IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - March 2014 - 8

fig 2 All of the past PELS presidents gather with the current IEEE president, a rare moment in the Society's history.

eral scope of power electronics and
In addition, during the Novemwill be rotated primarily between
ber 2013 TAB meeting, we obtained
South America, the Pacific Islands,
TAB approval for our second-phase
and South Africa.
proposal for IEEE Transactions on
Likewise, in May 2013, we signed
Transportation Electrification (TTE).
an MOU for further
This approval has
collaboration with
secured our leading
It was a banner year
the Chinese Electrorole in the initiative
Technical Society
and will serve our
for our publications.
for joint membership
Society well in the
development
and
long run. TTE will be
further collaboration in conferences
launched in 2015 as a quarterly publiand in publications. PELS is further
cation. We will increase its frequency
expanding its operations overseas
as we go.
via collaboration with the Brazilian
Power Electronics Society, the SinExpanding Conferences
gapore Electrical Engineering SociOur conferences are continuing to
ety, the India Institute of Electrical
grow. In October, I personally delivEngineers, and the China Power Supered a keynote speech to help launch
ply Society, just to name a few. These
the very first IEEE Workshop on Wide
collaborations will further enhance
Bandgap Power Device Applications.
PELS' reach in all the regions of the
The workshop was organized by TC6,
world. Consequently, we now have a
led by Henry Chung, and the effort
total of five new student Chapters that
was led by Jin Wang and Longya Xu,
are being or are established in major
both from Ohio State University-
universities in China.
Columbus. The workshop went well,
Furthermore, we have sponsored
with more than 120 attendees reprefour major student activities at our
senting all of the major players from
major conferences, which include the
the device and circuits sides.
IEEE International Future Energy
In addition, we have made sigChallenge (IFEC), Solar Splash, Stunificant progress toward launching
dent Travel Grant, and Meet the Lumia South Power Electronics Confernaries. IFEC just finished its sixth seaence. The first organizer will be the
son. It is led by PELS and cosponsored
Brazilian Power Electronics Society
by the IEEE Industry Applications
for a meeting in May 2015. The speSociety, the IEEE Industrial Electroncific memorandum of understanding
ics Society, the IEEE Power & Energy
(MOU) is being finalized to quickly
Society, and the Power Source Manuput this organization in place. This
facturers Association. Past sponsors
series of meetings will cover the gen-

IEEE Power Electronics Magazine

z March 2014

included the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department
of Energy, and the U.S. Department
of Defense. The Solar Splash has been
an annual event since 1994. It attracts
more than ten teams internationally
to compete with solar-powered boat
designs. We are expanding the student travel program to include APEC,
ECCE, and COMPEL. The Meet the
Luminaries event is hugely successful in bringing senior members of the
Society together with students to offer
technical and career exchanges.

A Thriving Society
PELS is enjoying a healthy financial
outlook, with very strong reserves to
sustain operations for years to come.
We have balanced our budget in the
past decades, even during the subprime crisis of 2008, thanks to many of
my predecessors, our treasurers, and
our staff. It is worth noting that within
the 45 technical Societies and technical councils of the IEEE TAB, PELS is
known as an innovator, constantly
developing new ways of doing our
business in technical activities and
internal operations. Many of our activities are deemed best practices by our
colleagues, and many of our initiatives
are frequently joined or modeled by
our sister Societies.
Our Society support staff has
also grown. Early this year, we hired
Michael Markowycz as our point
(continued on p. 49)

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - March 2014