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High Voltage Engineering: A Supplemental Component for an Undergraduate Electrical Engineering Curriculum

Hassan El-Kishky, MIEEE Department of Electrical Engineering The University of Texas at Tyler 3900 University Blvd. Tyler, TX 75799

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Inadequate preparation of electrical engineering graduates in the area of electric power and high voltage engineering is a major concern of the power industry. This paper highlights the problem and proposes a new undergraduate electrical engineering curriculum with balanced emphasis on major areas in the practice of electrical engineering. The problem has its roots in the universities. Loading undergraduate curriculum with many general education courses at the expense of more specialized engineering courses is a major factor contributing to the problem. This in turn limits the amount of course offerings in the area of electric power engineering and completely removes high voltage engineering from the map. Moreover, reducing the credit requirements of an undergraduate engineering degree to match that for a B.S. or a B.A. in liberal arts is another major factor that contributes to the problem. Finally, the telecommunication and information technology explosion has pushed many schools into completely washing away their electric power component, while other schools trimmed their power engineering offerings to a below minimum level. Yet, high voltage engineering and technology is still virtually out of the picture in an undergraduate electrical engineering curriculum. A new undergraduate electrical engineering curriculum with a comprehensive electric power and high voltage engineering components is proposed. In addition to the more common electromechanical energy conversion, power system analysis and control, and power electronics, basic knowledge of the fundamentals of the high voltage phenomena, high voltage generation, testing and measurement, dielectrics and electrical insulation as well as electric power equipment simulation, modeling, and design are believed to be necessary items in the electrical engineering package.

1. Introduction

Deregulation of the power industry has placed significant pressure on both energy utilities and power equipment manufacturers to enhance their functionality and reliability in order to stay competitive. One of the goals of the power industry in this new era of open energy market is to attract electrical engineering graduates with adequate background in the area electrical power and high voltage engineering. Yet, one of the challenges for the power industry is inadequate preparation of the electrical engineering graduates in electrical power engineering in general and in the area of high voltage engineering in particular. In the area of electric power distribution, the shortage of electrical engineers seems to be passing a critical point [1]. There is no apparent

Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2002, American Society for Engineering Education

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ElKishky, H. (2002, June), High Voltage Engineering: A Supplemental Component For An Undergraduate Electrical Engineering Curriculum Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--10819