Eduardo Ortiz Rivera

Presentations: 

The UPRM’s Experience in Renewable Energy Systems to Improve STEM Education, Diversity, and Community Involvement

This work presents the UPRM’s experience doing research and educational works on renewable energy systems with Grid Forming Inverters (GFMI) and other power electronics technologies as part of the UNIFI and CHRES Consortiums. One discussion will be the role of GFMIs from the perspective of undergraduate electrical engineering research in power systems education. Additional power electronics examples will present the students’ experience of understanding the theoretical background while simultaneously performing simulations and experiments to enrich their learning experience. Finally, research on renewable energy systems could help increase and attract females, develop novel K-12 educational outreach programs, create interdisciplinary research areas with other departments, and involvement with the local community of Puerto Rico on projects related to energy systems. This talk will present part of the research works developed at UPRM as part of the UNIFI and CHRES Consortiums and other initiatives like IEEE WPR, IWAS, NIFA, etc.

Understanding the History of Fuel Cells, Applications on Power Systems, and More!

Fuel cells are one of the critical enabling technologies for the future hydrogen economy. For the last 25 years, fuel cell applications have mostly replaced internal combustion engines and provided power in stationary and portable applications. But the history of fuel cells is more than the last Twenty-five years; actually, it has been more than 175 years! This seminar aims to present fuel cell development across time, potential applications in power systems, and some research works applied to power electronics.

The seminar discusses the typical characteristics and electrochemical reactions of a fuel cell. Also, this talk presents the basic concepts and applications for the six main types of fuel cell technologies. Finally, the seminar introduces concepts and history related to fuel cells, a UPRM’s developed mathematical model of a fuel cell for power systems applications, and its applications using power electronics. This seminar will benefit students, history, and professional engineers who have yet to gain previous knowledge of the technical fields related to fuel cells.

Effects, Destruction and Damages of Hurricanes in the Electrical System of Puerto Rico

This seminar discusses the effects of hurricanes on the electrical system of Puerto Rico. Hurricanes can cause physical damage to infrastructure, flooding, and high winds, leading to prolonged power outages and other related problems. The destruction and damages caused by hurricanes can severely impact the population, including loss of power, economic disruption, and risks to public safety. It is crucial to have robust disaster preparedness plans in place to mitigate the impact of hurricanes on the electrical system and ensure that power is restored as quickly as possible. Finally, this seminar will discuss the different research and academic initiatives led by the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez to mitigate the effects of hurricanes in Puerto Rico.