Better design should improve energy efficiency

The Chair of this year's international conference on electromagnetics will warn next week that the amount of energy lost from UK power devices will remain high if the industry does not design better products.

According to Professor Jan Sykulski of ECS-Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, at the moment the total energy loss associated just with transmission of electricity in one day in the UK is the equivalent of three nuclear explosions of the Nagasaki Bomb.

Speaking at the opening session of CEM 2011(the 8th international Conference on Computation in Electromagnetics) on Tuesday 12 April, Professor Sykulski will argue that electromechanical and electromagnetic communities need to use better design tools and modern simulation techniques to produce products that are more efficient and competitive.

"Modelling and simulation of electromagnetic fields is an integral part of the vast majority of devices, including everyday items such as computers and mobile phones," he said. "Whether they are big or on the nanoscale, the same principles apply."

Professor Sykulski also claims that despite the wide reach of electromagnetics and the very real need for more efficiency, the industry is slow to subscribe to this need. This year's CEM will bring together the three key communities in this field: power engineering, antennas and propagation, and electromagnetic compatibility and hazards.

"I am excited about these three communities coming together for the first time in this way," said Professor Sykulski. "It is helpful for them to talk to each other, exchange experiences and to see the benefits of better, more efficient examples."

CEM 2011 – an international conference organised by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) – will take place in Wroclaw, Poland from 11-14 April 2011.

Professor Sykulski is Chair of CEM for the third time this year; he has just been appointed Editor of IEEE Transactions on Magnetics and has been General Secretary of the International Compumag Society since 1993.

-- For more information contact Joyce Lewis; tel.023 8059 5453.