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Alpha Technologies Founder Fred Kaiser's Kaiser Foundation Invests $1-Million in Sustainable Energy Research
Friday, August 12, 2016Company Profile | Careers | Follow Company
Vancouver, BC, August 12, 2016--(T-Net)--Established in 1997 by Fred Kaiser, founder of global power supply manufacturer AlphaTechnologies, the Kaiser Foundation for Higher Education has been a long-time supporter of higher education and electrical engineering over the past two decades.
The Foundation announced today that it has awarded the Fred Kaiser Professorship in Power Conversion and Sustainability to Professor Martin Ordonez, who is currently an Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering at UBC.
Professor Ordonez will use the $1-million investment to expand research and education programs in power conversion and renewable energy generation.
Martin Ordonez, Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, UBC
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Recently named the Canada Research Chair in Power Converters for Renewable Energy Systems (renewable power and energy systems, power electronics, power conversion architectures, and control systems), Ordonez's research aims to maximize the use of renewable energy sources by developing elements necessary to build affordable energy systems, with a focus on creating an improved sustainable electrical system for developing countries.
“When it comes to the developing world, the challenge is different. Instead of interfacing with an existing power grid, the challenges arise from determining how a better systemcan be envisioned,” Ordonez says. “With a blank slate, the electrical system can be developed with sustainable energy sources inmind, but research and testing are needed to make them economically feasible for developing countries.”
With the investment from the Kaiser Foundation, Professor Ordonez is planning to add several top-tier researchers to the team and doubling the program's current size. In addition, part of the program's initiative is to create an outreach program to recruit undergraduate students from around the world to join the team.
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Editor's Note: A laboratory at Simon Fraser University's Surrey campus, designed to teach engineering students about sustainability and power generation, was also set up last year with help from the Kaiser Foundation (more than $700,000 in funding and equipment to SFU was provided over the past 17 years), and is now known as the Kaiser Foundation for Higher Education Laboratory.
The lab houses an array of state-of-the-art power electronics equipment that provides students with valuable, hands-on experience as they study technologies related to power generation, electronics, circuits and embedded systems (computer systems contained within devices).
The Kaiser Foundation also donated a record $4 million to UBC's Faculty of Applied Science in November 2002 which was the largest private sector donation in the faculty's history and was to help fund the development of a new Electrical
and Computer Engineering Building.
The Kaiser Foundation also supports Graduate Scholarships in BC, among other initiatives.
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About the Kaiser Foundation for Higher Education
The Kaiser Foundation for Higher Education is a philanthropic organization created by Mr. Fred Kaiser to support higher educationin the areas of Power Electronics and Sustainable Energy technologies. To date the Foundation has contributed millions of dollars to fund facilities, programs and scholarships to institutions and elite and needy students.
Contact:
Humphrey Tam
Marketing Coordinator
Alpha Technologies Ltd.
604.436.1476
Photo Credit: UBC
https://www.ece.ubc.ca
marketing@alpha.ca
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