The State Energy Conference provides actionable insight into the business of energy, connecting technical innovation, diverse resources and industry opportunity to help drive North Carolina's regional energy economy forward with national impact. The 2025 State Energy Conference will be held in person […]
Course Purpose
This course provides an overview of the global energy system, relates fossil fuel consumption to anthropogenic climate change, and outlines alternatives that promote long term environmental sustainability. Topics include basic climate science, energetics of natural and human systems, energy in fossil-fueled civilization, the impact of anthropogenic CO2 emissions on climate, and technology and public policy options for addressing the climate challenge. While the course is highly interdisciplinary, the approach is quantitative with a strong focus on science and engineering.
Course Objectives
By the end of the course, students will be able to (1) apply concepts drawn from ecology, physics, economics, and engineering to analyze energy resources and technologies, (2) explain how human activity affects climate, (3) outline the pros and cons of various low carbon energy technologies using quantitative methods, (4) build and apply impulse-response function models of climate change to relate emissions to atmospheric concentrations and impacts, and (5) describe public policy and adaptation options for dealing with climate change.
Course Objective
After taking this course, the student should be able to analyze and design fundamental analog integrated circuit blocks at the transistor level, including single and multi-stage amplifiers, bias networks, and both elementary and advanced operational amplifiers. The student should be able to determine the effect of feedback on circuit operation and then design appropriate feedback networks for amplifier and bias circuits. Finally, the student should be able to efficiently use electronic design tools for circuit design and analysis.
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Course Objectives
This first-level graduate course is intended to develop an understanding of Power Electronics and switching mode power converters for various AC and DC applications. This course is intended to teach the fundamentals of power conversion and will cover the design, analysis, modeling, and control of all types of power converters – such as dc-dc converters, dc-ac inverters, ac-dc rectifiers/converters and also introduce the preliminary concepts of direct ac-ac converters. This course will also include interface and control considerations of power converters to single-phase and three-phase ac systems and discuss utility applications of power electronic converters – including power quality and FACTS (Flexible AC Transmission Systems).
The students will develop skills in the complete design of these power converters through a project – which will be focused on a practical design of dc-dc converters.
This will be an important course for an understanding of renewable energy interface to the grid, power converters for ac- and dc motor drives, and power electronics devices and their controls.
Course Description
A practical introduction to electromechanical systems with emphasis on modeling, analysis, and design considerations. Provides theory and practical tools for the design of electric machines (standard motors, linear actuators, magnetic bearings, etc). Involves some selfdirected experimental work and culminates in an industry-sponsored design project.
Course Topics
Electric and magnetic field theory, magnetic circuit analysis, electromechanical energy conversion, generalized machine theory, modeling and simulation, design considerations.
Course Objectives
Students completing this course will be able to:
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Course Description
Features and components of electric power distribution systems, power flow, short circuit and reliability analysis, power quality and motor start calculations, basic control and protection, communications and SCADA, new “smart” functionality such as integrated volt/var control, automated fault location isolation and restoration, integration of distributed generation, electric vehicles and energy storage.
Student Learning Outcomes
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Course Description
Exploration of architectures and processes for implementing microcontroller-based embedded computer systems. Topics include hardware vs. software trade-offs, development processes (extracting architectures, debugging, planning, testing), concurrency and multithreading, and common architectures and design patterns. Strong hands-on component with use of oscilloscope and logic analyzer to understand system behavior.
Concepts of architectures for embedded computing systems. Emphasis on hands-on implementation. CPU scheduling approaches to support multithreaded programs, including interrupts, cooperative schedulers, state machines, and preemptive scheduler (real-time kernel). Communication and synchronization between threads. Basic real-time analysis. Using hardware peripherals to replace software. Architectures and design patterns for digital control, streaming data, message parsing, user interfaces, low power, low energy, and dependability. Software engineering concepts for embedded systems.
Students must have access to a logic analyzer/oscilloscope to complete the assignments for this course.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
Course Description & Student Learning Outcomes
This course will cover theory and application of the fundamental protection schemes that are used to detect and interrupt faults in a power system. Student learning outcomes will consist of proficiency in understanding and applying the following concepts:
Course Description
The Practicum I course will provide general coverage of project management and system engineering principles in a wide range of project management applications from concept through termination. The course will also introduce basic communication skills – both oral and writing – and provide practical integration of those skills in project management reports and presentations.
The Practicum II course involves the execution of an industry-sponsored project within a project team.
Student Learning Outcomes
Course Description
This course explores how the electric utility industry evolved, the structure and business models of the industry, the regulatory structures within which the utilities operate, the operations of the utility industry, and the current policy and emerging technology issues facing the business.
Student Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:
Course Description
This is an introductory course on communication technologies and SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) systems for smart electric power applications. Course focus:
Student Learning Outcomes
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This course studies the fundamental and recent advances of energy harvesting from two of the most abundant sources, namely solar and thermal energy. The first part of the course focuses on photovoltaic science and technology. The characteristics and design of common types of solar cells are discussed, and the known approaches to increasing solar cell efficiency will be introduced. After the review of the physics of solar cells, we will discuss advanced topics and recent progress in solar cell technology. The second part of the course is focused on the thermoelectric effect. The basic physical properties, Seebeck coefficient, electrical and thermal conductivities are discussed and analyzed through the Boltzmann transport formalism. Advanced subjects such as carrier scattering time approximations in relation to dimensionality and the density of states are studied. Different approaches for further increasing efficiencies are discussed, including energy filtering, quantum confinement, size effects, band structure engineering, and phonon confinement.
The course offers the expertise students need in both areas of photovoltaic and thermoelectrics and prepares them for graduate research or to work in solar cell manufacturing or thermoelectric industry. The goal is to prepare the students with the fundamentals and advanced topics of solid-state energy conversion. In the first part of the course, the science and engineering of various types of solar cells are introduced. The students will learn how the efficiency of solar cells are improved from fundamental points of view. Concepts such as tandem, multi-barrier, intermediate band, quantum dot intermediate band, hot carriers, Plasmonics, and the effect of temperature will be discussed. In the second part, concepts in thermoelectrics, such as coefficient of performance, multi-stage devices, Seebeck coefficient, effect of temperature and density of states, Thomson effect, specific heat, Dulong-petit limit, Debye and Einstein models, phonon scattering mechanisms, and thermal conductivity are conveyed through physical equations and pictorial descriptions.
By the end of this course, undergraduate and graduate students will be able to:
In addition, the graduate students, after completion of the course project, will be able to:
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Course Description
This course is designed to introduce computational methods used for power grid operation and planning. The course will help students understand the various computational methods that form the basis of major commercial software packages used by grid analysts and operators. Students are expected to have some basic understanding of principles of power system analysis including power system models, power flow calculation, economic dispatch, reliable and stability analysis. The course covers the following computational methods commonly used in power grid operation and planning: Locational Marginal Pricing Schemes, Game Theory, Unconstrained Optimization, Linear Programming, Non-linear Constrained Optimization, and Forecasting Methods.
Course Learning Objectives
Upon completing this course, students will have the ability to:
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Course Overview
This is a graduate introductory level engineering course intended to introduce students to
manufacturing process engineering. The course reviews basic properties of materials and
then exposes students to both traditional and non-traditional methods of fabricating
products. No prior knowledge of manufacturing processes is assumed. The course
includes lectures, two midterm exams, a final exam, and approximately 5-7 homework
assignments.
Course Objectives
Upon completion of this course, students should be capable of:
