Meet Dr. Martina Calais

Senior Lecturer, Engineering

"I am passionate about the use of renewable energy and have a keen interest in photovoltaic systems technology and the integration into existing power systems and environments. It gives me great satisfaction to know that I am assisting future engineers in their education towards designing, integrating maintaining and developing quality renewable energy systems.

I feel thrilled when I hear from former students on the exciting projects they are working on, such as designing reliable photovoltaic diesel power systems for Australian remote communities or installing Giga-watts of wind farms in California. And watching the amazing transition of students in first year to confident, capable graduate engineers when they present their final year projects is a wonderful experience over and over again."

Martina is a member of Engineers Australia's Women in Engineering National Committee and Engineers Australia's Women in Engineering Panel (WA Division).

Education

• PhD Curtin University of Technology,
• Electrical Engineering Degree (Dipl.-Ing.) Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany

Awards and Fellowships

• Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Early Career Symposium Fellowship (2007)
• Outstanding Woman of the Year Studying in a Non-Traditional Area, National Centre for Women, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne (1998)

Selected Publications

• M. Calais, N.Wilmot, A. Ruscoe, O. Arteaga, H. Sharma, Over-current protection in PV array installations”, In Conference Proceedings of the ISES-AP - 3rd International Solar Energy Society Conference – Asia Pacific Region (ISES-AP-08) incorporating the 46th ANZSES Conference, Sydney, November 2008.
• M. Calais, J. Armarego, and G. Cole, “Aligning renewable energy engineering units to a Design Studio-based curriculum”, In Conference Proceedings of the International Symposium on Renewable Energy Education, Perth, Australia. November 2004
• M. Calais, L.J. Borle, L. Meek, V.G. Agelidis, “Dual ramptime nonlinear current control applied to a single phase five level cascaded inverter”, International Journal of Electronics, 2003, vol. 90, nos. 11-12, pp 721-735
• M. Calais, V.G. Agelidis, and M. Meinhardt, “Multilevel converters for single-phase grid connected photovoltaic systems - An overview”, Solar Energy, July 1999, vol. 66, no. 5, pp. 325-335
• M. Calais and H. Hinz, “A ripple based maximum power point tracking algorithm for a single phase grid connected photovoltaic system”, Solar Energy, November 1998, vol. 63, no. 5, pp. 277-282.