The world of transport is going through a fundamental shift from dependence on fossil fuels to increasing adoption of power train electrification. Electrification of transport (eMobility) offers opportunities for a significant reduction in carbon emissions as well as a huge opportunity for the UK to become a world leading player in many of the advanced underpinning technologies.

Many of the key underpinning technologies which support eMobility relate to the storage of electrical energy on the vehicle and its efficient conversion into a form which can be used to drive the high performance electrical motors. Successful adoption of eMobility also depends on equally capable nationwide charging infrastructure which can efficiently charge vehicles at home, workplaces or at motorway service stations. High power DC chargers require similar types of advanced power electronics to convert the AC mains supply into a DC output required to charge the vehicle battery.

Key to the UK being a world player in this industry is ensuring we have a workforce which is highly skilled in the areas of electronic power conversion and energy management. This project will provide free and highly focused online technical training to employees of UK companies who wish to up-skill in power electronics. In particular, this project is aimed at maximising the use of time for employees to up-skill whilst they are required to remain at home for management of the Covid 19 pandemic.

The training material will be prepared and delivered online by experts in industry and academia and will combine world class technical information on new high performance power semiconductor devices (wide bandgap devices) with advanced design techniques in high frequency magnetics, control and digital system design.

This project will also be the catalyst to a much larger longer term initiative in technical training to provide companies a forum to ensure their engineering teams are always up to date with the very latest in advanced engineering.