Electromechanical engineer Gerardo Szwarc, professor at the San Francisco Regional Facultyrecently returned from Taichung, Taiwan, where he was one of two Argentines who took part in a training course on operation and maintenance of electric vehicles, given at the TCNR in Taichung. The experience took place between May 8 and June 12.
The training was provided by the Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund (TaiwanICDF), an entity dedicated to promoting socio-economic development, improving human resources and promoting economic relations in a variety of developing partner countries. It also offers humanitarian assistance and provides help in the event of natural disasters or international refugee crises.
His goal is to apply what he has learned in the preparation of his doctoral thesis and share knowledge through teaching, taking advantage of the growing interest in electric vehicles.
Balance
Szwarc, who visited a country where it is common to see pure electric and hybrid cars circulating, unlike Argentina, maintained that the balance of what he experienced in that place was “very positive” since it allowed him to surround himself and learn from highly trained people. in electric vehicles, including engineers and instructors from different training centers.
Regarding the course in particular, he commented that it started with basic content, such as the use of tools, and took them to the point of allowing them to disassemble an electric vehicle in order to take measurements. Then, to reassemble it and start it up, which allowed them to gain very valuable practical experience.
For the Engineer, it was an enriching experience and he explained: “Assembling and disassembling a vehicle allows us to identify its components and their location. Seeing the components on a screen does not allow us to truly understand the size or weight of each one of them and it is difficult to imagine their location in the vehicle, both in motorcycles and cars,” he added.
The professor also mentioned that he was able to visit several companies, including the firm Master Transportation Bus Manufacturing Ltd., a factory that previously dedicated itself to combustion buses and today has ventured into electric vehicles, and even exports its buses to different parts of the world.
Another company they visited was Jonnswey, which makes both manual and pneumatic and electric tools: “There we received training on how to use some of the tools they make. There were also cultural visits organised by the institute itself, where we were able to see iconic places in Taiwan with a lot of history and learn about its history and culture.”
Transfer
Szwarc’s objective was achieved, as the knowledge learned can be applied in his doctoral thesis, with which he hopes to dedicate himself exclusively to research and teaching within the UTN.
“My doctorate is based on photovoltaic solar energy, in the distributed generation modality, and on electric vehicles and how all this would affect the electrical distribution network, mainly the transformer,” he highlighted.
Along these lines, he clarified that, although in Argentina there are courses on renewable energies, on distribution networks and on transformers, there are not the same amount on electric vehicles, which is why he valued the experience even more. “It strengthens me in this topic that I had no training on,” he reflected.
