Introduction to Power Electronics

Author: Maryam

Created: 2021-09-21 03:39pm

Edited: 2023-09-14 07:58pm

Description:

Context: Participants in this course are BSc students in their fourth semester. The course involves primarily theoretical teaching to familiarize the students with a) the mechanisms involved in electrical energy conversion in power electronics systems, b) the various types of power converters and rectifiers used for energy-saving purposes in the industry, and c) the design parameters that affect the performance of power converters. With this entry knowledge, the students will learn how to design high-efficiency power converters using MATLAB simulation software.

Pedagogical Challenge: For most students, this is their first time to approach topics related to control designs for power converters; therefore, they have different levels of interest and understanding of the issues discussed in the course.

Teaching Type: My teaching mostly follows the Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT) and the STREAM models. Every session, the students are assigned reading materials to study as part of their out-of-class activities. I further make short webcasts to teach the theoretical concepts and the students are expected to watch them out of the class. To ascertain that all the students have watched the webcast videos and studied the reading material, there will also be online quizzes that they need to complete by a specific deadline before the class. The students will have the opportunity to discuss their problems with their peers in a Q&A forum in Brightspace; the unresolved problems addressed in this forum, as well as those apparent in their responses to the quizzes but not discussed in the forum, will determine the beginning of the in-class-teaching. We will spend the rest of the class time on follow-up activities such as simulations so the students can see the theoretical implementation of what they studied.

Intended Learning Outcomes:

Use MATLAB to design and apply AC/DC converters
Carry out simulation projects using MATLAB/Simulink
Plan the use of power converters in electrical grid technologies

Resources	Tasks		Supports
Out-of-class Activities
Brightspace, instructional video(s), reading materials	Students study the reading materials and watch the instructional video to get acquainted with the topic, as a warm-up for the pre-class lecture, and answer the questions in Assignment (1h-2hs) ↓	←	Peer support in the discussion forum in Brightspace
Brightspace, webcast, and own notes	Students watch the lecture webcast on the selected topics; Answer the questions in Assignment 2; Share their responses in Brightspace and compare their answers with their peers (2hs - 3hs) ↓	←	Peer feedback and lecturer support if necessary
Brightspace, screencast	Students watch the screencast demonstrating the simulation of a power converter/circuit and work with their peers to do the simulation activity assigned to each group. (1h - 90 min) ↓ ↓	←	Peer support and instructor support, if necessary, in the discussion forum in Brightspace

In-class Activities
PowerPoint Presentations	The groups present the results of their simulations and get feedback from their peers and the instructor to prepare a revised report. (45 min - 1h) ↓	←	Peer feedback and instructor feedback if necessary (the instructor monitors the students' discussions and intervenes when necessary)
MATLAB/Simulink	The groups carry out more challenging simulation tasks (30 min-1 h) ↓	←	Peer support; instructor support (The instructor moderates the groups' performance and provides feedback when necessary)

Follow-up out-of-class Activities
Brightspace	Students revise their reports for Simulation 1 & prepare their reports for Simulation 2	←	Peer support and individualized instructor feedback on the reports