When you work in a technical university as a Count (see this link for explanations), sometimes you wonder if you are a teacher, a researcher, or both. Or none.

With a previous relatively long (8 years) experience in the industry, the term “research” is a bit subtle to me. Especially in an industrial environment of global dimensions with a strong R&D history, it is not easy to see how little academic groups can make a significant difference to the community. I make a quick example: in Helsinki, Finland, approximately 1200 people at ABB were (hopefully still are) working on electrical drives. Of these 1200 people, it was estimated that roughly 1/3 were involved in some form of R&D activities. What can an academic team of a professor + some Ph.D. students do compared to that? Especially when these 400 people have multiple years of experience and are, for the most part, highly competent… those who know me also know my deep respect for Finnish expertise in electrical machines and drives.

Despite this imbalance, there is perhaps always something we can contribute to on a small scale—an idea, a vision, an initiative —something that leads us to publish a good article, which a company then picks up, and things start rolling in the right direction. It has happened, and hopefully it will continue. But that is not what I want to talk about here.

What I want to talk about is the teacher’s perspective on this game. Leaving industry for academia is not very common, but when I did, it was for a clear goal: I wanted to influence how our scientific field was taught, at least at KTH. I began by managing the base course on electrical machines and drives. Due to an unforeseen and unwanted series of events, I am now also responsible for two additional courses: one on control for electrical machines and another on the design of electrical machines. In practice, my teaching duties start in August and end in June. The students who decide to follow all the courses in our field will essentially see me for an entire year, non-stop.  And if they are not tired of that, I can offer them an individual project lasting one semester the following year. And of course, you can always perform your master’s degree project with me as supervisor or examiner. In short: two years of a master’s in Electric Power Engineering at KTH, and you can potentially never get rid of me.

I could start complaining about the load this is causing on me and shout at KTH for not employing any other faculty staff to help me out. My teaching spans from the Carter factor to sensorless control with high-frequency voltage injection, passing through finite-element analysis and Simulink schematics. Any professional in this field would tell you that it is a vast scope for this scientific field – apparently, only KTH does not get it 🙂

But KTH has inadvertently given me an excellent opportunity. Total responsibility over the courses also means that I can do exactly what I think is best for the students, avoiding content overlaps and flawlessly harmonizing the material from one course to the other. It takes years, and although I started many years ago, I am not yet at the end of this process, but I am pretty far along nonetheless. And every year, there is something to change, something to improve, something to include or exclude.

Why all these efforts?

… because I want my students to be the No. 1 students in this field, no matter where they go. Being a university or a company, there should be a recognition: this guy/girl studied electrical machines and drives at KTH. It should suffice as a business card.

And look, I am not getting upset with the students who, after a while, discover that this topic is not for them. The world is big; there is space for everyone. My rage is directed towards myself: I get upset when I do not deliver a good lesson or when I fail to teach specific details I should have. This is what makes me mad: having lost the opportunity to make you the number 1.

Passion and understanding of the difficulties involved in pursuing this education are my driving forces. Lectures are sacred and a place of joy and sharing. Not a place where you feel a stone hanging on a rope by your neck. Given that I am not getting any younger, and while the students are the scientists and leaders of tomorrow, I believe I am investing in the future of this community where we live. I hope to maintain the wonderful relationships I have built with some students over the years of teaching, for the remaining years of my life.

Is there any immediate satisfaction? Well, you can say so. Look at this, for example:

“Teacher of the year 2025” from the KTH student section on Energy and Environment. I leave the rest of the text untranslated, I can’t spill it all out 🙂 But you understand that these types of awards have the opposite effect on me; instead of relaxing, I will double down to make the courses even more appealing. Because I feel it is working.

My late father used to say: “If you want to teach one thing, you need to know at least three times as much”. Message received, Dad.

As some of you already knew that I finally made up my mind to take a position in the academia rather than in the industry, it’s always hard for me to explain why. I’m neither a enthusiastic speaker nor a percipient thinker. It can be challengeable for me to go towards a position in a university. I thought that I should have lost my mind at that time. It drives me to explore my internal desire for this decision.

Before that, let me say some good word for our group, from the perspective of a native Chinese PhD. I have to admit that I’m so lucky to work in the EMD group, which “pulls” me to develop my research area in the postdoc period. (Footnote: the reason why I used “pull” rather than “push” is that I need to be efficient and open-minded dealing with my project work while exploring more research area freely. I don’t feel pushed or stressed out, and receive lots of help and supports. “push” is a negative word rather than a neutral word in my language). My supervisor Luca gave me the freedom to investigate the challenge and difficulty in the industry so that it could show the direction of our future work. In other words, I could work closely with Zparq and ABB to gain more experience.

In fact, it’s Luca who decided to join this project/team (ExpSkills-REM), whose latese event was to give the course at Narva. The aim of ExpSkills-REM is to educate professionals who work or intend to work in the field of permanent magnets along the whole value chain, including recycling and motor applications: Raw Materials, Technological Magnets, Circular Economy and Electromobility coming together. In Narva Estonia, Neo Performance Materials is building a permanent magnet factory, making it the first of its kind in Europe and the Western world. I hope this magnet product will be used in the permanent magnet motor soon. 

For this course, thanks to the help and support of Luca, I had enough time to prepare our one-day module “Design and fabrication of REM-based devices and components” for this four-day course. Everything goes on well on those days except the heavy snow in Narva when we were visiting the factory.

Then, it became sunny again in the nex day.

For me, it’s the first time to give the course for the whole day. It is definitely a milestone in my life, but really tiring. Hence, I took a wonderful sauna after the course. There were always lots of interesting and useful discussion about some contents of the course, which inspired the teachers as well.

Coming back to the first question in this post, when comparing academia with industry, one of the major difference is that the position of the academia requires the duty of teaching and supervision, which is as important as the researching. I then realized that it’s also a great joy for me to discuss about the technical detail in the project as well as the philosophy of life. I hope to support my future friends (namely students) to freely explore their research and lifestyle. I already have been lucky enough to get this privilege at KTH and ZJU and I hope in the near future I also have the ability to share this luck/opportunity to those who believe in this way.

As this is my last weekend at KTH, I would like to say Hej då to all of you, EMD noblemen, project colleagues, and EPE friends. Take good care of yourself, as it is merely the deadline of the course, project, or paper, not the end of the world. Keep in touch and see you again.