Category: News/Events

Prof. Katherine A. Kim attended the  IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition in Baltimore, MD, USA, on September 29 – October 28, 2019. Prof. Kim served on the organizing committee as one of the Women in Engineering (WIE) Chairs.

On September 29, Prof. Kim gave a tutorial on “Differential Power Processing For Solar Photovoltaic Systems: Development and Applications”.

On September 30, Prof. Jin Ye (University of Georgia, USA), Prof. Norma Anglani (University of Pavia, Italy), and Prof. Kim organized the ECCE 2019 Women in Engineering Event. The event held a panel on the role of women in Energy Conversion Systems, with panelists from academia and industry in the US and worldwide.

On October 2, Prof. Kim hosted the PELS-IAS WIE Breakfast where Dr. Tanya Gachovska gave a talk entitled “The Role of Mentorship in My Career Path from Bulgaria to Canada”. She shared experiences and inspiring stories from her education, personal life, and career.

On October 3, Prof. Kim received the Richard M. Bass Outstanding Young Power Electronics Engineer Award for 2019 from the IEEE Power Electronics Society. She was honored to recognized “for contributions to differential power processing converter techniques for photovoltaic applications”.

It has been announced that Prof. Katherine A. Kim is the recipient of the IEEE PELS Richard M. Bass Outstanding Young Power Electronics Engineer Award for 2019. She is cited ” for contributions to differential power processing converter techniques for photovoltaic applications .” She is honored to have received the award and would like to thank her students for their hard work, mentors for their advice, and family for their unwavering support. She will receive the award at the IEEE Energy Conversion Congress & Expo 2019 in early October.

Prof. Katherine A. Kim and M.S. student Bo-Kyung Yoon attended the International Conference on Power Electronics (ICPE 2019-ECCE Asia) in Busan, Korea, on May 27-30. 2019. On Monday, May 27, Prof. Kim gave a tutorial with Prof. Jeehoon Jung (UNIST, Korea), Prof. Yu-Chen Liu (National Ilan University, Taiwan), and Ching-Jan Chen (National Taiwan University, Taiwan) on “High-Frequency Power Converter Design: Magnetics, Gate Driver, Control, and EMI”.

On Tuesday, May 28, Prof. Kim served as a Session Chair for the “TuB3: PV System for Renewable Energy and Distributed Generation Systems I” technical session. On Wednesday, May 29, M.S. student Seungbin Park (UNIST, Korea) presented a collaboration paper entitled ” Design Methodology of Bidirectional Flyback Converter for Differential Power Processing Modules in PV Applications”.

On Thursday, May 30, M.S. student Bo-Kyung Yoon presented an energy harvesting paper entitled “Realistic Circuit Modeling Using Derating Factors for Triboelectric Nanogenerators in Energy Harvesting Applications”. Prof. Kim also organized and ran the Young Researcher’s Activity – Mentorship Dinner on Tuesday, May 28 and the Women in Engineering Luncheon on Wednesday, May 29. Both events served as important networking and mentorship opportunities for young researchers and women in power electronics. The speaker for the Women in Engineering Luncheon was Prof. Meiqin Mao, Hefei University of Technology, who shared her experience as an educator and researcher in power electronics and renewable energy. Prof. Kim also served as a Vice Chair for the Technical Program Committee of ICPE 2019-ECCE Asia.

Prof. Katherine A. Kim attended the IEEE Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices and Applications in Asia (WiPDA-Asia) in Taipei, Taiwan, on May 23-25. 2019. On Saturday, May 25, Ph. D. student Yong-Long Syu (National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan) presented a collaboration paper on “High Switching Frequency TCM Control for Bidirectional Interleaved Buck Converter Without Phase Error for Battery Charging” during the poster session.

Prof. Kim also served as a session chair for the “Oral 1 Application” technical session on Friday, May 24. She was also the Publications Chair for WiPDA-Asia 2019.

At the Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC) 2019, in Anaheim, CA, USA, Selin Bagci presented her paper on “Low-Power Photovoltaic Energy Harvesting With Parallel Differential Power Processing Using a SEPIC” during the T40 Power Electronics Applications Session on March 21, 2019. Selin is a previous PEARS undergraduate intern and current MS student at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology. Congratulations to Selin on her first major conference presentation.

Prof. Katherine A. Kim gave a seminar entitled “Enabling Solar Photovoltaic Energy for Wearables and Internet of Things (IoT) Applications” at National Ilan University, Yilan, Taiwan. Prof. Kim was invited by Prof. Yu-Chen Liu of the Electrical Engineering Department of National Ilan University.

Prof. Katherine A. Kim attended the International Symposium on Computer, Consumer and Control (IS3C) on December 6-7, 2018, sponsored by National Chin-Yi University of Technology in Taichung, Tawan.

In place of her student, Hyeun-Tae Cho, who already graduated, she presented their paper on “Short-Primary Linear Induction Motor Modeling with End Effects for Electric Transportation Systems”.

Prof. Katherine Kim and graduate student Hoejeong Jeong  attended the Symposium on Semiconductor Power Conversion (S2PC) in Jinju, Korea on November 2-4, 2018.

On November 3, 2013, Hoejeong Jeong presented a poster on “Structure of Segmented Differential Power Processing System for Photovoltaic Applications” during Poster Session I.

 

Prof. Katherine A. Kim was elevated to IEEE Senior Member, within the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), in July 2018. For IEEE Senior Member grade, the applicant can self-nominate or be nominated by someone else. If you have over 10 years of professional experience (graduate school counts as professional experience) and have significant performance over 5 years (usually as a professor or engineering professional), you can apply.

Prof. Kim is most active in the IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS). She served as the IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS) Student Membership Chair in 2012-2013, PELS Member-At-Large for 2016-2018, and PELS Women In Engineering Co-Chair in 2018. Starting from 2017, she became an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics. Prof. Kim plans to continue contributing to the Power Electronics field through her research, educational videos, and service to the power electronics community. She would like to thank all her advisers and mentors through the years for their guidance and support.

The PEARS Lab attended the Korean Institution of Power Electronics (KIPE) 2018 Annual Conference (전력전자학술대회), July 3-6, 2018, in Hoengseong, Gangwon-do, Korea. The group enjoyed listening to technical sessions and trying the local cuisine of Hoengseong Korean beef.

On Tuesday, July 3, Prof. Katherine Kim also helped Prof. Seong-Mi Park of Korea Lift College and Prof. Kyung-Hee Han of Halla University organize the first KIPE Women Power Electronics Engineers Meeting. The event featured talks by Prof. Soyeon Kim of the Republic of Korea Naval Academy, Seo-Hyun Yeo a PhD student at Chonnam National University, and Dr. Hwi-Il Sun of the Korean Energy Research Institute (KERI). It was an important mentorship and networking opportunity for women in power electronics in Korea.

Prof. Katherine Kim and graduate student Hoejeong Jeong attended COMPEL 2018 on June 25-28 in Padova, Italy. On Tuesday, June 26, Hoejeong Jeong presented the paper on “A Scalable Unit Differential Power Processing System Design for Photovoltaic Applications” at the Galileo Galilei Main Hall in Palazzo Bo. A job well done presenting important research on new PV differential power processing applications. Hoejeong Jeong also received a Student Travel Grant to attend COMPEL.

 

Prof. Katherine Kim and undergraduate intern Bo-Kyung Yoon attended the International Power Electronics Conference (ICPE 2018-ECCE Asia), May 20-24, 2018, in Niigata, Japan. Bo-Kyung Yoon presented a poster on “Circuit Modeling Approach for Analyzing Triboelectric Nanogenerators for Energy Harvesting” on Wednesday, May 23, 2018.

Also, Bing-Siang Huang from National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan, presented a collaboration paper on “Design and Implementation of a High Power Density Active-Clamped Flyback Converter” at the High Performance Power Converters session on Wednesday, May 23, 2018.

Prof. Kim also served as a session chair for session “23G4 Renewable Energy and Storage Applications” and “21B2 Dual Active Bridge Converters” at ICPE 2018-ECCE Asia. All attendees enjoyed the excellent conference and delicious Japanese food.

Prof. Katherine Kim, Bo-Kyung Yoon, and PEARS Lab members attended the International Conference on Nanogenerators and Piezotronics (NGPT), May 8-11, 2018, in Seoul, Korea.

 

Prof. Kim Co-Chaired a Technical Session on “Piezotronics/Tribotronics for Sensors, MEMS and NEMS 1” on Thursday, May 10 and gave talk entitled “Implementation Considerations for Low-power Energy Conversion Circuitry in Triboelectric Nanogenerator Energy Harvesting Applications” on Friday, May 11.

 

Undergraduate intern Bo-Kyung Yoon presented a poster on “Circuit Modeling of a Three-plate Triboelectric Nanogenerator with Ground System for Energy Harvesting” on  Friday, May 11. Attending NGPT 2018 was a great opportunity to learn more about transducers and better understand how to develop better power circuitry for energy harvesting.

 

Prof. Katherine Kim attended the Applied Power Electronics Conference 2018 in San Antonio, TX, USA in March 2018.

Prof. Kim was a chair for the morning technical session “T30: Renewable Energy Topics” on March 8, 2018. The poster for the collaboration paper on “Integrated Magnetics Design for a Full-Bridge Phase-Shifted Converter” was presented by Chen Chen, Yu-Chen Liu, and Prof. Kim on March 8, 2018 (picture shown below).

 

Prof. Katherine A. Kim and undergraduate student intern Bo-Kyung Yoon attended the IEEE Seoul Section Student Paper Contest 2017 at Hongik University, Seoul, Korea. Bo-Kyung presented her paper on “Circuit Modeling of a Three-Plate Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Energy Harvesting” at the competition (picture below). As one of the few undergraduate students in the competition, she presented and took questions on her research at the same level as the graduate students in the competition. A job well done.

Graduate student Hyeun-Tae Cho represented the PEARS lab in exhibiting the U-Loop future transportation system at the International Public Transportation Forum held in Ulsan, South Korea. The research project on the U-Loop is a collaborative project, with the PEARS Lab designing and implementing the linear motor drive and photovoltaic system. Hyeun-Tae helped demo the small-scale U-Loop prototype at the exhibition, as show below (original photo here).

 

For more information, please UNIST’s New Center Article: UNIST’s U-Loop Displayed at International Public Transport Forum or 한국형 하이퍼루프, ‘U-Loop’모델, 대중교통 포럼에 첫 선

 

Prof. Katherine Kim attended the Asian Conference on Energy, Power and Transportation Electrification (ACEPT) in Singapore on October 24-26, 2017. On Wednesday, October 25, Prof. Kim served as the session chair for “Parallel Session 5: Microgrid and Smart Grid (MGSG).” On Thursday, October 26, Ph.D. student Kai-De Chen from National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST) presented the paper entitled “Output Double-Line Frequency Ripple Reduction Method for High Power Density Interleaved Boost Converters in Power Factor Correction Applications,” which is a collaboration paper with PEARS Lab.

Prof. Katherine Kim and graduate student Hyeun-Tae Cho attended the Symposium on Semiconductor Power Conversion (S2PC) in Changhua, Taiwan on October 13-15, 2017.

 

On October 14, 2017, Hyeun-Tae Cho presented a poster on “Model and Control of a Scaled-Down Permanent Magnet Linear Synchronous Motor (PMLSM) for High-Speed Transportation Systems” during Poster Session I (A). Prof. Katherine Kim  was a Session Chair for Oral Session II.

 

Prof. Katherine Kim attended the IEEE Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics (COMPEL) 2017 in Stanford, CA, USA, on July 9-12, 2017. She was honored to give a talk on “Perspective on Developing Educational Lecture Videos for Power Electronics Courses” on July 10 (see picture below).

PEARS Lab members attended the Korean Institution of Power Electronics (KIPE) 2015 Annual Conference (전력전자학술대회). The PEARS Lab presented five papers during the conference:

Hoejeong Jeong presented a poster for the paper entitled “GaN Boost Converter Development for High Power Density” on July 4, 2017.

Hyunji Lee presented the paper entitled “Comparison of Two Parallel Differential Power Processing Configuration” on July 5, 2017.

Kyoungjun Kwon presented the paper entitled “Photovoltaic Panel Orientation Study for Tube-Enclosed Transportation Systems” on July 5, 2017.

Hyeun-Tae Cho presented a poster for the paper entitled “Sensorless Field-Oriented Control Design for High-Power 3-Level PMSM Drive Inverter” on July 6, 2017.

Kyu Taek Oh presented a poster for the paper entitled “Comparison & Analysis of The Permanent Magnet DC Motor Control Method” on July 6, 2017.