To provide undergraduates majoring in power, electronics, and control with an understanding of the wide applications of modern power electronics technology, the project is enhancing the undergraduate curriculum in the area of power by incorporating two needed elements into the power electronics course: system simulation capability and motion control testing. The main emphasis of this curricular revision is to provide undergraduate students with the opportunity to gain exposure to the design and simulation tools used by industry and to gain hands-on experience in various control applications by conducting experiments in the laboratory. Modern semiconductor power control circuits have considerable control drive circuitry, in addition to the power device itself. This configuration makes it possible for undergraduate students to prototype complicated power electronic circuits in the laboratory to verify the theories they are presented in lecture. To parallel the methodology used by industry, students need to test their designs with the aid of system simulation tools before they actually build circuits. To offer hands-on experience to the 40 to 50 students who enroll in this course each year, this project includes a system simulation package, software package, hardware platform (workstation and X-terminals), digital oscilloscopes, and dynamometers.
