PEIK and SPARK Researchers Receive IEEE EMC ECCE Paper Award

Power and Energy Institute of Kentucky (PEIK) and SPARK Lab researchers received from the IEEE Industry Applications Society Electric Machines Committee (EMC) the Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE) Second Prize Paper Award for the article: “Winding Losses in Coreless Axial Flux PM Machines with Wave and Spiral PCB Stator Topologies”, which was presented and published at the 2022 ECCE edition. The main author, Yaser Chulaee, PhD student, is shown on the left in the photo taken after the awards ceremony during this year‘s ECCE edition, together with co-authors Donovin D. Lewis, PhD student, and Dr. Dan M., Ionel, PhD advisor, ECE Professor, L Stanley Pigman Chair in Power, SPARK and PEIK Director. 
 
The award-winning paper is based on research on innovative electric machines sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) over a 5-year project that has been recently completed. Co-authors of the conference proceedings article include industry collaborators: Drs. Greg Heins and Dean Patterson, who are with the Regal Rexnord Company that contributed to prototyping and testing.  An extended journal version of the paper was published earlier this year in IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications as: "Circulating and Eddy Current Losses in Coreless Axial Flux PM Machine Stators with PCB Windings", and includes as additional co-author Ali Mohammadi, also a PhD student in the SPARK Lab.
 
Since September of last year, researchers from the SPARK Lab within PEIK and the ECE Department in the UK Stanley and Karen Pigman of Engineering have received paper awards at all four major IEEE conferences to which they participated and that included electric machines topics: two consecutive editions of ICRERA, ITEC and ECCE.  An exception is represented by IEMDC for which Dr. Ionel served as the Chair of the Conference Steering Committee. The success is reflective of the strong research at UK, which is sponsored by NSF, NASA, DOE and directly by industry.
 
This outstanding success follows the long-standing tradition of research on electric machines and power electronic drives at UK, going back more than half a century ago to the world’s first electronically controlled switched reluctance motor proposed by former UK professor, the late Dr. Syed Nasar. Over many decades, other outstanding contributions by faculty and students included, for example, those jointly made with UK’s frequently visiting professor Dr. Ion Boldea on linear electric machines, vector drive control, and synchronous reluctance motors, among many other topics.
 
IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. The Industry Applications Society is one of IEEE’s largest organizations with a dedicated focus and a department on industrial power conversion systems, within which the Electric Machines Committee is one of the oldest. With a typical attendance of approximately 2,000 people, ECCE is the largest annual joint technical event of the IEEE Industry Applications and Power Electronics Societies.