Grainger VIP Impact Report

GRAINGER INSTRUCTIONAL LABORATORY FOR ELECTRICAL MACHINES AND POWER ELECTRONICS

Mission: Expose students to the most up-to-date electric machine and drive technologies with a wide variety of machine types to help them learn more complex and advanced concepts while increasing teaching effectiveness and providing for enhanced laboratory safety. Key Staff: Pia Strampp and Giri Venkataramanan PhD’92, Keith and Jane Morgan Nosbusch Professor in Engineering Education ECE 304 Electric Machines Lab, taught by Giri Venkataramanan, had 20 students enrolled during the spring term. The students conducted experiments throughout the semester that covered transformers, different power electronic circuits such as TRIAC dimmers and battery chargers, three-phase circuits, three different machine classes (DC, induction, and wound-field synchronous), and drive types. The course familiarizes undergraduate students with power circuits, electrical power conversion, and the basic characteristics of the performance of electric machines, with a focus on torque production mechanisms and back-EMF voltage generation. It also makes use of the standalone solar cart designed for ECE 379 in the previous year.

ECE 304 students pose with teaching assistant Ratnesh Kumar Singh.

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