(Dr) Ahmed Almoraya successfully defended his viva this month, meaning he can return home with his wife and son, deservedly proud of his achievements in Newcastle. A good chunk of his work was accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Industrial Applications the day before his viva https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8719979 – also available here https://eprint.ncl.ac.uk/file_store/production/258207/D9F3FDD7-D697-4D0D-ABC9-CD8CBF74AB13.pdf . Some of his earlier presented work also came online this month. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8737130 .
In fact, recently many of our research outputs were released open source via the IET’s Journal of Engineering, e.g. work on linear machines https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8737123 , in wheel motors https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8737230 , tidal machines https://digital-library.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/joe.2018.9305 and current source converters https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8737122.
In the lab, two machines are now ready for test – both involving some pretty unusual manufacturing techniques.
Probably the highlight of this quarter has to be travelling to San Diego to attend International Electrical Machines and Drive Conference IEMDC 2019. At least 11 people from Newcastle attended this event. I was involved in work presented on free piston engines, aerospace generators and automotive traction motors. Also hired an electric scooter, went on some fast runs and enjoyed some California IPA.
Plans are afoot to return to FloWave wave tank in Edinburgh to demonstrate all electric control of a wave energy device. After successful tests earlier in the year proved we could demonstrate fairly simple control, we look forward to some more representative test to demonstrate altering resonance. With help from two new friends from RMIT Melbourne (Elie Shami on hydrodynamics and our visiting researcher Luke McNab on modelling and control).
Recent STEM activity includes showcasing an old undergraduate student project on a self-balancing robot, and advising primary school children about building cranes.
I await with excitement the viva for another PhD student who has just successfully secured an electromagnetic modelling job in North Wales
