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Power

 
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Biomedical Engineering

ECE Ph.D.s

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Power Laboratories & Groups

Power News

Virginia Tech’s research in power encompasses delivering electricity to where it is needed and its conversion and use at its final destinations. Significant work is ongoing to design, improve, and protect the world’s power grids and equipment; understand and design distributed and alternative power systems; store electricity for later use; and develop motors that provide increased function with less energy.

In much of the industrialized world, power systems rely on decades-old equipment. Therefore, unlike many fields where new developments can simply replace the old, power engineering involves unique challenges in blending state-of-the-art technology with working equipment that can be half a century old. Much of the research in power involves integrating and utilizing information technology with the system. Like most research efforts in ECE, however, advances involve other technologies, including communications, controls, electronics, and electromagnetics.

See Also: Power Laboratories & Groups

Recent News Items Regarding Power Engineering Research

• Real-time control of distributed generation (April 2004)
• Undergraduates Build Equipment to Monitor Power Grid (Fall 2003)
• Power Electronics Device Wins R&D 100 Award (Fall 2003)
• Virginia Tech Researchers Deploying Innovative Power Monitoring System (April 2003)
• A Virtual Hospital for Power Equipment (April 2003)
• World's Largest MOS Controller Power Switch (April 2003)

2-page description of ECE power engineering research from the 2004 Annual Report. (245 KB)

Advanced Power Engnineering Courses
for graduate students.

Faculty Members Conducting Research in Power