Sponsored by IEEE UK & Ireland Section’s PES Chapter, a student presentation competition took place at the University of Birmingham on Thursday, 22^nd November 2018. The event was hosted by the Chapter’s advisor Professor Xiao-Ping Zhang and Chapter’s communications officer Dr. Jianing Li. It was aimed to develop critical thinking, innovation, communication and pitching skills for the students. Participants were required to do a 15 minutes oral presentation and 5 minutes question and answer session. Around 25 students and staffs from the university joined the event. All participants were given individual feedback from the three judges including Professor Xiao-Ping Zhang, Dr Dilan Jayaweera and Dr. Jianing Li.

The competition ended with one winner Mr. Daniel Donaldson and two tied runner-up Mr Jiajie Luo and Mr Zafar Khan, awarded with certificate and gifts. Mr. Donaldson gave a pitch on his research ‘Short Term Forecasting in the Age of Big Data’. His presentation provided a brief tutorial on techniques used to forecast electricity and what types of variables can be included to improve the accuracy of such forecasts. Mr. Luo gave a presentation about his research work on ‘Cost analysis and comparison between modular multilevel converter (MMC) and modular multilevel matrix converter (M3C) for offshore wind power transmission’ and Mr. Khan presented his research on ‘A smarter approach for demand side management using smart meter data’. Dr. Jayaweera provided individual comments on the performance of each participant.

Professor Zhang concluded the event at the end. Students were highly recommended and encouraged to stay as an active student member in IEEE especially PES chapter. Above all, the student presentation competition was a great chance for students to practice presentation skills, share research experience and receive professional development advises from the academic staffs. Much positive feedback was received after the event was ended.