FLINT, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A Florida student, who graduated from Lakewood High School: Center for Advanced Technologies in St. Petersburg, Fla., is putting his technical training in power electronics to effective use in Kettering University’s new Advanced Power Electronics Lab.
Mori Yatsui, a 2011 dual graduate in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering at Kettering, is now a research assistant for Dr. Kevin Bai, an assistant professor of Electric and Computer Engineering, in Kettering’s newest innovative lab.
“I worked on developing a new state-of-charge detection system for battery systems with Dr. Bai in 2010,” said Yatsui. “I led a Progressive Dynamics Inc. project which compared battery charging algorithms, assisted in battery course research, and now I am developing a battery management system for an electric vehicle.
“This new laboratory allows Kettering to push our students and faculty into the front lines of the market to build relationships with companies,” he said. “Part of the education process is undoubtedly the task of keeping students in the present day market and ideas of the future, so information that we obtain in this lab is passed down into the teaching.”
The research team is working with Magna E-Car to develop a power factor correction device and a high-powered battery charger that will allow owners of PHEVs to charge their batteries faster and more efficiently. It is also working with Progressive Dynamics to improve the battery life of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) batteries. Another project, this one with Tenneco, one of the world’s leading producers of emissions control products, entails designing an overdrive system based on a traditional 12-volt battery. The project seeks to control the supply of air by controlling the speed of the air pump through the battery.
Read more on Kettering’s new Power Electronics Lab at: http://www.kettering.edu/visitors/storydetail.jsp?storynum=3144
About Kettering University
Kettering University, in Flint, Mich., is a nationally-ranked STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and Business university and a national leader in combining a rigorous academic environment with rich opportunities for experiential learning and cooperative education and a focus on the learning experience of the individual student. Kettering’s 1,900 undergraduates and 1,000 graduate students choose from 14 undergraduate and 9 master’s degrees, plus more than 50 minors, specialties, concentrations and courses of study. Some of Kettering’s fastest growing academic majors are Bioinformatics, Chemical Engineering and BioChemistry. For more information, visit www.kettering.edu.