“My method can bring electrical and mechanical engineers together!”
Interview with Young Drive Experts Award Winner Dr Marco Denk at the 15th CTI Transmission Symposium 2016
“Scientific work and research projects need to be transferred into industrial applications. Conferences like the CTI Symposium are the ideal platform to raise the industry’s interest in our scientific achievements.” This is what last year’s Young Drive Experts Award winner, Dr Marco Denk, said at the CTI Symposium in Berlin.
The Research Associate at Bayreuth University, beat his two fellow finalists in a live presentation at the CTI Symposium 2016 in Berlin presenting his doctorate entitled ’In Situ Monitoring of IGBT Performance Semiconductor Modules using Real-Time Rectifier Temperature Readings’.
As in 2015, the final was held in the Pecha Kucha format. The three contestants – Marco Denk, Harald Kraus and Markus Bachinger – had to speak for exactly twenty seconds on each of the ten slides in their presentation; the candidate who got the loudest applause won. Dr Marco Denk, a Research Associate at Bayreuth University, was first past the post with his doctorate entitled ’In Situ Monitoring of IGBT Performance Semiconductor Modules using Real-Time Rectifier Temperature Readings’.
Junction temperatures are a key parameter in power semiconductor modules and also in electric drives, so they affect transmission development work too. Marco Denk’s method makes it possible to measure the junction temperature during regular operation. This will reveal useful data from the temperature, such as semiconductor load or health.
CTI: So you’ve developed a technology that could be critical for tomorrow’s electrical mobility. It seems the whole auto industry is now focussed on electromobility, which is a huge change. As a young expert, what do you make of this trend?
Denk: We saw it clearly here at the conference. Almost every presentation included electrical drives in transmissions. My method goes one step further because the junction temperature parameter can bring electrical technology engineers and mechanical engineers together. Both groups want to keep this temperature within a certain range, so this method might solve differences of opinion within companies as well. It’s a very exciting topic that can reconcile engineers from different fields.
CTI: On top of presenting your technology, you also got the chance to present yourself to international experts, using a new presenting technology. How important is that for your future career?
Denk: Very important. There’s a big gap between having successful research, and getting manufacturers to develop it. Conferences like this are the ideal place to bridge that gap. They make it easy to communicate interesting topics to the industry, and I made some interesting contacts here today. The procedure is now completed at our university. We’ve done the research. We know the characteristics and the procedure. Now the spark has to carry across to the industry – and conferences like this are ideal for that.