Associate Professor
Geoff Walker
Faculty of Engineering,
School of Electrical Engineering & Robotics
Biography
Dr Geoff Walker joined the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Electrical Power Engineering group as an Associate Professor in 2013. His current research interests lie in applying power electronics to applications in renewable energy (especially PV), power systems, and electric vehicles.From 2008 to 2013, he worked as a senior electrical engineering consultant in Aurecon’s Transmission and Distribution group, Brisbane, across various areas including rail traction, earthing studies, electricity transmission planning, and renewable energy project design and review.
Geoff received his PhD in multilevel converter modulation from the University of Queensland in 1999, and was the power electronics lecturer at the University of Queensland from 1998 to 2007. Geoff has also worked and maintains an active interest in the pro-audio and industrial electronics sectors.
Employment History Summary
- 2013 – now: Associate Professor, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Queensland University of Technology (QUT)
- 2008 – 2013: Senior Electrical Engineer, Energy Section Transmission & Distribution group, Aurecon (formerly Connell Wagner)
- 1998 – 2007: Lecturer, School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, University of Queensland
- 1997: Lecturer (part time), Department of Electrical Engineering, Queensland University of Technology (QUT)
- 1997: Electrical Engineer, Baltec Systems
- 1994 – 1997: Postgraduate Scholar, including tutoring duties, University of Queensland
- 1992 – 1993: Electronic designer / Electronics Technician, Musiclab
- 1991: Electrical Engineer / Electronics Technician, Applied Electro Systems
Personal details
Positions
- Associate Professor in Power Engineering
Faculty of Engineering,
School of Electrical Engineering & Robotics
Keywords
Multilevel converters, Photovoltaic Grid Connect Inverters, Distribution networks, dSTATCOMs, Electric Vehicles, Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)
Research field
Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Automotive Engineering
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2008
Qualifications
- PhD in Power Electronics (University of Queensland)
Professional memberships and associations
- 1999 – present: Member, Institution of Electrical & Electronic Engineers (IEEE)
- 2007 – present: Member, Engineers Australia
- 2007 – present: Australian Solar Council (formerly Australian Solar Energy Society), Qld branch president 2007, Qld branch secretary 2008 – present.
- 2009 – present: CIGRE panel AP-C6 Distribution Systems & Dispersed Generation
- 2001 – 2009: Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)
Teaching
Current teaching responsibilities:
Courses previously taught:
During the period 2000 to 2007, I directly supervised 140 undergraduate final year Engineering thesis students in various topic areas ranging centred around power electronics, renewable energy (especially Photovoltaics) and electric vehicles. In all but two years, the median grade achieved by these students was a distinction (6).
- EGB120 Foundations of Electrical Engineering
- ENB455 Power Electronics
Courses previously taught:
- Power electronics
- Electronic circuits (3rd year BE)
- Electromechanics and Electronics (2nd year BE)
- Fundamentals of electrical engineering (2nd year BE)
- Electrical Energy Conversion and Utilisation
- Sensors and Actuators
- Energy
- Team projects I and II
- Final year thesis course co-ordination
During the period 2000 to 2007, I directly supervised 140 undergraduate final year Engineering thesis students in various topic areas ranging centred around power electronics, renewable energy (especially Photovoltaics) and electric vehicles. In all but two years, the median grade achieved by these students was a distinction (6).
Selected publications
- Louis A, Ledwich G, Mishra Y, Walker G, (2022) PQ-based Local Voltage Regulation for Highly Resistive Radial Distribution Networks, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
- Liu A, Shafiei M, Ledwich G, Walker G, Krause O, Terry J, Morosini G, (2021) Enabling More Solar in Distribution Network with an Automated Analysis Tool, Proceedings of the 2021 IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies - Asia (ISGT Asia) Conference, pp. 1-5.
- Jovanovic D, Broadmeadow M, Taylor R, Walker G, Ledwich G, (2020) Decoupling of Current Balancing and Reference Tracking Control in Parallel Interleaved Converters, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 35 (4), pp. 4286-4295.
- Khanaki R, Walker G, Broadmeadow M, Ledwich G, (2020) Impact of DC-DC converter distribution and redundancy on reliability of battery-integrated-converter systems, Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Power Electronics, Machines and Drives (PEMD 2020), pp. 896-901.
- Broadmeadow M, Burstinghaus E, Walker G, Ledwich G, (2019) FPGA implementation of an arbitrary resample rate, FOH, pulse width modulator, The Journal of Engineering, 2019 (17), pp. 3730-3735.
- Perin I, Walker G, Ledwich G, (2019) Load sharing and wayside battery storage for improving AC railway network performance, with generic model for capacity estimation, Part 1, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 66 (3), pp. 1791-1798.
- Broadmeadow M, Walker G, Ledwich G, (2018) A modular and scalable control and data acquisition system for power hardware in the loop (PHIL) amplifiers, Presented at: International Conference on Power Electronics, Machines and Drives, pp. 1.
- Malan W, Vilathgamuwa M, Walker G, (2016) Modeling and control of a resonant dual active bridge with a tuned CLLC network, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 31 (10), pp. 7297-7310.
- Walker G, (2003) A Class B switch-mode assisted linear amplifier, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 18 (6), pp. 1278-1285.
- Walker G, (2003) Digitally-implemented naturally sampled PWM suitable for multilevel converter control, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 18 (6), pp. 1322-1329.
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Geoff, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).
Awards
- Type
- Funding Award
- Reference year
- 2015
- Details
- Recipient of the Google Little Box Challenge Academic Award, one of 10 awarded worldwide
Selected research projects
- Title
- Customer Responsive Risk-Managed Network Planning
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- LP140100923
- Start year
- 2015
- Keywords
- Electricity; Planning Optimization; Social Response
Projects listed above are funded by Australian Competitive Grants. Projects funded from other sources are not listed due to confidentiality agreements.
Supervision
Current supervisions
- Control of a Multiport Modular Multilevel Converter in a Residential Generation and Storage System
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Associate Professor Dezso Sera, Dr Mark Broadmeadow - Applying NIST-Specified Lightweight Authenticated Encryption with Associated Data to Embedded Automative Data Communications
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Associate Professor Leonie Simpson - A Secure Framework and Protocol Suite for IoT Based Residential Energy Monitoring and Control Systems
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Dr Vicky Liu, Dr Matthew McKague - Control of Distributed Energy Resources for Multiple-Value Support of Radial Distribution Networks with Minimal Communications
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Adjunct Professor Gerard Ledwich, Associate Professor Yateendra Mishra - Alternatives for Large Scale Solar Farm Design to Reduce Levelised Cost of Energy and Improve Safety
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Dr Mark Broadmeadow - Designing, Simulation and Prototyping of Small-Scale Microgrid for Green Hydrogen Production
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Associate Professor Dezso Sera, Dr Saman Asghari Gorji, Associate Professor Jonathan Love - Optimisation of Power Hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) Interface Algorithms for use in high power and high bandwidth applications
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Dr Mark Broadmeadow - A FPGA-Based Implementation of Naturally Sampled Pulsewidth Modulation (PWM) for Multilevel Converters
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Adjunct Professor Gerard Ledwich - A Motional Feedback System for Flat Panel Loudspeakers
MPhil, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Adjunct Professor Andrew Bradley - Communication system requirements for data acquisition and control in power hardware in the loop application
Masters by Research, Mentoring Supervisor
Other supervisors: Dr Mark Broadmeadow
Completed supervisions (Doctorate)
- Integration of Non-Isolated Converters in Battery Storage Systems - Topology Development, Evaluation and Optimisation (2021)
- Design, Modelling and Control of CLC Tee-Resonant Dual Active Bridge Converters (2020)
- Resampled Pulse Width Modulation Methods for High-Bandwidth Power Electronic Amplifiers (2020)
- Techno-Economical Optimisation of 50kV AC Railway Networks (2020)
- A Techno-Economic Network Assessment of Household Generation and Battery Storage (2019)
- Applying Adjacency Based Control to Distribution Networks (2019)
- Optimal Allocation of Central Storage in Segmented Rural Distribution Networks Considering Operational Costs and Reliability (2017)
- Characterisation of the Cascode Gate Drive of Power MOSFETs in Clamped Inductive Switching Applications (2015)
- Voltage Balance Improvement in Urban Low voltage Distribution Networks (2015)