Student chapter of IEEE Power & Energy society starts off strong

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) – the world’s largest technical professional organization for the advancement of technology for the benefit of humanity – includes the field of power and energy as part of its mission. That’s why there is also an IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES).

IEEE PES currently has about 37,000 members worldwide, but the Binghamton University IEEE PES student chapter was established just a few years ago.

Thanks to Shahrokh Akhlaghi, the Binghamton University IEEE PES student chapter has started off strong. An electrical and computer engineering PhD student, Akhlaghi has served as the chair of the student branch since 2015, working tirelessly to build up the Binghamton chapter.

During the 2016-2017 school year, he organized 17 different activities including five technical meetings, four education meetings, three professional meetings, two picnics, a museum tour and two administrative meetings. More than 400 people attended these events, including more than 200 current IEEE members.

For all this effort, Akhalghi was recently awarded the 2017 IEEE Region 1 Young Professional Award, beating out young professionals from across the Northeast. The committee awarded him the honor for starting the first IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) student chapter at Binghamton University and for restarting the IEEE Young Professionals (YP) Affinity Group.

The Binghamton University IEEE PES student chapter was also recognized with the Region 1 Exemplary Student Branch Award.

With over 1,500 student branches at colleges and universities, the network for IEEE PES student chapters is quite large. Student members have the opportunity to participate in conferences, workshops, scholarships, design projects and more.

Hard work undoubtedly led to Akhalghi being recognized by his peers as well when they selected him as the Student of the Year for the Binghamton IEEE PES for all the hard work he has put into building up the IEEE PES and IEEE YP chapters.

There’s a bright future for the Binghamton University IEEE PES and IEEE YP.