The IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS) has named the joint student chapter of the Power Electronics Society, Power and Energy Society and Industry Applications Society (IEEE PELS-PES-IAS) at Texas A&M University its 2012 “Outstanding Student Branch Joint Chapter.”

This award is given to IEEE student chapters affiliated with two or more IEEE Societies, and is competed for by joint student branches across the globe. This award recognizes the Texas A&M IEEE PELS-PES-IAS joint student branch as one of the best organizations of its kind worldwide, and reflects the excellence of the Power Systems and Power Electronics program at Texas A&M.

The IEEE PELS-PES-IAS joint student branch provides professional preparation and professional networking opportunities to Texas A&M students interested in Power Systems, Power Electronics and related fields, with numerous opportunities to learn about the latest technology in the field. This award recognizes the tremendous growth in student membership and activity over the past year, which included site visits to several operating power plants, a nuclear reactor, the Toshiba International Corporation (TIC) manufacturing facility, Houston, as well as invited seminars, tutorials and recruiting events from numerous firms, including Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory and the US Department of Energy.

In addition to the chapter award, several individual members have been recognized for their recent accomplishments. Ilaval Manickam, who graduate in 2012 with a master’s degree was awarded the 2013 IEEE Region 5 Individual GOLD Member Achievement Award.  Mohammad Shadmand, now a PhD student at Texas A&M, was awarded 2nd place in the 2013 IAS CMD Graduate Student Thesis Contest for his MS thesis “A Design-Oriented Framework to Determine the Parasitic Parameters of High-Frequency Magnetics in Switching Power Supplies using Finite-Element Analysis Techniques” which he performed under the supervision of Professor Robert S. Balog.

This chapter accepts new members. For more information please visit the Texas A&M IEEE PELS-PES-IAS website at ieee-powerengineering.tamu.edu.

IEEE Joint Student Chapter at TAMU planned for a one-day technical tour to visit Toshiba International Corporation (TIC), Houston, TX. We made it exactly after finals on May 09 2013, so both undergrad and grad students were able to make it. This tour was organized for 50 students. A bus came to in front of Wisenbaker's main entrance at 07:30 morning to pick up students. We were at Toshiba's site at 09:30 am. There was a one-hour presentation of Toshiba's growing activities by their HR staff (Stacy), followed by presentation of four managers in "Power Electronics Plant", "Motor Plant", "Control Plant" and "Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) Plant". Lunch was served at 11:00 am. The technical tour of the mentioned plants was started at 12:00. The students were divided into four groups visiting relevant plants. All groups finished their visits at 4:00 pm and we started leaving the company and Houston at 4:00 pm. Close to College Station, we faced with a heavy rain and lightning. The students left the bus at 05:40 pm in front of Wisenbaker's main entrance and the tour was successfully finished.

Smart Grid Workshop at Texas A&M University, April 17, 2013.

The workshop organized by the Smart Grid Center, part of the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES), and faculty members in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University. Joint student branch leaders participated in the workshop and introduced the chapter activities to the workshop attendees.

Relay Conference at Texas A&M University, April 8-April 11, 2013