Welcome to the 38^th North American Power Symposium (NAPS 2006)

On behalf of Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC), the College of Engineering and the students, faculty and staff of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, it is indeed my pleasure to extend to everyone a warm welcome to NAPS 2006.  This very same organizing committee had the honor and privilege to organize the 1991 NAPS at SIUC. Now, fifteen years later, we again have the pleasure to have you among us.  Many of you thought at the time, that the NAPS 1991 was a memorable experience. We have made every effort and we hope that NAPS 2006 will be even more memorable and a pleasant experience for all.

At this point I would like to acknowledge and to thank the sponsors of NAPS 2006: The IEEE Power Engineering Society, the Vice Chancellor for Research and Dean of the Graduate School - Dr. John Koropchak, the Dean of Engineering - Dr. William Osborne, the Director of the Coal Research Center - Dr. John Mead, the Director of the Materials Research Center - Dr. Max Yen and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The organization of this event has been a team effort involving all my colleagues in the power systems group: Dr. Glafkos Galanos - ECE Chair, Dr. Constantine Hatziadoniu, Dr. Farzad Pourboghrat and Dr. Carl Spezia.

Finally I would like to thank Dr. Glenn Poshard, President of the SIU System, for taking time from his busy schedule to be with us during this conference.

For those of you joining us for the first time, I would like to make a brief introduction of the University, the College of Engineering, the ECE Department and our Power Systems Program.

Southern Illinois University Carbondale, founded in 1869, ranks as one of the top three public universities in the State of Illinois.

Each year, some 21,500 students enroll in the 175 academic programs offered. The University offers the full range of degree programs from the bachelor’s to the doctoral level, as well as professional degrees in law and medicine.

Our academic programs include agriculture, art, aviation, anthropology, business, cinema-photography, computer science, education, engineering, foreign language study, forestry, history, journalism, music, political science, radio-television, social work, recreation, rehabilitation — just to mention a few.

SIUC is one of the nation’s premier research institutions, ranked as “Doctoral Research Extensive” by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Students from more than one hundred nations enroll in our academic programs and while they are here, they fall in love with our lush, rural landscapes and welcoming hospitality of Southern Illinois.

Surrounded by forests, fields and lakes, SIUC is a regional nucleus of academic, creative and cultural endeavors. And the region is an outdoor paradise for boaters, rock climbers, hikers, nature lovers, hunters and horseback riders.

In 1961, Southern Illinois University Carbondale became the second public university in the State of Illinois to offer undergraduate degrees in engineering. Baccalaureate degrees offered include civil, computer, electrical, mechanical, and mining engineering. With the addition of a Ph.D. program in engineering science in 1986, SIUC offers graduate education at all degree levels including the Master of Science in civil, electrical, mechanical, and mining engineering.

In the research arena, the College continues to expand and focus its research efforts in order to respond to and to solve technical problems in the critical areas of power systems, communications, information processing, computer engineering, materials, manufacturing, natural resources, transportation, energy, and environment. The College has been successful in organizing interdisciplinary research teams involving industry and government. These include the Materials Research Center and the Center for Advanced Friction Studies.

From the B.S. to the M.S. and Ph.D. levels, the College of Engineering has reached maturity with an excellent and dedicated faculty and a solid foundation of research achievements. Annual enrollment in the College is more than 1000 undergraduate and 400 graduate students. Our student body is ethnically, culturally, and internationally diverse. With over 15,000 alumni, the College’s graduates continue to assume greater leadership roles in solving technical problems in the state, the nation, and the world.

Electrical and Computer Engineering is the largest department in the College of Engineering and one of the largest in the State of Illinois.  Our programs, both undergraduate and graduate, have national and international recognition and visibility and attract students from many countries. The significant enrollment of international students and the diversity of our student body create a rich multicultural environment which contributes to the educational experience and the professional success of our graduates.  The Department offers the full range of programs, from the Bachelor of Science level to the Doctoral level, in all major areas of Electrical and Computer Engineering.  At the undergraduate level the Department offers Bachelor of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering with specialization in Computer Engineering, Dual B.S. Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The Department offers Master of Science programs (both thesis and non-thesis options) in all major areas of electrical and computer engineering, such as VLSI design and testing, wireless and fiber-optics communications, fault-tolerant computing, embedded control and mechatronics, power systems and power electronics, image and signal processing, biomedical engineering and neural networks.

The Department has one of the largest and most successful doctoral programs in the state in the areas of electrical and computer engineering. Our graduates enjoy outstanding careers in both industry and academia.  The program is supported by prestigious research grants obtained by our faculty from federal agencies such as NSF, NIH, DOD, and DOE and from high tech industries such as Intel, Motorola and Qualcomm.

The ECE Department is proud of the unprecedented success of its graduate programs. With a graduate enrollment of over 250 students, the Department is currently second only to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign among all the public and private universities in the state, in terms of size of graduate ECE programs.

The ECE programs have a strong tradition of excellence in the area of electric power systems.  Our undergraduate curricula require one electric power course with laboratory for all electrical engineering majors.  Only very few other universities in the nation continue to have power as a required course.  The Department has invested heavily in developing outstanding laboratory facilities for electrical machines, power systems, and power electronics.

A significant (and continually increasing) number of undergraduate students takes the upper-level technical elective courses in the area of power systems.  Many seniors select their capstone design project in the area of power engineering, working on problems provided by local utilities.

The Power Systems group with four faculty members and many graduate students contributes significantly to the research productivity of the Department in terms of publications, external research funding and generation of graduate degrees.

For our conference activities, the Technical Committee has selected 115 papers (involving 240 authors), which are included in this proceedings. The authors and the many other participants in NAPS 2006 represent many nations, both from and outside North America.

At this point I would like to acknowledge the outstanding contributions of the Chair of the Technical Committee - Dr. Hatziadoniu (without him this conference would have not been possible) and our colleagues - Drs. Pourboghrat and Spezia.

Finally I would like to thank the leadership and members of our IEEE student section and especially to Justin Chapman, Michael Welling, Shawn Muir, Anil Mehta, Abigail Young, Chris Jenkins for the preparation of the conference proceedings. Also special thanks to Ms. Lana Campbell, of the division of Continuing Education, and to our graduate students, A. Albana and B. Dedjoe for their contributions in organizing NAPS 2006.

Again, welcome to Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Best wishes for a memorable experience and an enjoyable and productive meeting.

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Southern Illinois University Carbondale