GRAPES Center Kicks Off Second Phase With Semi-Annual Meeting in Fayetteville

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GRAPES Faculty, Students and Industrial Partners Meet for the November 2014 GRAPES Meeting

The NSF Center for GRid-connected Advanced Power Electronic Systems (GRAPES) started its sixth year of operations with a semi-annual meeting held during the first week of November in Fayetteville.

GRAPES, an Industry/University Cooperative Research Center, facilitates close research interactions between university faculty and students and the industrial members of the center. This relationship gives our researchers a direct tie to today’s power industry, allowing them to research topics that are closely aligned with industry interests. It also gives the involved companies a clear voice into what the students are learning, and so directly improves the quality of the employees they will hire in the next few years. I/UCRC’s receive funding from the National Science Foundation in five-year increments, and GRAPES was recently awarded funding for their second five years.

The GRAPES Center currently has two university research sites, one in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Arkansas and one in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of South Carolina. Several other universities are considering joining the center, and these are expected to add new dimensions to the work done by the center. GRAPES currently has 15 industrial and governmental members, ranging from semiconductor manufacturers all the way up to the utility companies who generate, transmit and distribute power.

The GRAPES Center has accomplished a lot during the first five years of the center. First and foremost, nearly 100 students, from undergraduate through doctoral students, have worked within the center. Many of these students have gone on to work for our member companies, while others have continued their educations or gone to work for other companies in the power and power electronics industries. Researchers in the Center have produced copious conference and journal papers, copyrights, and patents, and GRAPES researchers have shown their mettle and produced several new technologies that will make member companies more competitive.

Expectations are high as GRAPES looks forward at the next five years: With plans to expand the number of research sites, and with some technologies reaching the point of commercialization, a yet greater impact is now expected!