B.Sc. (Eng.) (Ghana), M.Sc., PhD (Toronto), FEC, P. Eng. (Retired)

• Professor Emeritus

Contact Information

Ph: 709-864-4828
Em: jquaicoe@mun.ca
Office: CSF4114

Expertise

• Power Electronics
• Renewable Energy Systems
• Wireless Power Transfer

Research Interests

power electronics: control/switching strategies and topologies for power converters; high-frequency soft switching power conversion techniques; renewable energy generation systems; voltage and harmonic compensation; active filters; power quality; high-frequency power supplies;

Personal Profile

I completed my undergraduate degree in electrical engineering at the University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana and attended the University of Toronto where I obtained the M.Sc. and PhD degrees in electrical engineering in the area of power electronics. Following a one-year post-doctoral position at the University of Toronto, I joined Memorial University of Newfoundland in September 1982. I was the chair of the electrical engineering discipline from 1990 to 1999, associate dean of undergraduate studies from Sept. 2002 to Aug. 2008 and dean pro tempore from September 2008 to June 2011.

My undergraduate teaching activities were in the subject areas of electric circuit analysis, electronic circuit analysis and design, power electronics, and energy systems. I also taught graduate courses in power electronic systems, including modeling, analysis, control, and design of power converters for various applications.

My research activities focused on the development of control/switching strategies and topologies for renewable energy systems, including fuel-cell, wind energy, and tidal energy generation systems, as well as soft-switching techniques for high-frequency applications including wireless power transfer. My research was carried out with undergraduate and graduate students in an atmosphere that encouraged continuous interactions among the group members and fostered the development of innovative techniques and generation of new ideas.

Honours/Awards/Accreditation

• Dean's Award for Outstanding Academic Service, 2018
• Fellow of Engineers Canada, June 2011
• IEEE Canada Outstanding Educator Medal, 2002
• President's Award for Distinguished Teaching, 2001-2002
• IEEE Eastern Canada Council Merit Award of IEEE Canada, 1993
• Published over 85 articles in refereed journals and international conference proceedings
• Published over 52 articles in non-refereed regional and national conference proceedings

Research Highlights

The focus of my research for a number of years has been the development of alternative control strategies for inverters in uninterruptible power supply and utility interface applications. A major contribution of the work was the successful development of a novel multi-loop, current controlled voltage regulated PWM scheme for dc-ac voltage source inverters, derived from small-signal models of the controllers, the output low-pass filter and the power converter. The work on the control scheme was one of the first systematic approaches to deriving a unified model of the controller and the power converter. It resulted in a number of publications, including an IEEE Transaction publication, which has made a significant contribution to the control of inverters and influenced research activities in inverter control.