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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Introduction to Power Electronics by University of Colorado Boulder

4.7
stars
3,357 ratings

About the Course

This course can also be taken for academic credit as ECEA 5700, part of CU Boulder’s Master of Science in Electrical Engineering degree. This course introduces the basic concepts of switched-mode converter circuits for controlling and converting electrical power with high efficiency. Principles of converter circuit analysis are introduced, and are developed for finding the steady state voltages, current, and efficiency of power converters. Assignments include simulation of a dc-dc converter, analysis of an inverting dc-dc converter, and modeling and efficiency analysis of an electric vehicle system and of a USB power regulator. After completing this course, you will: ● Understand what a switched-mode converter is and its basic operating principles ● Be able to solve for the steady-state voltages and currents of step-down, step-up, inverting, and other power converters ● Know how to derive an averaged equivalent circuit model and solve for the converter efficiency A basic understanding of electrical circuit analysis is an assumed prerequisite for this course....

Top reviews

SA

Jul 31, 2017

This course sets the groundwork for more advanced concepts in Power Electronics. The Professor was very explicit and the homework assignments were of a good strength to help ground the notions learnt.

PK

Jun 18, 2020

Very nice course. Even if you are already familiar with power electronics, it will help you to form a system of knowledge and utilize rational approaches for task solution of any level of complicity.

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651 - 675 of 811 Reviews for Introduction to Power Electronics

By ANIL U O

Nov 4, 2020

YES

By krishna m

Nov 3, 2020

osm

By Pooja D B

Oct 4, 2020

Yes

By 03Nithiya S

Aug 28, 2020

Gud

By Ahmed M F

Feb 4, 2018

4.5

By Prasad P

Jun 10, 2021

By Hans J D

Jan 19, 2017

.

By Arifa K A Q

Feb 15, 2020

The course was enjoyable and informative. The lectures were clear and easy to understand. The assignments were challenging but were majorly based on what was explained in the lecture videos. There were a few things that required extra study but it added to the challenge of the course.

The deadlines, however, were very hard to keep up. The assignments required quite a bit of time which was not factored into the hours of study required. That can be a bit misleading.

Also, there wasn't a lot of help available in the discussion forums and the questions often went unanswered which a a big downside especially when it came to doubts and questions.

Overall, the course was good as an introduction and very informative.

By Navneet K

Jun 13, 2020

Course content was very good and the instructor made it enough simple to understand. Even the quizzes were well-crafted and questions made us to think and understand more. But I am not happy with the way quiz answers are judged, especially the questions where we need to enter an expression. The simplification of an answer differs from person to person and the extent one simplifies an expression is important and unique for the answer which are assigned correct. Most of the times my answers were right but had to juggle them to find the right combination, which took so much time for each question and assignment. If Coursera can do something towards this, it would be much helpful in future.

By Mohammed H

Sep 10, 2021

The course gives a good introduction to power electronics. Without a good background in Electrical Engineering, the course is very demanding, and you need to invest a lot of time. The professor explains the most important concepts without going into detail of the mathematical background, which is good for most students.

Unfortuanteley, I missed the practical aspect, like simulation or hardware design. But I hope to get into this aspect in the more advanced courses in this specialization. Another thing to mention is that there is no communication with the teaching team, and nobody would answer your questions if you got stuck. So, you are on your own.

By Mason G

Aug 5, 2017

This introductory course was very difficult, yet well worth the effort in retrospect. The time commitment was vastly underestimated; the last two homework assignments required 8-10 hours of work each. I would have appreciated more relevant example problems directly related to the assignments, which were much more advanced that the lectures. Thankfully I purchased the recommended course textbook, which did help. There were several issues with the web based platform, relating to rounding accuracy and data entry problems. Luckily Coursera allows one to submit as many attempts as possible. Cheers!

By Andre A M

Feb 15, 2016

Pretty solid course for an online format. Solid grader and I enjoy how you can input derived equations in the homeworks that makes it feel more brick and mortar class. This beats other class approaches I have used in other platforms that use peer grading. Very comprehensible introduction and a satisfying course. I wish the course work was a bit more challenging. I know this is difficult in an online format (1st offering?) but when I compare this homework to their actual class websites (for on-campus students), it is obvious this online format was given the "easier" problems to solve.

By Mark S

Dec 8, 2018

I enjoyed the course and I learned a lot from it in spite of the fact I've been designing DC/DC converters for decades. The only reason I with-held one star is because I had a lot of trouble with the quizzes due to the case-sensitivity of the formula answers coupled with the inconsistency of case. For example, in Ch 3, Problem 10, you use use VT for the IGBT saturation voltage and Vd for the diode forward voltage. If you use Vt and/or VD, you get the dreaded giant red X.

By Andrew W

Apr 4, 2021

Good starter for learning some basics on DC converters. It is helpful to know some undergraduate electrical engineering basics. Background related to diodes and transistors is also helpful.

The material is well presented, but and requires taking good notes. The homework/quiz assignments are very much aligned to the course material, but a couple of questions can be challenging. The assignments can take a bit of time so one needs to plan and not feel rushed through.

By alexandra k

Apr 30, 2020

Cool course! Took some time to go through the problems and really understand the material, but I feel like it's very useful. My one complaint is there is no correspondence from the professor and there is no answer key, so when an answer is wrong, that's it, you don't know how to solve the problem or understand what you did wrong. I will still continue to take the following sections for the power electronics track on Coursera. Thank you.

By PRANAV K

Apr 27, 2021

It is certainly a very helpful course. The quizzes were very good and not very easy to solve in the first go. My only recommendation would be for the instructor and the Teaching Assistant (if there is any)....please monitor the discussion forums as a lot of students need help with the concepts. Better, appoint more TAs for the course so that they can respond and the instructor can just monitor. Thanks!

By Michael

Jun 14, 2016

The course materials and the topic of interest is fantastic. Dr. Erickson does a great job explaining the fundamentals of power switching technologies and the homework greatly tests a participants knowledge of the subject matter and forces the user to really digest the material. My only critique is I wish the homework solutions would be shared after the homework due dates so that one could learn from

By Mr. G M

Jun 28, 2020

The course gives good insight into the fundamentals and design of the converters.But i personally feel we need to work and struggle to complete the course.I got some problems when downloading the files of converters using LT spice and there is no help from the instructors after posting in the discussion forum.The course is really difficult and average students should rethink before taking this course

By Aalap S

Aug 7, 2020

Good course, very knowledgeable instructor (he literally wrote the book on power electronics)! The course itself does not serve as a complete introduction to power electronics, since some basic topics (such as power transistor types) are not even talked about. But further courses in this specialization seem to cover those areas, so the course fits well as a part of a specialization.

By Wesley L

Nov 17, 2019

Information taught in lectures was great. However, I feel the homework grading method could be improved. Since we get unlimited attempts, I wish our correct answers would be saved so we don't have to re-enter them during our second attempt. Maybe instead of having the submit button turn-in all answers, there can be a submit button for each individual question to lock in the answer.

By Alex V

Dec 16, 2019

I found the course to be very well presented and structured. Focused content on key principles and techniques, with good reinforcement homework problems. I especially appreciate the auto-grading with allowable retries - the most learning was from correcting my mistakes. I only wish solutions were available for all of the textbook problems, not just some of them.

By Paul G

Feb 22, 2016

Well done in terms of mathematical rigor and explaining the basics. One critique that I have is that there isn't enough time spent on intuition around the circuits. For instance, how does the buck converter work from a more qualitative standpoint? Easy to look up online, I understand, but the professor is excellent and I would benefit from his perspective.

By Cliff J

Aug 12, 2020

Explanation of the operation of DC converters was much more intuitive than anything I have seen thus far. The examples presented are practical, with tangible real world applications. The only item that could use improvement is the ability to see worked out solutions for incorrect quiz or homework items after the class is finished.

By Priyanka K

May 31, 2020

Thank You for such a wonderful courses. This courses is good , knowledgeable , good explanation. I learned new concept from this course. From this courses i came to know that what all things I need to brushup for my master's degree. Assignment is a bit difficult and over all stuff is good . Thank you so much.

By ABHIJIT S

Jul 28, 2020

It is really a nice course, the quizzes were challenging, which was nice, but it would been more helpful if proper support were provided by the mentors when someone gets stuck in a problem and the course forum are disappointing.