Society News Encouraging students and Young Professionals S tudents and young professionals are vital members of the IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS). While some may say they are "the future," in reality they are also the present. With over 2,000 students and young professionals in PELS, this group of young engineers accounts for about 25% of PELS membership, and it continues to grow. Consequently, PELS greatly values |the contributions of the younger members and aims to support them in their development. In the past several years, there has been tremendous growth in activities focused on networking and career development of PELS students and young professionals. The Dinner with a Luminary event at the 2014 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC) brought well-known, experienced members and young members together to share a meal and engage in conversation. One young participant commented, "I liked how willing and enthusiastic the luminaries were to get to know us and to engage us." Receptions held at the 2013 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE) and APEC 2014 (Figure 1) provided an informal environment to connect with PELS officers and industry veterans over food and drinks. Attendance at these events ranged from 50 to 100 Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2014.2315312 Date of publication: 20 June 2014 fig 1 Several industry veterans shared their insights and advice with PELS students and young professionals at a reception held during APEC 2014. fig 2 The PELS students and young professionals visited Texas Instruments' Richardson Fabrication facility and Kilby Laboratories during APEC 2014. participants. Young members also toured Texas Instruments' Kilby Laboratories and Richardson Fabrication facility during APEC 2014 (Figure 2). The PELS Students and Young Professionals Committee is planning to expand these activities globally. One effort is focused on bringing similar events to major conferences June 2014 outside North America. The first will be ECCE Asia 2014 in Japan, and the second will be ECCE Europe 2014 in Finland. These conferences offer a unique opportunity for face-to-face interaction for members located in various regions of the world. Another effort has been to reach out to all student and young professional z IEEE PowEr ElEctronIcs MagazInE 29