Around 1,600 engineers from across the globe gathered at the Austria Center Vienna for the 39th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society from 11 to 14 November. IECON 2013, the world’s largest conference on industrial electronics was organised by AIT in cooperation with the Vienna University of Technology. “We are proud that we have succeeded in bringing this prestigious large-scale conference to Austria for the first time”, said Peter Palensky, AIT Principal Scientist and conference organiser. This year’s conference attracted a record number of participants from 80 countries as varied as Japan, Spain, the USA, Cameroon, Paraguay and the United Arab Emirates.
IECON 2013 placed a special focus on power electronics as a key component of tomorrow’s sustainable and efficient energy systems. A total of 1,400 presentations given in over 300 sessions highlighted different aspects of how industrial electronics can contribute to coping with current challenges in this field. The wide range of topics extended from the integration of demand response in smart grids, electric drives for road vehicles, photovoltaic systems and matrix converters through to modelling and simulation of cyber-physical energy systems. The specialist sessions were complemented by a selection of high-level tutorials by international top experts. An Industry Forum gave representatives from industry and research the opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences and to forge networks across scientific disciplines and industrial sectors.
“Looking back, it is clear that the conference was a great success”, Palensky said. “We received very positive feedback from the participants, who used IECON 2013 as a unique platform for networking. In addition, it strengthened Austria’s position as an international hub of expertise in the promising field of smart energy systems.”