18
April
2019
|
00:00 AM
Europe/Amsterdam

2019 Siemens Peter Hammond Scholarship Awarded to Ryan Brody

PITTSBURGH (April 18, 2019) — Ryan Brody, a first-year MS student in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, has been selected to receive this year’s Siemens Peter Hammond Scholarship for $10,000. 

The scholarship is named for Peter Hammond, inventor of the Perfect Harmony drive and long-time engineer at Siemens who is now retired. Hammond’s Perfect Harmony drive is a high-power machine that controls the speed of large motors; today, it is a key part of Siemens’ medium voltage variable frequency drive portfolio. The resulting energy savings on large pumps, fans, compressors, and other industrial equipment have had an enormous environmental impact, the carbon footprint equivalent of removing millions of cars from the road.  

The annual scholarship, which is in its third year, is open to any student in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Swanson School. Students must complete an application, supplementing it with an essay, letters of recommendation, a resume and their transcript. 

“Peter Hammond represents the inventive thinking and hard work that is central to engineering,” says Brandon Grainger, PhD, associate director of the Electric Power Systems Laboratory and assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Swanson. “This scholarship selects students who are not only qualified academically but who also share those qualities that have made Peter a successful engineer.”

The first Siemens Peter Hammond Scholarship recipient was Jacob Friedrich, MS EE, who is currently working at Aptiv on electric vehicles; the second was Thomas Cook, BS, who is currently pursuing his MS at Swanson and plans to go on for a PhD.

Brody says he values learning and wants to use his experience to find solutions to interesting, practical problems and to mentor others. He plans to complete his master’s degree and pursue a PhD, studying power conversion in electric vehicles.

“I hope my research will find a simple, energy efficient, low-cost, lightweight active battery cell balancing system for electric vehicles by integrating the cell balancing circuitry into the drive-train power electronics,” says Brody. “I’m grateful that this scholarship will help me achieve my goals of becoming a researcher, professor and entrepreneur.” 

The scholarship was presented April 10, 2019 and included a presentation by Jason Hoover, director of business development at Siemens Industry, called “Using Digitalization for Motors and Drives to Improve Productivity in Process Industries.” 

“We’re pleased to invest in our collective future through the Siemens Peter Hammond Scholarship,” says Hoover. “We know the recipients of this scholarship will go on to mold the future with the same passion and ingenuity that allowed Pete to imagine the Perfect Harmony and bring it to life.”

Author: Maggie Pavlick

Contact: Maggie Pavlick