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Answers in the wind

1 July 2009

Students from around the world will converge on Monash this month as part of the International Future Energy Challenge.

The Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering will host the seven finalist student teams as they battle it out in the Wind Turbine Power Maximiser portion of the challenge, which aims to promote student interest in power electronic converters, wind and power engineering.

The three days of finals, from 15 to 17 July, will be the culmination of 18 months work to design and build an electronic circuit that maximises the power from a wind turbine.

The teams' designs, which have been developed within tight constraints, will be tested in the Monash wind tunnel and laboratories to ascertain their ability to function well.

Research fellow Dr Peter Freere said it was an honour for Monash to host the challenge – the first time it has been held outside the US.

"The Wind Turbine challenge offers the chance for students to work on a serious design and construction project; many of the students arguably learn more working on this project than they do in any other part of their undergraduate degree," Dr Freere said.

"They often apply unusual technologies to find a design solution. The results may not always work as well as hoped, but in the process the students learn how to evaluate and improve on the technology.

"It helps turn them into engineers."

The International Future Energy Challenge is a student competition run biannually by the US-based IEEE Power Electronics Society and the Power Sources Manufacturers Association to promote the design and practical construction of leading edge electrical energy technologies.

Monash teams have finished first and second in the previous two challenges. As host this year, the University is unable to field a team.

For more information on the competition, contact Dr Freere peter.freere@eng.monash.edu.au.