IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - March 2017 - 8

President's Message

by Alan Mantooth

Minding the Present
While Looking to the Future

t is my honor to take the reins of
the IEEE Power Electronics
Society (PELS) for the next two
years as Society president. I want to
begin by offering my thanks to outgoing President Braham Ferreira for
his service for the past two years.
He has done a great job and leaves
the Society moving forward effectively. Any incoming leader to an
organization has to be mindful of
the road that organization has traveled; while ensuring that the business of the organization is properly
handled, new initiatives are pursued, and proper strategic planning
for the organization is conducted. In
this way, I have often referred to the
role of the president as that of a
middle-leg relay runner in track and
field. The baton is passed on from
the previous runner and handed off
to the next one. In between, the current runner's job is to execute effectively (i.e., run as fast as you can)
and ensure a successful hand off to
the next runner.
I have taken the past few months
to give careful consideration to the
things that I want to undertake during
my tenure as president. Due to publication deadlines for this magazine,
I am writing this before I have taken
office; however, I would like to take
this opportunity to outline some of
my preliminary thoughts for the next
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2016.2643341
Date of publication: 7 March 2017

IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE

year. Of course, there may be additional initiatives that emerge through
conversations with you, the members
of our Society.

Ongoing Activities
As a result of consistently strong leadership, PELS finds itself in very good
shape in many important aspects
including financial, membership, publications, conferences, standards,
global participation, industry participation, and young professional programs. Our efforts in each of these
areas continue to lead to growth and
improvements. But this is no time to
be complacent. Our field is growing in
importance to many systems in our
world, and our Society must continue
to keep pace with these advances
while simultaneously offering value to
our members.
Our current technical committee
(TC) structure reflects changes the
Society instituted over the past five
years or so. As vice president of technical operations, I oversaw much of
that implementation. We now have
processes in place to rotate our leadership and involve more volunteers in
Society affairs. In general, we feel that
this is good for the Society and gives
greater opportunity for a wider range
of people to participate, grow their
network of peers, and cultivate future
leaders. Our TCs will continue to play
a vital role in strategic planning going
forward in addition to running their
normal affairs such as workshops,

 March 2017

symposia, transactions special issues,
and supporting our larger conferences
such as the IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition
and the IEEE Energy Conversion
Congress and Exposition. We do not
expect the TC structure to be rigid. As
our field is expanding, our technical
activities will also expand.
Our Society publications are at an
all-time high. We have several highly
regarded transactions that we participate in or own outright. Due to
the tireless efforts of our editors and
editorial boards, time to publication
is good, impact factors are outstanding, and everyone generally feels good
about their progress. The same can
be said of our conferences and workshops. Attendance is growing and reflects the growing interest in our various application spaces within power
electronics.
As outlined by Braham in previous columns, PELS has several new
initiatives that have resulted from
our strategic planning efforts over the
past couple of years. For instance, in
2016, we began new initiatives in humanitarian efforts, technology road
mapping, and education that are all
outcomes from recent strategic planning activities that the Society has
undertaken. Another area being investigated from a power electronic
systems perspective is cybersecurity.
The Society has an ad hoc committee
(continued on page 71)

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - March 2017