Professor Barrie Mecrow
Professor of Electrical Power

Introduction

I have been a member of the Power Electronics, Drives and Machines group at the University of Newcastle since 1987 and was awarded a chair in 1998.
Before commencing upon my academic career I was a design engineer at NEI Parsons, who manufacture turbine generators.

Roles and Responsibilities

Head of School

Head of Machines and Drives - Power Electronics and Drives group

Research Interests

My main research interests lie in novel electrical machines and power electronic controllers. I have a particular interest in novel forms of switched reluctance machine and have pioneered work on SRMs with fully pitched windings and SRMs with segmental rotors.
I have led much of the novel work on fault tolerant electrical machines and drives for safety critical systems. In this work we are increasing system reliability through redundancy and fault tolerance within the electrical machine and power electronic converter. Most of this work is conducted in collaboration with Aerospace companies.

Other Expertise

Electromagnetic analysis

Current Work

Current research ranges from entirely blue sky work, funded by EPSRC, in which we are researching speculative low cost electrical drives and machines, though to exciting applied research in which we are working closely with industry to produce new, novel electrical systems. Challenges range from cost driven elements in consumer products through to reliability issues in aerospace drives. However, the development and introduction of new technology is equally essential in all cases.

Research Roles

Director of Research for the School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering.

Postgraduate Supervision

I am main supervisor of the following:

PhD student:
Tuncay Celik (segmental switched reluctance drives)
Engineering Doctorate students:
Glynn Atkinson (Goodrich)
Mark Leaver (Black and Decker)
Bob Argile (Goodrich)

I am also involved in the supervision of

Ulrike Hoefer (BOC Edwards)
Steve Borman (FR HiTemp)

Esteem Indicators

Paper prizes awarded from the IEE and IEEE for reluctance motor and fault tolerant research.

I am Chairman of the IEE Professional Network on Power Conversion and Applications and chair the steering group of the IEE International Conference on Power Electronics, Machines and Drives. (PEMD)

I hold a number of patents in the field of electrical machines.

I have been external examiner of PhDs throughout the UK and have recently completed examinations at the Technical Uiniversity of Delft, and at KTH, Stockholm.

I have been undergraduate course external examiner at the Univerity of Loughborough and currently fill a similar role at the Robert Gordon institute Aberdeen.

Funding

We receive funding from a range of sources, including EPSRC, who have awarded us a platform grant on low cost drives, the DTI through Aerospace initiatives and a huge range of industrial companies.

Projects

Undergraduate Teaching

I teach undergraduate courses as follows:

Stage 1: Electromagnetic Devices
Stage IV Design of Machines and Drives

I also have involvement in the delivery of material on Project Management and the project undertaken in Stage 2.

Postgraduate Teaching

MSC course on Design of Machines and Drives