AUS holds international conference on electric power and energy conversion

Regional and international scholars as well as industry experts attended the opening of the Second International Conference on Electric Power and Energy Conversion Systems (EPECS'11) held at American University of Sharjah (AUS) today, Tuesday, November 15, 2011.

"This conference will address opportunities and challenges pertaining to the electric power industry, renewable energies, electric drives and energy conversion systems," said Dr. Peter Heath, AUS Chancellor, in his opening remarks. "AUS is located in a region that is in general blessed with high reserves of carbon fuels. Yet we all know that these reserves are not infinite, and that the price for them is increasing at a constant rate. There are really only two options: to become more efficient and conserve the carbon-based power that we do use, as we are actively striving to do at AUS, and to discover alternative sources of renewable energy, which is the focus of intense global efforts," he said.

"Energy, its sources, its conversion and discovery of new sources are all topics of special faculty research attention at AUS. We are currently advertising an endowed chair in renewable energy, sponsored by the Petrofac Company. In the future, AUS will expand its research capabilities and its research efforts in this area, as funding support for this investigation grows," added Dr. Heath.

Dr. Yousef Al-Assaf, Dean of the College of Engineering at AUS, also addressed the gathering. "The demand for power is increasing, which requires us to generate more. But, unfortunately, power waste is also significant, and reducing it would remarkably improve the situation. Making the grid and the distribution smarter is part of the solution, producing advanced electronics systems to increase the efficiency of renewable energy systems is also very important," he said.

Three distinguished keynote speakers presented papers on the latest developments, applications and technologies in the field of power engineering. Dr. Marian Kazmierkowski, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Fellow from Warsaw University of Technology in Poland, gave the first presentation entitled "Power Electronics for Renewable Sea Wave and Wind Energy." Dr. G. C. Montanari from the University of Bologna in Italy gave the presentation entitled "Global Monitoring: The Paradigm for Asset Management in the Smart Grid Framework." Dr. Malik Elbuluk from the University of Akron in USA was the third keynote speaker. His lecture was entitled "Electric Motor Drive Technologies: Options, Applications, Trends and Tradeoffs."

The conference also attracted numerous international experts from universities around the world including North America, Europe and the Middle East. The three-day event will have 12 sessions and 2 tutorials, and a total of 70 papers will be discussed.

"This is the second conference of its kind to be held in the Gulf region dedicated to the field of power engineering," said Dr. Rached Dhaouadi, Professor of Electrical Engineering at AUS and the conference chairman. "We believe that the conference will assist all universities in the Gulf to ensure that engineering programs continue to address the needs of UAE industries for highly trained researchers and engineers in the power engineering field," he said.

The conference was organized by Dr. Dhaouadi along with Dr. Ayman El-Hag and Dr. Ahmed Osman from the AUS Department of Electrical Engineering.