Professor Udaya K Madawala

BE (Hons), PhD

Professor

In: Department of Electrical, Computer and Software Engineering » Faculty of Engineering

Research | Current

Power electronics is my main field of research. Within this discipline, I have been working on various development and research projects in relation to bidirectional wireless power transfer (WPT), grid integration of renewable energy sources, permanent magnet motor/generator design and control and power converters. At present, I am focusing on bi-directional wireless charging of electric vehicles (EVs) for V2G applications, wired and wireless rapid charging of electric ferries (EFs), high power converters, energy management and mitigating the impacts of EV charging on the grid.

Google Scholar: Index and Citations

ResearchGate: Index and Citations

Research opportunities:

Funding is available for a number of interesting industry projects, related to wireless EV charging, impact of EVs and V2G applications on the grid and PMS motor drives. Priority will be given to applicants who have research experience and own funding.
You may contact me directly

Teaching | Current

Over the years, I have taught numerous courses, covering a wide range of topics. These include electronic design, fundamentals of electricity, electro-magnetics, electric machines, power systems, advanced power systems, power electronics and heavy current electronics. At present, I teach power electronics and energy systems.

Postgraduate supervision

James Scoltock
Baljit Riar
Samitha Ransara
Saranga Weerasinghe
Hameed Reza
Yuan Song
Steven Ruddel
Patrin Illenberger
Zhijia Wang
Su Zhang
Lei Zaho

Distinctions/Honours

Fellow IEEE
Distinguished Lecturer, IEEE Power Electronics Society

Responsibilities

In the past, I have served as the Director of Teaching & Learning in the Department, Member of the Faculty of Engineering Staffing Committee, and as the Associate Dean (International) for Faculty of Engineering. I now serve as Deputy Head of Department ( Research) and Member of the University Disciplinary Committee.

Areas of expertise

Power Electronics, Renewable Energy, Wireless (Inductive) Power Transfer, Permanent Magnet Motor Drives, High Power Converters, Battery Charging, V2G Systems

Committees/Professional groups/Services

Professional affiliations

Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics
Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics

Keynote Speaker, 8th IEEE International Conference on Power & Energy, ICPES 2018, Sri Lanka

Keynote Speaker, 4th IEEE Southern Power Electronics Conference SPEC 2018, Singapore

Keynote Speaker, International Conference on Sustainable Energy Engineering Perth, Australia, 2017

Keynote Speaker, The 3rd International Conference on Renewable Energy Technologies (ICRET), Thailand, 2017

General Chairman, IEEE Southern Power Electronics Conference SPEC 2018 & 2016, Singapore & New Zealand

Keynote Speaker, IEEE International Conference on Power and Renewable Energy, China, 2016

Selected publications and creative works (Research Outputs)

Zhao, L., Thrimawithana, D. J., Madawala, U. K., Hu, P., & Mi, C. C. (2018). A Misalignment Tolerant Series-hybrid Wireless EV Charging System with Integrated Magnetics. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 1-1. 10.1109/TPEL.2018.2828841
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Aiguo Patrick Hu, Lei Zhao
Tang, Y., Chen, Y., Madawala, U. K., Thrimawithana, D. J., & Ma, H. (2018). A new controller for bi-directional wireless power transfer systems. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics10.1109/TPEL.2017.2785365
Zhao, L., Thrimawithana, D. J., & Madawala, U. K. (2017). Hybrid bidirectional wireless EV charging system tolerant to pad misalignment. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 64 (9), 7079-7086. 10.1109/TIE.2017.2686301
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Lei Zhao, Duleepa Thrimawithana
Illenberger, P., Takagi, K., Kojima, H., Madawala, U. K., & Anderson, I. A. (2017). A mathematical model for self-priming circuits: Getting the most from a dielectric elastomer generator. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 32 (9), 6904-6912. 10.1109/TPEL.2016.2627046
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Iain Anderson
Weerasinghe, S., Madawala, U. K., & Thrimawithana, D. J. (2017). A matrix converter-based bidirectional contactless grid interface. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 32 (3), 1755-1766. 10.1109/TPEL.2016.2557963
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Duleepa Thrimawithana
Riar, B. S., Scoltock, J., & Madawala, U. K. (2017). Model Predictive Direct Slope Control for Power Converters. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 32 (3), 2278-2289. 10.1109/TPEL.2016.2558523
Madawala, U. K., & Thrimawithana, J. T. (2017). Inductive power transfer converters and system. EP3130070 A1 Related URL.
Madawala, U. K., Thrimawithana, D. J., NEUBURGER, M., Riar, B., Ruddell, S., & Kalra, G. (2017). An integrated multi-source IPT system. WO/2017/014648 Related URL.
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Duleepa Thrimawithana, Steven Ruddell