Steven Pekarek, the Edmund O. Schweitzer III Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is the recipient of the 2018 IEEE Power and Energy Systems Cyril Veinott Electromechanical Energy Conversion Award. The award recognizes outstanding contributions in the field of electromechanical energy conversion. Cyril Veinott, whom this award honors, was responsible for numerous practical improvements in the design and application of electric motors over a fifty-year time span.

 

Pekarek was cited for his 'Contributions to Modeling and Design of Electric Machinery.' His research group has developed techniques to reduce the computation time required to simulate electric machinery. Pekarek’s group has also developed methods to improve the accuracy of the models that are traditionally used to design electric machines. 

 

“It is an honor to be linked in a small way to Cyril Veinott, who was a world leader in the field for much of the last half of the 20th century,” says Pekarek. “It also makes me realize how fortunate I have been to have had such outstanding students. They have formed the backbone on my research program and the award is an acknowledgment of their excellence.” 

 

Pekarek received his BS, MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering from Purdue in 1991, 1993, and 1996, respectively. He joined the ECE faculty in 2004, where he has been the principal investigator on a number of successful research projects for the Navy, NASA, Converteam, Raytheon, and Kohler, among others. The primary focus of this research has been the analysis and design of electric machinery, drive systems, and power electronic based architectures for finite inertia power and propulsion systems.