Grainger CEME

One hundred sixty-six attendees, hailing from 52 universities with 13 from industry, came from the Midwest, across the US, and as far away as Canada, Finland, France, India, Japan, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia to attend the tenth annual IEEE Power and Energy Conference at Illinois (PECI) (February 28–March 1). This student-focused, student-led and organized conference featured 33 conference paper presentations, an undergraduate poster session, four keynote speakers, two in-depth technical tutorials, an alumni panel discussion, industrial presentations by power utilities and technology companies, a young professional event, and tours of Abbott power plant and local research facilities.

PECI 2019 centered on the theme, “Securing a Reliable, Low-Carbon Energy Future.” The four keynote speakers spoke on: career as a system operator (Dr. Robin Podmore, IncSys), synthetic electric grids (Prof. Tom Overbye, Texas A&M University), grid modernization and innovation (Dr. Aleksi Paaso, ComEd), and electrostatic machine design (Prof. Dan Ludois, The University of Wisconsin-Madison).

ComEd, Ameren, IAS (IEEE Industry Application Society), PowerWorld, IEEE PELS (Power Electronics Society) Young Professionals, and IEEE Central Illinois Section contributed financial support; Plexim provided gifts in kind: licenses; the ECE Power Affiliates Program and Grainger CEME were research supporters; and NSF funded student travel based on the following criteria: Women, minorities, and undergraduates from schools not offering a PhD.

The NSF funding goal is to encourage undergraduates and early career graduate students to attend, network, find mentors, and get feedback on their research progress. Eighty-four percent were women or minorities, including 44 non-authors from 27 different universities and three students from the Navajo Technical University. Feedback from awardees indicated that many were planning to submit papers or posters for PECI 2020.

PECI 2019 Highlights

Keynote speaker Tom Overbye delivering a memorial lecture focused on the work of Ti Xu, a former PECI Co-Chair

Professor Ali Bazzi, who pushed for and worked to make PECI 2010 happen, attended by video from Lebanon to recount PECI history and welcome 2019 attendees

IAS President Georges Zissis awarded 10th anniversary certificates to PECI 2019 Co-Chairs Adriano Lima Abrante and Siddhartha Nigam

Alumni panel members discuss their career choices

Post-doc Olaolu Ayala chaired the technical session: Emerging Issues in Power Systems

A tour to Abbott power plant, the University’s main power supplier on campus

Poster session explanation

Vitalik Ablaev’s tutorial: PLECs and In-the Loop Testing of Power Electronics Systems

Best poster award to Pria Donti from Carnegie Mellon University

The PECI organizing committee for 2019. Each year PECI depends on team members from previous years to help make every PECI run smoothly

Young Professionals Social event after the banquet with soda, snacks, board games, and prizes