The SPARK Laboratory, which is affiliated with the Power and Energy Institute of Kentucky (PEIK) and operates within the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Kentucky (UK) College of Engineering, has recently extended its collaboration with QM Power, Inc, a start-up company, the research of which is supported by substantial private investment and by the Department of Energy (DOE). The collaborative project focuses on advanced large-scale optimization of innovative electric machines based on QM Power patented concepts.
SPARK and QM Power have also collaborated for the last two years on another project supported by DOE for the development of electric machines for electric vehicles with a record high specific power of 50kW per liter. Results from the successful preliminary testing of a laboratory prototype will be published in a joint paper and presented this October at the IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exhibition, which is the largest joint technical event of the IEEE Power Electronics and Industry Applications Societies.
Dan M. Ionel, ECE Professor and L. Stanley Pigman Chair in Power, director of the SPARK Lab and of PEIK, will serve as UK's principal investigator for the project. At QM Power, Drs. Madhav Manjrekar and Somasundaram Essakiappan will serve as the technical project leads, reporting to Tom Stepien, CEO of QM Power, Inc.