Author: Prof. Kim

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Lab Flight Emissions for 2024 and Tree Planting Offsets

The PEARS lab has begun to track CO2 emissions for conference-related travel of the lab members. Here are some statistics for 2024:

  • Took 6 trips to attend conferences
  • In total, 7 lab members attended conferences
  • Locations: 2 in North America, 1 in Europe, 3 in Asia
  • Estimated CO2 emissions: 29.9 tons

Attending conferences is very valuable to our lab members, but we recognized that each flight has nonnegligible climate-changing emissions. To mitigate emissions, we target conferences in Asia or with virtual options. Additionally, Prof. Katherine Kim personally purchases a tree-planting certificate to offset some of the emission from lab-related travel. To offset the emissions from 2024, a certificate for planting 500 trees was purchased through Ecosia (certificate shown below). The PEARS Lab is committed to reducing emission from our activities and operations while conducting high-quality research on power electronics for a sustainable future.

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Ph.D. Defense for Selin Bagci

On January 17, 2025, Ph.D. Student Selin Bagci successfully defended her doctoral dissertation on “Flexible Solar Energy Harvesting and Fabric-Based Circuits: A Framework for Wearable Power Electronics.” The group picture from the doctoral defense is pictured below.

Throughout her graduate studies, Selin (soon to be Dr. Bagci) has become an expert on designing, developing, and evaluating power electronics for wearable applications with a particular focus on solar photovoltaic energy harvesting and circuit implementation on fabric substrates. She has authored/co-authored many academic papers on these topics, which can be found on the Publications page.

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PFC Boost Converter Simulation Resources

These are resources for the article “Simulation Technique and Mathematical Basis for Faster AC Analysis of Power Factor Correction Boost Converters” by Katherine A. Kim and Thomas G. Wilson Jr., published in IEEE Access.

SIMPLIS File Download

These files output the AC analysis (frequency response) for the control loop, input impedance, and output impedance of a PFC boost converter. Simulations are provided for both an AC voltage source and a DC voltage source to the PFC boost converter. The DC voltage source simulates much faster and gives almost the same results as the AC source for the control loop and output impedance measurements, but not the input impedance. In short, the DC source should NOT be used to measure input impedance , but the file is provided here as a reference. Files are ready to run.

Control Loop with AC Source: ControlLoop_AC_KimLin_20240403.sxsch
Control Loop with DC Source: ControlLoop_DC_KimLin_20240403.sxsch
Input Impedance with AC Source: Zin_AC_KimLin_20240403.sxsch
Input Impedance with DC Source: Zin_DC_KimLin_20240403.sxsch
Output Impedance with AC Source: Zout_AC_KimLin_20240403.sxsch
Output Impedance with DC Source: Zout_DC_KimLin_20240403.sxsch

SIMPLIS_ControlLoop_Zin_Zout_20240403Download

Matlab Figure File Download

These are the Matlab Figure files for the generated graphs used in the paper. Please refer to the paper for the descriptions. Six Matlab .fig files are included in the .zip file below.

Figure2.fig
Figure3.fig
Figure4.fig
Figure7.fig
Figure9.fig
Figure12.fig

Matlab_Figure_Files_20240408Download

Citation Information

If you use the above files or utilize knowledge from the article, please cite our work!

Citation (IEEE format):
Katherine A. Kim and Thomas G. Wilson Jr., “Simulation Technique and Mathematical Basis for Faster AC Analysis of Power Factor Correction Boost Converters,” IEEE Access, vol. 12, pp. 165130-165142, 2024, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3491299.

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Prof. Katherine A. Kim (김예린,金藝璘)

Prof. Katherine A. Kim received the B.S. degree in electrical and computer engineering from Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, Needham, MA, in 2007. She received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA, in 2011 and 2014, respectively. In 2014, she started as an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, South Korea. Since 2019, she has been with National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, where she is currently a Professor of Electrical Engineering.

Prof. Kim’s research focuses on power electronics and control for solar photovoltaic applications. She received the Award for Achievements in Power Electronics Education from the IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS) in 2022, recognition as an Innovator Under 35 for the Asia Pacific Region by the MIT Technology Review in 2020, and the Richard M. Bass Outstanding Young Power Electronics Engineer Award from PELS in 2019.

Since 2017, she has served as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics. For IEEE PELS, she served as the Student Membership Chair in 2013-2014, PELS Member-At-Large for 2016-2018, PELS Women in Engineering Chair in 2018-2020, and the PELS Constitution and Bylaws Chair in 2021-2023. She is currently the IEEE PELS Vice President of Global Relations for 2024-2025.

ORCID: 0000-0001-9144-1001

Google Scholar: Katherine A. Kim

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Prof. Kim Attends FEPPCON 2024

Prof. Katherine Kim attended the Future of Electronic Power Processing and Conversion (FEPPCON) 2024 conference held in Geneve, Switzerland. She was invited to participate in Session 7 on “Workforce Development: Empowering the Next Generation,” organized by Dr. Christina DiMarino and Dr. Chris Mi (see image below). During the session, Prof. Kim gave a presentation entitled “Embracing Diversity: Exploring Educational Approaches for Inclusive Learning Environments” and also moderated the panel session that followed.

Introduction of Session 7 at FEPPCON 2024 in Geneve, Switzerland

During the forum, the participants also took a tour of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) to learn how power electronics is a vital part of making and running the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. Prof. Kim loved the tour of the various facilities at CERN (see image below).

Prof. Kim visiting CERN
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Richard Angsetya – M.S. Student

Richard is Indonesian and is soon to be an Electrical Engineer bachelor graduate. He is interested in power electronics and is planning to pursue a Master’s degree in Professor Kim’s lab. His research interest is in energy harvesting for wearables.

Papers:

F. Selin Bagci, Richard Angsetya, Sean Logi, Katherine A. Kim, “Flexible PCB Connection Methods for Wearable Energy Harvesting Applications,” IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC), 2023, pp. 1881-1887, doi: 10.1109/APEC43580.2023.10131451.

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PEARS Lab Attends COMPEL 2024

Prof. Katherine Kim and undergraduate student To-Lei (Doris) Huang attended the IEEE Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics (COMPEL) held on June 24-27, 2024, at Lahore University of Management Sciences, in Lahore, Pakistan. Doris presented the paper entitled “Indoor Panel-Based Photovoltaic Emulation Method Implementation and Evaluation” during Poster Session 2 on June 27, 2024, pictured below.

Prof. Kim also helped host the Women in Engineering event with Dr. Marium Rasheed (Ford Motor Company) on June 25, 2024. The panel event was entitled “Empower All: Fostering Inclusivity, Career Growth, and Diverse Representation in Engineering” and featured advice from six esteemed panelist, pictured below.

WIE Event at COMPEL 2024 on June 25, 2024, Lahore, Pakistan

For COMPEL 2024, Prof. Kim served on the Technical Program Committee and Women in Engineering Committee. COMPEL is a flagship conference for the IEEE PELS Technical Committee 1, focusing on control and modeling of power electronics. Any IEEE PELS member interested in control and modeling can join Technical Committee 1 online free of charge.

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PEARS Lab Attends IPEMC 2024-ECCE Asia

Prof. Katherine Kim, Bo-Shiang Lee, and Shih-Fan Liu attended the International Power Electronics Motion Control Conference (IPEMC 2024-ECCE Asia) in Chengdu, China, held on May 17-20, 2024. Master’s student Shih-Fan Liu presented his poster on “Wiring Harness Cable Input Impedance Verification For Electromagnetic Compatibility Pre-Compliance Testing” and Master’s student Bo-Shiang Lee presented his poster on “Modeling and EMC Analysis of Capacitive Coupling to Low-Voltage Cables in an Electric Vehicle” during Poster Presentation A on May 18, 2024.

PEARS Lab student present their posters at IPEMC 2024-ECCE Asia

Prof. Kim attended the IEEE PELS Women in Engineering Roundtable Mentorship Event on May 19, 2024 (pictured below), and also served as a mentor. The event facilitated discussions on a variety of trending topics, including career development, the future of power electronics, and promoting diversity and inclusion within the field. It was organized and hosted by Hong Li (Beijing Jiaotong University), Han Cui (Tianjin University), and Ping Yang (Southwest Jiaotong University).

IEEE PELS Women in Engineering Roundtable Mentorship Event at IPEMC 2024-ECCE Asia