Luiz Villa
I am an associate professor in electrical engineering at the Technical University of Toulouse. My main focus of research is software-defined data-driven power electronics.
Software defined meaning how to make power electronics devices reprogrammable and multi-function, using a single device to solve multiple problems. Data-driven meaning looking for ways to create digital twins of these devices which can be leveraged to follow-up on their aging mechanisms.
To put it simply, I want to create the equivalent of Arduino for energy and make it last forever.
The endgame of my research is to reach "planned perennity" with our energy technology. This means, creating devices with multiple lifetimes which can last many decades with appropriate maintenance and good follow-up. Part of this work is starting with our devices initiative
Passionate about meaningful science and engaging education, I consider it to be my duty to provide future generations with the tools necessary to handle the challenges they will face. That is why my work is open-source and I strive as much as possible to democratize it. This has led me to create the OwnTech project.
We have created the OwnTech Foundation (under the aegis of the CNRS Foundation, in France) to handle the open-source technology and our start-up OwnTech Technologies to commercialize it. Today we have two products (SPIN and TWIST mainly for education and fast-prototyping applications. Our future challenge is create more powerful professional power electronics open-source blocks which will be used in industrial applications.