{"id":7073,"date":"2018-08-14T17:16:50","date_gmt":"2018-08-14T21:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/poweramericainstitute.org\/?post_type=news&p=7073"},"modified":"2019-01-16T10:01:17","modified_gmt":"2019-01-16T15:01:17","slug":"building-the-future-poweramericas-education-and-workforce-programs-give-students-the-tools-they-need-for-career-success","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/poweramericainstitute.org\/news\/building-the-future-poweramericas-education-and-workforce-programs-give-students-the-tools-they-need-for-career-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Building the Future: PowerAmerica\u2019s Education and Workforce Programs Give Students the Tools They Need for Career Success"},"content":{"rendered":"
A group of students huddled around tables in a lab at N.C. State University one hot summer day in late July, peering through plastic goggles as they soldered components onto printed circuit boards. The finished boards would operate as power converters. Through the exercise, they were getting a crash course in wide bandgap power electronics, specifically, how silicon carbide and gallium nitride \u2013 two compounds that enable power electronics to operate highly efficiently \u2013 stacked up against silicon, which is the standard, less efficient material widely used in power electronics today.<\/p>\n
At the end of the exercise, students tested their boards with oscilloscopes, which display electric currents on a screen, and multi-meters, which measure them. \u201cAs you can see, the gallium nitride-based power converter operates at higher frequencies and efficiencies,\u201d said lab instructor and PhD student Alireza Dayerizadeh. The students looked on, nodding their head in agreement. You could practically see the wheels of their brain turning as the knowledge sunk in.<\/p>\n
Lab exercises such as these are just one component of the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU), offered by PowerAmerica for 10 weeks each summer. The goal? To get students familiar with power electronics \u00a0– with a focus on wide bandgap, the backbone of PowerAmerica\u2019s mission. The institute strives to accelerate the development and adoption of these highly efficient power electronics systems, thus saving energy on a large scale and driving a stronger advanced manufacturing industry in the U.S. Getting the next generation of workers prepped to lead this charge is a vital part of fulfilling this goal.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n High school students Christian Palmer (left) and Justin Howard (right) solder during a lab on wide bandgap power electronics.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n The REU program is unique in that it offers a crash course in a variety of skills not necessarily obtained in a traditional classroom. It\u2019s also unique in the students it attracts. The program pulls not just from four-year schools, but from community colleges in the surrounding region \u2013 reaching students who wouldn\u2019t otherwise have access to the research and labs at a large, well-funded research institution like N.C. State University, where the program is held and where PowerAmerica is based. For six weeks, REU students are also joined by high school students and teachers from surrounding counties \u2013 the \u201cpre-college\u201d component of PowerAmerica\u2019s summer education programs. This summer, 20 undergraduates, high school students and teachers participated.<\/span><\/p>\n PowerAmerica also offers an additional program \u2013 the Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (UGRS) \u2013 that runs through the academic year. Students come from partner universities (PowerAmerica has 14<\/span> nationally) and are assigned to a Power-America funded university project.<\/span><\/p>\n Not all the students are entering the electrical engineering field, either. This summer\u2019s class included students pursuing degrees in mechanical, computer science and aerospace engineering. The takeaway is that knowledge in power electronics is useful to a variety of research fields, and the diverse backgrounds only add to the program, said Pam Carpenter, PowerAmerica\u2019s Director of Education and Workforce Development.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThere are so many different skillsets coming together that it sets the students up for success, and also helps PowerAmerica\u2019s academic researchers \u2013 it\u2019s a win win for everyone,\u201d Carpenter said.<\/span><\/p>\n The course content for all programs is similar, although UGRS is administered remotely. In addition to weekly labs \u2013 featuring a wide variety of topics, from electric vehicles to wide bandgap to circuits to coding, as well as software like SolidWorks and MatLab – \u00a0students attend sessions on skills they may or may not have been taught in a classroom, like how to communicate their research and research ethics.<\/span><\/p>\n Sean Clark, a Wake Tech student who will transfer into N.C. State\u2019s aerospace engineering undergraduate program this fall, applied for the program as a way to become more comfortable with electronics, hardware and wide bandgap. \u201cEverything overlaps, and I thought it was a great opportunity to learn more about all of them,\u201d he said. Clark said learning the ins and outs of software such as Simulink and MATLAB was probably the most beneficial part of the program, as well as learning presentation skills and how to effectively pitch his work.<\/span><\/p>\n