Electrical and Computer Engineering Department (ECE) receive $30,000 from Dominion Resources Foundation for Future Energy Career Training

The Dominion Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Dominion Resources, in its first-round higher education initiative, has awarded $30,000 to Old Dominion University's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering to upgrade its power electronics and electric drives lab. New projects will be developed for students' career training in power and energy areas.

ODU was selected as one of the first recipients of the Dominion Higher Educational Partnership that supports higher education programs including preservation of natural resources, work force development and education, diversity initiatives, neighborhood and community development and basic needs for food and shelter.

"We see the importance in funding and cultivating the innovative studies that are happening at our colleges and universities and their potential for the future," said William C. Hall Jr., a vice president of Dominion and president of The Dominion Foundation.

Dr. Shu Xiao and Dr. Shirshak Dhali, Chair of the ECE Department, proposed having students practice their power engineering skills in an advanced, digital signal processing (DSP) environment. More lab courses will be added for Power Electronics (ECE 403) and Electric Drives (ECE 404). Through the Dominion funds, power electronics boards, consisting of various pulse-width-modulation converters and feedback control will be purchased to allow students to design and test the concept of pulse width modulation (PWM). In addition, DSP- based motor drive systems will be added to the existing lab equipment.

Besides upgrading the existing lab equipment, new projects for motor braking energy recovery will be developed. Six undergraduate students have signed up for two senior design projects, aiming to recover braking energy in DC and DC brushless motor and to design power electronics systems for high repetition rate pulse chargers.