GRAINGER LECTURE SERIES PRESENTATION
SPEAKER: Dr. Daniel C. Ludois, Jean van Bladel Associate Professor, UW—Madison and Cofounder of C-Motive Technologies
TITLE: "Rocking the Boat with Capacitance"
WHEN: Monday, November 27, 2023, 3:00 pm
WHERE: 4070 ECE Building
ABSTRACT: Conventional power conversion systems, e.g., motors, generators, transformers, wireless power transfer, etc., operate by means of magnetic induction. These systems are made of iron cores, copper windings and permanent magnets and have remained fundamentally unchanged for more than a century. A central theme in my work is the exploitation of the electric field (capacitive) coupling to provide unique solutions where magnetic approaches fall short. I discuss the utility of capacitive approaches to enable sustainable power conversion with increased energy efficiency via new converter configurations and the avoidance of material supply bottlenecks. The focus is on two specific applications – synchronous electrostatic machinery for industrial automation and robotics and resonant single-wire power tethers for aerial platforms.
BIOGRAPHY: Dr. Daniel C. Ludois (Senior Member, IEEE) received the B.S. degree in physics from Bradley University, Peoria, IL, USA, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin—Madison, WI, USA, in 2006, 2008 and 2012, respectively. He cofounded C-Motive Technologies in 2012, a company developing capacitively coupled power conversion technologies. Today C-Motive is working to commercialize electrostatic machines. In 2013, he joined the UW-Madison Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, where he is currently a Jean van Bladel Associate Professor. He is also a Research Director with the Wisconsin Electric Machines and Power Electronics Consortium. His interests include power electronics, electric machines, applied electromagnetics and entrepreneurship. Dr. Ludois was the recipient of the USA National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2015 and was named a Moore Inventor Fellow by the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation in 2017. He has co-authored 6 IEEE prize papers.
