University College Cork (UCC)
Quick Links: Personel Background Active Research Areas Training Provision
Personel
Background
The Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University College Cork, Ireland (UCC) runs a high-quality, internationally accredited electrical engineering degree. It is relatively small in international terms with 12 academic staff, approximately 300 undergraduate and 35 postgraduate (mainly PhD) students (as at July 2004), but individuals and groups within the department are at the forefront of their disciplines.
The training site for this research is built around PEI Technologies-UCC (PEIT), set up in 1990 by Enterprise Ireland (the Irish Government agency for both industrial development and research and development) to conduct research in the general area of power electronics, particularly in hf power conversion. The Centre has 8 academics and professional engineers who have published approximately 40 journal papers in recent years. Currently, there are 8 PhD students including students from Ireland, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. All teaching and supervision take place through the medium of English.
PEIT has worked with over forty industrial collaborators including Irish SMEs, and multinational companies with Irish and/or European operations, mostly on the development of new power-electronics-based products. Companies range from small local SMEs such as Forde Electronics and Commergy to major international organisations such as BMW, Danfoss, AEG, Moog, Hughes Aircraft Power Control Systems and General Motors. The Centre continues to make a very significant contribution, relative to its size, to the development of many indigenous Irish companies.
The PEIT Centre has received approximately €1.5Million in funding for its laboratories and capital equipment infrastructure. The Centre, which concentrates on ECCT at low and medium power levels (from a few Watts to 7.5kVA), has comprehensive high-specification, general-purpose design, prototyping and test and measurement facilities, as well as a large infrastructure of power electronics-specific equipment, extensive computer-aided-design resources, PCB prototyping facilities and state-of the art FPGA programming suite. Back to top
Active Research Areas
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HF power conversion and resonant conversion
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Power supplies/battery chargers for electric vehicles
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Renewable energy interfacing
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Signal processing and DSP/FPGA systems
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Training Provision
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Generic training in high frequency construction and experimental techniques. This includes power electronic component design, circuit layout and space minimisation techniques with high frequency switching.
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Optimised FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) and DSP training. This training maximises the potential and hence performance of generic re-configurable hardware platforms.
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Complementary courses and seminars. At UCC, Fellows will attend regular seminars, presented by both academic and industrial authorities, on generic topics of interest to postgraduate students. These often take the form of one-week courses one-week courses given by industrial or academic visitors. As part of their formal training, all students at UCC attend seminars on project management.
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Visits or study periods in industry/SMEs. All of the research at UCC is supported by industry and industrial contacts are excellent. For many projects, Fellows will be encouraged to make industrial visits or short study periods spent working on an industrial based product development related to their research project.
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UCC Web Links
University College Cork
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
PEI Technologies |
