IPEG Ph.D. candidates A. Khan, M. Hosseinzadehtaher, A. Y. Fard and Prof. Shadmand awarded IEEE IAS Zucker Student-Faculty Grant.

Today, research has been focusing on transportation applications electrification. This recent trend is driven by the push toward clean energy utilization, the aim to attain optimized performance, and the maturity of the technology. In the aircraft industry, a fully electric aircraft idea is not feasible yet; this is because a fully electric type propulsion system for aircraft remains a challenge.  In fact, a gradual replacement of the hydraulic and the pneumatic subsystems in conventional aircraft with their electric equivalence is happening today. This recent trend toward developing a hybrid aircraft is termed as more electric aircraft (MEA).

A team of Ph.D. candidates including Ahmad Khan, Mohsen Hosseinzadehtaher, and Amin Y. Fard under Prof. Shadmand's supervision won the IEEE IAS Myron Zucker, Student-Faculty Grant, for their proposal on MEA.

The team with the guidance of Prof. Shadmand is targeting better reliability, higher power density, and pushing the existing efficiency boundaries for MEA applications by employing active power decoupling, Gallium-Nitride-based converters, and active resonance damping.