Purdue ECE PhD student earns best presentation award at IEEE APEC 2026
Purdue ECE PhD student earns best presentation award at IEEE APEC 2026
Junghoon Kim, a PhD student in Purdue University’s Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, received a best presentation award at the 2026 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC 2026).
Kim’s presentation, “Active Gate Drive with Optical Communication and Integrated Power and Signal Systems in Series Connected SiC MOSFETs,” focused on a new way to help high-power electronic systems work more efficiently and reliably.
“I’m honored to receive this award at APEC,” Kim said. “It was exciting to share our results with researchers and industry leaders in power electronics.”
Kim’s research uses light to send power and control signals to semiconductor devices in a converter. The system also monitors how those devices are performing and makes quick adjustments to keep them working evenly. That can reduce energy loss and improve reliability.
Simulation results showed the approach significantly reduced voltage imbalance among the connected devices.
Kim is a student of Woongkul Matt Lee, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
APEC brings together power electronics experts from around the world to share the latest developments in research and technology.