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Power Electronics Research Centre (PERC)

The Power Electronics Research Centre was established in 1992 in a partnership between Government, Industry and the

University Sector. The Centre is based in a 60 m² facility in the new Engineering Building of NUI Galway. The laboratory has over €500,000 worth of state of the art test and measurement equipment.

OBJECTIVES OF PERC

The aim of the Centre is to foster links with industry by transferring technology from a strong research base in the University to the wider community. The Centre is now involved in a number of new areas of research activities: automotive electronics; sensor technology; battery management, and power harvesting. Collaborations have been established with the Automotive Consortium at the Massachusetts Institutes of Technology; the Czech Technical University of Prague, Harbin University, China, Zhejiang University, China and the Tyndall Institute, Cork.

Research opportunities

Funding opportunities include the Irish Research Council schemes, which provide Postgraduate Scholarships and Postdoctoral Fellowships for suitably qualified students to pursue postgraduate research. “The Council funds excellent researchers across all disciplines and encourages interdisciplinary research and engagement with enterprise. The Council aims to support an expertise-driven research system in order to enhance Ireland’s innovation capacity and skills base in a rapidly changing global environment where knowledge is key to economic, social and cultural development. The Council is further committed to facilitating the integration of Irish researchers in all disciplines within the European Research Area.” Calls for these schemes are distributed throughout the year. Details of the latest calls and more information are available at http://research.ie/.

Current areas of interest in PERC include:
    - High frequency magnetics
    - Improved light-load efficiency of power supplies for computing and other DC loads
    - Applications of wearable power generators & wireless power systems
    - Resonant converters
If you are interested in these or any of the research areas described in the PERC website, please contact Prof. Ger Hurley or Dr. Maeve Duffy.

NEWS

The Galway Energy Efficient Car (the Geec) team accelerates up the scoreboard at Shell Eco-marathon 2017

The Geec (Galway energy efficient car) team competed for the third time at the Shell Eco-marathon Europe 2017 in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London at the end of May, where it jumped 8 places up the scoreboard since last year to 13th place. After only three years of competing, this places the Geec clearly in the top third of the battery electric category, with a total of 41 competitors. The Geec is the first and only Irish team to participate at Shell Eco-marathon. [ Read more]

Appointment of Professor Gerard Hurley as Professor in Electrical Engineering in Tianjin University of Technology, China

Professor Ger Hurley was appointed Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Tianjin University of Technology under the "1000 Talent Plan" of the Chinese Government to attract foreign expertise. Professor Hurley with deliver lectures on Power Electronics, supervise graduate students and assist staff and students in preparing English language publications. He will also participate in grant applications to the Chinese Government with staff at Tianjin.

Photo shows L to R
Prof. Mingxing DU, Electrical Engineering, Dr. Ziwei OUYANG, Prof. Ger HURLEY, Vice-President Shengyong CHEN, Minfang CHEN, International Office, Ming ZHANG, International Office

Appointment of Adjunct Professor in Microelectronics & Microsystems

NUI Galway has appointed Prof. Cian Ó Mathúna as Adjunct Professor in Microelectronics & Microsystems in September 2014. Prof. Ó Mathúna is a long term collaborator of Prof. Gerard Hurley and Dr. Maeve Duffy in PERC, through joint industry-focused projects in planar magnetics and associated power electronics. [Read more]

5th International Symposium on Power Electronics for Distributed Generation Systems
was hosted by PERC 24th – 27th June 2014

Read more about the conference at this link.

Pictured left at the official opening of the conference Co-Chair Prof. Ger Hurley, President of NUI Galway Dr. James Browne, Local Arrangement Chair Dr. Maeve Duffy, General Chair Frede Blaabjerg, Aalborg University, Denmark.

NUI Galway joins FUSION Project

The FUSION Programme is a North-South initiative run by InterTrade Ireland. The programme is a business academic graduate partnership. The main objective of the FUSION project is the development of processes incorporating the upgrade of knowledge and IT skills to provide advanced electrical engineering design for export customer base in industrial automation, including the integration of process control systems, machine design and commissioning in a one stop turnkey operation. [ read more]

Photo shows Jim Daly, General Manager, Little Electrical, Paul Lennon, FUSION graduate, Oonagh Monahan, InterTrade Ireland FUSION Consultant and Prof. Ger Hurley, NUI, Galway.

Student Success

David Newell, MEngSc student wins award for his poster on energy harvesting from the 2014 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference which was held in Fort Worth, Texas in March. David with his supervisor, Dr. Maeve Duffy pictured left.

Jun Zhang, PhD student wins best paper award in PEDG2014 in June. On the right Jun pictured with Prof. Liuchen Chang (PEDG International Steering Committee), Dr. Werner Wölfle and Prof. Ger Hurley.

Middlebrook Outstanding Technical Achievement Award

This award was established by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) in the U.S.A. to honour innovators in the field of power electronics. Professor Hurley received the 2013 award to acknowledge his pioneering contributions to high frequency magnetic design, modelling of magnetic components and analysis of planar magnetic devices for power electronic applications, work that formed the basis for charging platforms for smart phones.
[ read more]

New Power Electronics Book

A new book on power electronics called Transformers and Inductors for Power Electronics: Theory, Design and Applications, co-authored by PERC academics Professor Ger Hurley and Dr. Werner Wölfle, was launched in April 2013 by NUI Galway president, Dr. James Browne. The book is a comprehensive reference for students and professional engineers working with power supplies and energy conversion systems who want to update their knowledge on a field that has progressed considerably in recent years. [ read more]

Pictured Professor Ger Hurley, President of NUI Galway, Dr. James J. Browne and Dr. Werner Wölfle

For full list of corrections see here.

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Contact info

Power Electronics Research Centre
Electrical & Electronic Engineering
NUI Galway
Galway
Ireland

Phone: 353-91-493270
Fax: 353-91-494511
E-mail: ger.hurleynuigalway.ie or maeve.duffynuigalway.ie

Power Electronics Research Centre,
Electrical & Electronic Engineering,
NUI Galway, Galway, Ireland.
Phone +353 91 493270. Fax +353 91 494511.
E-mail the Webmaster
This page was last updated Wednesday, July 12, 2017