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Future Energy Challenge Team – On the Road for a Win

Three undergraduate electrical engineering students – Rockne Ardoyno, John Barkley and James Edwards – will be heading to Australia in July for the final events in a competition to develop energy generation and storage devices. This is the second year in a row that a team from UT Arlington has been qualified as finalists in this competition.

Sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Power Electronics Society, Industrial Electronics Society and the Power Sources Manufacturers Association, the International Future Energy Challenge attracts teams from universities around the world. Teams select one of two design/build challenges: An integrated starter/alternator motor drive for automotive applications or a low-cost, wind turbine energy maximizer.

The UT Arlington team chose the latter. Their goal – design and construct a reliable power electronic interface converter for a wind generation system that will support and protect the system under all operating conditions and achieve maximum energy transfer.

Seven university teams were selected for the final competition: two from the United States (UT Arlington and the University of Central Florida), two each from Germany and China, and one from Brazil. The teams’ devices will be judged on technical innovation and experimental verification of claimed performance, plus the overall organization and preparedness of the team.

Dr. Rasool Kenarangui is the team’s faculty advisor; he is excited about the team’s accomplishments and potentials. “These are excellent students, highly motivated and with outstanding capabilities,” he stated. “The team began working on the project last summer when the competition was announced. Demonstrating excellent team work, they came up with a design that I think will make them winners in this competition.”

The team, also members of the Electrical Engineering Department’s Power Electronics and Power System groups, received advice from Ph.D. candidate Wei Jiang and financial support from the Provost, the Dean of Engineering, the Electrical Engineering Department, Oncor, the IEEE Fort Worth Section, the Bergquist Co., Texas Instruments, Magnetics Inc., the IEEE Power Electronics Society and the Power Sources Manufacturers Association.

(Pictured L to R – Dr. Rasool Kenarangui, James Edwards, John Barkley, Rockne Ardoyno, Wei Jiang)