IEEE Conference on Power Electronics Specialists

IEEE Conference on Power Electronics Specialists
Name	IEEE Conference on Power Electronics Specialists
Abbreviation	PESC
Discipline	Electrical engineering
Organizer	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
First	1970
Frequency	Annual

IEEE Conference on Power Electronics Specialists is an annual technical conference focusing on power electronics research, development, and application. The conference brings together engineers, scientists, and technologists from leading institutions, corporations, and national laboratories to present advances in converters, inverters, control, and materials. It serves as a forum linking academic groups, industrial research centers, standards bodies, and government-funded projects.

History

The conference traces roots to early power electronics symposia where pioneers from General Electric, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Bell Laboratories, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Stanford University exchanged developments in semiconductor switches and magnetic components. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s the meeting featured contributions from researchers affiliated with Texas Instruments, Fairchild Semiconductor, IBM, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and CERN as the field expanded with the commercialization of thyristors, MOSFETs, and IGBTs. During the 1990s and 2000s collaborations involving Siemens, ABB, Schneider Electric, Mitsubishi Electric, and Hitachi shaped sessions on motor drives and renewable integration, while academics from University of California, Berkeley, Georgia Institute of Technology, Imperial College London, and Tsinghua University influenced theoretical frameworks and control algorithms. In the 2010s and 2020s, participation by delegations from National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Fraunhofer Society, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute reflected growth in wide-bandgap semiconductors developed by firms like Cree, Inc., Infineon Technologies, ON Semiconductor, and Rohm Semiconductor.

Scope and Topics

Technical scope covers power conversion technologies researched at institutions such as California Institute of Technology, Princeton University, University of Texas at Austin, ETH Zurich, and Delft University of Technology. Typical topics include semiconductor device physics from groups at Nanosys, thermal management reported by teams from Honeywell International, control theory advanced by scholars at University of Cambridge, electromagnetic compatibility studied at National Institute of Standards and Technology, and energy storage integration investigated by researchers from Argonne National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Systems-level sessions link work on electric vehicles from Tesla, Inc., aviation electrification from Boeing, grid interfaces researched at National Grid (United Kingdom), and microgrid design developed by Siemens Energy. Materials and packaging topics reference research by Dow Chemical Company, 3M, and Corning Incorporated.

Organization and Sponsorship

The conference is organized under the umbrella of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers technical committees, with steering input from committees connected to IEEE Power Electronics Society, IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, and regional sections including IEEE Region 1, IEEE Region 8, and IEEE Region 10. Sponsorship and exhibition typically involve corporations such as ABB, Schneider Electric, Infineon Technologies, STMicroelectronics, and NXP Semiconductors, along with funding or participation by national entities like U.S. Department of Energy, European Commission, Japan Science and Technology Agency, and National Natural Science Foundation of China. Local hosts have included academic organizers from McGill University, University of Toronto, University of Michigan, and Seoul National University.

Conference Structure and Activities

Program structure comprises plenary lectures by leaders affiliated with MIT Lincoln Laboratory, keynote addresses from executives at General Motors, panel discussions featuring staff from EPRI, and technical sessions sourced from peer review coordinated by committees including representatives from IEEE Standards Association, IEC Technical Committee 22, and SAE International. Activities include tutorials taught by faculty from Northwestern University, poster sessions with contributions from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, vendor exhibits by Keysight Technologies and Tektronix, and special sessions on topics championed by groups at National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems. Workshops and short courses often host educators from Carnegie Mellon University and Purdue University.

Notable Papers and Contributions

Seminal papers presented at the conference have addressed modulation strategies developed by researchers from University of Minnesota and Tokyo Institute of Technology, pulse-width modulation schemes refined by teams at University of Erlangen–Nuremberg, and control topologies influenced by work at University of Wisconsin–Madison. Contributions have included early demonstrations of multicell converters from Power Electronics Research Group (University of Nottingham), reliability analyses led by Sandia National Laboratories, and wide-bandgap device applications shown by groups from Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (Japan). Breakthroughs in digital control and real-time implementation have roots in collaborations involving National Instruments, MathWorks, and academic labs at University of Cambridge.

Awards and Recognition

The conference honors technical achievement through paper awards, best student paper recognitions, and committee citations often sponsored or named by corporations such as Infineon Technologies, Texas Instruments, and Siemens. Recipients have included members of professional bodies such as National Academy of Engineering, Royal Society, and awardees of prizes like the Eckart Preis and distinctions from IEEE Medal of Honor laureates who have given plenary addresses. Student travel grants and diversity awards have been supported by organizations including IEEE Women in Engineering, IEEE Young Professionals, and regional scientific foundations.

Attendance and Impact on Industry and Research

Attendance mixes academics from University of Southampton, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Monash University, and University of Tokyo with engineers from Ford Motor Company, Bosch, Panasonic, and startups spun out of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The conference influences standards and product roadmaps used by Tesla, Inc., Volkswagen Group, General Electric, and utility operators such as E.ON. Citations and technology transfer often trace back to collaborations involving DARPA, European Space Agency, NASA, and consortiums like GridWise Alliance, affecting curricula at universities like IIT Bombay and National University of Singapore while guiding R&D investments by corporations and national laboratories.

Category:IEEE conferences Category:Power electronics