Mackey Wins 3rd Place at Research Symposium

Landon Mackey, a Ph.D. candidate working in the FREEDM Systems Center won third place at the 14th annual Graduate Student Research Symposium.

On March 21, 2019, more than 200 graduate students presented their research posters at the 14th annual Graduate Student Research Symposium. Three winners were chosen from each of eight discipline areas. First place winners received $350; second place winners received $200, and third place winners received $100.

Landon Mackey, a Ph.D. candidate working in the FREEDM Systems Center won third place with his project “Protecting Distributed Renewable Energy Resources with Direct Current Circuit Breakers.” His research involves addressing DC system protection challenges with high speed, high efficiency, medium-voltage DCCB devices, and DC Microgrid protection coordination strategies. In his work, DC system dynamics are explored using advanced computer modeling, simulation, and laboratory experimentation. The discovered DC system characteristics facilitate the design and construction of a new ultra-fast mechanical switch and an advanced solid-state switch control scheme to develop a bidirectional, millisecond-level, hybrid DCCB. It is capable of fault isolation in medium-voltage DC systems in under two milliseconds. This bidirectional, medium-voltage distribution system enables harvesting clean and sustainable energy from the wind, sun, and ocean while promoting a more robust and adaptive infrastructure to ever-changing global energy needs.

Mackey served as a Nuclear Submarine Electrician prior to pursuing a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering while working in the FREEDM Systems Center at NC State. His internships at Ford Motor Company and ABB Corporate Research in Dätwill, Switzerland provided him with hands-on testing and design experience in power electronics.