Geoff Walker

Name : Dr Geoffrey R. Walker
Office : Rm 403, Axon Building (47-403).
Email : walkerg@itee.uq.edu.au
Phone : +61 7 3365 3573
FAX : +61 7 3365 4999
Address : School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering ,

Lecturing

ENGG1000 Project P10 - Reliable Power Supply -- first year project run within ENGG1000
ENGG2800 / ENGG3800 "Team Project I & II" -- second and third year core courses for all engineering streams offered by ITEE. Co-ordinating with support from ZhouYang Dong (2800) and Jon Whitty (3800).
ELEC4400 "Advanced Electronic and Power Electronics Design" -- a fourth level electronics course encompassing power and industrial electronics.
My Thesis topics offered for 2007 can be found on the project database page. For historical interest, you will find past thesis topics I have offered along with the actual theses at Innovation Expo.
I have in past years also lectured ELEC2003, ELEC3300 and ELEC3400 amongst others.

Research

My PhD "The Modulation and Control of Multilevel Converters", was awarded in Dec 1999. Its abstract, table of contents, and complete pdf can be found on my publications links page.

My publications bibliography along with abstracts, and where possible, full papers is also on my publications page. I have also created a separate publications list.

My research directions -- and some musings. Briefly, I am interested in modulation, multilevel converters, machines, electric vehicles, solar (PV) power and other renewables, batteries, digital audio and pro-audio, etc, etc...

Sustainable Energy Research Group (SERG)

I am the key academic involved in the Sustainable Energy Research Group, SERG, at the University of Queensland. Formation of this innovative research group occurred when core members of the highly successful UQ SunShark Solar Racing Team commenced postgraduate research study within the School of ITEE.

Our flagship project is the UltraCommuter, a sustainable commuter vehicle for Australia utilizing the advanced technology from the groups Solar racing heritage.

PhD students and their research projects

I am currently supervising six postgraduate students. The one line topic summaries are my own, and obviously cannot accurately describe the detail of their theses. Links to their own pages will provide more detail. You can find pictures, contact details, and perhaps more info on the SERG people page.

Andrew Simpson, started PhD Feb 2000 and graduated in Mar 2005. He did a lot of work examining the underlying methodology behind Well-to-Wheel analysis, especially as it applies to electric and hybrid electric vehicles. His PhD was about a method for Parametric Analytical Modelling of Vehicle Energy Consumption, and the PAMVEC tool was a result. This tool is free to download, as is his PhD Thesis: Parametric Modelling Of Energy Consumption In Road Vehicles. After working for a period at NREL in Denver, Colorado, USA, he is currently working for Tesla Motors, in California.
David Finn, started PhD Feb 2001 and graduated in Dec 2005, looking at the integrated design of power converters for electric and hybrid electric vehicles. His PhD thesis title is "A Variable Inductance, Zero Voltage Switched (ZVS) Multilevel Topology for Automotive Drives". David is now working full time in his company, Tritium, but maintains his ties with UQ.
Matthew Greaves, started PhD Mar 2000, looking at electric machines, in particular wheel motors. He is currently working for Hydrexia while he completes his PhD. He is a founding owner and partner of a mechanical engineering consulting and manufacturing company GWG Creative Engineering along with Bernie Walsh and Ben Guymer, all ex SunShark solar car team members.
Paul Sernia, started PhD Feb 2001, looking at multilevel converter control to interface battery / solar / fuel cell sources. His topic then narrowed to "Random Modulation in Multilevel Converters for Distributed Generation Applications". Paul was awarded his PhD in June 2006, "Random Phase and Frequency in Multilevel Power Converters". Paul is currently working for UniQuest as a technology analyst. Paul is also a member of Tritium.
Justin Bray, started PhD Feb 2001, looking at X-by-wire, especially as it applies to braking and vehicle control.
Larry Weng, started Masters Feb 2002, undertaking the mechanical, control and data acquisition system design for a regenerative dyno. He has since changed to a PhD on a different topic under a different supervisor, but remains in touch with SERG.
Jordan Pierce, started Masters Feb 2004, on Multilevel converters, continuing research begun by David Finn. In 2007 he upgraded to a PhD. He is currently enrolled part time as he works for Hydrexia.
Mark Croft, started Masters Feb 2004, completing the mechanical, control and data acquisition system design for a regenerative dyno. A novel extension of his work is to achieve sensor-less torque measurement using . He is co-supervised by Geir Hovland.

AUPEC Archives

The Australasian Universities Power Engineering Conference, AUPEC, is our locally hosted, international conference. I am a keen supporter of this conference as a means of supporting our regions' researchers in academia and industry, and getting them together!

As a resource to all, I am populating and maintaining the AUPEC Archives. You'll find all the conference papers for the last several years of AUPEC freely available (and more to come).

I did once have Interests beyond my work 8-).

Geoff Walker / School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering / walkerg@itee.uq.edu.au / Updated Jan 2006