Reflections of Rodica Botnarevscaia
In our serie "What does the future bring?" our ESR's are sharing their perspective. This serie is linked to the Horizon Magazine article published on Monday, March 13 2024 which focusses on EU support for Ukrainian researchers including ETUT project regarding "Building bridges between Ukrainian and EU researchers" featuring Regis Nibaruta, Ivan Struzhko, Vladimir Havryliuk, Gert Rietveld and Frank Leferink. The full article can be found https://ec.europa.eu/research-and-innovation/en/horizon-magazine/building-bridges-between-ukrainian-and-eu-researchers By Andrew Dunne.
Via Cordis, the project is described as'the ETUT project will model, design, estimate, quantify and monitor economic measures for a reliable, safe, effective and greener electrical transport system. The training programme will include innovative methods to be applied in electric transport... it may have far reaching consequences and may even see the railway network supporting or replacing local electrical utility networks' Can you explain the problem specifically? In simple terms, what exactly is the electrical engineering challenge in terms of future electric transport systems and what's the link with local electrical utility networks too?
The biggest problem is the enormous amount of technology that has been built and implemented over many decades. It is not possible to change systems in the blink of an eye. In order to do so, new devices introduced on the railway have to be tested for compatibility. If one of the devices introduces interference, a misunderstood command at the opposite end can have catastrophic consequences. An example may be crude, but enough to understand: put a jet engine on an early 30's car. What do we get? The wheels go one way, the steering wheel goes the other, and the driver is found in a tree.
When we spoke you described these two areas of electrical engineering where the main focus was - electromagnetic compatibility and power electronics. Can you give me examples of the kind of devices that might benefit from improvements to both and can you explain the link with these two areas and future electric transport systems?
For example fibre optic communication systems. Such cables are little sensitive to electromagnetic interference. They themselves do not emit such interference and do not affect the surrounding electromagnetic environment. Their introduction multiplies the speed of information transfer, which leads to an increase in the speed of passenger and freight transportation, and consequently the speed of profit generation increases, which is a very powerful argument.
Are there any examples of really applied research which you are currently conducting which relates to electric transport systems which we can talk about? Can you explain what you are working on - in an applied sense - with whom, and how?
My work is now dedicated to a younger generation of electrical engineers. We have developed a stand to demonstrate the importance of compliance with European standards in the application of electrical passive low-pass filters, namely compliance with the requirement for good grounding of the filter housing, as this affects the protection of devices against the effects of conducted interference, both from the network and the protection of the network itself against interference radiated by the device itself. In the research process, specific industrial filters are used, which are planned for future use in communication devices on the railway.
What is the long-term hope with this work? From a research point of view, what are YOUR long-term motivations for this all is and what are the impacts he envisages in the future (i.e. who does he see will benefit from this research in the future, and how?).
The long-term hope, in my case, is to train qualified professionals in the field of electromagnetic compatibility and human society as a whole benefits from this.
Could I get a reflection from you on the importance of developing future electric transport systems in view of climate change and emission reduction targets? Why is this issue you're tackling so important from an environmental perspective?
Climate change. This process cannot be stopped, but we must do our best to slow it down. One of them is to reduce emissions in various categories, which also includes the electromagnetic waves that surround us everywhere. Their detrimental effects on man and nature have yet to be assessed, as we are only at the beginning of the road to electrotechnical progress. However, research into these effects and maximum efforts to prevent various types of emissions are required from the first steps of the new equipment's introduction.