IFEC 2023: Patrick Fuchs Presenting Outstanding Performance Award to University of Belgrade
In this year's competition "IEEE International Future Energy Challenge 2023" Patrick Fuchs (Business Development Manager at ZES ZIMMER) was not only participating as a jury member, but at the same time presenting the award for "Outstanding Performance" to the student team "H-Bridges" from the University of Belgrade, Serbia in the finals on July 27, 2023. Congratulations to the team for this well-deserved achievement. As this year's co-sponsor of the competition, we equally congratulate the other final teams on their presented results and achieved prizes:
- Reutlingen University: The Grand Prize (10.000 $)
- University of Belgrade, School of Electrical Engineering / University of Belgrade: Outstanding Performance Award at 5.000 $
- Utah State University: Best Teamwork Award (2.500 $)
- University of Connecticut: Educational Progress Award (2.500 $)
- Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay und Sardar Patel Institute of Technology: Innovative Concept Award (1.000 $)
Future, energy and challenges are words that increasingly go hand in hand and describe the work paths of many engineers. They shape the trajectory and guidelines for many research and manufacturing companies in the electronics industry and expand the space for innovation.
The same is validfor the orientation and significance of the university departments in the field of power electronics, information technology and other engineering sciences.
Challenges such as efficiency, power density, autonomous control under weight and cost restrictions in the field of energy supply, energy transmission, energy conversion, etc. are becoming increasingly important. They already reveal to students the focus in which they can develop their theoretical and practical knowledge and expertise in order to be prepared for the future.
The reputed international competition IFEC (IEEE International Future Energy Challenge) tackles these issues and offers young engineers worldwide a platform to compete in exciting and visionary challenges in the above-mentioned focus areas, to grow with them and to generate sustainable impact on their professional as well as the broader social future.
This time, the task was to develop a solid-state transformer according to defined specifications and to present it to the jury as a functioning demonstrator. Further details can be found on the IFEC 2023 website:
www.enerychallenge.weebly.com/ifec-2023.html
The annual competition is supported by the associations IEEE, PELS, IAS, PES, PSMA. The 2023 edition enjoyed the hosting and organization of the finals by the Institute of Drive Systems and Power Electronics (IAL) of the Leibniz University Hannover.
"It was incredibly inspiring to follow the bachelor's and master's students as they worked, presented, and grew with the tasks over the course of the competition. It was remarkable to see the learning curve that was achieved in each team, from submitting the proposal to the semifinals in Orlando, Florida to the finals in Hannover. The acquired knowledge, the grown expertise and thriving in an international environment are so valuable.“, emphasized Patrick Fuchs.
„Sure, winning an award and being honored for your work feels incredibly good and makes such an adventure memorable. No question. However, it is especially the broad experience, the social network created on an international professional level and the establishment of often necessary resilience in research and development that have provided the young engineers with an invaluable basis for their career. I am happy to have been a part of this journey on behalf of ZES ZIMMER," he further mentioned.
During final testing, our LMG671 operated as a precision power analyzer to determine the efficiency as well as other electrical parameters. In the middle stage of the competition, Patrick Fuchs trained the participating teams in performance measurement by means of introduction and dedicated immersion in the user knowledge relevant to the competition. The aim was to show the students the most efficient way to achieve correct measurements and plausible measurement results by identifying ideal measuring instruments and their parameterization, considering possible sources of error and measures to avoid or reduce them. This should help the teams to verify their setups correctly and to analyze the optimization potential available.
Our gratitude goes to all involved associations and institutions (IEEE, PELS, IAL ...), co-sponsors and industrial partners (EA, ...) and especially to the dedicated students and their support from the respective universities. Special thanks go to Prof. Dr. Jens Friebe, who was responsible for the absolutely great and well thought-out organization of the competition for the Institute of Drive Systems and Power Electronics (IAL) of Leibniz Universität Hannover with his team of scientific employees and the remaining collegium.
The topic of the next IFEC 2024 competition is "Stereo Switch-mode Audio Power Amplifier" and takes aim at efficiency and power density with excellent audio quality. More information can be found at the official IFEC 2024 website: