The Department of Electrical Engineering at Central South University has a solid foundation and distinctive railway electrical characteristics. Its history can be traced back to the Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering of Central South Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (1958) and the Department of Electronic Engineering of Changsha Railway University (1976). In 2000, the department was authorized to award master’s degrees in Power Electronics and Electric Drives, followed by the first-level discipline master’s degree authorization in Electrical Engineering in 2005, and began enrolling full-time professional master’s students in Electrical Engineering in 2011. The department houses the Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Power Electronic Equipment and Power Electronic Power Networks, the Hunan Provincial Engineering Laboratory of Power Electronic System Control and Optimization, and an EMC laboratory.

Over the past five years, the Department of Electrical Engineering has undertaken nearly 40 national-level research projects, including more than 10 key programs such as the National Key R&D Program of China, and projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation (including the Distinguished Young Scientist Fund, Major Program projects, Key Program, and Joint Fund projects). It has won more than 20 provincial and ministerial level science and technology awards (including 15 awards in the past five years, among which the First Prize of Natural Science of Hunan Province). The department has published over 300 SCI-indexed journal papers and been granted more than 200 domestic and international invention patents and software copyrights. A series of research achievements have been made in micro-grids, matrix converter systems and applications, dynamic detection and control of power harmonics, and electric traction systems and their fault diagnosis.

The department follows the leading edge of electrical engineering technologies and targets the major strategic demands of national scientific and technological development. Over the years, it has cultivated many outstanding undergraduate and graduate students and produced many well-known scholars and entrepreneurs. In recent years, the discipline has developed rapidly, forming stable research directions focusing on modern power electronics technology and its applications, power quality analysis and control, new power system control technologies, modern drive control theory and technology, and renewable energy generation and energy storage, with industry applications in electric power, metallurgy and mechanical processing, and transportation as the main characteristics.