David,
The thing about electronics is that, today, it's such an immense field that EE's usually find an area they like and specialize in it. I get a slew of trade mags but I skip over half the stuff that doesn't pertain to my interests. ( being retired I can do that now!). I've done some work in magnetics so controllers and inverters aren't totally new to me, getting up to speed shouldn't be that tough.
Rob,
First off, I'm an ME with essentially no understanding of the EE world, so I''m the last one you should listen to regarding controller design. However, it seems everything you've covered in your post relates to understanding things in terms of schematics and the behavior of the components. What I've gathered from my time on this and other lists is that the physical layout of your controller is critically important. For example, different shapes and placements of bus bars can cause small differences in inductance that would be insignificant in any other application. But when you're handling 100s of amps, layout can mean the difference between running fine or blowing up.
The magic is in making a design that passes the simulator easily, then moving to a physical layout and asking yourself, "OK, where and how is this thing going to get weird?" Everyone who has done this seems to agree that you need to start with a coffee can. When it's full of smoked silicon, you're just about finished.
Best of luck on your journey. Here's hoping it goes as painlessly as possible. Or if failure is a necessary path to knowledge, may all your failures be high-yield.
Chris