SMA created a mentorship program for APEC 2023. For APEC 2024, IEEE IAS & IEEE PELS joined in partnership to support and expand the mentorship program. Consequently, 26 students signed up for the mentorship program, and 21 unique mentors were matched to these student mentees (some mentors had more than one mentee).

The mentorship program has six major objectives:

1. Take advantage of APEC
2. Explore career options & directions
3. Promote self & network (socially)
4. Meet subject matter experts
5. Introduce activities & events for PSMA, IAS & PELS
6. Have fun along the way

Each mentee receives a mentorship workbook with three separate phases:Pre-APEC, APEC, and Post-APEC each containing multiple suggested activities.

To encourage mentees to try activities and attend events that they normally may be reluctant to try, they received points. The students had to take the initiative to accumulate the most points. Congratulations to the winners for APEC 2024:

• 1st Place (Apple iPad): Yijie Qian, Southeast University, China
• 2nd Place (Apple AirPod): Harish Karenddi, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India
• 3rd Place (Noise Cancelling Headphones): Shubhangi Gurudiwan, Utah State University, USA

Additionally, some mentees nominated their mentors for recognition:

• Alfonso Martinez-OpenMagnetics
• Andres Arias – Premier Magnetics
• Cian O'Mathuna/Michael Hayes – Tyndall National Institute
• David Chen – Power Integrations

Thanks to these outstanding mentors and all other who volunteered to guide our next generation of engineers!

PSMA is actively working to improve the mentorship program for APEC 2025. First, we have updated the mentorship workbook by adding a "purpose" column, aiming to better motivate students by helping them understand the benefits of each activity. Second, we are simplifying the prizes to facilitate international distribution. Third, we will actively recruit more international mentors, especially from Asia, to better match the student distribution and address social and cultural aspects in mentoring. This is just a summary of our mentorship efforts. Consider joining the PSMA Industry-Education Committee to help shape the mentorship program going forward.

Interested in becoming a mentor for APEC 2025? Contact mentors@psma.com.

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.