Utah State University (USU) undergraduate students Rees Hatch, Mahmoud Mansour, Garrett Witmer and Oscar Silva, and faculty co-advisor Dr. Hongjie Wang, attended the IFEC 2019 final round held at University of Wisconsin-Madison from July 29 to 31. The team also included undergraduate student Layan Nimri, graduate student advisor Dorai Yelaverthi, and faculty co-advisor Dr. Regan Zane. The USU team won the IFEC Ingenuity Award with a $1000 prize.

IEEE International Future Energy Challenge (IFEC) is an international student competition for innovation, conservation, and effective use of future electrical energy, which is open to college and university student teams from recognized undergraduate engineering programs. The competition is sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Power Electronics Society (PELS), Power & Energy Society (PES), Industry Application Society (IAS) and Power Sources Manufacturers Association (PSMA).The topic for IFEC 2019 revolved around designing the most efficient, power dense, and cost-effective motor drive for an e-bike with a 3-phase BLDC motor powered from a 48 VDC 9 Ah lead-acid battery, with a rated power of 500 W.Through the first round, only 17 teams were invited to APEC 2019 to participate in the second round of the competition and present their progress. Out of the 17 teams, 10 teams were selected for the final round in Madison Wisconsin at the end of July. Among the qualified teams, only three teams are from the US: USU, Virginia Tech, and Drexel University.