ECS-9729197 Mohan A 3-day Faculty Workshop is proposed on the topic of "Teaching of Power Electronics". Power electronics is an enabling technology which finds itself a part of any electronics equipment for computation, communication, office automation, and entertainment. It is an important component in robotics, factory automation and process control which are vital for industrial competitiveness. Power-electronics based solutions can result in significant energy conservation, thus reducing energy costs and environmental pollution. It is also certain that power electronics technologies will play an increasing role in the power industry. Therefore, it is desirable that all universities with an Electrical Engineering department should have course(s) in power electronics. Our proposal to NSF "Innovations to Power Electronics Education" was recently accepted for funding. Prior to this and as a part of this project, we have been developing courses, laboratory and other educational material in the area of power electronics. For disseminating this information, a workshop on "Teaching of Power Electronics' is planned at the University of Minnesota, June 25-27, 1998. As a part of "Innovations to Power Electronics Education", a workshop on "teaching of Electric Drives" was organized at the University of Minnesota, June 19-21, 1997. Nearly all the funds (a total of $3,000) allocated for organizing three workshops were spent on this single workshop on "Teaching of Electric Drives", primarily due to unexpectedly large number of participants, mostly faculty members from universities in the United States. The purpose of this proposal is to make the next workshop on "Teaching of Power Electronics" even more successful by inviting both university as well as industry participation.
