Course Information ECE 398GG: Electric Vehicles (EVs)

Course Overview

Electric vehicles (EVs) have the potential to drastically reduce the global CO2 footprint to effectively address climate change issues. Massive EV adoption requires the establishment of an EV charging infrastructure (EVCI) to supply the energy needs of EV owners/users. The course examines technical, economic, environmental and policy aspects of EVs and the required EVCI. A basic physics discussion of rolling vehicles serves to determine the power and energy requirements and their implications for energy storage and transfer. The course covers the EV architectures and configurations, as well as the detailed description of the deployment of motors and generators, drives for traction applications, batteries and their management and the EV-grid nexus. The description of the various technologies and approaches deployed in EV design and operations is augmented by the detailed examination of the energy efficiency and environmental benefits of EVs. The application of power electronics to EV charging is accompanied by a detailed examination of the EVCI and its interactions with the existing infrastructures. Throughout the course there is a strong focus on the efficient utilization of energy in an environmentally sensitive manner to emphasize the significant role of EVs and EVCI in the energy transition. Prerequisites: ECE 210 or 205

Topical Outline

Introduction and General Overview: transportation industry’s salient characteristics; key drivers of transportation electrification; historical synopsis of EVs in transportation sectors; energy and environmental issues; global EV deployment and e-mobility; course scope and objectives

Vehicle Dynamics and Energy/Power Requirements: basic physics of rolling vehicles; the forces of gravity, aerodynamic drag, hill climbing and descent, rolling resistance, braking; tractive force determination; the impacts of inertia, acceleration and deceleration; energy and power requirements for vehicle rolling motion and their implications in energy storage and transfer; illustrative examples

Key Considerations in EV Design and Operations: EV size and weight; range implications; vehicle parameters and performance metrics, their range and typical values for various vehicle types; definition and role of drive cycles in performance assessment; performance evaluation

EV Architectures and Configurations: the major EV subsystems – motors, drives, inverters, batteries and energy storage, chargers, sensors and controls; architectural structures and configurations; generator sets and hybrid subsystems

Energy Conservation Principle: the energy invariance principle that underlies all of nature’s processes; illustrative examples; application to “well to wheels” energy tracking

EV Batteries and Their Management: key portable energy requirements beyond rechargeability; key battery components, their roles and characteristics; electrochemical cell as the building block of battery packs – from cells to modules to packs; battery operations phases – charging, discharging and idle; battery features; major figures of merit – capacity, storage capability, efficiency, health, life, energy density, specific power, state of charge (s.o.c.), depth of discharge, voltage/current characterization, temperature and geometry; today’s dominance of Li-ion batteries and their limitations

Basic Principles of, and Design Considerations in, EV Electric Motors and Generators: concepts of electromechanical energy conversion – energy, co-energy, force and torque; review of low-frequency electromagnetics (EM) and EM force calculations of shear stress, machine power density and efficiency; generator application requirements on torque–speed curve, constant power speed range; comparative assessment and equivalent circuits of motor types – induction, surface and internal permanent magnet, switched and synchronous reluctance

Electric Drives for Traction Application in EVs: basic nature and role of electric drives in electro-mechanical energy conversion; fundamentals of electric drives and their operation from an EV perspective; the DC-AC conversion process and approaches to generate controllable AC waveforms; traction inverters and their control with applications to EV acceleration, deceleration and constant speed maintenance

EV Integration into Today’s Grids: the impacts of EV loads on distribution grids; EVs as a deferrable load; EVs as distributed storage resources and the vehicle-to-grid (V2G) concept; role of EV aggregations

EV Energy Efficiency Analysis and Evaluation: the wells-to-wheels reference metric used for internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs); cumulative impacts of the constituent efficiencies – electricity generation efficiency, grid efficiencies, charging efficiency and battery-to-wheels efficiency; definition and evaluation of efficiency metrics – miles per gallon equivalent and kWh per 100 miles; key assumptions; data sources

EV Environmental Attributes: quantification of GHG emissions of EVs and comparison with the “tailpipe” emissions of ICEVs; evaluation of EV lifecycle emissions; EV battery life extension and disposal  

EV Battery Charging Fundamentals: voltage levels and charging types; charging connectors; charging process; protection issues

Power Electronics Applications in EV Battery Charging: AC grid analysis – power system in the sinusoidal steady state, complex power, single and three-phase power, average power and circuit analysis; power electronics topics – the analysis of dc-dc converter operations in the continuous conduction regime and PWM rectifier circuit analysis; power electronics applications in EVSE – EV supply equipment – and in the implementation of EV charging stations – specification of basic and buffer requirements, power converter types for the EV charging levels and DC fast buffer charge; key technology implementations and challenges

The EV Charging Infrastructure (EVCI): the critical role of EVCI to enable massive EV adoption; inter-dependence and interactions of EVCI with existing infrastructures; principal objectives in the establishment of EVCI; role of renewable and storage resources and their effective integration; location, planning and implementation of EVCI stations; current EV charging providers and their business models; identified gaps and major challenges; policy and regulatory aspects

Policy and Regulatory Issues: the nature and scope of policies to stimulate widespread EV adoption and support EVCI station implementation; policy formulation and implementation at various levels of government; examples of policies and incentives for EV adoption; replacement of the gasoline tax funding source in an increasingly electrified environment

Beyond EVs: further transportation electrification – all electric airplanes, electric buses and freight mobility; battery technology enhancements; wireless charging

 

Instructor Information

Prof. Olga Mironenko

Electrical and Computer Engineering

The Grainger College of Engineering

Contact Information

Email: olgamiro@illinois.edu

Office: 4066ECEB

Office Hours: Wednesdays, 2-3pm at ECEB 3036

with guest lectures by Profs. G. Gross (gross@illinois.edu), A. Banerjee (arijit@illinois.edu), K. Haran (kharan@illinois.edu), P. Krein (krein@illinois.edu), and A. Stillwell (andrewrs@illinois.edu), as well as industry experts.

TA Information

Colby Steber

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Contact Information

Email: csteber2@illinois.edu

Office Hours: Mondays, 5-6pm at ECEB 3036

Course Structure

This is a 3-credit-hour course. The course is 16 weeks long.

Course Components

This course will consist of the following components:

Lectures

Our Lectures will meet Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9:30 AM- 10:50 AM. Some lectures will be held in person at ECEB 3081, while others will be held on Zoom. Please refer to the Schedule for exact dates and more information.

Assignments

Homework:

• Homework assignments constitute an essential component of your learning experience in the course and prepare you for your quizzes and exams in effective ways. Investing time to do your HW assignments with care will pay off when you are taking your quizzes and exams.
• Throughout the semester, you should expect no more than 10 HW assignments. 
• These assignments do not count for credit and are not graded, as they serve primarily to help students to understand/apply the material related to the quizzes/exams. 
• HW problem sets and the solutions will be posted on Canvas.

Quizzes:

• Throughout the semester, no more than 6 in-class, 20-minute quizzes are given. Please check Schedule for the exact dates.
• Each quiz counts for credit and contains problems along the lines of those in the respective lectures and HW(s) covered by the quiz.
• Each quiz is closed book and closed notes. Use of any external resources will result in a 0 on the quiz and an Academic Integrity report being filed against you.
• The solutions to the problems in each quiz will be posted under Schedule.
• No collaboration allowed:
  • You are not allowed to share or collaborate on the quizzes and all work should be your own; otherwise, it will result in an Academic Integrity report being filed against you.
• Solving the quiz:
  • You must show all your work unless specified otherwise.  Answers with no explanation/justification/work will be given little/no credit.
  • Calculators are allowed and expected. No other electronic devices are allowed. The use of prohibited calculation devices will result in an Academic Integrity report being filed against you.
• Regrades:
  • We will use Gradescope to grade the quizzes. You will receive an email from Gradescope so you can log in and see your graded quiz. If after looking at the posted solutions, you feel there was an inaccuracy in the grading of your quiz, you can request a regrade within Gradescope itself.
  • Regrades should be used only to correct mistakes made in grading. Regrades are not to be used for getting back more partial credit on your quiz. Only regrades regarding inaccurate grading will be addressed.
  • Regrades open 24 hours after the corresponding quiz scores are posted and must be submitted within 7 days. Regrades will not be accepted after that date.
• No extensions/make up quizzes are allowed. However, to provide students some flexibility and to accommodate for emergency situations, travel etc., the lowest quiz score will be dropped from the average used to compute the final grade. 

Team Project:

The students will be grouped into similar-sized groups to prepare a write-up and presentation on a topic related to the course contents. The scope and nature of the project require a meeting with the instructor and subject to the instructor’s approval. Performance on the project is graded and counts toward the grade on the course.

Exams:

• One midterm exam: 7-8:50 pm on Wednesday, April 2. Location: TBD.
• Final Exam: 1:30pm-4:30pm on Friday, December 13. Location: TBD.
• Allowed material: 
  • For the midterm exam, two 8.5"x11" sheet (both sides) of your own unique handwritten notes is allowed. No book/laptop/additional notes are allowed. Use of any external resources will result in a 0 on the exam and an Academic Integrity report being filed against you.
    • NOTE: I reserve the right to inspect your note sheet for compliance. Note sheets that are not compliant will result in a points deduction.
  • Please keep your note sheet - you can use your midterm note sheets for the Final (four pages allowed). 
    • NOTE: All notes will be collected by the instructor at the end of the final exam.
  • Food/drink are allowed, but please be considerate of those around you (limit crinkly wrappers etc.)
• Calculations:
  • Standard scientific and graphing calculators are allowed and expected on the exam. No other electronic devices are allowed. The use of prohibited calculation devices will result in an Academic Integrity report being filed against you.
• No collaboration allowed:
  • You are not allowed to share or collaborate on the exams and all work should be your own; otherwise, it will result in an Academic Integrity report being filed against you.
• Solving the exam:
  • You must show all your work unless specified otherwise.  Answers with no explanation/justification/work will be given little/no credit.
• Regrades: 
  • We will use Gradescope to grade the exams, so you will receive an email from Gradescope to log in and see your graded exam. If after looking at the posted solutions, you feel there was an inaccuracy in the grading of your exam, you can request a regrade within Gradescope itself.
  • Regrades should be used only to correct mistakes made in grading. Regrades are not to be used for getting back more partial credit on your exam. Only regrades regarding inaccurate grading will be addressed.
  • Regrades open 24 hours after exam scores are posted and must be submitted within 7 days. Regrades will not be accepted after that date.
• Conflict exam requests:
  • Midterm exam: Some of you might have an overlapping activity that warrants a conflict exam, as indicated in the Article 3 part 202(e) of the student code. We will offer a conflict exam in those cases but you need to get the approval of the instructor in order to be able to take the conflict exam. All students will receive an email with a link to request a conflict two weeks before the exam. If you have a conflict with the exam you must complete the form before the corresponding deadline.
  • Final exam: Please pay attention that there is no conflict exam scheduled for ECE398GG final exam. 

    According to the student code,ECE398GG has a top priority as a non-combined, synchronous exam scheduled by the Office of the Registrar. Therefore, if 

    • You have another final exam scheduled for the same time. 
    • You would otherwise be taking three final exams consecutively.

    you should take the following actions no later than the last day of classes:

    1. The student must determine whether a conflict exam or asynchronous scheduling option for a final examination is being held at another time for any of the examinations involved.
    2. If a conflict final examination has been scheduled for any of the courses, the student must take one or more of these conflict final examinations. If conflict final examinations are offered for more than one course, the student must take the conflict for the course that has the largest number of students.

    If 

    • You have a national or state professional exam scheduled at the same time. Examples include CPA, actuarial science, Architecture Registration Examination. Please include appropriate documentation.
    • You have prior written approval from Prof. Rashid Bashir, Dean of the Grainger College of Engineering.

    you should notify me by email ASAP, but no later than the last day of classes

• Absence from the exams:
  • Midterm exam: If for some reason of emergency such as severe illness, family emergencies, or other uncontrollable circumstances you are not able to take the exam at the required time, you will need to obtain a written excuse from the Office of the Dean of Students. Documentation which validates the absence is required by the Dean's Office to provide the absence letter.
  • Final exam: If for some reason of emergency such as severe illness you are not able to take the final exam at the required time, you will need to contact the Office of the Dean of Students and request Incomplete grade.

Optional Resources

Electric Vehicle Engineering (Enge, Per, Enge, Nick, Zoepf, Stephen)

Grading

It is a student's responsibility to check that the correct grades are entered on Canvas.

Weightings are as follows:

Item	Weight
Quizzes	15%
Team Project	20%
Midterm and Final Exams	65%

Other Course Policies

Communications

• It is the student's responsibility to attend lectures and check their email daily, in case there are announcements from the course staff. Missing a lecture and/or not checking your email will not excuse complying with course deadlines and policies.
• Course Questions: Questions pertaining to the course should be posted in our Campuswire (7997). You can also get to this forum from the course home page.
  • Posting questions here allows everyone to benefit from the answers. If you have a question, someone else is probably wondering the same thing. If you submit a question via email, probably you will be directed to resubmit the question to the Campuswire.
  • Participants should not hesitate to answer questions posed by peers if they know the answers and the instructor or the TA has not yet responded. This not only expedites the process but also encourages peer interaction and support.
  • In case of emergency, please contact the instructor directly by using the instructor's email address.
  • The course staff also don't answer course material-related questions on the day of the exam as well as some time before and after (the exact timing will be specified in the separate announcements).
  • Personal and grade-related questions should first be sent to the instructor's email address.

Emergencies

If you have an emergency that will keep you from participating in the course, please notify your instructor by using the instructor's email address. Provide callback information in your email (if necessary). You should also notify your program director of any emergencies.

Emergency Response Recommendations

Emergency response recommendations can be found at the following website: https://police.illinois.edu/em/  I encourage you to review this website and the campus building floor plans website within the first 10 days of class.  http://police.illinois.edu/emergency-preparedness/building-emergency-action-plans

Accommodations

• We are happy to accommodate all DRES needs for our students. Please forward your DRES letter to your instructor as soon as possible, but no later than 1 week before the midterm exam/quiz (no later than 2 weeks before the final exam)
• You can contact DRES at 1207 S. Oak Street, Champaign, (217) 333-1970, via email at disability@illinois.edu or via the DRES website.
• All DRES exams will be taken at the Testing Accommodation Center (TAC). Please get familiar with the TAC policy, registration and the deadlines. Although, it is the student’s responsibility to register with the TAC for each exam, please contact your instructor with the DRES letter before taking any actions.

Religious Observances

Illinois law requires the University to reasonably accommodate its students' religious beliefs, observances, and practices in regard to admissions, class attendance, and the scheduling of examinations and work requirements. You should examine this syllabus at the beginning of the semester for potential conflicts between course deadlines and any of your religious observances. If a conflict exists, you should fill out the Religious Accommodation Request form and forward it to your instructor.

This must be done in the first two weeks of classes.

Academic integrity

• The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Student Code should also be considered as a part of this syllabus.
• Students should pay particular attention to Article 1, Part 4: Academic Integrity. Read the Code at the following URL: http://studentcode.illinois.edu/.
• Academic dishonesty may result in a failing grade.
• Every student is expected to review and abide by the Academic Integrity Policy: https://studentcode.illinois.edu/article1/part4/1-401/.
• Ignorance is not an excuse for any academic dishonesty. It is your responsibility to read this policy to avoid any misunderstanding. If you do not understand relevant definitions of academic infractions, contact your instructor for an explanation within the first two weeks of class.

Should an incident arise in which a student is thought to have violated academic integrity, the student will be processed under the disciplinary policy set forth in the Illinois Academic Integrity Policy.

Anti-Racism and Inclusivity Statement

The intent is to raise student and instructor awareness of the ongoing threat of bias and racism and of the need to take personal responsibility for creating an inclusive learning environment.

The Grainger College of Engineering is committed to the creation of an anti-racist, inclusive community that welcomes diversity along a number of dimensions, including, but not limited to, race, ethnicity and national origins, gender, and gender identity, sexuality, disability status, class, age, or religious beliefs. The College recognizes that we are learning together in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement, that Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous voices and contributions have largely either been excluded from, or not recognized in, science and engineering, and that both overt racism and micro-aggressions threaten the well-being of our students and our university community.

The effectiveness of this course is dependent upon each of us to create a safe and encouraging learning environment that allows for the open exchange of ideas while also ensuring equitable opportunities and respect for all of us. Everyone is expected to help establish and maintain an environment where students, staff, and faculty can contribute without fear of personal ridicule, or intolerant or offensive language. If you witness or experience racism, discrimination, micro-aggressions, or other offensive behavior, you are encouraged to bring this to the attention of the course director if you feel comfortable. You can also report these behaviors to Campus Belonging Resources. Based on your report, Campus Belonging Resources members will follow up and reach out to students to make sure they have the support they need to be healthy and safe. If the reported behavior also violates university policy, staff in the Office for Student Conflict Resolution may respond as well and will take appropriate action.

We in the Illinois ECE community are committed to understanding, empathizing with, and respecting each other, embracing the many differences among us.

Sexual Misconduct Policy and Reporting

The University of Illinois is committed to combating sexual misconduct. Faculty and staff members are required to report any instances of sexual misconduct to the university’s Title IX and Disability Office. In turn, an individual with the Title IX and Disability Office will provide information about rights and options, including accommodations, support services, the campus disciplinary process, and law enforcement options.

A list of the designated university employees who, as counselors, confidential advisors, and medical professionals, do not have this reporting responsibility and can maintain confidentiality, can be found in the Confidential Resources section. Other information about resources and reporting is available at wecare.illinois.edu

Student Wellness Resources

The University of Illinois strives to promote student success through the support of student psychological and emotional well-being. Please take advantage of the resources listed on the Student Affairs.

Getting Help

Course Help Campuswire

Only contact your instructor directly if you have a personal, grade-related question, or an emergency. For all other questions about course content, activities, deadlines, technical problems, etc., please check the Course Help Campuswire to see if someone has already asked the same question and received a response. If your question isn't there yet, post your question :) Feel free to help your peers out if you know the answer!

Technology Help

For technical problems, email consult@illinois.edu.

Illinois Canvas

As the online learning management system for Illinois, Illinois Canvas lets students, faculty, and staff check grades, submit assignments, and store and download instructional and training materials. It is possible to use Illinois Canvas from any computer, tablet, or phone. For a list of help topics, please visit Illinois Canvas Training Resources for Students.