Seminar - Dr. Praveen Jain

Monday, April 21, 2014 10:30 am - 10:30 am EDT (GMT -04:00)

Speaker

Dr. Praveen Jain, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Queen's University

Topic

Power Electronics for a Sustainable Society

Abstract

Power electronics plays a key role in our modern society. It is helping us in building modern infrastructures those are not only providing us a comfortable life but are also environmental friendly. This lecture presents some of the contributions in this field as a part of my 30-year long journey through power electronics. We will see how this field has evolved through the years in terms of power electronics architectures, converter topologies and control techniques. We will also see how this field has impacted us in applications such as space, aerospace, communications, information processing, transportation and renewable energy generation.

Speaker's biography

Dr. Jain is currently Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Power Electronics, and Director of the Queen's Centre for Energy and Power Electronics Research at Queen's University. He made pioneering contributions in introducing resonant power conversion technology in telecommunications during his work at Nortel in the 1990's. He played a key role in the design and development of high frequency power conversion equipment for the International Space Station at Canadian Astronautics in the late 1980's. Over the last 30 years, he has made sustained contributions to the theory and practice of power electronics through his considerable work with industry, including Astec, Freescale, General Electric, Intel and Nortel. He is the founder of two successful start-up companies, CHiL Semiconductor in the area of digital powe( controller (acquired by Intemational Rectifier), and SPARQ Systems in the area of photovoltaic micro-inverters.

Dr. Jain has supervised and/or is supervising over 100 graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and power electronics engineers who are well placed in industry and academia. He has published over 500 papers and holds 50 patents. Among his many awards and honors Dr. Jain have received are: Queen's Prize for Excellence in Research, IEEE William Newell Award, IEEE IAS Distinguished Lecturer, Fellow of Royal Society of Canada, Fellow of the IEEE, Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada, Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, and Engineering Medal of the Professional Engineers of Ontario.


Invited by Professor Slim Boumaiza.