The Power and Energy Systems Area committee and associated faculty for the 2024-2025 academic year together with their fields of interest are:

As one of seven major areas in Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Power and Energy Systems Area is responsible for the development and offering of a considerable number of courses. The current courses assigned to the power area are described briefly below.

ECE 217 – Solar Car
The course covers high-level aspects of the design, construction, analysis, and economics of solar-powered electric vehicles. Topics bridge a variety of engineering disciplines integrated together with business to present a cohesive overview highlighting complexities of solar-powered vehicles. Students gain hands-on experience working with the Solar Car Team to build the next solar car and learn early in their curriculum that a multidisciplinary understanding is essential to create complex systems. Course Information: May be repeated in separate terms up to 2 hours. Prerequisite: ECE 110.

ECE 307 – Techniques for Engineering Decisions
This three-hour course is concerned with modeling decisions and modeling analysis of models to develop a systematic approach to making decisions. The focus is on developing techniques for solving typical problems faced in making engineering decisions in industry and government. Topics include resource allocation, logistics, scheduling, sequential decision making, siting of facilities, investment decisions and other problems for decision making under uncertainty. Extensive use of case studies gets students involved in real-world decisions. Prerequisite: ECE 210; credit or concurrent registration in ECE 313.

ECE 330 – Power Circuits and Electromechanics
Network equivalents; power and energy fundamentals, resonance, mutual inductance; three-phase power concepts, forces and torques of electric origin in electromagnetic and electrostatic systems; energy conversion cycles; principles of electric machines; transducers; relays; laboratory demonstration. Prerequisite: ECE 210. Prerequisite: ECE 210.

ECE 333 – Green Electric Energy
Electric power grid structure and policy; analysis of wind, solar, and fuels as raw resources; wind turbines and parks; solar cells,
modules, arrays and systems; fuel cell power plants; energy and financial performance of green energy projects; integration of green
energy into power grid; energy project report and presentation. Prerequisite: ECE 205 or ECE 210.

ECE 398 GG – Electric Vehicles
Electric vehicles (EVs) have the potential to drastically reduce the global CO2 footprint to effectively address climate change issues. Massive EV adoption requires the establishment of an EV charging infrastructure (EVCI) to supply the energy needs of EV owners/ users. The course examines technical, economic, environmental and policy aspects of EVs and the required EVCI. A basic physics discussion of rolling vehicles serves to determine the power and energy requirements and their implications for energy storage and transfer. The course covers the EV architectures and configurations, as well as the detailed description of the deployment of motors and generators, drives for traction applications, batteries and their management and the EV-grid nexus. The description of the various technologies and approaches deployed in EV design and operations is augmented by the detailed examination of the energy efficiency and environmental benefits of EVs. The application of power electronics to EV charging is accompanied by a detailed examination of the EVCI and its interactions with the existing infrastructures. Throughout the course there is a strong focus on the efficient utilization of energy in an environmentally sensitive manner to emphasize the significant role of EVs and EVCI in the energy transition. Prerequisites: Junior standing in Engineering; ECE 210 or 205.

ECE 431 – Electric Machinery
This course is a senior or beginning-graduate level elective for electrical and computer engineering majors. The goals are to impart an understanding of electromechanics from theoretical and experimental bases. The successful student will be able to explain how a given electromechanical devices works, and justify the explanation mathematically. Further, the student should be able to conceive a device that is capable of meeting performance criteria, though detailed design is not part of the course. The student should also be able to understand and articulate a broad range of application areas, including emerging areas. Prerequisite: ECE 330.

ECE 432 – Advanced Electric Machinery
This course presents advanced rotating machine theory and practice, dynamic analysis of machines using reference frame transformations, tests for parameter determination, reduced order modeling of machines; mechanical subsystems including governors, prime movers, excitation systems, and digital simulation of inter-connected machines. Prerequisite: ECE 431.

ECE 464 – Power Electronics
This course presents fundamentals of circuits for electrical energy processing. Discusses power electronics as a vital enabler for future energy. Switching converter principles, harmonics, pulse-width modulation, phase control, and phase modulation, dc-dc, ac-dc, and dc-ac, power converters. Alternative and renewable energy applications. High-performance power supply circuits. Power components, including capacitors, magnetic components and power semiconductor switching devices. Considerations in solar, wind, and fuel cell power. Prerequisite: ECE 342.

ECE 469 – Power Electronics Laboratory
Laboratory study of electronic circuits and devices for conversion and control of energy; discussion of electrical properties of batteries, solar cells, motors, and loudspeakers; design, operation, testing, and applications of ac-dc, dc-dc, and dc-ac switching converters; design and evaluation of magnetic components; power supply design project, including considerations such as heat transfer, control, and device behavior; alternative energy systems and power electronics applications to LED lighting, audio amplifiers, and electric and hybrid vehicles. Prerequisite: ECE 443; credit or concurrent registration in ECE 464.

ECE 476 – Power System Analysis
Modeling of electric power systems, and the analysis of models for planning, operations and control. Basic principles in phasor representation, complex power, balanced three-phase, and per-phase analysis. Transmission-line parameter computation, including conductor bundling, and transposition. Transmission-line models, and power handling capabilities of transmission lines. Modeling of generators, transformers, and loads. Power flow problem formulation and solution methods, decoupled power flow and dc power flow simplifications. Generation control, economic dispatch and restructuring. Short-circuit analysis, unbalanced system operation, and system protection. Transient stability problem formulation, swing equation, and equal-area criterion. Prerequisite: ECE 330.

ECE 530 – Analysis Techniques for Large-Scale Electrical Systems
This course presents fundamental techniques for the analysis of large-scale electrical systems, including methods for nonlinear and switched systems. Emphasis on the importance of the structural characteristics of such systems. Key aspects of static and dynamic analysis methods. Prerequisite: ECE 464 and ECE 476.

ECE 554 – Dynamic System Reliability
There is a wide range of applications in which it is important to include a model of the system dynamics when assessing overall system behavior in the presence of component faults, and therefore reliability. In this regard, this course provides a unified view of reliability and dynamic performance evaluation for large-scale and complex systems, building on system-theoretic modeling, analysis, and design techniques. Design methods for reliability are discussed, including architecture design; and filter-based fault detection and isolation. Techniques for design optimization are discussed, including analytical methods for optimal redundancy allocation, and sensitivity analysis methods for iterative system design. A wide range of application examples are discussed, including mechatronic systems used in aircraft and automotive; power electronics systems, and electric power systems. Same as ME 544. Prerequisite: ECE 313 and ECE 515, or permission of instructor.

ECE 568 – Modeling and Control of Electromechanical Systems
Fundamental electrical and mechanical laws for derivation of machine models; simplifying transformations of variables in electrical machines; power electronics for motor control; time-scale separation; feedback linearization and nonlinear control as applied to electrical machines. Typical electromechanical applications in actuators, robotics, and variable speed drives. Prerequisite: ECE 431 and ECE 515.

ECE 573 – Power Systems Operations and Control
This course presents an overview of power system operations and control, lays out the basic objectives of security and economics in power system operations and control, discusses the security analysis framework and the role of the energy management system. The course covers the key scheduling tasks in power system operations and control from optimal power flows to resource scheduling and commitment, their solution schemes and implementational issues. In addition, state estimation and observability analysis are treated. Key aspects of electricity restructuring, including electricity market structures and design, congestion management, locational marginal prices and ancillary services, are analyzed.

ECE 576 – Power System Dynamics and Stability
This course studies detailed aspects of power system operations and control, scheduling, and steady state security assessment and operations in the competitive environment. The emphasis is on the analytic and computational aspects of problems that arise in system operations and control. Papers of interest are reviewed and discussed. Course Information: Prerequisite: ECE 476; credit or concurrent registration in ECE 530.

ECE 588 – Electricity Resource Planning
This course presents an overview of power system planning and discusses the methodologies for reliability evaluation and assessment, production and marginal costing supply- and demand-side planning, system expansion and planning under competition. The basic principles and processes of resource planning and the effects of uncertainty and their modeling using probabilistic analysis are discussed. Throughout the key aspects of reliability and economics and the trade-offs among them are covered. The course analyzes the impacts of competitive environment on planning decisions the application of financial tools in planning. Prerequisite: MATH 415, ECE 313, and ECE 476.

ECE 590 I Seminar – Power Systems
This course is a graduate seminar on advanced topics of current interest. Both faculty and students participate by presenting either current research results or topics of interest in journal publications. Guest speakers from industry and other universities are also scheduled periodically throughout the semester. 

ECE 598 KSH – Special Topics (Electrical Machine Design)
Technologies, such as advanced materials, manufacturing processes and power electronics, can open up the design space for new electrical machine solutions aimed at emerging applications in the transportation, energy, and industrial sectors. To take full advantage of these developments, engineers need to be well versed in the multidisciplinary design process for electrical machines, with a good understanding of complex trade-offs that span multiple disciplines. They must also be comfortable with both analytical and numerical tools and know when to apply these to obtain the best results. The course attempts to prepare electrical and mechanical engineers for this opportunity by focusing on practical design considerations. It builds on fundamentals covered in ECE 330 and 431 and takes students through the design of a variety of electromechanical devices. Fundamental principles of energy conversion applicable to all types of electric machinery are first reviewed. Basic design rules, analytical formulae and the use of numerical design tools are then introduced, and experience is gained through a hands-on design project.

ECE 598 AB – Special Topics (Power-Electronic Converter and Control for Electric Machines: Theory and Practice)
This course introduces modeling, analysis, and design of electromechanical energy-conversion systems from a simultaneous perspective of power electronics, electromechanics, and control. We will take a hands-on approach. Theories are discussed in lectures and implemented in real-world laboratory setups. Three-phase power-electronic converters specifically designed for machine drives are introduced. Dynamic models of different types of electrical machines are developed using generalized machine theory. Finally, different control architectures and their impact on the dynamic performance of the drive are discussed. “Real-world” examples from many existing and emerging applications including electric vehicles, renewable energy systems, and high-power and high-performance industrial drives are used to show the need for interdisciplinary understanding from a system perspective.

ECE 598 SB – Special Topics (Mathematical Foundations of Electricity Markets)
This course introduces modeling, analysis, and design of electromechanical energy-conversion systems from a simultaneous perspective of power electronics, electromechanics, and control. We will take a hands-on approach. Theories are discussed in lectures and implemented in real-world laboratory setups. Three-phase power-electronic converters specifically designed for machine drives are introduced. Dynamic models of different types of electrical machines are developed using generalized machine theory. Finally, different control architectures and their impact on the dynamic performance of the drive are discussed. “Real-world” examples from many existing and emerging applications including electric vehicles, renewable energy systems, and high-power and high-performance industrial drives are used to show the need for interdisciplinary understanding from a system perspective.

ECE 598 AS – Special Topics (Power Electronics: Theory and Practice)
Restricted to Graduates. Power electronics are a key enabling technology in renewable distributed energy resources in the electricity grid, vehicle electrification, mobile devices, low-power Internet of Things devices, and data centers. This course covers advanced topics in power electronics, including converter topologies, soft-switching and resonant converters, inductor and transformer design, and hybrid switched capacitor topologies. Application examples from solar, electric machine drives, and power-supply on a chip will be provided to motivate each topic. Prerequisites: ECE 464 or equivalent.

The four-hundred level courses are advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate courses, while the five hundred level courses are graduate. The Power and Energy Systems Area Committee periodically evaluates each course outline for possible revision for future offering.

Updated 6/5/2025