UA in consortium on auto electronics

FAYETTEVILLE -- The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville will be among a group of universities trying to boost the density and efficiency of electrical system components in cars, airplanes and other equipment.

UA joins a group led by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to form the Engineering Research Center for Power Optimization for Electro-Thermal Systems, an $18.5 million center sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

"We want to increase the total power density in vehicles by 10 to 100 times. That would translate into billions of liters of fuel saved and nearly double an electric car's range," Andrew Alleyne, director of the center and an engineering professor with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said in a statement.

Alan Mantooth, a UA electrical engineering professor, will serve as the center's deputy director, with three other UA faculty serving on the research team: Simon Ang, Juan Balda and Greg Salamo.

"We are extremely excited to have the opportunity to help drive the boundaries of high-power density technologies into systems for the next decade and beyond," Mantooth said in a statement.

Other universities forming the center are: Howard University, Stanford University, the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, and the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden.

Metro on 08/11/2015

Upcoming Events