The year of continuing education

At the first IAS Congress, held in June 2001 in conjunction with the IEEE IAS Pulp and Paper Conference in Portland, Oregon, USA, one of the strategic issues discussed was the provision of more continuing education opportunities for our industrial members. Three action items related to continuing education opportunities were developed at the Congress: (1) develop technology-focused, regional workshops; (2) develop asynchronous continuing education products; and (3) restructure the IAS Education Department to focus on conference tutorials and asynchronous continuing education. The IAS conducts about 20 tutorials per year at its various conferences. Many of the approximately 11,000 IAS members never have an opportunity to attend an IAS conference, so they miss out on all of the conference tutorials. Many states now require continuing education credits for maintaining professional engineering licenses. Educational products that don’t require attendance at one of our conferences fall into the category of asynchronous continuing education. The IAS developed one such educational product this year in conjunction with the IEEE Power Electronics Society. This product is an introduction to power electronics. It was produced using a voice-over, Microsoft PowerPoint procedure and is available on CD-ROM. Other formats will be considered for future products. The IEEE Color Books, produced by the IAS Industrial and Commercial Power Systems Department, are candidates for future products. Electrical safety is another key area to be considered for future product development.