nical Committee on Education in Engi- neering and Industrial Technologies of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society. (please visit http://www.uninova.pt/.
Book News by Marian P. Kazmierkowski
Remote Labs and Comprehensive Handbooks Advances on Remote Laboratories and e-Learning Experiences Edited by Luís Gomes and Javier García-Zubía.
Advances on Remote Laboratories and e-Learning Experiences presents an overview of experiences related to remote laboratory usage for teaching and learning processes. This book was written by a group of authors under the supervision of editors Luís Gomes and Javier García-Zubía. Gomes organized a very successful special section in the December 2007 issue of IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics. Moreover, he is the chair of the Technical Committee on Education in Engineering and Industrial Technologies of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (please visit http://www.uninova.pt/ gres/iestcedu/) and vice president for Workshops in the same Society. The book covers many topics related to remote laboratories which have the potential to drastically change the economics of the lab experience in science and engineering education. The book is organized into five sections. Section I is titled “Remote Labs: Past and Future.” It includes Chapter 1: “Large and Small Scale Networks of Remote Labs: A Survey” by Gustavo R. Alves, Manuel G. Gericota, Juarez B. Silva, and Joao Bosco Alves and Chapter 2: “Collaborative Remote LaboDigital Object Identifier 10.1109/MIE.2008.924851
by Giuliano Donzellini and Domenico ratories in Engineering Education: ChalPonta; and Chapter 11: “A New Concept lenges and Visions” by Dieter Muller and for Distributed Laboratories Based on Heinz-H. Erbe. Section II is titled “Remote Open Source Technologies” by Ingvar Labs Impact Within the Learning ProGustavsson, Johan Zackrisson, and cess.” It includes Chapter 3: “CompetencLars Hakansson. Section V is titled es, Remote Labs and Bologna Process” “New Challenges.” It includes Chapter by Cornelia Samoila, Stelian G. Cosh, and 12: “A Configurable Remote Laboratory Doru Ursutiu and Chapter 4: “Assessing efor the Flexible Setup of Experiments in Learning in Web Labs” by Helena Matute Electronics” by Andrea Bagnasco, Gianand Miguel A. Vadillo. carlo Parodi, and Anna Marina ScapolSection III is titled “Remote Labs Dela; Chapter 13: “Toolkit for Distributed velopment Issues.” It includes Chapter Online-Lab Grids” by Michael E. Auer 5: “Issues in WebLab Development: Seand Andreas Pester; and Chapter 14: curity, Accessibility, Collaboration and “A Proposal to Integrate Mixed Reality Multilinguality” by Javier Oliver, Joseba Remote Experiments into Abaitua, JosuKa Diaz, Virtual Learning EnvironInes Jacob, David Bujan, ments Using InterchangePablo Garaizar, and Lui The book able Components” by FredLazaro; Chapter 6: “Re- covers many erico M. Schaf and Carlos mote Laboratories from topics related Eduardo Pereira. the Software Engineering to remote As correctly pointed Point of View” by Javier laboratories out by Jesús A. del Alamo Garcia-Zubia, Pablo Orduof MIT: “…remote laborana, Diego Lopez-de-Ipina, which have tories have many unique Unai Hernandez, and Ivan the potential advantages: higher availTrueba; and Chapter 7: to drastically ability of lab equipment “Graphical Programming change the and Remote Controlled economics of the (i.e., a 24/7 basis), more efficient use of time of Laboratories” by Doru lab experience students and teachers, Ursutiu, Petru Cotfas, sharing of hardware and Cornel Samoila. Sec- in science and and educational content tion IV is titled “Remote engineering across institutions on Labs in Use.” It includes education. a worldwide scale, enChapter 8 : “Teaching, couragement of independent work Learning, and Remote Laboratories” by the students, etc. However, there by Luis Gomes, Fernando Coito, Aniko are not only opportunities but also Costa, and Luis Brito Palma; Chapter challenges: technological (Can we 9: “Proposal of Equipment for Practicome up with a software framework cal Teaching in Control Engineering: for developing reliable and educaExtension to Remote Laboratories” by tionally meaningful labs quickly and Juan Jose Gude and Evaristo Kahoraho; cheaply?), educational (Can we realChapter 10: “The Electronic Laboratoly quantify the educational benefits ry: Traditional, Simulated or Remote?”
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of remote laboratory experiences?), management (Can remote laboratories be easily managed if used in a large scale across the Internet?), accessibility (Should accessibility of remote laboratories be enforced, in attention to people with special needs? How to deal with access from developing countries where bandwidth is scarce and compute access is limited?), security (Do remote laboratories pose security problems, such as open ports, plug-ins, etc?), web 2.0 (Can remote laboratories be developed as simple Web services?), collaborative work (Do remote laboratories promote or support collaborative work? Is remote tutoring possible?), etc. Besides these opportunities and challenges, there are several actors involved in remote laboratories (students, teachers, researchers, in stitutions, foundations, companies, countries, etc.), which increases the overall complexity of designing, implementing, and sustaining a remote laboratory. These are some of the questions that remote laboratories bring up for our consideration if we want to really take advantage of their unique educational possibilities.” I strongly recommend this text for its comprehensive view of the potential of e-learning and usage of remote laboratories backed by well-documented experiences of an international group of specialists in the field. —By Marco Liserre
Handbook of Automotive Power Electronics and Motor Drives Edited by Ali Emadi, CRC Taylor & Francis, 2006, Hardcover, 704 pages, ISBN10: 0-8247-2361-9, ISBN- 13: 978-0-8247-2361-3.
Handbook of Automotive Power Electronics and Motor Drives appeared in CRC Press’ Electrical and Computer Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MIE.2008.926483
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Engineering with Marlin O. Thurston from the Ohio State University as founding editor. The book contains 31 chapters, each contributed by specialists from different countries in Europe, Asia, and the United States under the editorship of Prof. Ali Emadi, Illinois Institute of Technology. The handbook is a comprehensive reference of automotive electrical systems for engineers, students, and researchers who are interested in automotiverelated industry and technology. The handbook is organized into five parts, with 31 chapters. Part I is titled “Automotive Power Systems.” It includes Chapter 1: “Conventional Cars” by R. Giral-Castillon, L. Martines-Salamero, and J. Maixe-Altes (University Rovira I Virgili, Spain); Chapter 2: “Hybrid Electric Vehicles” by J.M. Miller (J-N-J Miller Design service, Cedar, Michigan); Chapter 3: “Hybrid Drivetrains” by M. Eshani and Y. Gao (Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas); Chapter 4: “Electrical Vehicles” by R.C. Bansal (Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India); and Chapter 5: “Optimal Power Management and Distribution in Automotive Systems” by Z.J. Shen (University of Central Florida, Orlando). Part II is titled “Automotive Semiconductor Devices, Components, and Sensors.” It consists of Chapter 6: “Automotive Power Semiconductor Devices” by Z.J. Shen (University of Central Florida, Orlando); Chapter 7: “Ultracapacitors” by J.M. Miller (J-N-J Miller Design service, Cedar, Michigan); Chapter 8: “Flywheels” by J.M. Miller (J-N-J Miller Design service, Cedar, Michigan); Chapter 9: “ESD Protection for Automotive Electronics” by A.Z.H. Wang (Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois); and Chapter 10: “Sensors” by M.M. Canteli (University of Cantabria, Cantabria, Spain). Part III is titled “Automotive Power Electronic Converters.” It consists of Chapter 11: “DC-DC Converters” by J.P. Johnson (Caterpillar Inc., Washington, Illinois); Chapter 12: “AC-DC Rectifiers” by B.-K. Lee (KERI Changwon, South Korea) and Ch-Y. Won, (Sungkyunkwan
IEEE INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE n JUNE 2008
University, Kyung Ki Do, South Korea); Chapter 13: “Unbalanced Operation of Three-Phase Boost Type Rectifiers” by A.V. Stankovic (Cleveland State University, Ohio); Chapter 14: “DC-AC Inverters” by M. Aware (Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur, India); Chapter 15: “AC-AC Converters” by M. Kazerani (University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada); and Chapter 16: “Power Electronics and Control for Hybrid and Fuel Cell Vehicles” by K. Rajashekara (Delphi Corporation, Kokomo, Indiana). Part IV is titled “Automotive Motor Drives.” It consists of Chapter 17: “Brushed—DC Electric Machinery for Automotive Applications” by B. Fahimi (University of Missouri-Rolla, Rolla, Missouri); Chapter 18: “Induction Motor Drives” by K. Nigim (University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada); Chapter 19: “DSP-Based Implementation of Vector Control of Induction Motor Drives” by H. Salehar (University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota); Chapter 20: “Switched Reluctance Motor Drives” by B. Fahimi and Ch. Edrington (University of Missouri-Rolla, Rolla, Missouri); Chapter 21: “Noise and Vibration in SRMs” by W. Cai (Remy International, Inc., Anderson, Indiana) and P. Pillay (Clarkson University, Potsdam, New York); Chapter 22: “Modeling and Parameter Identification of Electric Machinen” by A. Keyhani, W. Lu, and B. Proca (Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio); Chapter 23: “Brushless DC Drives” by J.P. Johnson (Caterpillar Inc., Washington, Illinois); and Chapter 24: “Testing of Electric Motors and Controllers for Electric and Hybrid Electric Vehicles” by S.Ch. Oh (Korea University of Technology and Education, Chungnam, South Korea). Part V is titled “Other Automotive Applications.” It includes Chapter 25: “Integrated Starter Alternator” by W. Cai (Remy International, Inc., Anderson, Indiana); Chapter 26: “Fault Tolerant Adjustable Speed Motor Drives for Automotive Applications” by B. Fahimi (University of MissouriRolla, Rolla, Missouri); Chapter 27: “Automotive Steering Systems” by
