About the Center for Power Electronics Systems
CPES was established as a US National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center (NSF ERC) in 1998 at five universities: Virginia Tech (VT), University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez (UPRM) and North Carolina A&T State University (NCAT). The research vision is to enable dramatic improvements in the performance, reliability, and cost-effectiveness of electric energy processing systems by developing an integrated system approach via integrated power electronics modules (IPEM). The envisioned IPEM solution is based on the integration of new generation of devices, innovative circuits and functions in the form of building blocks with standard functionalities and interfaces to facilitate the integration of these building blocks into application-specific system solutions.
The power electronics program at Virginia Tech was initiated in 1977 under the name of Power Electronics Research Group (PERG). The group was renamed to Virginia Power Electronics Center (VPEC) in 1983, when it became a university center. In the same year, the VPEC Industry Partnership Program was established. In 1987, VPEC became a Technology Development Center of Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology. In 1998, VPEC joined with Wisconsin Electric Machines and Power Electronics Consortium (WEMPEC) and power electronics research groups at RPI, UPRM and NCAT to form CPES.
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