Orion Master's Energy Scholarship

Each year Orion announces a recipient of the Orion Master’s Energy Scholarship. This scholarship is for $16,500 and is awarded to an Engineering student to fund the completion of their Master’s degree.

The scholarship is awarded by the Council of the University on the recommendation of a selection committee.

Applications must be made online at the Scholarships website by 15 October 2021. 

Orion Master’s Energy Scholarship - 2021 Recipient

We’re pleased to announce Abdullah Naeem has been selected as this year’s recipient of the Orion Master’s Energy Scholarship. Abdullah completed a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) in majoring Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha University of Canterbury (with a minor in Power Engineering). The scholarship will help Abdullah undertake study towards a Master’s qualification in 2021.

Abdullah tells us he is delighted to receive the scholarship as this will help him complete his masters project in the field of power electronics.

After undertaking an internship at Invert Robotics, he realised it was a field he enjoyed working in and the scope for work for power electronics engineers.

His Master’s project is in conjunction with Invert Robotics and is the redesign of the control case to support 48V and 36V crawler. The current crawler used to do inspections is powered by a control case connected with a 50 m long umbilical cable. Due to the large voltage drop, the voltage supplied is below the tolerance level of the regulator. This is causing them to be damaged and there is a need for a higher, 48 V, power supply. Future robots will be 48 V tolerant however the current crawlers are not and therefor there is a requirement for the robots to be backward compatible with 36 V.

We’re looking forward to hearing how Abdullah’s research goes and wish him every success with the completion of his Master’s degree.