ECE Connections Magazine

Sustainable Energy for a High-Powered World

How the High Frequency Power Electronics Group incubates environmentally positive innovations

As global warming increases and countries seek to lower carbon emissions, finding ways to access sustainable energy is paramount. Associate Professor Khurram Afridi and graduate students Maida Farooq and Firehiwot Gurara, are at the forefront of this quest to create methods and technologies that will harness the energy we need through environmentally positive innovations.

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Lang Tong is Building Intelligence into Energy Management

“The transportation system and the electric power system consume two-thirds of total energy,” Tong says. “Merging these two would represent a huge infrastructure challenge. You would either have to build new power plants or tap into renewables. The only way that electrified transportation contributes to decarbonization and climate change mitigation is if the power for the car comes from clean energy.”

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The Sound of Fusion

How a big bang in the basement contributes to a future of fusion energy

LPS researchers are not working at a scale that would produce fusion energy here below populated classrooms, labs and offices in Grumman Hall, though hearing the COBRA fire might make it seem like they are. Similar experiments are conducted at the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at a much greater scale using proper fusion fuel. The work in LPS is aimed at developing diagnostic tools and testing processes that can later be scaled up at the national labs.

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Prepare the grid now to power electric vehicles

Less than 2 percent of all cars sold in America today are electric, but that will soon change. The internal combustion engine’s firm grip on American transportation is loosening and for the first time a vision of an all-electric vehicle future is coming into clear focus. It’s a vision that may become reality in a matter of decades, and one driven by declining battery costs, progressive policy, consumer demand and the world’s largest automakers. 

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Focus on passion, work on solutions

Q&A with Dan Miller '78

Dan Miller ‘78 is managing director of The Roda Group, a Berkeley, CA based clean tech venture capital group he co-founded with fellow Cornellian Roger Strauch ‘78. Roda’s portfolio includes carbon capture company Svante, energy storage company Gridtential, and water technology company Axine. Dan received his B.S. in electrical engineering from Cornell and his M.S. from Stanford, and he’s served on the Cornell ECE Advisory Council since 1995. Dan is a leading advocate for the need to take urgent action to address climate change including putting a price on carbon. 

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Doing Something

Meet the ECE undergrad leading the Campus Energy Conservation team

“I don't personally like complaining about things if you're not going to do something about them,” says Andrea Miramontes Serrano ’24. 

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