IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - March 2021 - 90

for PELS Day 2021 to make it a success!
For further information, please visit
the PELS Day website: .

About the Author
Harish Sarma Krishnamoorthy
(hskrishn@uh.edu) is an assistant professor in the ECE department of University of Houston, Texas, United States.

He is the Chair of the IEEE PELS' Students and Young Professionals' committee and the Chair of the IEEE PELS Day
2021 steering committee.

by Mads Graungaard Taul and Huai Wang

IFEC 2020 Winners Announced

rganized by Aalborg University, Denmark, the 13th
IEEE International Future
Energy Challenge (IFEC) 2020
announced awards for the student
project competition on power supplies for nanosatellites, a fast-growing satellite industry segment. In
2020, the student teams were challenged to design and build a power
supply for nanosatellites with specific requirements for efficiency, power
density, weight, and dynamic performance. The competition included a
preliminary proposal (November
2019), two virtual technical workshops (April and August 2020), and a
final competition with prototypes
sent to and tested at Aalborg University in November 2020. A total of 26
project proposals were received
from 13 countries and regions. Initially, 17 teams were shortlisted for
the first workshop, and 10 teams
were later invited for the second
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2021.3050700
Date of current version: 19 February 2021

IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE

workshop. The final competition
involved prototype testing of four
finalist teams listed below. These
tests were conducted locally at Aalborg University, where Chroma ATE
Inc. sponsored the testing system.
The winners are as follows:
■■The Grand Prize ($10,000) - Zhejiang University
■■The Outstanding Performance
Award ($5,000) - National Ilan University
■■The Outstanding Performance
Award ($5,000) - University of Belgrade
■■The Ingenuity Award ($1,000) - India
Institute of Technology Kanpur.
The following teams received the
Certificate of Excellence:
■■Leibniz University Hannover
■■Technische Hochschule Köln
■■University of Alberta
■■Virginia Polytechnic Institute and
State University.
Initiated in 2001, the IFEC is
sponsored by IEEE Power Electronics Society, Power & Energy Society,
Industry Application Society, and

z March 2021

Power Sources Manufacturers Association. In all, the IFEC 2020 was
a big success, despite the challenges
associated with COVID-19 and the
contingency plans for the technical
workshops and final competition. All
participating teams and, in particular,
the finalists showed excellent skills in
team working and solving technical
problems. Congratulations to all the
teams on their remarkable work and
innovation. We look forward to future
IFECs, more importantly, to see more
brilliant students dissimilate and
share knowledge across continents
and institutions.
More information can be found on
IFEC 2020 website:

https://www.ieee-pels.org/membership/pels-day https://www.ieee-pels.org/membership/pels-day https://www.ieee-pels.org/membership/pels-day

IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - March 2021

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