Interactive Java applets for power electronics E-learning

Abstract

Due to the high nonlinearity and the mathematical complexity of power electronics circuits, their analysis has become more infeasible to describe. Power Electronics Education is a daunting, challenging task and many undergraduate students find it very difficult to grasp the basic concepts of many power electronics circuits and understand their physical and operational modes. In this paper, an interactive power electronics teaching Web site is proposed and, three main Web pages are developed for students, instructors and interactive Java Applets. Interactive online materials are posted for both students and instructors including lecture nodes, simulation problems, examples and exercises, textbook presentations, and online exams. A feedback form is used to get the input of students and instructors on the Web site. Interactive applets are developed for 29 power electronics circuits to help students better understand the circuit behavior under certain circuit parameters variations. Exact steady state waveforms are plotted with flexibility to have students change different circuit parameters and observe the circuit response in an interactive manner. This project represents the first phase in the development of interactive sites in power electronics education. The current Web site is located at www.batarseh.org. Phase two will focus on closed loop response and dynamic modeling, and phase three will emphasize on the system design of power electronic circuits.