AMPED Holds Successful First Meeting
On October 7th, the Advanced Magnetics for Power and Energy Development (AMPED) held its inaugural consortium meeting both remotely and in person at the Pittsburgh Energy Innovation Center.
The event had 75 attendees, comprised of 25 members from universities and 50 from industry representing 35 unique companies. Lynn Peterson from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and Andre Pereira from the Department of Energy (DOE) were the keynote speakers. The schedule also included a student poster session and time for networking with other attendees.
Led by Director Prof. Paul Ohodnicki (MEMS) and Co-Director Prof. Brandon Grainger (ECE) at the University of Pittsburgh, the AMPED Consortium was formed in 2020 with the mission to develop an innovation ecosystem and educational programs for advancing soft magnetic materials and component technologies spanning fundamental science to end-use application in collaboration with various agencies, offices, and programs.
After establishing university collaborations with faculty members at Carnegie Mellon University (Director Prof. Michael McHenry, Co-Director Maarten deBoer) and North Carolina State University (Director Prof. Subhashish Bhattacharya, Co-Director Dr. Richard Beddingfield), an Industry Advisory Committee (IAC) made of industry and government agencies was established to guide the foundational goals of the consortium. In mid-2020, the group received a SEEDER grant, followed later that year by a MOMENTUM grant, both from the University of Pittsburgh. The team used these funds and additional support from Pitt to start bringing in paying participants and soliciting lab equipment donations.
Through frequent discussions with the IAC, the consortium has identified areas of need and launched their first two projects. They are: 1. Tunable Magnetics for WBG and UWBG High Frequency Power Electronics Applications and 2. REE-Free and REE-Lean Electric Motors for Extreme Environment Applications. These areas represent two primary topics of focus for AMPED moving into the future, and other major initiatives are also anticipated as the initiative grows and matures.
Workforce development is the top priority for the AMPED Consortium. The group hopes to help bridge a critical gap in providing training opportunities for current employees, along with investing in students for future hires. The AMPED Consortium’s vision is to become the premier pipeline of future employees in the magnetics field and a major research entity.
The inaugural consortium meeting was just the first of what is intended to be a yearly meeting, and the AMPED Consortium also plans to engage the group throughout the year with monthly technical seminars and quarterly project meetings to ensure the projects and center goals stay focused on real-world needs.
The AMPED Consortium would not be possible without its full participants who have provided financial contributions to help fund research projects. Thank you to: BPMI/NNL/NRL/NAVSEA, GMW, Metglas, Powdermet, L3Harris and Eaton. The Consortium would also like to thank its charitable contributors who provided the equipment for the newly forming AMPED Lab: Omicron Lab, Computer Aided Technology (CATI), ANSYS, TestEquity, Keysight and Lake Shore Cryotronics. Additional thanks go to the University of Pittsburgh Center for Advanced Manufacturing (UPCAM) for providing administrative support.
If you are interested in becoming a Participant or Contributor in the AMPED Consortium, please reach out to Liza Allison. We are excited to partner with you!
