Nasser Kutkut
“Power Conversion for IIoT Applications: Design Considerations and Challenges”
Nasser Kutkut received the B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan, in 1989, the M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Chicago, in 1990, the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering and the M.B.A. degree in management and entrepreneurship, both from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, in 1995 and 2001, respectively, and the Doctorate in Business Administration in entrepreneurship and marketing from Grenoble Ecole de Management, Grenoble, France, in 2013. Between 1995 and 1998, he was a Senior Scientist with Soft Switching Technologies, Middleton, WI, USA, where he was involved in the design and development of power electronic converters and systems. Between 1998 and 2008, he was the founder and CEO of Power Designers, LLC, in Madison, WI, USA, where he successfully developed and commercialized a line of advanced high frequency and high efficiency fast and opportunity chargers and battery monitors for the industrial motive power battery market. Between 2008 and 2015, he was with the University of Central Florida where he was a Lecturer at the Department of Management, College of Business. Between 2015 and 2019, he was partner and CTO of Advanced Charging Technologies in Orlando, FL, where he led the development of the industry’s first line of industrial IoT battery chargers and battery monitors. Since 2017, he has been the founder and CEO of Smart Charging Technologies LLC in Orlando, FL, a high-tech firm specializing in innovative IoT energy management solutions and energy management services.
Dr. Kutkut is a serial entrepreneur and has more than 25 years of technology leadership and management experience developing and commercializing innovative battery management technologies for motive and stationary power battery markets. He has a wide array of business expertise in the areas business start-ups, sales and marketing strategy development, technology and product development, as well as extensive technical expertise in the areas of renewable energy power systems, battery charging and monitoring technologies for motive power applications. He is a holder of 23 issued U.S. and international patents and has published more than 80 papers in leading technical and trade journals.
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), often referred to as Industry 4.0, refers to the fourth industrial revolution of connected products, machines, services and humans through the cloud. The emerging 5G network is rapidly improving the performance of connected devices and is further driving rapid growth of IIoT applications. This rapid growth of IIoT applications is increasing the need for smarter and more flexible power conversion systems (AC/DC, DC/DC, and DC/AC). Traditional power converters designed and optimized for static applications with preset load conditions can no longer serve the needs of ever changing IIoT needs.
The design of power conversion systems for IIoT applications requires a radical change in design thinking to meet the growing and everchanging needs of IIoT load demands. A combination of cloud intelligence, continuous monitoring, and remote command and control will allow for data logging and aggregation exposing historical faults and transient events and allowing for real time parameters’ adjustments to maximize production capacity and efficiency on-the-fly.
To achieve that, various design considerations need to be considered including design modularity, redundancy, and flexibility, digital controls with wireless communication, over the air (OTA) firmware updates to continuously improve operation and controls, fault monitoring and diagnostics, as well as cloud integration for real time remote monitoring and parameter adjustments.
