ECE power converter project selected as WARF Innovation Award finalist

A research project by electrical and computer engineering researchers including Keith and Jane Morgan Nosbusch Professor in Engineering Education Giri Venkataramanan, Thomas A. Lipo Assistant Professor Jinia Roy, Dugald C. Jackson Assistant Professor Dominic Gross and Thomas A. Lipo Assistant Professor Mahima Gupta, was selected as a semifinalist for the 2024 Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) Innovation Awards.

For the award, an independent panel of judges selected a field of six finalists drawn from hundreds of invention disclosures submitted to WARF by UW-Madison researchers over the prior 12 months.

In their project, the ECE team developed smaller, less bulky power converter circuits for high performing high-voltage direct current (HVDC) systems. With varying trade-offs, the team’s new converters can be configured to realize various levels of power density, cost and stability gains. This could spur the quicker adoption of clean energy sources such as wind and solar, which increasingly use HVDC systems for power conversion.

“Each year, our Innovation Awards shine a spotlight on the most exciting early-stage discoveries on campus,” says Erik Iverson, CEO of WARF. “We’re pleased to celebrate the nominees and all UW-Madison innovators working to discover and translate research with the power to impact lives.”

Lean more about the nominees and the winning projects at WARF.