Rebecca Todd

Abstract

Rebecca Todd was the deputy editor in chief of IET Electrical Systems in Transportation and a member of the organising committee for the IET Power Electronics, Machines and Drives conference, leading the power electronics theme. Rebecca passed away suddenly in May 2020, cutting short a blossoming academic career in electrical power conversion.

Rebecca grew up in Chesterfield, as the daughter of Maria and Jeff and younger sister to Ryan. Rebecca's fascination with engineering became evident at an early age as she eschewed many of her toys in favour of Lego, Meccano and helping her father fix cars, thereby developing the practical skills that would prove invaluable throughout her career. Rebecca was the first in her family to attend university when she joined UMIST (now The University of Manchester) in 1997, studying electrical and electronic engineering. The course fuelled Rebecca's enthusiasm for practical power engineering and subsequently led to her undertaking an EngD at Manchester in the control of doubly-fed induction generators for wind power applications, which was sponsored by FKI Energy Technology and supervised by Mike Barnes and Sandy Smith. The project provided some excellent practical experience at DeWind in Lubeck on the north German coast, although the chilly temperature was a challenge. The research led to a very well cited paper on the analysis of different operating strategies for induction generator systems.

On completing her EngD, Rebecca joined the Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre in Electrical Power Conversion at Manchester as a research associate and played a major role in investigating DC power networks for future aircraft, leading to notable publications on the control of fault-tolerant generators, grey-box modelling of switched reluctance generators and the application and control of super-capacitors to manage system transients. Rebecca built a reputation as an excellent experimentalist and her work was characterised by thorough validation at representative power levels, typically up to 100 kW.

Rebecca was appointed as a lecturer in electrical power conversion at Manchester in 2010 and was promoted to the post of senior lecturer in 2017. As an academic Rebecca's research mainly focussed on energy storage using batteries or super-capacitors. She played a major role in securing a multi-million-pound EPSRC capital grant for large-scale storage facilities, which included a 250-kW grid-linked lithium-ion battery system, high power battery testing equipment and a real-time grid simulator. Rebecca was leading much of the research based on these facilities, which included the stacking of multiple grid-support services, the coordination of multiple storage assets, hardware-in-the-loop validation, and battery degradation modelling.

Rebecca's research also included investigating wide bandgap device applications for transport systems as part of the Converters Theme within the EPSRC Power Electronics Centre and through a collaboration with colleagues in the Chemistry Department at Manchester, she was investigating new materials and electrode structures for super-capacitors.

Rebecca's passion for practical engineering illuminated and enriched her teaching. She was an energetic and inspiring lecturer, and was highly admired by the students for her meticulous preparation, clear delivery and abundant use of practical examples and demonstrations. Rebecca was always approachable, patient and generous with her time, and she particularly enjoyed small-group laboratory teaching where she could share her passion and love for practical engineering in a more informal setting. Rebecca's commitment to the support of students extended well beyond her routine duties, for example, she was the deputy academic lead for the University's Formula Student Team and in 2019 she put her reputation on the line and undertook the development of her own entry into the student line-following buggy competition, achieving a very creditable result.

Rebecca will be remembered by colleagues and students as an enterprising and energetic academic; an outstanding teacher and practical researcher, who was always supportive and cheerful and usually had a witty riposte that left you smiling.

I am grateful to Rebecca's mother, Maria Guzvic, and colleague, Sandy Smith, for their help in writing this obituary.

Andrew Forsyth.