An undergraduate student team from the USC Department of Electrical Engineering was one of three teams to compete in the final competition of the 2005 Future Energy Challenge (FEC) in Chicago. The USC students won the Outstanding Design Innovation Award, which included a $6,500 prize.
The FEC is an international student competition for innovation, conservation, and effective use of electrical energy. The competition is open to college and university student teams from recognized engineering programs around the world.
The USC team, directed by faculty advisors Antonello Monti and Enrico Santi, participated in a competition to build a single-phase adjustable speed motor drive of the type used for home appliances, such as a washing machine. The goal was to design and build a low-cost machine with superior performance compared to existing industrial solutions.
USC’s prototype motor weighed 12 pounds, one-third less than the target weight of 18 pounds. No other team met this specification. A remarkable aspect of USC’s accomplishment is that, during this summer’s hardware development phase, the team consisted of only two members, undergraduate students Adam Barkley and David Michaud.
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