Electrical Engineering Doctoral Student Wins Honors at Major Conference

Shuang Zhao, a doctoral student in the Department of Electrical Engineering, received a Best Session Presentation Award at the Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition for his work on distributed power quality enhancement using residential power routers. 

Zhao's research focuses on introducing a residential power router, which can manage power flow, reduce daily power expense and improve power supply reliability, which can provide an economical way to address power quality issues on the future distribution power grid. This is the third best presentation award for the Department of Electrical Engineering since 2014. Previous winners are Ram Kotecha and Matt Barlow.

"APEC is considered the world's premier conference in applied power electronics," said Alan Mantooth, Distinguished Professor of electrical engineering and holder of the Twenty-First Century Research Leadership Chair. "To receive a Best Session Presentation Award at such a highly regarded conference is a significant achievement for Shuang and great for the University of Arkansas," Mantooth said. "Attending events such as these allows students to interact with peers from other institutions as well as future employers in industry. It prepares and encourages them to accept responsibility for future leadership roles in their profession, community, and society."

Zhao's research is supported through the Center for GRid-connected Advanced Power Electronic Systems, which is a National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center. At this center, engineering faculty from the University of Arkansas, the University of South Carolina and the University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin collaborate with members of industry to develop new technologies for advanced power electronic systems, develop new software and tools for controlling embedded- and grid-connected power electronics, and to educate engineers who understand the power electronic technologies that are important to our members. The Center for GRid-connected Advanced Power Electronic Systems' 16 member organizations come from commercial and government sectors of the economy.