EECS Area IV Engineering Physics topic: Power Area IV Engineering Physics: Power

Electric power systems convert energy to electrical form, transport electric power over geographic distances, deliver the power to users and control the whole process. Electric utility systems have been in existence for over 100 years and are now a major part of our economies. Sources of electric power include falling water, fossil fuel generation from coal, petroleum and natural gas, heat from nuclear fission, and small amounts from burning biomass, from wind and solar heat and from direct conversion using solar photovoltaic cells. There are also electric power systems that are parts of vehicles (automobiles, trucks and trains, ships and airplanes).

Research in electric power systems at MIT is carried out in several departments. Research in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science involves a number of different areas of investigation, including renewable generation (chiefly solar photovoltaic systems but also generators for wind turbines), adaptation of power systems to large amounts of renewable generation through load adaptive control, monitoring and control of elements of the power system, electromechanical devices for use of electric power (motors) and high voltage insulation systems.

Although the EECS section of MIT’s Open Course Ware (OCW) and the Course 6 section of the MIT Catalogue provide more complete lists of subjects, those EECS subjects emphasizing Power include the undergraduate and graduate subjects listed below.

Undergraduate Subjects:
6.007 Fall, Spring Applied Electromagnetics: from Motors to Lasers
6.013 Fall, Spring Electromagnetics and Applications (meet with 6.630)
6.061 Spring, alt odd years Introduction to Electric Power Systems (meets with 6.690)
6.131 Fall Power Electronics Laboratory
6.334 Spring Power Electronics
6.690 Spring, alt odd yrs Introduction to Electric Power Systems

First Year and Introductory Graduate Subjects:
6.630 Fall, Spring Electromagnetics and Applications (meets with 6.013)
6.632 Spring Electromagnetic Wave Theory
6.641 Spring Electromagnetic Fields, Forces, and Motion

More Advanced Graduate Subjects:
6.642 Fall, alt even yrs Continuum Electromechanics
6.691 Spring, alt even yrs Seminar in Electric Power Systems
6.685 Fall, alt odd yrs Electric Machines
6.987 Fall Advanced Topics in Power Electronics

The following seminars cover material relevant to the topic of Power in Area IV Engineering Physics:

LEES seminar, Thursdays, 4PM, room 32-145

The following laboratories provide significant resources for research emphacizing Power:

Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC)
Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems (LEES)
High Voltage Research Laboratory (HVRL)
Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE)