Amie Boes – University of Pittsburgh and Eaton

High School: Beaver Area High School, Beaver, PA

College: University of Pittsburgh, B.S. in Electrical Engineering (2010) with a Concentration in Power

Where I live and why: I'm a proud resident of Oakland, which is the home of the University of Pittsburgh and, without coincidence, Pittsburgh's best neighborhood.

What I do: I'm a senior at Pitt studying electrical engineering with a focus on power and energy, and I've been really lucky to spend my undergraduate years during such an exciting time for the electrical industry. Rising energy demands worldwide require new technical talent to enter the workforce, and this need has recently elicited a response from Pitt's Swanson School of Engineering in the form of a Power & Energy Initiative. This program has had a huge impact on my experience at Pitt, and it includes new courses relevant to global energy needs as well as a partnership with the international power management company, Eaton Corporation.

The director of the Power & Energy Initiative, Dr. Greg Reed, also advises a research team that I participate in. Our group is working to address demands for alternative energy methods, and I'm researching renewable energy, energy storage, and smart grids. Our group also works in conjunction with Eaton with the aim of improving their grid-tie inverter, which links energy from renewables to the power grid.

Eaton's involvement with the University of Pittsburgh has also provided me with a unique opportunity for my senior design project. The project
involves updating and redesigning a synchronous motor controller that the company manufactures. My task this semester is to design a solution that allows full regulation of the controller's DC input voltage. It's a challenging project, as it draws upon topics from a wide range of my courses, and it's teaching me a great deal of new material as well. It will be a very rewarding project to complete, and I'll be excited to present my design to Eaton before graduating.

In addition to my exposure to Eaton Corporation through its contributions to my university, I also co-opped in Eaton's Software & Metering group at the electrical headquarters in Moon Township. I've had so many positive experiences with Eaton that I knew I wanted to continue working with the company. After I graduate, I'll begin my career in Eaton's Leadership Development Program in Operations for Engineers. This program will give me the opportunity to take on a series of geographically diverse assignments in different roles of the company like manufacturing, operational excellence, and quality control.

I feel extremely fortunate to have had so many amazing opportunities during my time at Pitt, and I can't wait to take what I've learned and turn it into power management solutions that will help improve energy needs worldwide.

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