The development of a new core electrical engineering course in energy processing systems: a work in progress

The National Science Foundation and the Electric Power Research Institute have awarded six grants to seven universities as part of the Innovations in Electric Power Education Initiative. As part of this initiative, the authors are developing a new introductory course in energy processing systems that they hope will be a model for other universities to adopt. The course looks at all aspects of electric energy production, transmission and distribution and utilization. It introduces technical concepts as well as explains business, economic, regulatory, environmental and historical issues. The authors attempt to give the students the big picture, how electric energy affects their lives and the world around them. The idea is to create a course which all electrical engineers will find relevant, and thus EE departments throughout the USA can be justified in using all or part of the material they develop for a required course in electric energy.