Press Releases
APECOR Guides UCF Student Team's Winning Entry in Worldwide Competition to Invent New Ways to Make Energy Efficient
ORLANDO, Fla., (Oct. 14, 2009) -- APECOR---Advanced Power Electronics Corporation-- recently mentored four UCF engineering students helping them win the Overall First Place in a worldwide competition to make energy production more efficient and economical.
John Elmes, vice president of Advanced Technology at APECOR, said the firm sponsored UCF engineering students Jonathan Baker and Christopher Hamilton in the 2009 IEEE Future Energy Challenge competition at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, hosted by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
"The worldwide competition resulted in seven finalist teams from Brazil, China, Germany and the U.S.," Elmes explained. "The UCF team won First Place Overall in the competition and the Monash University Wind Turbine Maximiser Award,” he said.
"The project was to design and construct a wind turbine power output maximiser for a 200W wind turbine, charging into a 12V battery," Elmes explained.
"The challenge facing the team was to design wind turbine controllers that maximize the power from a wind turbine, regulate the battery charging process, and simultaneously protect the wind turbine from over speed conditions which could potentially destroy it," he said.
APECOR sponsored the UCF team along with Progress Energy, the National Science Foundation and the Florida Power Electronics Center at UCF.
Elmes said the team's goal now is to develop a three-phase AC/DC converter for a turbine that can be manufactured for less than $30 and used in conjunction with solar panels and batteries to generate sustainable electrical power sufficient for a single home.
"With further development, the UCF team's AC/DC converter could make wind turbine power generation an entirely feasible and affordable energy alternative for many applications, including remote locations requiring power," Elmes said.
UCF Professor Issa Batarseh, director of the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, oversaw the project along with graduate advisors Gustavo Gamboa and Elmes.
APECOR is a client company of the University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program at the Central Florida Research Park.
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For more information, contact:
John Elmes, VP of Advanced Technology, APECOR, Inc. 407-275-1175, jelmes@apecor.com
Carol Ann Dykes, Site Manager, UCF Business Incubation Program, 407-882-0211, cdykes@mail.ucf.edu
Larry Vershel or Beth Payan, Larry Vershel Communications, 407-644-4142 or LvershelCo@aol.com
APECOR – UCF Joint Development for Hybrid Vehicle Power Systems Lauded at Michigan Automotive Conference
ORLANDO, Fla. (Oct. 6, 2009) --- Advanced Power Electronics, Inc. (APECOR), won an award recently for a paper the Orlando based technology firm presented at the 5th IEEE Vehicle Power and Propulsion Conference in Dearborn, Mich. John Elmes, vice president of Advanced Technology at APECOR, said the paper focused on new technology APECOR is developing in partnership with UCF to improve the efficiency of hybrid vehicles.
The paper, titled "Modular Bidirectional DC-DC Converter for Hybrid Electric Vehicles with Variable Frequency Interleaved Soft-Switching", was authored by APECOR and UCF researchers Elmes, Rene Kersten, Issa Batarseh, Michael Pepper and Keith Mansfield.
The converter is an important technology breakthrough for the commercial market because of the dual functionality and dramatically decreased size with increased efficiency.
The bidirectional converter allows it to be used to power either the drive motors of the hybrid-electric vehicle or recharge the batteries when slowing the vehicle. The high density of the converter is 2 to 3 times smaller than the traditional DC-DC converter, over 97% efficient, and can operate with coolant over 100°C.
Their presentation was awarded "Best Paper" at the conference.
APECOR, Inc. is a University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program client based at the Incubator in the Central Florida Research Park.
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For more information about this release contact:
John Elmes, VP of Advanced Technology, APECOR, Inc. 407-275-1175, jelmes@apecor.com
Carol Ann Dykes, Site Manager, UCF Incubator – Research Park, 407-882-0211, cdykes@mail.ucf.edu
Larry Vershel or Beth Payan, Larry Vershel Communications, 407-644-4142 or LvershelCo@aol.com
APECOR to Unveil Ultra High-Density Electric Vehicle Power Converter at TRDA Technology Opportunity Forum on Aug. 11
ORLANDO, Fla. (July 30, 2009) --- Advanced Power Electronics, Inc. (APECOR), will unveil its latest project – a power converter the size of an average desktop computer that can process the amount of power consumed by 40 households or an advanced military vehicle – on Tuesday, Aug. 11 at the Florida Technology Research and Development Authority's (TRDA) Technology Opportunity Forum in Melbourne.
The Forum showcases some of the most promising, federally funded technologies under development in the southeast.
John Elmes, VP of Advanced Technology at APECOR, said the electric vehicle DC-DC converter was developed for the U.S. Army under a U.S. Small Business Administration Small Business Innovations Research (SBIR) grant.
Elmes said the converter is designed to provide more than 200 kilowatts of power in the most extreme conditions – at temperatures up to 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100°C). "Essentially, we are cooling the electronics with boiling water," Elmes said.
"The Technology Opportunity Forum is a chance for small technology companies with promising projects to share their latest developments with potential partners and customers," Elmes said.
"Small business technology firms from throughout the southeast have been invited to participate in the Technology Opportunity Forum," Elmes said.
The forum is scheduled from 8 a.m. to noon at the TRDA Business Innovation Center, 1050 W. NASA Blvd. in Melbourne.
The Florida Technology Research and Development Authority was established by the Florida Legislature in 1987 to facilitate development of small business technology in Florida. The governor appoints its five-member board of directors.
APECOR, Inc. is a University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program client at the Technology Incubator in Research Park.
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For more information about this release contact:
John Elmes, VP of Advanced Technology, APECOR, Inc. 407-275-1175, jelmes@apecor.com
Carol Ann Dykes, Site Manager, UCF Business Incubation Program, 407-882-0211, cdykes@mail.ucf.edu
Gordon Hogan, Director of Operations, UCF Business Incubation Program, 407 882-1577, bizdev@mail.ucf.edu
Larry Vershel or Beth Payan, Larry Vershel Communications, 407-644-4142 or LvershelCo@aol.com
About APECOR, Inc.:
Advanced Power Electronics Corporation (APECOR) carries out research and development in the area of power electronics.
In partnership with the University of Central Florida, APECOR has been developing high-efficiency DC/DC voltage
regulator modules, hard-switching and soft-switching DC/DC converters, advanced digital control methods, digitally
controlled distributed power systems (DPS), and soft-switching power factor corrected AC/DC converters. APECOR is
creating power electronics solutions for many industries, ranging from portable solar battery chargers to high-power
electric vehicles.
About the UCF Incubation Program:
Since its founding in 1999, the UCF Business Incubation Program has helped more than 130 emerging companies
(including nearly 80 current clients) create over $500 million in annual revenue and more than 1600 new jobs
with an average salary of $59,000. With six facilities across the Greater Orlando community, the Incubation
Program is a collaboration in economic development between the University of Central Florida, Orange County,
the City of Orlando, Seminole County, the City of Winter Springs, The City of Sanford, Lake County, the City
of Leesburg, and the Florida High Tech Corridor Council. For more information, please visit
www.incubator.ucf.edu.