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HOME arrow YOUR DAY arrow Stories arrow Students designed and built a wind power converter, to showcase in international competition today
Students designed and built a wind power converter, to showcase in international competition today PDF Print E-mail
Written by Johnathan Silver, The Shorthorn staff   
Tuesday, 14 July 2009 01:47 PM

Three electrical engineering students will present a design today in Australia that could revolutionize energy conservation.

The Future Energy Challenge team will participate in the 2009 International Future Energy Challenge, a biannual student competition promoting electrical technology designing and constructing. The competition is July 15-17 at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Winners will be awarded at least $10,000.

UTA’s team chose a topic, submitted a proposal and have to design a rectifier, a power converter that uses wind generators to charge a battery.

Most electronic devices require the kind of power rectifiers produce.

Electrical engineering senior Nick Ardoyno developed the team’s software. In Texas, alternative energy will be popular for decades, he said.

Electrical engineering is the best way to conserve energy, he said.

Texas is the top U.S. wind producer, according to the State Conservation Energy Office Web page. Texas could produce 25,000 megawatts of wind energy in 2012. One megawatt produces enough electricity to serve 250 to 300 homes every day.

The team’s device’s design parts must cost less than $20 at high-volume production. Ardoyno said his team’s converter will get high marks for simplicity and cost effectiveness but malfunction remains a worry.

“Power electronics is a challenging field,” he said. “You can see immediately when something doesn’t work. When there’s a malfunction, things blow up.”

Although the team worked more than a year on the project, Ardoyno wants more time for trial runs and is anxious about the judges’ reaction.

Team adviser Rasool Kenarangui said his satisfaction comes from his students coming together to accomplish something.

“The competition provides students with motivation,” said the electrical engineering lecturer. “It gives students real world design experience and they gain a lot of practical experience that can be valuable.”

The team began work a month after topic announcements. The teammates’ work during semester breaks, spring break and weekends showed dedication, Kenarangui said.

“Based on the performance of their design system, I have full confidence that the team will do well and might win the competition,” he said.

Electrical engineering assistant professor Babak Fahimi, was last year’s team adviser, a former judge, helped create past themes and taught all the current UTA competitors in a power electronics course.  He is the 2009 International Future Energy Challenge chair and said he will be objective, but hopes the UTA team wins.

“They’re all of high caliber and present themselves professionally,” Fahimi said. “If they win, it will put us on the map of power electronics and energy efficiency.”

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