ver 60 PSMA members and guests attended the PSMA Annual Meeting, held at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, FL during APEC 2017.

The buffet breakfast before the meeting start provided attendees an opportunity for networking and meeting colleagues. Chairman Eric Persson officially opened the meeting by welcoming all the attendees and asked each to briefly introduce themselves. Among those present were many of the 40 recipients of the APEC Student Travel Support. This support is provided jointly by IAS, PELS and PSMA and attracted 130 applicants from 64 different schools in 21 countries.

The first item on the agenda was the election of four people to the Board of Directors. The following candidates were elected to the Board of Directors for the three-year term (2017-2020):

The attendees congratulated and welcomed Dhaval Dalal, Fred Weber and Brian Zahnstecher as new directors and director Alain Chapuis who was elected for his second terms.

The Chair recognized the contributions of Ernie Parker, Eric Persson and Steven Oliver whose terms as Directors had expired and expressed the appreciation of PSMA for their service and continued contributions to the Association. As provided in the Bylaws, Steven Oliver and Eric Persson will remain as members of the Executive Committee until their terms expire in 2018.

In the Chairman’s Report following the election, Eric Persson briefly reviewed some of the major accomplishments of the Association for the year including:

• The Association is financially sound and membership is growing
  
• There are increased activities in sponsoring workshops and working with IEEE PELS as technical and financial sponsors for workshops and events
  
• There is continuing cooperation and expanded partnership with CPSS
  
• Publication of the 2017 Power Technology Roadmap and Plenary Presentation at APEC 2017
• The Technical Committees organized 8 Industry Sessions at APEC 2107.
  

Eric discussed his vision for the Association going forward and encouraged all members to pick one or two of the Technical Committees and to participate in their activities as being the best way for people to increase the benefits of membership. He also focused on expanding PSMA cooperation with CPSS and EPSMA and encouraged the Technical Committees to increase their efforts to Support Webinars and Workshops that address emerging technologies and applications

Finally Eric also presented Special Recognition Awards to the following individuals for their contributions to the Association in the past year:

• Dhaval Dalal and Conor Quinn for their leadership as Co-Chairs of the 2017 Power Technology Roadmap.
  
• Doug Hopkins for his leadership as General Chair of the 3D-PEIM Symposium.
  
• Jose Cobos for his leadership as General Chair of the PwrSoC 2016 workshop.
  
• Matt Wilkowski for his overall leadership and contributions as Chair in organizing the second very successful Magnetics workshop.
  

Following the Chairman’s Report was the financial Report prepared by Michel Grenon, Secretary/ Treasurer. Since Michel was unable to attend APEC 2017, Joe Horzepa, Executive Director, reviewed the current financial status of the Association and presented the six quarter forecast. The financial status and outlook for the Association continues to be good with sufficient funds to support a number of Special Projects that can be of benefit of the membership.

Each of the PSMA Technical Committees presented a report. You can read more about these on page 3 of this issue.

Jonathan Kimball, General Chair for APEC 2017, provided an update on the overall conference which is expected to be a very busy and successful event. He recognized the efforts of the Organizing and Steering Committees and presented some summary statistics:

• 18 Professional Education Seminars
• 269 Exhibitors in the exposition
  
• 16 Micromouse competitors
  
• 574 Technical Papers in 8 parallel lecture sessions (312) and dialogue session (262)
  
• 120 Industry Session presentations in 4 parallel sessions
  
• 3 Rap Sessions
  

Eric Persson, Program Chair for APEC 2017 and General Chair for APEC 2018, reported that planning for APEC 2018 is well underway and will be held at the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center in San Antonio TX March 4-8, 2018. The Call for Papers is included in this issue of the Update and more information will be available in coming weeks.

The invited speaker at this year’s Annual Meeting was Dr. Keiichi Hirose, from the Data Center Business Unit of NTT Facilities, Inc. Japan, reviewed the benefits of a 380 VDC distribution system architecture compared to the AC and 48 VDC distribution system architectures commonly used in telecom and data center server system installations. He reviewed some recent installations and NTT’s plans to promote and replace existing AC and 48 VDC installations.

Before adjourning, Chairman Eric Persson asked the attendees for their comments and any suggestions for the future directions and activities for Association that would increase the value of membership. A number of areas were discussed and will be considered by the Board.

The minutes from the PSMA Annual Meeting have been posted in the Members Only area of the PSMA web site together with the charts from the presentations.

The Sunday prior to the Annual Meeting PSMA hosted a reception with members of the China Power Supply Society (CPSS). This provided a great opportunity for members of both organizations to network and discuss options and activities that will benefit members of both organizations over the next year. Several members of CPSS also attended the PSMA Annual Meeting.

The Annual Meeting, PSMA Committee meetings, as well as the technical sessions, seminars, Industry Presentations, exhibits and other events kept PSMA members busy all the week. The APEC social event, Little Havana in the Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park, gave everyone a chance to relax and enjoy themselves.

There was a full exhibit hall at APEC 2017. Many of the PSMA member companies exhibiting participated in a “Passport” game in which attendees who visited their booths had their passport booklets stamped. Attendees turned in their completed passports for a chance to win one of 2 prizes, an iPad mini and bluetooth headphones. Traffic to members’ booths was brisk and the lucky winners were very happy with their prizes.

The lucky Passport winners claim their prizes

If you or anyone in your company is interested in getting on the distribution list for future issues of PSMA UPDATE, please send e-mail to: power@psma.com. Be sure to include your name and the name of your company.