The DOE and the EECS Department and CURENT at the University of Tennessee help a Joint Kickoff Meeting for the NGEM Projects and Power Electronics Traineeship Programs on April 1, 2016 at the downtown Hilton in Knoxville, TN.
A pre-event mixer and optional CURENT lab tour was held on Thursday evening, March 31 from 5:00pm - 9:00pm for kickoff attendees.
Friday, April 1, was an extremely full day. The meeting began with a welcome and opening remarks from Dr. Mark Johnson, DOE Director of Advanced Manufacturing Office. Dr. Anant Agarwal, DOE Technology Manager, followed with the vision for U.S. wide bandgap technology and manufacturing. An overview of two university power electronics traineeship programs was then given by Dr. Leon Tolbert of the University of Tennessee and Dr. Roland Burgos from Virginia Tech. The second half of the morning was dedicated to next generation electric machine programs. Dr. Pawel Gradski opened this segment with an overview presentation. Presenters included Dr. Geraldo Nojima, Eaton Corporation; Dr. Longya Xu, The Ohio State University; Dr. Curtiss Fox and Dr. Paulo Gudies-Pinto, Clemson University and TECO Westinghouse; Dr. Ravi Raju, GE Global Research; and Dr. Pana Shenoy, Celnetix Technologies.
After lunch, the subject turned to PowerAmerica. Executive Director General Nick Justice gave an overview of the program. Afterwards, several heavily involved entities gave presentations on their research and progress. These included Dr. Andy Wilson, XFAB; Dr. Kevin Matocha, Monolith Semiconductor; Dr. John Hostetler, USCi; Dr. Ranbir Singh, GeneSiC Semiconductor; Dr. David Grider, Wolfspeed; Mr. Peter Sandvik, General Electric and PEMC; Dr. Brij Singh, John Deere Electronic Solutions; Dr. Helen Li, Florida State University; Dr. Fred Lee, Virginia Tech; Dr. Srdjan Ludic, NC State University; and Dr. Subhashish Bhattacharya, NC State University. Closing remarks were given by the DOE Andvanced Manufacturing Office and the meeting was adjourned. A second CURENT lab tour was optional from 4:15pm to 6:00pm for participants who were interested.
Above: Dr. Anant Agarwal, DOE Technology Manager, addresses the meeting
Above: Dr. David Grider from Wolfspeed discusses research and products
Above: UT Student Chongwen Zhao asks a question during a Q&A session
Above: General Nick Justice, PowerAmerica Executive Director, prepares to speak
