EPCIA Student Award

Who can participate?

All students, graduate students and PhD candidates of age (individual persons as well as teams) who participate in an ECPE event (which might take place virtually) and have addressed in their thesis or papers subjects related to passive components.
The Award is open to Applicants as any such person who is enrolled at an education or research institution recognised by the respective state in which it is located, such as a public or private university, a university of applied sciences, a university of cooperative education or similar. It is not relevant in which country the education institution is established provided it is recognised in such country. Former students of such education institution have the opportunity to participate, provided the work was created during their studies and the Applicants were enrolled at such education institution at least 3 months prior to the deadline of the EPCIA Student Award programme for which the paper or thesis has been submitted. For the sake of clarification: Individual and group work is expressly permitted for the purpose of the Award, team members will be regarded as one Applicant.

What can be submitted?

Every thesis or paper that addresses subjects related to passive components. Each submission and any related content remain the property of the author(s) at all times. Application documents must be submitted in English.

Terms & Conditions 

Dr David Menzi from ETH Zurich has been awarded with the EPCIA Student Award for his outstanding PhD thesis at electronica 2022 in Munich.

The EPCIA Student Award Committee assessed the PhD thesis of Dr Menzi as an outstanding academic work in the area of electronic passive components. The award is granted with € 5,000.

Within the context of the ECPE lighthouse project “Ultra-compact 12 kW / 1200 V SiC Y-Inverter”, and as part of his PhD research, an innovative variable speed drive inverter system with buck-boost functionality and full-sinewave output filter has been developed by Dr Menzi. This new concept is making best use of both advanced semiconductors (wide-bandgap, WBG) as well as very advanced passive components such as capacitors and magnetic components, in order to achieve extremely high power density and outstanding efficiency in the area of drives.

Ralph Bronold, President of EPCIA, underlined the great importance of such R&D projects for the passive components industry and likes to encourage students across all European universities to work in this area and eventually to apply for the EPCIA students award in 2023.

Press release