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New program: Earn a professional master's in embedded systems

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Nov 2015 16:53:37 +0000

New program: Earn a professional master's in embedded systems Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 11/11/2015 - 09:53

Most of us will casually encounter dozens of embedded systems by mid-morning each day throughout our residences, roadways, workplaces and retail stores. These intelligent machines are a permanent part of our global landscape, and are continuously being expanded and upgraded by a world of forward-thinking engineers and entrepreneurs.

To help our students, alumni and industry friends keep pace with these technology trends – including the Internet of Things – the Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering has expanded its options in embedded systems design, starting in fall 2015.

The Embedded Systems Engineering (ESE) professional master’s program is structured to provide students with a broad, versatile skillset and coupled with industry input for continuous curriculum updates. Current trends covered in the program include:

ARM Processors
Capacitive Touch
Computer/Machine Vision (Industrial)
Consumer Wearables
FPGA/SoC Home Automation (Industrial)
Imaging
Memory/Storage
Sensors/MEMS
Smartphone Apps
Solid State Lighting
Transportation Autonomy
Web-enablement (Internet of Things)
Wireless Protocols & Devices

This new program is offered under the College of Engineering and Applied Science’s Master of Engineering degree. Through flexible core course options and electives, students enrolled in the ESE program may pursue a 9-credit hour certificate or a 30-credit hour degree at an introductory cost of $860/credit hour (residents) or $990/credit hour (non-residents).

With our newly added ESE classes, students now have access to all of the courses they need to complete a master’s degree in this dynamic field.

Visit the Embedded Systems webpage for more on available courses, program options and more.

To help our students, alumni and industry friends keep pace with technology trends – including the Internet of Things – the Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering has expanded its options in embedded systems design, starting in fall 2015.

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PhD student's startup takes home $275K MIT Clean Energy Prize

Anonymous — Tue, 12 May 2015 06:00:00 +0000

PhD student's startup takes home $275K MIT Clean Energy Prize Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/12/2015 - 00:00

OptiBit's technology helps data centers save 10% on energy use while also increasing performance.

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CU-Boulder faculty accept Google/IEEE Little Box Challenge

Anonymous — Thu, 15 Jan 2015 07:00:00 +0000

CU-Boulder faculty accept Google/IEEE Little Box Challenge Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 01/15/2015 - 00:00

ECEE Assistant Professor Khurram Afridi and his team were notified by Google in December 2014 that they had received a grant to compete in the Little Box Challenge, a million-dollar prize competition funded by Google and judged by the IEEE Power Electronics Society.

The contest's goal is to dramatically change the technology of solar power inverters, and it has attracted significant attention, with 10 teams from around the world selected to receive the grant from Google.

Now, Prof. Afridi and his team has less than a year to build a power inverter that is at least 10 times smaller than the current picnic cooler-sized inverters commonly used in photovoltaic solar power systems and other green energy applications.

The 2-kVA inverter, which must fit within a 40 in3 rectangular metal enclosure, is also required to have efficiency greater than 95%, an enclosing case temperature of under 60°C without external cooling, and must conform to a number of other requirements and standards.

But Afridi isn't daunted. In fact, he says it was the demanding timeline and project requirements that piqued the team's interest in competing.

"It was aggressive enough in terms of requirements that it made for a good challenge," he said. "The power density challenge is quite aggressive, especially when you add to it other requirements like thermal management and electromagnetic interference and the fact that you're discouraged from using limited life, but high energy density, electrolytic capacitors."

Afridi also saw the challenge as a good opportunity for collaboration across disciplines. His Team Flatiron will include ECEE researchers Professor Bob Erickson, Professor Dragan Maksimovic and Dr. Dan Seltzer, as well as Associate Professor Ronggui Yang from mechanical engineering, and a number of graduate students.

While they obviously can't give away much about their approach, Afridi said they're going to use a unique energy-buffering scheme and innovative inverter topology, which should allow them to exceed the required specifications.

Because of the tight timeline, the team won't have much time for iterations. Instead, Afridi said, they will have to run all pieces of the project in parallel, which will require close collaboration.

"It basically has to be running well on the first try," he said.

In the coming July, the Team Flatiron will submit their technical approach and their little box to the judges. Eighteen finalists will then be selected to test their inverters in October at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado.

Because the grant from Google will only cover equipment and parts, the team will be looking for volunteer undergraduate researchers to join them in the lab. If you are interested, contact Prof. Afridi atkhurram.afridi@colorado.edu.

Afridi and his team have less than a year to build a power inverter that is at least 10 times smaller than the current picnic cooler-sized inverters commonly used in photovoltaic solar power systems and other green energy applications.

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PhD student wins top prize for research demo

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Oct 2014 06:00:00 +0000

PhD student wins top prize for research demo Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 10/19/2014 - 00:00

First-year PhD student Saad Pervaiz recently beat out nine students from around the world to take home the Best Demo Award at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' 2014 Energy Conversion Congress and Expo (ECCE) in Pittsburgh.

ECCE introduced the student hardware demo event in 2011 for students to showcase their research outcomes and interact with academia and industry. This year, teams from Virginia Tech, Iowa State, North Carolina State, City University of Hong Kong and KTH Sweden were among those to present their posters, hardware and videos at the event.

Pervaiz demonstrated an electrolytic-free offline led driver with a ceramic-capacitor-based compact stacked switched capacitor (SSC) energy buffer, a project he has been working on with Assistant Professor Khurram Afridi. He was supported by Yu Ni, a recent graduate of the ECEE master's program, and Minjie Chen, a student Afridi is co-advising at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

LED drivers are used in commercial and residential lighting to regulate power to an LED or string of LEDs.

"Most LEDs are guaranteed for 40 years, but the drivers only last four or five years before they need to be replaced," Pervaiz said. "We're creating a driver that will last longer."

During their demonstration, Pervaiz and his team pitted their driver against one with electrolytic capacitors. They showed that theirs achieved the same performance as the electrolytic version, while reducing the passive volume by a factor of two.

In addition to winning a cash award, Pervaiz said the conference was also a great networking opportunity.

"During my presentation, I got to meet some of the top researches of my field," he said. "I also made some good industry connections"

Learn more about Pervaiz's project in his demonstration report.

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