Building on the succ
ess of participation in the Young Professionals (YP) social event and Women in Engineering (WiE) roundtable breakfast at this year's Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC) in March of 2022, PSMA continued efforts to increase engagement by participating in both events during the 2022 Energy Conversion Congress & Expo (ECCE) held October 9-13 in Detroit, MI. Aside from contributing participants and messaging to support event objectives, PSMA provided financial support as a full co-sponsor as part of a concerted outreach effort to promote diversity, inclusion, and early development in the industry.
The YP social event was held the evening of Tuesday, October 11, 2022, at the Grand Truck Pub not far from Huntington Place Convention Center, where ECCE was held. The event was co-sponsored by the IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS) YP group and the IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS) along with PSMA. As the photo shows, this was a standing-room-only event with lively discussions amongst the leaders in both academia and industry with many students and young professionals. Whether the young people were from the North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, or otherwise, the most interest seemed to be in seeking meaningful internships and/or interaction with industry professionals in a target area of focus.
The following morning, Wednesday, October 12, 20
22, started bright and early with the WiE Roundtable Breakfast held n the main hallway of the Huntington Place Convention Center. Unlike the free-for-all format of the previous evening's social event, this event was more structured with many tables each representing a different area of focus that were led by table leaders and mentors from the respective area. PSMA was represented by Greg Evans & Stephanie Watts-Butler supported the event. Several attendees coming to the PSMA table were not previously familiar with the organization and expressed gratitude for having this industry-focused component as part of the overall ECCE program to enhance their industry involvement, and hopefully help to accelerate their own careers. The participants also seemed interested to learn more about getting involved in PSMA activities and programs and were interested in learning more about APEC and other PSMA-sponsored/organized events.
In summary, this was PSMA's initial foray into the world of ECCE and it helped meet the key objectives of increased engaging with the next generation of power professionals. These outreach efforts made many aware of the numerous resources and programs provided be PSMA, and its vast, industry membership base. This was also a chance for PSMA to expand our engagement beyond the traditional focus of APEC and other PSMA sponsored events. ECCE has a far more academic audience than APEC, and the extra injection of industrial support and mentoring seemed to be well-received and even an unexpected boon to some. Hopefully, 2022 becomes the first of many years of events co-sponsored by PSMA and IEEE societies at key conferences (i.e. APEC & ECCE) providing opportunities for deeper engagement and collaboration between PSMA, its membership and most importantly, the pipeline of students and YPs that will eventually be running all these activities in the future.
Provided by Brian Zahnstecher, PSMA Industry-Education Committee Member