IEEE Power Electronics Society: Growth is a goal

What do you get when you bring together the strategic minds behind electric automobiles, renewable wind energy, battery-operated toothbrushes, and the iPhone? Potentially a wind-powered car that both cleans your teeth and makes phone calls, but, more likely, a meeting of the IEEE Power Electronics Society, known as PELS. According to Tokyo Institute of Technology Professor and current PELS President Hirofumi Akagi, PELS was formed to "discuss issues of power electronics and keep members up to date" on the industry. One of the main events for all members is the opportunity to get together at the annual Power Electronics Specialists Conference (PESC), which is being incorporated next year into the Energy Conversion Congress and Expo (ECCE). In addition to this large gathering, the Society has various specialized committees with their own objectives. One of these vital committees is the Membership Committee, chaired by Dushan Boroyevich. Boroyevich, who is a professor at Virginia Institute of Technology, Blacksburg, first served in this position in the mid-1990s, then took a hiatus before returning in 2006 to chair the committee charged with increasing Society membership. "The plan of action is twofold," explains Boroyevich. "One goal is to devise plans which will attract new members by exposing to those working in power electronics the benefits of joining the society. The second is to promote activities within the Society so that current members will participate."