Top Experts Meet: Pilsen Hosted a Prestigious Power Electronics Conference with a Fifty-Year History

Nearly 200 experts in power electronics and drives gathered in Pilsen for the most significant event of this field, IEEE-PEMC 2024 conference, organized by the Faculty of Electrical Engineering UWB. Pilsen thus became part of the fifty-year history of this prestigious event, first held in 1970.

At the beginning of October, Pilsen became the center of cutting-edge research in power electronics and motion control for four days, thanks to the international IEEE-PEMC 2024 (Power Electronics and Motion Control) conference. This event, which first took place more than 50 years ago, is among the oldest and most prestigious conferences of its kind in the world. This year, about 200 experts from all over the world gathered at the Parkhotel Pilsen convention center to discuss technological innovations that impact everyday life - from new directions in research, development, and education to increasing the energy efficiency of devices and modern drive systems in industry and transport.

“It is a great honor for us to host such a prestigious event in Pilsen,” said the Conference Chairman and Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering UWB, Zdeněk Peroutka.

Conference participants had the opportunity not only to attend inspiring lectures and tutorials but also to take part in industrial excursions to Škoda Electric or the RICE research center. There was also great interest in the lectures by leading world experts on current and future societal challenges. For example, Johann Kolar from ETH Zurich in Switzerland presented visions of electronics for devices operating in extreme conditions, such as deep-sea mining or space exploration. The chairman of the PEMC board, Pavol Bauer from the Technical University of Delft, stated: “IEEE-PEMC conferences are a place where both academics and industry experts come together. This allows us not only to engage in professional discussions but also to share practical experiences and visions.”

The conference, which is organized every two years in a different European country, was last held in Brașov, Romania, and in 2026, it will take place in Tallinn, Estonia. This event contributed not only to the development of technologies that affect our daily lives but also confirmed the growing prestige of Pilsen, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, and the RICE research center as hubs of cutting-edge technology and innovation.