First IEEE PES Student Congress
Organized and hosted and by the IEEE METU Student Branch
By Uzay Kas, Congress Chair and Ceren Durmaz, METU Student Branch
IEEE METU Student Branch, IEEE Power and Energy Society and Middle East Technical University Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department organized the First IEEE PES Student Congress on August 29-31, 2014 at METU, Ankara, Turkey. The congress covered technical lectures, a fair, IEEE/PES non-technical workshops, both technical and historical field trips and was sponsored by domestic electrical companies. 40 students from 22 different countries and six speakers from five countries were together for three days and increased their professional network.
After the opening ceremony by Uzay Kas (Congress Chair), Frank Lambert (PES VP Chapters) and Prof. Gozde Bozdagi Akar (IEEE Turkey Section Chair), two sessions were delivered by Congress sponsors: Hüseyin Arabul, CEO of Emek Electric Industries and Timur Ketene, Business Development Director of BEST Transformers.
Later, participants visited the Anıtkabir Mausoleum and learned more about history of the Turkish Republic.
After the visit, all of the student chapters presented posters to share a wide variety of Branch activities.
Meliha Selak, IEEE PES Distinguished Lecturer, made a presentation on IEEE/PES Chapters program.
The day ended with a Gala Dinner.
The second day of Congress included the technical presentations by PES DLP lecturers.
After the lectures, students participated in a project management workshop, “Best Practices of Student Chapters”.
The day ended with a Multicultural Night where students present their traditional apparel, music, and food.
During the last day of the Congress, students visited a 154 kV, +/-50MVAr Cascaded Multilevel Based Transmission STATCOM at the Sincan Transformer Substation, the National Power Quality Monitoring Center General Directorate of Electricity Transmission Co. of Turkey and the Wind Electric Power Monitoring and Forecast Center, General Directorate of Renewable Energy of Turkey.
All of the participants and organizers are looking forward to the next PES Student Congress which is being planned for 2016.
Khalid M. Ahmed, a Congress participant via Facebook:
“The congress wasn’t only technical programs !!! ,,, but a chance to meet new people, see different traditions & cultures , sharing activities between different branches, discussing technical ideas, technical tours, career advancement, humanitarian work and tackling challenges with peers ,,,,
Don’t forget … having fun as well…. Gala Dinner