In the Voice of Governing Board Section, we are honored to present an informative article “What’s your membership level?” written by Miriam P. Sanders, IEEE Division VII Director. She found that many members are “not aware of grade or its benefits”. She focused on the benefits IEEE higher grades: Senior Member and Fellow grades. She explained the process of membership grade elevation. She also emphasized the value of serving as a referee in this process.

In this issue, we received an update of Region 10 activities from Dean Sharafi, Regional Representative, Asia, and Pacific. He presented briefly about some major events held during the first half of 2021, such as Distinguished Lecture Programs (DLPs), conferences, workshops, and webinars. He also updated about the key activities of IEEE PES Chapter Councils in Region 10.

PES Humanitarian Activity Committee (PES-HAC) updated about a panel discussion on Diversifying Leadership that was jointly organized by PES HAC and PES Region 9 Women in Power (WiP). The article also provides the updates on the First PES-HAC Congress to be held in October 2021 on a theme “Sustainable Energy for a Smart Future”.

Next, we have an update on PES Distinguished Lecturer Program (DLP). Recently Dr Jessica Bian delivered a DLP talk on a very timely issue “February Texas Blackouts and Grid Reliability”. The talk was organized by the PES SB Chapter at University College Dublin and PES SB Chapter at the University of Manchester (Link for the full recording).

We received detailed updates from different PES student branch (SB) chapters. Due to COVID-19 pandemic the events are mostly virtual but on various thematic areas. If you have not yet submitted the article describing your event, please submit the article as early as possible.

The RES Coordination Team of PES UFCG developed and implemented a web series PES RES for kids considering the isolation situation during the COVID-19. The members of the PES UFCG SB chapter also run a fund-raising campaign to serve the local community. PES/IAS Joint SB Chapter at IIT Mandi organized a virtual session on “Power Engineering Education in the Age of Climate Crisis” where Prof. Ned Mohan from University of Minnesota was the keynote speaker.

PES SB chapters in different countries are also organizing events in collaboration with their WIE Affinity Groups (AGs). A webinar was organized by Univ. of Moratuwa PES SB Chapter and its IEEE WIE AG on “Empower yourself as a Woman in Engineering” for celebrating women’s day 2021. Recently an event was organized by PES and WIE from IEEE UFF SB in order to raise awareness about female representation and leadership in STEM areas.

We received some exciting updates from newly established PES SB chapters. Right after the official inauguration in April 2021, the CEAL SB Chapter organized webinars on EV Technology and many other events in the areas of power and energy. PES Central University of Karnataka SB Chapter was formed in 2019 but organized more than 25 effective events from different categories throughout the year 2020.

I humbly request PES volunteers to submit articles in PES Enews containing a comprehensive description with relevant photographs (videos/links) of PES related activities/events/webinars/initiatives/achievements.

I wish you a safe life during this global crisis.

Shaikh Fattah, Ph.D. SMIEEE, FIEB
Professor, Department of EEE, BUET, Dhaka, Bangladesh
https://sites.google.com/site/drshaikhfattah/
E-mail: enewsupdatepes@gmail.com; s.a.fattah@ieee.org