Fellow of IEEE |
• Speech Title: Power Module Packaging for Combating Climate Change
• Abstract: Electrical engineers are pursuing a two-pronged approach to combat climate change and meet the growing demand on electricity: adding renewable energy sources to the electric grid and electrifying transportation. Success of this approach requires innovations in power electronics converters for the source-to-grid connection, traction drives, battery chargers, etc. At the heart of every one of the power converters is a semiconductor switching device or power module that controls the flow of electrical energy. The performance, reliability, and cost of the converters are dictated by the packaging of power modules for electrical interconnection, heat dissipation, and protection of the switches. Over the last 25 years, the Center for Power Electronics Systems at Virginia Tech has been developing innovative nanomaterials and assembly technologies for power module packaging. The research effort has been focused on three strategies: (1) double-sided cooling to reduce device junction-to-case thermal resistance and package stray inductances; (2) sintered-silver bonding to increase the junction temperature above 200 oC; and (3) electric-field grading by a nonlinear resistive coating to increase the partial discharge inception voltage of the module. Two examples will be presented to illustrate the implementation of these packaging strategies. One combines double-sided cooling and sintered-silver bonding for packaging a silicon carbide (SiC) module for a 100 kW/L traction inverter, and the other combines the three strategies for packaging a medium-voltage SiC power module for grid-tied applications.
Brief Bio: Dr. Guo-Quan (GQ) Lu is a professor jointly appointed between the Department of ECE and MSE at Virginia Tech. He is affiliated with the Center for Power Electronics Systems (CPES) at Virginia Tech. Dr. Lu has a Ph.D. in Applied Physics/Materials Science from Harvard University. For 25+ years, he has been developing nanomaterials and manufacturing technologies for power electronics packaging and integration. Dr. Lu has published more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles. He is the winner of an NSF CAREER award, Virginia Tech Sporn award for teaching, and a R&D100 award. Dr. Lu is an IEEE fellow.
Prof. Nourredine Boubekri, University of North Texas, College of Engineering Denton, Texas, USA |
• Speech Title: Connected Manufacturing: Smart Manufacturing and Supply Chain
• Abstract: Globalization has led to increasingly interconnected manufacturing systems. A fact made clear by the pandemic which demonstrated the complexity, uncertainty, and vulnerability of supply chains. Their sensitivity to even small errors or lack of accurate plans can have major consequences in terms of product availability, schedules, pricing, revenue, and wellbeing for mankind. On the other hand, smart manufacturing requires smart supply chain systems for it to be competitive. This presentation discusses these two important areas and their integration.
Brief Bio: Dr. Nourredine Boubekri is currently a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of North Texas. He received his Ph.D. in Industrial and Management Systems Engineering. He received both his Master and Bachelor of Science degrees in Manufacturing Engineering. His career started at the University of Miami. There he founded the University of Miami Industrial Assessment Center in the year 2000, which is currently still funded by DOE. His experience includes his roles as Department chair /Director of Research and Innovation and currently Founder and Director of UNT DOE Industrial Assessment Center. He directed more than fifty Master and Ph.D. Students and published more than 100 technical articles and journal papers in the areas of Green Manufacturing, New Product/Process Development, Project Management and Quality Assurance. His research funding exceeds seven million dollars in grants and contracts. He has been an invited/Keynote speaker at a number of international conferences and symposiums.
Prof. Weidong Zhu, University of Maryland, USA |
• Speech Title: Continuously Scanning Laser Doppler Vibrometry for Vibration Measurement: Principles, Recent Developments, and Applications
• Abstract: A laser Doppler vibrometer can measure the surface velocity of a point on a structure. A continuously scanning laser Doppler vibrometer (CSLDV) was developed to significantly improve efficiency and spatial resolution of vibration measurement of the structure. As a non-contact system, it can avoid the mass-loading problem in vibration measurement using accelerometers. The CSLDV was made by adding two orthogonal scan mirrors in front of a single-point laser Doppler vibrometer. Two scan mirrors can be referred to as X and Y mirrors based on their rotation axes, respectively. During CSLDV measurement, two scan mirrors can be controlled to continuously rotate about their rotation axes, and the laser spot of the CSLDV can continuously move along a pre-designed scan trajectory on the structure, which is a major difference compared to a conventional scanning laser Doppler vibrometer (SLDV) system that has a point-by-point scanning capability. This tutorial first overviews principles in vibration measurement using a CSDLV, such as signal processing methods for structures under various excitations such as sinusoidal, impact, and random excitations, and scan trajectory design methods for structures with various shapes. Recent developments on (1) a novel general-purpose three-dimensional (3D) CSLDV system for measuring 3D full-field vibration of a structure with arbitrarily curved surfaces, and (2) a novel zero-contact image-based tracking CSLDV system for measuring vibration of a rotating structure are presented. The general-purpose 3D CSLDV system can measure vibrations of difficult to access areas of structures with the assistance of reflective mirrors and obtain their 3D panoramic modal parameters through a novel vibration stitching method. The image-based tracking CSLDV system can track and scan a rotating structure such as a rotating wind turbine blade through a novel edge detection method and estimate its modal parameters through an improved lifting method and an improved demodulation method. Applications of continuous scanning laser vibrometry to structural damage detection will be discussed.
Brief Bio: Weidong Zhu is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and the founder and director of its Dynamic Systems and Vibrations Laboratory and Laser Vibrometry and Optical Measurement Laboratory. He received his double major BS degree in Mechanical Engineering and Computational Science from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 1986, and his MS and PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Arizona State University and the University of California at Berkeley in 1988 and 1994, respectively. He is a recipient of the 2004 National Science Foundation CAREER Award. He has been an ASME Fellow since 2010, and has served as an Associate Editor of the ASME Journal of Vibration and Acoustics and the ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control, and as a Subject Editor of the Journal of Sound and Vibration and Nonlinear Dynamics. His research spans the fields of dynamics, vibration, control, structural health monitoring, renewable energy, metamaterials, and involves analytical development, numerical simulation, experimental validation, and industrial application. He has published 308 SCI-indexed journal papers in these areas and has eight issued U.S. patents. He has received 14 best paper awards from the ASME and Society of Experimental Mechanics. He is a recipient of the 2020 University System of Maryland Board of Regents Faculty Award for Excellence in Research.
Prof. Michael E. Johnson, Capital Technology University, USA |
• Speech Title: Connecting the Connected Factory
• Abstract:This presentation aims to show the underlying weakness in Factory 4.0 and the expectations of additional technology in manufacturing. We limit the promise and anticipation of the expanded and updated technology by updating the components and tools without changing how they communicate (connecting via Wi-Fi, Blue Tooth and Ethernet, and the like). We continue to use many connection methods instead of finding means of bringing connectivity into a single point. This presentation goes over the history of the advancement of factories and manufacturing. It will show the primary manufacturing means along with modern associated tooling in today's technical factory. Using new tools and systems will not guarantee improvement as long as we rely on the transport methods of yesteryear.
Brief Bio: Dr. Johnson has been working with Capital Technology University since 2020 as an adjunct professor in aerospace science. He also has spent the last 10 years working with Boeing’s commercial and space activities with NASA, SpaceX, and Blue Origin. Dr. Johnson most recently was the lead liaison with the International Space Station (ISS) and ground support operations in Houston Texas. He has extensive experience and has published in the area(s) such as of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) along with associated data systems used in global tracking. Dr. Johnson has had the privilege of publishing in numerous international technical journals and has assisted students at Capital in the same. Dr. Johnson is a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society along with several other institutions. He was recently appointed to the Board of Trustees for Capital in 2023.