Event Review: IEEE PES UK&I Chapter Annual General Meeting
On December 5, our IEEE UK and Ireland Power and Energy Society Chapter held its 2023 Annual General Meeting at the University of Birmingham in its fantastic building “The Exchange”. The welcome words were on charge of Prof. Theodoros Arvanitis, Chair in Digital Health Technology & Head of Department of Electronic, Electrical & Systems Engineering/School of Engineering at University of Birmingham. He also delivered a superb presentation called “Team Science for Impactful Transdisciplinary Research & Innovation” talking about multicentre initiatives intended to foster collaborative research promoting cross-disciplinary participation not only among health scientists but all Engineering / Science branches.
During the morning we were honoured by Professor Xiao-Ping Zhang with the talk “Energy Quality: Why Does It Matter?”. Prof. Xiao-Ping Zhang is IEEE Fellow, IET Fellow, Director of Smart Grid, Birmingham Energy Institute and Head of Electrical Power & Control Systems Group at University of Birmingham. In this talk, Prof. Xiao-Ping explained the role of ‘energy quality’ after the impact of the massive penetration of renewable energy into power systems.
As is customary during an Annual General Meeting, all internal matters of the Chapter were reviewed with presentations from different Chapter officers and SBCs representatives. The most emotional moment of the day took place during the Awards Ceremony where we had the opportunity to present the plaques to the winners in the following categories:
- Best PhD Thesis Competition Award 2023: Dr Zhongda Chu
- Outstanding Engineer Award ( < 15 Years): Dr Daniel Donaldson
- Outstanding Engineer Award ( > 15 Years): Dr Vahid Vahidinasab
- Outstanding Volunteer Award: Dr Angeliki Loukatou (Kelly)
Finally, we had the opportunity to celebrate the Outstanding Chapter Award (OCA) received this year for the activities carried out during 2022. Plaques were given to Jianing Li – Chair, Eduardo Audiche – Vice-Chair, Jelena Ponoćko – Treasurer and Lee Crudgington – Secretary.
Many thanks to the whole PES SBC committee at University of Birmingham for helping us organising this event and special recognition to Dr Daniel Donaldson and Dr Nan Chen for their support and hard work in making this event a success. I also take this opportunity to thank all the IEEE Power & Energy Society volunteers who make this Chapter so special. This year alone we have carried out more than 43 activities (including 9 DLPs), which is a great success. I am very proud of this team, their commitment and skill are exceptional. The synergy created by their collective efforts has been a driving force behind our achievements. We did very well this year, but we are preparing to do even better in 2024.
All the best,
Eduardo Audiche
IEEE UK and Ireland PES Chapter Chair
