Gridweek: IEEE PES program offers scholarships and hands-on experience to power engineers students

15 September 2011 Geoff Zeiss

I’ve blogged on multiple occasions, most recently here and here,  about the workforce challenges facing the utility industry in the world’s advanced economies.  At today’s Gridweek lunch session, Pat Ryan of the IEEE PES said that 50% of US power engineers will be eligible to retire in five years.  He referred to the 2009 IEEE PES Workforce Collaborative Report that made six recommendations for preparing the next generation of power engineers.  Two of the recommendations were

  • double the number of power engineering undergraduates
  • stimulate educational programs for power engineeering

DSC07132bc Today he announced the IEEE PES Scholarship Plus initiative to respond to these recommendations. IEEE PES is offering a program that includes scholarships, hands-on experience during university, and mentoring for power engineering students.  This is an additive program designed to complement other scholarship programs.  In the first year the IEEE PES plans to offer 94 scholarships, but intends to ramp this up to 1500 scholarships a year.

 

Geoff Zeiss

Geoff Zeiss

Geoff Zeiss has more than 20 years experience in the geospatial software industry and 15 years experience developing enterprise geospatial solutions for the utilities, communications, and public works industries. His particular interests include the convergence of BIM, CAD, geospatial, and 3D. In recognition of his efforts to evangelize geospatial in vertical industries such as utilities and construction, Geoff received the Geospatial Ambassador Award at Geospatial World Forum 2014. Currently Geoff is Principal at Between the Poles, a thought leadership consulting firm. From 2001 to 2012 Geoff was Director of Utility Industry Program at Autodesk Inc, where he was responsible for thought leadership for the utility industry program. From 1999 to 2001 he was Director of Enterprise Software Development at Autodesk. He received one of ten annual global technology awards in 2004 from Oracle Corporation for technical innovation and leadership in the use of Oracle. Prior to Autodesk Geoff was Director of Product Development at VISION* Solutions. VISION* Solutions is credited with pioneering relational spatial data management, CAD/GIS integration, and long transactions (data versioning) in the utility, communications, and public works industries. Geoff is a frequent speaker at geospatial and utility events around the world including Geospatial World Forum, Where 2.0, MundoGeo Connect (Brazil), Middle East Spatial Geospatial Forum, India Geospatial Forum, Location Intelligence, Asia Geospatial Forum, and GITA events in US, Japan and Australia. Geoff received Speaker Excellence Awards at GITA 2007-2009.

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