Keyue Ma Smedley, Ph.D. from Caltech and Fellow of IEEE.

Dr. Smedley is currently a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California at Irvine (UCI). She is also the Director of the UCI Power Electronics Laboratory. Her research activities includes dc-dc converters, high-fidelity class-D power amplifiers, single-phase and three-phase PFC rectifiers, active power filters, grid-connected inverters for solar and wind, VAR on demand for modern grid, multilevel converters, motor drives, fault current limiters for transmission and distribution, etc. She has published more than 150 technical articles and holds ten US/international patents. Dr. Smedley is a recipient of UCI Innovation Award 2005. The work from Dr. Smedley’s team has resulted in many industrial applications.

Renovating the Power System.

Due to population growth and technology globalization, demand for electric power has been increasing in an astonishing rate. This demand imposes extreme pressure on our power grid, natural resources, and environment. It is a pressing task to renovate our power system so it is more reliable, accommodates a higher percentage of renewable sources, and emits less CO2.

In this presentation, Dr. Smedley will address key issues related to our power system: why do we have more blackouts now, why can’t we put as much renewable energy on the grid as possible, how clean is our power system, what makes the grid smarter, and what is the solution for the future?

Dr. Smedley will talk about power electronics requirements and applications in the future power systems, and her effort in development of universal One-Cycle Control technology for fast, accurate, and stable control of three-phase power converters for power quality control, harmonic suppression, renewable power generation, energy storage, transmission power flow control, reactive power for voltage support, etc. In the last two decades, semiconductors have revolutionized the IT and communication world; with the proven speed and controllability, Dr. Smedley is confident that high power semiconductors are ready to renovate the power system.