High-performance electric vehicles require motor drives that are compact, lightweight, and highly efficient, particularly in motorsport environments such as Formula SAE, where packaging constraints and vehicle mass significantly affect performance. Current commercial high-performance inverters are often costly and not fully optimised for student-built vehicles.
This project will provide research experience in the conceptual design and modelling of a high-power-density 30 kW PMSM motor controller, targeting improved efficiency, reduced weight, and compact integration compared with existing solutions. The student will investigate SiC-based switching technologies suitable for operation up to 600 VDC, advanced DC-link capacitor configurations, thermal management strategies, and mechanical integration requirements to ensure robustness under vibration and acceleration.
The student will work closely with a team of HDR (PhD) students and researchers in power electronics and electric drives, gaining exposure to research methods, modelling tools, and system-level design approaches. The outcome will be a research-informed conceptual inverter architecture and comparative performance analysis that can inform future high-performance EV powertrain development.
School
Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications
Research Area
Power electronics | Electric drives | Electric vehicles | Wide-bandgap devices (SiC) | Thermal and multiphysics design
Suitable for recognition of Work Integrated Learning (industrial training)?
No
- Research environment
- Expected outcomes
- Supervisory team
- Reference material/links
The student will work in the UNSW Electric Drive Lab in the School of EE&T, alongside HDR students and researchers specialising in power electronics and electric drives. The lab provides electric-drive dynamometer test facilities with HBM torque transducers (up to 200 Nm) and a high-speed torque transducer (up to 120,000 rpm) to evaluate drive system performance. High-power, high-speed inverters and dSPACE MicroLabBox controllers enable rapid control prototyping and testing of motor control algorithms. The student will also use high-bandwidth measurement equipment and digital oscilloscopes to analyse switching behaviour and system dynamics. A three-phase power supply with protection systems ensures safe testing of high-power electric drive prototypes.
- A conceptual design of a compact, high-efficiency 30 kW PMSM motor controller supported by modelling and comparative analysis.
- The student will gain experience in power electronics and electric drive research while producing documented design insights to inform future high-performance EV inverter development.
