Bryton Praslicka successfully defended his dissertation on January 25, 2023. His thesis was  titled “Multi-physics Modeling and Optimization of Advanced Electric Machinery and Magnetic Gear Development.

Bryton Praslicka, president and CEO of FluxWorks, competed with other startups throughout Texas at TNVC to win the $35,000 first-place prize and several other sponsored prizes for its magnetic gear technology, which has improved reliability and reduced maintenance costs compared to its counterpart, the mechanical gear.   Read More…

The Texas A&M team is led by principal investigator Dr. Hamid Toliyat, Raytheon Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and head of the Advanced Electric Machines and Power Electronics Lab, and recent Texas A&M graduate Dr. Matthew Gardner ’19, who is an assistant professor at The University of Texas at Dallas. Read more…

Matthew Gardner successfully defended his dissertation on May 28, 2019. His thesis was  titled “Numerical and Experimental Analysis of Magnetic Gears.

Yichi Zhang successfully defended his thesis titled “Efficiency Improvements of an Axial Flux Permanent Magnet Motor” on May 6th, 2019.

Amir is going to join SynQor, Inc as a design engineer. EMPE lab wishes him best of luck with his professional career.

EMPE Lab congratulates Dr. Morya and wishes him best of luck with his professional career. Ajay will join Evelozcity as a power electronics engineer.

Professor Lipo visited EMPE Lab abd Texas A&M University as part of Distinguished Speaker Series on October 26th.

Prof. Lipo is a Life Fellow of IEEE and has received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the IEEE Industry Applications Society in 1986 for his work in motor drives, the William E. Newell Award of the IEEE Power Electronics Society in 1990 for contributions to power electronics, and the Nicola Tesla IEEE Field Award from the IEEE Power Engineering Society in 1995 for his work on electrical machinery. In 2002, Dr. Lipo was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering(UK) (one of only about 25 US members) and in 2008 a Member of the National Academy of Engineering(USA). In 2014 he received the IEEE Medal in Power Engineering, the highest award presented by IEEE for research in the field of power engineering.

Amir successfully defended his dissertation on October 15, his thesis was  titled “Efficiency and Reliability Enhancement of Multiphase Synchronous Motor Drives”.

Ajay successfully defended his dissertation on October 10. He invented a system reconfiguration and control technique for a multiphase induction motor drive that can give up to 93% higher torque for acceleration. He designed and developed Silicon carbide inverter to drive a 6-phase motor. He also did a comprehensive study about the applications of wide bandgap devices in motor drives, opportunities, and typical issues and challenges.

EMPE Lab congratulates Dr. Morya and wishes him best of luck with his professional career

Our former PhD student Dr. Jae-Bum Park who is with Hyundai Motor Company revisited EMPE lab along other engineers from HMC. Jae-Bum is a Senior Research Engineer in HMC working on HEV/PHEV motor designs, as well as their e-4WD system.

“The Advanced Electrical Machines & Power Electronics Lab (EMPE) at Texas A&M University invented a configuration that places an axial flux machine in the bore of an axial flux magnetic gear to produce a very compact device capable of producing very high torques at low speeds.”

Read more.

Matthew is featured in student snapshot for his work on magnetic gears. Read more tx.ag/magneticgears

Gardner works in the Advanced Electrical Machines and Power Electronics Lab under Dr. Hamid Toliyat, Raytheon Professor. His work has been conducted largely in part with former doctoral student Dr. Matthew Johnson.

“Matthew has done a lot of work that has the possibility to significantly transform the field of electric machines,” Toliyat said.

“I am excited about the opportunity to make a disruptive change in the field of electric machines,” Gardner said. “Magnetic gears and magnetically geared machines offer the possibility to provide a significant, not just incremental, improvement in systems involving electric machines.”

Representatives from Hyundai Motor Company visited EMPE lab in regards to the joint research project between EMPE Lab and HMC.

Hussain successfully defended his PhD thesis in Spring 2017. He joins Kuwait University as an assistant professor. EMPE lab wishes him best of luck in his career.

Amir defended his Master’s thesis titled “Modeling and Experimental Verification of Adaptive 100% Stator Ground Fault Protection Schemes for Synchronous Generators” on May 3, 2017. He is currently continuing as PhD student at EMPE lab.

Hussain successfully defended his dissertation titled “Linear Permanent Magnet Machines for Oil Pumping Systems” on Jan 18th, 2017. He worked on the replacement of the sucker rod pumping system with a permanent magnet linear motor which drives the reciprocating pump directly. In this system, the motor drive is placed on the surface and connected through a long cable to the downhole linear motor which drives the reciprocating pump. This system is intended to extend the use of sucker rod pumping systems to off-shore applications and deviated wells.
He discussed the new system challenges such as the high temperature downhole and the long transmission cable and proposed a DC system where the inverter is integrated with the motor downhole while the rectifier remains on the surface. Moreover, he developed a sensorless algorithm to drive the PM motor without downhole position or current sensors.
Finally, he built a pump monitoring system to detect the common pump faults.

EMPE lab congratulates Dr. Hussain for his successful defense and wishes him best of luck with his professional career.

Abdulkadir successfully defended his dissertation, titled “A System-Based Modeling and Simulation of a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) Electric Power Systems and Core Loss Analysis of Synchronous Generator and Induction Motor” on December 12^th, 2016. His research focused on harmonics effect on the core losses in machine caused by variable frequency drives. He made detailed analysis on different level of harmonics and showed their effect on the core losses. He also evaluated some experimental studies based on core losses in a synchronous generator.

Matthew successfully defended his dissertation, titled “Design and Analysis of Axial and Radial Flux Magnetic Gears and Magnetically Geared Machines,” on October 24^th, 2016.  His research focused on the design and analysis of magnetic gears and magnetically geared machines as potential compact, reliable, and cost-effective alternatives to mechanical gears and conventional direct drive machines for high torque, low speed applications.  During the course of his work, he developed an extensive MATLAB-based infrastructure for controlling various simulation models and analyzing their results.  He used these tools to investigate key magnetic gear design trends and construct multiple magnetic gear and magnetically geared machine prototypes, including a new patent pending compact axial flux magnetically geared machine.  He also created and evaluated generalized, parametric 2D and 3D magnetic equivalent circuit (MEC) magnetic gear models as significantly faster, but still extremely accurate alternatives to finite element analysis (FEA) models.

EMPE lab congratulates Dr. Johnson for his successful defense and wishes him best of luck with his professional career.

Prof. Toliyat and Matthew Gardner were awarded by Prof. Andy Knight Chair of the IEEE Industry Applications Society Electric Machines Technical Committee the 2016 Second Prize Paper Award for the following paper during ECCE 2016 in Milwaukee.

M. Johnson, M. Gardner, and H.A. Toliyat, “Analysis and Development of an Axial Flux Magnetically Geared Generator”, Proceedings of the ECCE’15, Montreal, Canada, Sept. 20-24, 2015.

More info

Dr. Toliyat recently visited Power Converters, Electrical Machines and Drive lab of Politecnico di Torino

From left to right: Dr. Radu Bojoi, Dr. Toliyat, Prof. Aldo Boglietti

    Khaled successfully defended his dissertation titled “Stator Windings Ground Fault Detection in Synchronous Generators” on May 31^st, 2016.  In his dissertation, electromagnetic analysis of the synchronous Generators stator winding ground faults is presented. Mathematical model for the synchronous generator under stator winding fault is being derived. In addition, a study is conducted using 2D FEA simulation and verified using experimental testing on the third harmonic ratio under-voltage protection scheme. Another study is conducted focusing on finding a unique signature for the stator ground fault in the neutral vicinity using wavelet transform. This analysis is an attempt to understand this phenomenon from the machine design point of view by looking at the generator terminal and neutral voltages. EMPE lab congratulates Dr. Khaled Ali Al Jaafari for his successful defense and wishes him best of luck with his professional career.

Vivek successfully defended his dissertation titled “Reliable Multiphase Induction Motor Drives” on Februaruy 5th, 2016.  As a part of his research, he investigated fault detection methods in 5 phase induction machines and optimal operation under a faulted condition.  EMPE lab congratulates Dr. Vivek Sundaram for his successful defense and wishes him best of luck with his professional career.

Jae-Bum successfully defended his dissertation titled “Multi-Phase Fault Tolerant PMSM Drive Systems” on March 3^rd, 2015. As a part of his research, he designed a 5 phase interior PMSM machine. He also evaluated, through simulation and experimentation, various control methods as part of closed loop speed control for a 5 phase, 10 lead interior PMSM.  EMPE lab congratulates Dr. Jae-Bum Park for his successful defense and wishes him best of luck with his professional career.

Yateendra successfully defended his dissertation titled “Automated Design Optimization of Synchronous Machines: Development and Application of a Generic Fitness Evaluation Framework” on September 29th 2014. As a part of his research, he studied machine design optimization problems for several different types of applications. He developed an integrated machine design optimization approach that was harnessed for development of novel PMSM constructions.  EMPE lab congratulates Dr. Yateendra Deshpande for his successful defense and wishes him best of luck with his professional career

Siavash successfully defended his dissertation on September 10th. His dissertation, entitled “Trans-Rotary Magnetic Gear (TROMAG) for Wave Energy Application” proposes a magnetic device (TROMAG) that transforms work between linear and rotary motion with a gearing action. In addition to founding the principles and studying the aspects of design, he performed analysis of the dynamic interaction between a buoy capturing wave energy, a TROMAG, and a rotary generator. Furthermore, Siavash designed, fabricated, and tested a prototype TROMAG. The EMPE lab congratulates Dr. Siavash Pakdelian for his successful defense and wishes him the best of luck with his professional career.