NUR SYAKEERAH BINTI AHMAD REZAHAN

SKEE 4012: Summary of Article

Article: W. L. Cooley, P. Klinkhachorn, R. L. McConnell and N. T. Middleton, "Developing professionalism in the electrical engineering classroom," in IEEE Transactions on Education, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 149-154, May 1991

The engineering profession is closely involved in human relations, business, and commerce. Professionalism among Engineers is very important so that it must be developed from the university classroom. During spring 1990, West Virginia University started to implement an interesting integrated activity in engineering ethics and responsibility for the Electrical Engineering students. A task was given to them about a scenario of a company that needs to do a marketing decision on the Ground Fault Interrupter (GFI) production with also a lawsuit involving the GFI. During the first class, an assignment given for the students to choose a suitable decision for the company with strong reasons. This method was very good to develop Engineering students to have strong decision-making skills before they graduated. In the next class, the students are taken to a court to experience a real scenario for the court judgment of the problem given previously. A student who impersonates as the company Engineer was called out in the court to support his decision. The real intense environment helped the students to think wisely before making any decision for their company. Deciding as a Professional Engineer must cover many aspects including objectives, financial, and organizational culture of a company. During the last class, another scenario been played which the company executives call out all engineers in a meeting to discuss the judgment. In conclusion, the activity helped to open up the student’s mind to become a very careful Engineer and avoid any illegal and unethical jobs.

     The final year project is one of the requirements that need to be complete for all final year students upon graduation. Four years of roller coaster ride will end with an important project that you will bring along with your career journey in the future. As for me, I completed my FYP with a topic of Simulation Analysis of Power generator for Electrical Discharge Machine. In the beginning, I am very struggling to understand clearly with my topic which completely different from what I've been specialized in. However, I am truly thankful to my supervisor Dr. Azli, that he never fails to explain to me in detail all the knowledge regarding my project. Previously, I never aware of EDM that widely used in Biomedical, Aerospace, and Automotive industries. This machine specifically uses to remove electrical conductive material by using electrical spark.

     From my FYP, I completed the simulation and analysis of the power generator for EDM. I learned the various types of power supply that can be applied such as linear power supply and switch-mode power supply. Both power supplies have their pro and cons but then I decided to use SMPS due to its high efficiency. Not only that, but a transistor pulse generator has also been used for my project to produce pulses for EDM. There are 4 types of the circuit that I have to analyze which are open-loop SMPS System, Closed-loop SMPS System, Open-loop power generator System,  and Closed-loop power generator system. All the circuit design and simulation for output voltage, output current, step response, and bode diagram each of the systems was done in Matlab/Simulink software.

     As a result, the output voltage and output current for the systems are similar to the calculated theoretical value. Furthermore, this experiment also proved that the stability of the closed-loop system is much better compared to the open-loop system. Moreover, the settling time for the open-loop system is much faster to achieve a steady-state. The percentage overshoot for the closed-loop system also can be reduced to zero with the presence of the PI controller. This controller is very useful to increase the performance of the system.

    The seminar for FYP 2020 was held online via google meet due to the pandemic of Covid-19. There are three panels evaluated on my projects and I have been asked a few questions such as the function of my project, which system is the best, and also I have to explain the circuit topology for SMPS. It was a great experience since I get a chance to explore deeper in the power electronics field and broaden my knowledge.