教育下一代电力工程师具备应对未来挑战所需的知识和技能；(2)促进研究与本科课程的整合，并将本科生纳入研究项目；(3)启动多方位的可再生能源、分布式发电和电动汽车课程。通过利用两所学术机构的高素质人才和互补的专业知识，我们正在努力生产专门定制的分析/实验工具，以增强主动设计/基于研究的学习实践。项目在实现这些目标方面的成功程度正在由外部评价人员进行评估。这项工作所产生的教育材料正通过各种主动和被动的方法，通过参加会议、期刊出版物和网络（使用普渡大学的HUBzeroTM技术创建“电力电子中心”）广泛传播。此外，开发的课堂讲稿将为电力电子学的新教科书提供基础，重点是可再生能源的整合和电动汽车的应用。新实验室正在向当地高中生展示，他们被邀请参加令人兴奋的能源转换项目演示。提出的以解决问题为基础的学习实践和吸引人的实验室环境有助于吸引代表性不足的群体进入电力系统行业从事职业。

Participating Institutions: Purdue University and Iowa State University Project Description This project involves a collaborative team that is developing a new power electronics curriculum. It is enhancing the relevance of the subject by identifying the role of power electronics in addressing tomorrow's grand challenge of developing sustainable energy resources. The effort is focusing on the increased demand for highly qualified personnel in the energy industry by creating a curriculum that helps entice and educate engineering students; addressing a severe workforce shortage in the power industry. There are three main objectives of the project: (1) to develop a new power electronics curriculum that educates the next generation of power engineers with the required knowledge and skills to tackle tomorrow's challenges; (2) to foster integration of research into the undergraduate curriculum and incorporate undergraduate students into research projects; and (3) to initiate a multi-faceted renewable energy, distributed generation, and electric vehicles curriculum. The effort is producing specifically tailored analytical/experimental tools to enhance active design/research-based learning practices by leveraging highly qualified personnel from two academic institutions with complementary expertise. The project's success in accomplishing these objectives is being assessed by an external evaluator. Broader Significance The educational materials produced by this effort are being broadly disseminated via a mix of active and passive methods, through participation in conferences, journal publications and the Web (using Purdue's HUBzeroTM technology to create a 'Power Electronics Hub'). In addition, the developed lecture notes will provide the foundation for a new textbook on power electronics focused on renewable energy integration and electric vehicles applications. The new laboratory is being showcased to local high-school students, who are invited to attend exciting demonstrations of energy conversion projects. The proposed problem solving-based learning practices and engaging laboratory environment are helping to attract underrepresented groups into pursuing careers in the power systems industry.