A successful, 3 day Regional Chapter Leadership Workshop and Technical seminar on Wind Power Technologies was organised in Stockholm, from 13th to 15th September, 2009. The conference was supported by IEEE IAS, IEEE R8, the Sweden and Norway Sections, as well as the industrial sponsorship from the Power Technologies Department, ABB Corporate Research in Västerås.

The event was hosted by the local IAS chapters in the Hilton Stockholm Slussen Hotel.

The Chapters belonging to the ”Power Group” Societies in R8 (IAS, IES, PES and PELS) were invited and the chairs or representatives of 19 chapters participated, accounting for 30% of the total R8 ”Power Group” chapters (65). With 8-10 participated chapters are the joined chapters from all “power” societies, and exemplary reflection as a true inter-society conference. The chapters represented 15 sections, which account for 43% of the total Sections involved in Power Group Societies, within IEEE Region 8.

On the first day, the conference started with a plenary presentation entitled “An online position error compensation method for sensorless IPM motor drives using high frequency injection”, by IEEE IAS President Dr Thomas Nandahl. The Chapter Leadership workshop was followed by some IEEE organizational overviews and inputs from Eng. Costas Stasopoulos, IEEE R8 Secretary, Dr Peter Magyar, IEEE R8 CCSC Chair, and Dr Tamas Ruszanyi, IEEE “Power Group” Coordinator. The workshop activities in the morning were drawn into a conclusion with an interactive “Q&A” discussion forum between IEEE representatives and the chapter representatives. All chapter chairs further presented their respective activities during the afternoon sessions, with further open and direct dialogue between all participants and representatives.

On the second day, a technical seminar on Wind Power Technologies was organized, which covers 13 interesting presentations by academic researchers and industrial experts from 9 countries, including Claus Madsen, head of ABB’s wind initiatives and country manager of Denmark. Topics ranging from system integration, grid access, energy storage, cable and the latest development in wind power generator are all covered.

On a lighter note, the traditional Swedish “Smörgåsbord” was served in the social dinner, with a sound feedback from all the international participants!

The conference was concluded on the final day with an excursion to the European Offshore Wind Conference and Exhibition. The visit certainly provided all delegates an extra dimension and exposure to the latest development in the ever-growing wind power industry.

Dr Robert Chin

Hereby you are invited to participate in the SWIFT 2009 (Skövde Workshop in Information Fusion Topics) October 12-13. SWIFT 2009 is part of the SASW 2009 (4th IEEE Systems and Software Week) October 12-15 held at University of Skövde, Skövde, Sweden (http://www.his.se/infofusion/sasw2009).

SWIFT 2009 offers an opportunity for practitioners from research and industry in the area of information fusion to gather and get a snapshot of the rapidly developing research field of information fusion. SWIFT 2009 provides an arena for discussion and reflection on new innovative ideas to contribute to the further development of information fusion. We are especially interested in creating an environment for discussing high-level fusion (i.e., for estimating situations and impacts) and similarities and differences between traditional and novel application areas. All articles are peer-reviewed and published in a proceeding.

Highlights of this workshop include:

Please turn to the PE/PEL section page to read more about this lecture to be delivered on September 3 by Professor Chen-Chin Liu, and moderated by Professor Lina Bertling.