A new IEEE Student Branch Chapter of the Power and Energy Society (PES) and of the Industry Application Society (IAS) has been recently established at UK following a formal process initiated last fall by a group of enthusiastic undergraduate and graduate ECE and PEIK students. The chapter was approved by the IEEE international organization in late December and started its activities at UK in the current spring semester.
The newly elected executive committee members of the student chapter, who were photographed after the 2020 E-Day at UK, are: Evan S. Jones, Damien Lawhorn, Rosemary Alden, Oluwaseun Akeyo and Huangjie Gong (left to right). Dr. Dan M. Ionel, IEEE Fellow, ECE Professor and L. Stanley Pigman Chair in Power, SPARK and PEIK Director, serves as the faculty advisor. Together with other members of the chapter, the students directly supported the stands and demonstrations of PEIK and LG&E-KU, which attracted record attendance. In addition to active participation in outreach initiatives, the students also plan other events for professional development and networking with the wider engineering community.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) is the world's largest association of technical professionals with more than 400,000 members worldwide. At UK, the new PES and IAS Chapter further develops the tradition of the IEEE Student Branch that has been very active and successful for many years and reflects the growing number of students and the strong interest in electric power engineering.