King Fahd University of
Petroleum and Minerals
Electrical Engineering
Department
Seminar Series (Abstracts)
You are cordially invited to attend a seminar
092 Seminar 11
Speaker
: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ibrahim A. Metwally
Prof. Dr.-Ing.,
Fellow AvH, Senior Member IEEE
Dept. of
Electrical & Computer Engineering, College of Engineering, Sultan Qaboos University, Sultanate of Oman
Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura University, Mansoura,
Egypt.
Date
: Sunday, June
6, 2010
Time
: 1:15 p.m. –
2:00 p.m.
Venue : 59-2002
Title:
New Technological Trends in High-Voltage Power
Generators and Circuit Breakers
Abstract
This presentation introduces the new technological trends in
high-voltage power generators “Powerformer” and
circuit breakers, namely, vacuum circuit breakers (VCBs) and superconducting
fault current limiters (SFCLs).
Powerformer is a radically
new rotating machine (high-voltage generator) that can be directly
connected to the transmission network without the need for a step-up
transformer. Powerformers are wound by XLPE power
cables without sheath. They enable very clean and compact power plants that are
not only economical, reliable, and environment friendly but also more efficient
than conventional ones. Due to the Powerformer’s
ability to generate electricity at transmission voltage levels, it offers
considerable gains with respect to reactive power production and plant
efficiency. Hence, a Powerformer both facilitates
network stability and decreases the utilization of natural resources.
Circuit breakers (CBs) constitute an important and critical component
of the electric system. It is the last line of defense and consequently proper
and reliable operation is a must. With the advent of vacuum and
sulfur-hexafluoride (SF6) in the mid 1960’s, the older types of CBs (air blast
and minimum oil) designs have been quickly superseded. Today, they can be
considered as obsolete technologies. The technical merits of SF6 and vacuum are
equivalent today, but the ratings of vacuum CBs are still limited up to 84 kV
and 80 kA short-circuit breaking current. Several new vacuum arc control
technologies are introduced, e.g. bipolar and quadrupole
axial magnetic field (AMF) contact systems, and self-arc-diffusion-by-electrode
(SADE), where the latter can double the high-current interruption capability.
Superconducting fault current limiters (SFCLs) have two main properties, namely, current limitation
capability and ultra high-speed operation. SFCL could be a key technology
for future power systems engineering. A SFCL (13 kV and 700 A
continuous current), a novel hybrid SFCL CB (24 kV and 40 kA breaking current)
and a new TOSHIBA 66kV/750A SFCL magnet introduced and discussed. In USA and
Germany, 138-kV and 110-kV SFCLs have been
manufactured, respectively.
Short Bio
Ibrahim A. Metwally (IEEE M’93–SM’04)
was born in 1963. He received the B.Eng. degree in electrical engineering (Hons.), the M.Eng. degree in high-voltage engineering, and the Ph.D. degree in
high-voltage engineering from Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt, in 1986, 1990, and 1994, respectively. The
Ph.D. degree was received in collaboration with Cardiff University, Cardiff,
U.K.
He is currently a Professor in the Department of Electrical
Engineering, Mansoura University. He worked as a
Visiting Professor with the University of the Federal Armed Forces, Munich, and
Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany from 2000 to 2002 and in the
summers of 2003-2007, and in summer 2009, respectively. Since August 2002, he
has also been with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
College of Engineering, Sultan Qaboos University,
Muscat, Oman, as a Professor. His areas of research
High-Voltage Engineering, Power Systems, Power Quality and Applied
Computational Electromagnetics.
Prof. Metwally is
a Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt (AvH)
Foundation, Bonn, Germany, a Senior Member in the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and a Member of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). He has published 120
papers, of which more than half have appeared in highly reputed international
journals. He has completed 15 industrial projects in UK, Egypt, Germany and
Oman, and 14 support services (consultancies) in Oman. He was awarded both the
First Rank of the National Prize in Engineering Sciences in 1998 and 2004, and
the Late Prof. Dr.-Ing. M. Khalifa’s
Prize in Electrical Engineering in 1999 and 2005 from the Egyptian Academy of
Scientific Research and Technology. He has been a regular peer reviewer for
many IEEE Transactions, IET Proceedings, and other top-ranked journals. His
biographical profile was published in Who’s Who in Science and Engineering in
2001.
092 Seminar 9
Speaker
: Prof. Ibrahim Elamin
Professor,
EE Department, KFUPM
Date
:
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Time
:
1:15 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Venue : 59-2002
Title:
Nuclear Power
as a Planning Option for Electricity Generation in Saudi Arabia
Abstract
The demand for electric energy in Saudi
Arabia is growing at unprecedented rates. It is
currently about 190,000 GWh corresponding to
approximately about 900,000 barrels of oil a day. This demand is expected to exceed over 540,000 GWh in the year 2032. With the current fuel
constraints, power system planners shall seek other forms of power
generation. This seminar investigates the option of building nuclear
plants. The presentation will review the basics of
nuclear power generation, safety issues and environmental constraints. The seminar
will then present the results of the comparison between nuclear power and other
fossil fuels when applied to a typical power plant The economics of nuclear power are attractive and the
cost of energy is less than using crude oil.
092 Seminar 8
Speaker
: Dr. Wessam Mesbah
Assistant
Professor, EE Department, KFUPM
Date
: Tuesday,
May 4, 2010
Time
: 1:15 p.m. –
2:00 p.m.
Venue : 59-2002
Title:
Joint Optimization of Heterogeneous Multiuser MIMO
Systems
Abstract
We consider multiuser MIMO systems with
some of the users having target-rate requirements while other users are working
on best-effort data transmission. Both multiple-access channels (MAC) and
broadcast channels (BC) are considered. We use the concept of stream achievable
rate region (rather than user achievable
rate region) and show that the best-effort users can achieve higher rates when
the data streams of any user are not restricted to be decoded consecutively and
when time-sharing between different decoding orders is allowed. For MAC, two
scenarios are considered. In the first scenario, we assume that the
transmission power of each stream is fixed, and hence
only rate and decoding order optimization is required, and in the second
scenario, we optimize jointly over rate, power, and decoding order. We show
that both problems can be formulated as convex optimization problems, and hence
efficient algorithms can be used to obtain the globally optimal solution. We
also show that in some cases it is possible to reduce the power required to
obtain the optimal solution, and we show that the power minimization problem is
convex. We also exploit the MAC-BC duality in order to solve the same problem
for the MIMO-BC channel.
092 Seminar 7
Speaker
: Dr. Essam Hassan
Professor,
EE Department, KFUPM
Date
:
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Time
:
1:15 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Venue : 59-2002
Title:
On the design
of continuously varying microwave filters
Abstract
A continuously varying transmission line structure is proposed for designing low pass, high pass, bandpass and bandstop filters. The non linear differential equation of the voltage and current along the line is solved using a set of sinusoidal basis function in terms of the assumed characteristic impedance profile along the line. The S-parameters of a general section of the line are obtained in terms of the assumed impedance. The Genetic Algorithm is used to find suitable impedance profile that generates the prescribed characteristics of the filter in question.
Biography
Graduated from Alexandria University on June 1970, communication section with honor. MS and Ph.D. from university of Manitoba, Canada on 1974 and 1978 respectively in microwave communication. Worked with NORTEL from 1977 to 1979 then joined KFUPM since Sept. 1979.
092 Seminar 6
Speaker
: Dr. Oualid Hammi
Assistant
Professor, EE Department, KFUPM
Date
: Tuesday , March 30, 2010
Time
: 1:15 p.m. –
2:00 p.m.
Venue : 59-2002
Title:
RF-DSP Co-design of Green
Communication Systems
Abstract
The radio frequency power amplifier (PA) is one of the most expensive and critical systems in the transmitter chain. Its performance in terms of linearity and power efficiency significantly impacts the overall performance of the transmitter. However, linearity and power efficiency can not be achieved simultaneously in power amplification systems. Thus, digital signal processing techniques are required to compensate for the nonlinearity of the power amplifier in order to improve the achievable efficiency.
This presentation provides an overview on the design of power amplification systems, and illustrates the benefits of RF/DSP co-design approaches in improving the transmitter performance through digital predistortion.
Biography
Oualid Hammi received the B.Eng. degree from the
École Nationale d’Ingénieurs de
Prior to joining
KFUPM, he was a post-doctoral fellow with the intelligent RF radio technology
laboratory, Schulich School of Engineering,
His research interests are related to the design of highly efficient linear transmitters for wireless communication systems and the characterization, behavioral modeling and linearization of nonlinear RF power amplifiers and transmitters. He has authored or co-authored over 45 journal and conference papers, and is technical reviewer for several IEEE journals and conferences.
092 Seminar 5
Speaker
: M. H. Shwehdi,
Ph. D.
Professor,
EE Department, KFUPM
Date
:
Tuesday , March 16, 2010
Time
:
1:15 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Venue : 59-2002
Title:
INVESTIGATING
THE INFLUENCE OF KFUPM PERSONAL COMPUTERS PROCESSING MODES ON LINE CURRENT
HARMONICS AND HARMONIC CONTENT
Abstract
The presentation illustrates and investigates the influence of the personal computers (PC) on the line current harmonics in some buildings at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM). A Systematic approach was followed to determine the highest PC utilization in KFUPM. The harmonics were monitored from the main switched boards of each building and from the switch boards of each commuter labs in these buildings. A series of tests on mode of the operation of PC’s in some buildings at KFUPM have been investigated in order to study the influence of these computers on the line current harmonics.
Due to the highly non sinusoidal nature of the input current
waveform of personal computer, the high amplitude of harmonics currents are
generated. These harmonics currents are of odd order because of half wave
symmetry of the input current waveform. The magnitudes of the harmonics
currents up to the seventh harmonics are significant. The phase angle of the
harmonics currents of the input currents of different PC’s
vary to cause significant current cancellations. There are some cancellations
in the higher order harmonics.
The assessment of odd harmonics in current
significant in magnitudes are represented by mathematical modeling a proved
theoretically the decrease in THD in current at some points when increasing the
number of PC’s connected to these points. On the other hand, THD increased with
increase the number of PC’s on the other points of these buildings. According
to this study the maximum THD found was 29% in the main student lab in building
14 and it was unstable and the minimum THD was found 1.1% in building 58.
092 Seminar 4
Speaker : Dr. Yehia Massoud
Director of Nanoelectronic
Systems Laboratory
Department
of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Rice University
Date
:
Tuesday , March 9, 2010
Time
:
1:45 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Venue : 59-2002
Title:
Modeling
and Robust Design Solutions for Emerging Nanoscale
Technologies
Abstract
The tremendous advancement in complex nanoscale integrated systems design achieved in the past decade can largely be attributed to the successful scaling of current manufacturing technology. As the technology is pushed to its basic physical limits, alternate technologies are required for the realization of future nanoscale-energy enabled integrated systems. In order to meet the demand for greater performance, reliability, and nanoscale integration, the realization of nanoscale designs will ultimately require a revolutionary paradigm shift that embraces Nanotechnology. Leveraging automated design techniques through new computationally-efficient modeling and robust design techniques of nanostructures, and developing innovative nano-architectures for various applications are key elements in the realization of future nanoscale systems. In this talk, I will discuss different modeling approaches for nanoscale devices and architectures, which offers potential long-term solutions that alleviate the problems associated with current technology. The talk covers some of the most promising nanoscale technology solutions; carbon nanotubes and nanophotonics based circuits and systems. By exploiting advances in Nanotechnology, engineers will be better equipped to innovate future high-performance integrated nano-systems.
Biography
Yehia Massoud received his PhD degree
in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology in 1999. He was a member of the Technical Staff at the Advanced
Technology Group at Synopsys Inc., from 1999 to 2003. He joined Rice University
in July 2003, where he is the founding director of the Rice Automated Nanoscale Design Group (RAND) and an Associate Professor in
the Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is also the theme leader for Novel
Interconnects and Architectures in the Southwest Academy of Nanoelectronics.
He currently serves as the General Co-Chair of the 2009 IEEE Great Lakes
Symposium on VLSI (GLSVLSI). He is an Associate Editor of both the IEEE
Transactions on Circuits and Systems I and the IEEE Transactions on Very Large
Scale Integration Systems. He has served as the Technical Program Co-Chair of
the 2007 GLSVLSI. He has also served on the technical program committees of
many of the key conferences in Electronic Design Automation, VLSI, and
Nanotechnology, such as ICCAD, ISCAS, DATE, and ISQED. Dr. Massoud
has chaired or co-chaired conference tracks in several IEEE/ACM international
conferences, such as the Computer-Aided Network Design track in ISCAS 2007,
ISCAS 2008, and ISCAS 2009, the VLSI Design track in GLSVLSI 2006, and the emerging
technologies track in ISVLSI 2009. He organized a special session on the Future
of Nanometer SoC Design in ISCAS 2007. For several
years, he has been a member of CAS Technical Committees for VLSI Systems and
Applications, Biomedical Circuits and Systems, Circuits and Systems for
Communications, and Nanoelectronics and Gigascale Systems. Dr. Massoud's research include design techniques for analog/RF/Mixed
signal and digital circuits and systems as well as the modeling and design of
innovative nano-circuits and systems. He has
published more than 150 papers in peer reviewed journal and conferences. He is
a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award for 2004, several
Best Paper Award Nominations, and the Best Paper Award at the 2007 IEEE International
Symposium on Quality Electronic Design.
092 Seminar 3
Speaker
: Mr. Nuruddeen Mohammed Iya
Research Assistant, EE Department
Date
: Tuesday , March 9, 2010
Time
: 1:15 p.m. –
1:45 p.m.
Venue : 59-2002
Title:
Wall Compensation for High Resolution UWB
Obstructed Localization
Abstract
One of the interesting properties of Ultra wideband (UWB) signals is their promised ability to penetrate walls and obstacles which comes from the lower frequency components of the signal. However, as the signal propagates through these obstacles, it gets attenuated, slows down, and gets dispersed, which indicates the effect of the propagating medium. In this work we characterize wave propagation through various building materials for through-wall imaging and positioning applications. Frequency-domain reflection and transmission measurements are performed using a Vector Network Analyzer in the a ultra-wideband frequency range to examine wall effects by way of measuring the insertion transfer function given as the ratio of two signals measured in presence and absence of the wall. The dielectric constant and propagation loss will be extracted from the measured insertion transfer function using signal processing techniques. The work will consider typical indoor walls like glass, wood, gypsum and concrete. The results obtained from such work are also useful data for channel modeling and link budget analysis. Understanding through-wall effects is also important because it provides insight on how to develop algorithms to effectively correct the position accuracy of a detected object in through-wall imaging and localization applications.
092 Seminar 2
Speaker
: Prof. B M Azizur Rahman
Date
:
Sunday, Feb. 28, 2010
Time
:
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Venue : Bldg 14-111 (video conferencing with KAUST)
Title:
Photonics Research at
Abstract
The Photonics group at City University London (CUL) is one of the best known groups in the world on the development of the finite element based approaches and their applications for design optimization of various photonic devices and opto-electronic integrated circuits (OEIC). Prof. Rahman was the first to develop the finite element method [1] for optical waveguides and subsequently they have developed finite element based junction analysis method [2] and the beam propagation method [3], which are numerically more efficient than most of the commercial packages, which are predominantly finite difference based. The Finite Element Method uses integral formulations, can consider more efficient irregular shaped elements and can also consider slanted or curved dielectric interfaces to represent practical photonic devices more accurately. The H-field approach, developed by them is more rigorous as the H-field is continuous across the dielectric interfaces where as E-field is not continuous. Recently, they have been developing a new time-domain approach, which is expected to be computationally more efficient than the FDTD packages.
Over the last 30 years, they have not only developed these packages
but also used them in the design optimization of various photonic devices.
Optical waveguides with silica, silicon, polymer, lithium niobate,
and compound semiconductors with linear, nonlinear, anisotropic, electro-optic, and elasto-optic
materials properties with loss or gain have been characterized. Subsequently
various photonic devices, such as high-speed modulators, optical filters, polarizers, polarization rotators, power splitters, compact
bends, and spot-size converters have been developed. Their more recent research
focus has been on the design optimization of photonic crystal fibres, photonic
crystals, silicon naowires, surface plasmon modes, negative index metamaterials
and THz waveguides and devices. Many of these projects have been supported by
the EPSRC, EU, British Council, and industries, notably Siemens, Nortel,
Bio
Prof. B. M. Azizur Rahman received his PhD degree from University College
London in 1982 and now a full Professor at City University London. At
092 Seminar 1
Speaker
: Prof. B M Azizur Rahman
City
University, London, UK
Date : Saturday, Feb. 27, 2010
Time : 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Venue : Building 59 Room 2002
Title:
RIGOROUS DESIGN
OPTIMIZATION OF PHOTONIC DEVICES
Abstract
With the advent of semiconductor lasers and low-loss optical fibres in mid 60s, the progress of optical technology has been significant in the field of optical communications. Recently, the novel photonic crystal fibre (PCF), showing great promise any may revolutionize the way we would transmits optical signals in the future. High-speed modulators have increased the data rate beyond 40 Gb/s, WDM technology allows dense multiplexing of many signal channels and optical amplifier to increase the span lengths. Spot-size converters, may alleviate the problem of coupling active devices with fibres, and accelerate the introduction of wide-band fibre-to-the-home. New technologies such as nanophotonics, biophotonics, plasmonics and artificially engineered new metamaterials may revolutiolise the whole information and communications technology further.
Numerically simulated results for many important guided-wave photonic devices, using the full vectorial finite element-based approaches, would be presented, such as photonic crystal fibres, photonic crystals, THz waveguides, high-speed modulators, spot-size converters, silicon nanowiers, plasmonics, optical polarizers and polarization rotators.
Bio
Prof. B. M. Azizur Rahman received his PhD
degree from University College London in 1982 and now a full Professor at City
University London. At City University, he leads a large research group of 12
post-docs and PhD students, working on Photonics Modelling, specialised in the
development and use of rigorous and full-vectorial
numerical approaches to design, analyse and optimise a wide range of photonic
devices. He has published more than 350 journal and conference papers, and his
journal papers have been cited more than 1400 times. He is a senior member of
IEEE (USA), member of the Optical Society of America and IEE (UK).
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