The thyristor is a power electronics device that is widely used in various electrical appliances due to its lower on-conduction losses, easy availability, lower switching loss, greater efficiency and cost-benefit. Mostly a thyristor is used in rectifiers and variable-speed drives. Almost 70% of loads used in the world consists of induction motors in various types and forms. In this work, a thyristor-based controller is used to control the speed of a single phase induction motor by adjusting the firing angle for the gate terminal of the thyristor. Depending upon the firing angle, the output voltage, output current, speed, power factor and the total harmonic distortion are varied which is analyzed through MATLAB/Simulink. Further curve fitting technique is used to formulate the mathematical relationships between varying parameters concerning thyristor’s firing angle. The findings of this work are helpful to achieve the best curve fit model for varying parameters concerningthe thyristor firing angle.

The Three Phase Induction Motor (TIM) is one of the most widely used motors due to its low price, robustness, low maintenance cost, and high efficiency. In this paper, a Support Vector Regression (SVR) based controller for TIM speed control using Indirect Vector Control (IVC) is presented. The IVC method is more frequently used because it enables better speed control of the TIM with higher dynamic performance. Artificial Neural Network (ANN) controllers have been widely used for TIM speed control for several reasons such as their ability to successfully train without prior knowledge of the mathematical model, their learning ability, and their fast implementation speed. The SVR-based controller overcomes the drawbacks of the ANN-based controller, i.e. its low accuracy, overfitting, and poor generalization ability. The speed response under the proposed controller is faster in terms of rising and settling time. The dynamic speed response of the proposed controller is also superior to that of the ANN-PI controller. The performance of the proposed controller was compared for TIM speed control with an ANN-PI controller via simulations in SIMULINK.

The use of switch mode power supply (SMPS) load such as computer, laptop, etc in residential as well as commercial areas give rise to harmonics pollution in the electrical power distribution system which causes the quality of power poor and the function of equipment connected to the electrical system is affected. Many electrical appliances have an SMPS design that characteristically draws a distorted current that flows back to the input supply and causes distortion in the voltage waveform. To ensure the safe functioning of various electrical devices, there is a need for the implementation of effective harmonics mitigating techniques. Passive filters have been used for mitigating voltage and current harmonics. This paper proposed an analytical approach to designing the passive filter instead of trial and error or a complex approach for harmonics mitigation. The Simulation Model of SMPS is developed in MATLAB/Simulink and used for validating the proposed approach. Simulation results show the attractive findings of the proposed approach for harmonic mitigation with the improvement of the power factor.

Online academic learning throughout the world has gained much importance and this is mainly due to the presence of Information and Communication Technologies. The introduction of online learning has led to the vast usage of personal computers (PCs), tablets, laptops, and smartphones. Even so, due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation, all physical academic activities stopped in educational institutes and the delivery of education was shifted to an online learning platform. From this standpoint, many educational institutes used various types of online applications such as Microsoft teams, Zoom, Skype, Whatsapp, and so on, to continue their studies which is an important aspect, particularly when there are no physical classes. These online applications have gained popularity because they offer an opportunity to connect with people anywhere, at any time. These online applications have provided a platform to share knowledge and experience with people around the globe. In education, these online applications play a vital role in strengthening the knowledge of students, teachers, and trainees. This paper focuses on the use of Microsoft teams as an online application in education and evaluates the effects of its use on university students’ performance in education. For this purpose, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has been used to investigate the acceptance of Microsoft teams as an online source in education. For the study, data has been collected from the undergraduate and postgraduate students of Quaid-e-Awam University of Engineering, Science, and Technology, Nawabshah. Key parameters like ease of use and perceived usefulness have been considered for measuring the performance of students. The findings revealed that students had a positive impression of Microsoft Teams. Students expect that Microsoft teams will be utilized during online learning with some modifications so that learning may be done more successfully and efficiently.

This research presents the Optimal Reactive Power (Qc) selection for a single-tuned passive filter. DC drives are very popular in the industrial zone due to their high performance, flexibility, easy control, and low cost. DC drives operate by giving supply from an AC utility and AC to DC can be converted using the AC-DC converter. But this conversion introduces harmonics in the input supply current that affect the performance of the DC drive and also cause serious problems for the overall power quality of the system. Many researchers are searching for the appropriate solutions to mitigate this cause. A passive filter is one solution to minimize or avoid harmonics from entering the electrical system. The key aspect of the passive filter design has been a difficult task. The parameters of the passive filter largely depends upon selecting the suitable value of reactive power (Qc). In this paper, the Simulink model of an AC-DC converter based on a separately excited dc motor is used as an industrial load, and a curve fitting technique has been used to select the optimal value of reactive power (Qc) for the passive filter. The simulation results and analysis show that optimal selection of reactive power for single tuned passive filter using the proposed technique is very effective by taking international standards limits for harmonic distortion.