The EE College invited the CEO of Infolytica Corporation and professor of McGill University Dr. David Lowther to deliver a presentation on the afternoon of April 19 this Thursday at Yuquan Campus. Representatives of the faculty and students from the EE College attended the meeting.
Dr. David Lowther shared his presentation: Comparison of Fractional-Slot Concentrated Winding & PM-Assisted Synchronous Reluctance Motors for Class IV Electric Vehicles, with the attendees. He first introduced three 100KW motors which have been considered for a Class IV step van electric vehicle application, a fractional-slot concentrated winding machine (FSCW) and two permanent magnet-assisted synchronous reluctance machines (PMa SynRMs), and made comparative analysis on the electromagnetic, thermal, demagnetization and acoustic performances of the three motors. He then discussed the advantages and disadvantages of the machines with respect to their application for Class IV vehicles. Finally, he shared the key points for further research.
In the final Q&A, the participating teachers and students discussed with Dr. David Lowther about the structure of the motor, the efficiency characteristics and further research proposed in the presentation. Later, Prof. Huang Xiaoyan led Dr. David Lowther and others to visit related laboratories and they also conducted further exchanges in research cooperation.
About the speaker:
Dr. David Lowther is a co-founder (together with the late Professor Peter Silvester and Professor Ernest Freeman) and the president of Infolytica Corporation. He serves as both its Chief Financial Officer and Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Lowther’s expertise is related to the design and analysis of low frequency electromagnetic devices and systems and he has been involved in this area for almost 40 years. He has published in excess of 300 papers in this area and, together with Professor Silvester, he co-wrote one of the first books on CAD in Magnetics in 1986. In his work with Infolytica since its creation in 1978, he has directed both the development of the MagNet suite of analysis software and, more recently, the creation of the MotorSolve design tool. Dr. Lowther received his Ph.D. degree in 1973 from the C.N.A.A. in the United Kingdom for research related to the design of linear induction motors, and then moved to Imperial College, London before finally taking up an academic post at McGill University in 1979, where he is currently a James McGill professor of electrical engineering. Dr. Lowther is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE); a member of the Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario (APEO); a Chartered Engineer in the United Kingdom; a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (Formerly the Institution of Electrical Engineers); and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering. He is a founding member of the International Compumag Society and is currently the Vice-President for the Americas and a member of the Americas Regional Board of the IET. He is also on the editorial board of the COMPEL journal and is its North American editor as well as being on the editorial boards of several major conference series including Compumag and CEFC.
