The next PELSS conference will take place in Kassel from August 21 to 23, 2024. Participation is open to doctoral candidates and enrolled students from all universities.
Accepted papers will be published in the IEEE Xplore research database. The conference will be held in English. Papers from 2022 can be viewed here.
This event is jointly organized by the IEEE PELS Swiss Chapter, IEEE IAS/PELS/IES Joint Chapter Austria, and the IEEE IES/IAS/PELS Joint Chapter Germany, .
The first IEEE DACH PhD Lectures took place on February, 28th, 2023.
Next Event is on Tuesday, December, 19th, 2023. Here you can find the invitation and agenda on the IEEE DACH PhD Lectures.
The next meeting of the German Chapter will be on 30th of November/1st of December 2023 in Kassel (also partly hybrid/online) in order to visit Fraunhofer IEE as well as SMA and Volkswagen. (for further details and registration see Invitation)
Here you can find information on the past Power and Energy Student Summit and the Power Electronics Student Summit (PESS & PELSS) Conference. Next PELSS conference will take place in Kassel from August 21. – 23., 2024.
Our recent Chapter Meeting in Presence took place subsequent to the EPE’22 ECCE Europe on 8th/9th of September in 2022 at the Leibniz University Hanover and at Komatsu Constructions.
There we visited KOMATSU in Hanover with the IEEE Joint IES/IAS/PELS German Chapter and participants of the EPE 2022. Together we had a lot of fun learning more about construction machines and their future electrification. Many thanks to the team of KOMATSU Hanover.
On 30th of June in 2022 our second online chapter meeting in 2022 took place via WebEx.
Our first Chapter Meeting in 2022 was on 3rd of March under the topic EMC in Power Electronicsagain as an ONLINE-Meeting via WebEx.
In 2021 we had 3 online Chapter Meetings:
On 3rd of November in 2021 our third online chapter meeting in 2021 and on Thursday, June 24th, 2021, our second online chapter meeting in 2021 took place also via WebEx.
On Thursday, March 18th, 2021, our first online chapter meeting in 2021 took place via WebEx. We counted up to 52 participants. Here you can find our (try of a) group photo in a new way.
The last meeting of the German Chapter on 5th of November 2020 was our first Online Meeting with approx. 27 participants.
IEEE Joint IAS/PELS/IES German Chapter meeting the Austrian Chapters in Innsbruck (Invitation)
Following joint meetings 2011 (Timmelkam) and 2013 (Graz), the Austrian and the German IEEE power electronics communities once again met for a joint meeting. This time, we met in Innsbruck in late October 2019, taking advantage of some warm and sunny late summer days, following an invitation to visit the newly established Innsbruck Power Electronics Lab (i-PEL) of Professor Dr. Petar J. Grbovic.
The first day held a visit to Innio Jenbacher GmbH & Co KG, a leading company in gas-powered combined heat and power units. At Jenbacher, we could see the production of the engines, which may have up to 24 cylinders and up to 10 MW power. Most of the components are finished manually, to achieve the high accuracy required for long-term reliable operation. These units are used for decentralized and very flexible power generation as well as UPS for data centers.
In the evening, the participants met at Stiftskeller restaurant in down-town Innsbruck for socializing until late.
The second day comprised the visit to the University of Innsbruck – Institute of Mechatronics, with different presentations, including presentation both by external speakers and by i-PEL. First, Prof. Clemens Zierhofer, Head of the Institute, presented the Faculty of Technical Sciences, its fields of competences, and the recent investment into electric engineering. As a matter of fact, a number of new professorships have been established, and new degree programs in Electric Engineering have recently started.
Then, Prof. Dr. Krishna Shenai, Distinguished Lecturer of IEEE PELS, gave an inspiring lecture on “Field-Reliability of Compact Power Systems.” First, Dr. Shenai reviewed different technology drivers of the information economy of the 20th century and of the ever increasing energy economy. He emphasized the need to develop miniaturized efficient power systems with “end-of-life” field-reliability to sustain the energy economy. Dr. Shenai then discussed the history and evolution of wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor devices, their potential impact on the development of high-density power conversion systems, the state-of-the-art of reliability assessment of power semiconductor devices by device manufacturers, and the expectations of end-use customers. He illustrated the design and manufacturing of reliable compact computer/telecom power supplies using advanced silicon and WBG power electronics switching devices with a mean-time-between-failure (MTBF) of one million hours, the requirement of today’s reliable internet infrastructure. Dr. Shenai emphasized the need to develop future power systems with similar reliability performances especially when used for smart grid and electric vehicle applications that demand robust power system infrastructures. Such development is challenged by the fragmentation of the power systems supply chains, as well as the high cost and unknown application-level reliability of WBG semiconductor power devices. In his presentation, Dr. Shenai also emphasized the need to update the curricula of power electronics in the various education systems to include reliability of both power system components and power converters, and to bridge the gap between power semiconductor devices and power electronics switching converters. The lecture was followed by a lively discussion between Dr. Shenai and the audience.
Prof. Petar Grbovic, also DL IEEE PELS, followed with a lecture on Power Converter Topologies. He outlined the risk to increasing system complexity by constantly aiming to invent new topologies. He emphasized the need to instead rethink the existing, well-known and well-established topologies to optimize their different performance criteria, using advanced devices, design techniques, and control
Prof. Annette Muetze (Head of the Austrian Chapter) and Prof. Gerd Griepentrog (the German counterpart) reported on the activities of the respective chapters.
The next meeting of the German Chapter will be on 5th/6th of March 2020 in Dresden in order to visit VEM Sachsenwerk GmbH, a manufacturer of special electric machines, and the Helmholtz research center Dresden-Rossendorf.
The next meeting of the Austrian Chapter will be organized around ISPSD 2020, which will be held in Vienna in May 2020.
Andreas Wagener – German Chapter, Vice Chair
In the Beginning of April on Thursday, 04/11/19 almost 30 members of IEEE Joint IAS / PELS / IES German Chapter met each other invited by the company Beckhoff Automation in Verl near Bielefeld. After a „come together“ lunch Mrs. Dr. Ursula Frank, Head of Project management and R&D, introduced the company in some facts and figures and pointed out the existing cooperation in R&D and in the field of STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics). Beckhoff in Verl is developing and producing products surrounding the Industry-PC (IPC) based manufacturing technology, from user panel over IPC and drives up to communication bus systems. There products contain also solutions for actual trends in voice control an Internet of Things. In addition, Mrs. Dr. Frank pointed out the cooperation in five different apprenticeship study courses together with the University of Applied Sciences in Bielefeld.
After this global introduction three product managers gave the attendees a survey on several fields of their business: Challenges in analog based industrial technique of measurement, optical measurement technique, real-time-communication and condition monitoring in customer installations.
The following coffee break inside the show-room of Beckhoff gave the guests an impression on the extensive product range of the hosting company.
Subsequent a bus brings the attendees to a recently new constituted manufacturing site and storage for Beckhoffs’s PCB parts. The IEEE members got ESD clothes and after that an introduction and guidance along the assembly process of the PCBs for all products of Beckhoff from local staff representatives. The need of long-term storage for electronic parts and the high degree of individualization and automation in process of assembly as well as for quality check is distinctly and visibly. The guests pass a whole manufacturing line (one of them) in the new building and there is capacity for several more assembly lines in future.
Afterwards we move to Bielefeld for the evening program and visit the local fortress – the Sparrenburg located above the city center. In a very lively guidance tour through the casemates we get an insight into the daily work of former knights who served for defense of the fortress. The evening ends in a convivial atmosphere in a local brewery.
The following day, the chapter members met at the University of Applied Sciences Bielefeld invited by Prof. Bünte. There, the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Mathematics welcomes the participants and gives an overvie of the focal points of the department, which is characterized by a strong network of 170 (!) surrounding medium-sized companies and contribute to a high practical relevance of study courses and offered content also.
Prof. Ingo Hahn reported from the Germany Section on current developments of the IEEE in Germany and after it Dr. Peter Magyar gave a historical review on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Chapter and in the course of this also hands over certificates to active chapter members and representatives.
This is followed by three interesting lectures on various research areas in the fields of drive technology, renewable energies and automation by representatives of the university department. A joint lab tour completed the successful morning program at the university. Finally, the participants said goodbye after joint lunch catering for the weekend respectively see you again at the upcoming chapter meeting in autumn 2019.
Alan Mantooth, President of the IEEE PELS society and Distinguished Professor at University of Arkansas gave an impressing presentation at the TU Darmstadt, Germany, on November 27th.
With bandgap power semiconductors such as SiC or GaN transistors entering the application arena the power electronics community has to tackle high frequency issues in the design and layout of the package and the joints. With the capability of WBG semiconductors to switch within a few nanoseconds, we have to optimize our systems up to a couple of 100 MHz.
Alan gave an impressing talk and insight into his research activities conducted in Arkansas, US. This covers 3D modelling of electrical and thermal behavior in order the increase power density and efficiency. The most impressing part of his presentation was the introduction of PowerSynth, a tool which pretty much supports and accelerates the design of power electronics systems with an incredible speed.
We thank Alan for joining us and wish all the best to him and his colleagues over in Arkansas.
Einladung Chapter Meeting 11_2018
In a typical all grey Novenber setting the active members of the chapter onece again gathered in the middle of Germany.
Host was LTI Motion in Lahnau where we have been invited by Dr. Stephan Beinecke, Head of R&D at LTi Motion.
Dr. Beinecke gave a brief overview over the history of LTi, founded in 1971 bei Karl-Heinz Lust as Lust Antriebstechnik GmbH. In the 1980ies frequency converters where developped. in the 90ies servo drives where added. 2007 the company was renamed LTi motion. In 2013 the compay was sold into the Körber goup.
Latest trends in servo drives moved from perfectiong motor control to motion control of single and multiple axes and now safety.
Technical presentations of the meeting where about high-pseed high-power drives using magnetic bearings by Prof. Dr. Mink and mechatronics systems at LTI by Christoph Riedmann. Frederic Blank, LTi presented about trends in DC-industry. Plus of course – we had a chance to visit the labs and the production.
The evening held a special highlight: the visit to the Justus Liebig historical lab at the University of Gießen with an experimentla lecture taking us back into the time when Liebig invented chenistry as a science in Gießen in the fisrt half of the 19th century.
On Friday we had a chance to get a first hand impression of the reseach in the area of electric engineering at the THM, Prof. U. Probst. Presentations here where about ion drives for sattelites (C. Roessler, THM), battery manangement for electric drives (T Happeck, THM) and optical methods to asses nono surfaces (M. Nickel, THM). Plus of course, again a visit int he labs of the THM.
