Message from the Conference Chairman

EPE 2001 - A meeting of friends

Ninth EPE Conference, Graz (Austria), August 27 - 29, 2001.

These simple data form fixed part in the time schedule of a community of people interested in power electronics not only from Europe
but from all over the world, and a great activity is going to take place. This conference will offer you more in a number of
innovations above the successful previous conferences in Brussels, Grenoble, Aachen, Florence, Brighton, Sevilla, Trondheim and Lausanne.

In the keynotes, top researchers from industry will present the most up-to-date information on new technologies, applications and components, and maybe enable us having a glance into the future. Markus Bayegan (ABB) informs about power electronics technologies for distributed power. Challenges and perspectives of electric drives in the automotive industry will be presented by Dieter Gerling (Bosch). The third keynote comes from Dietrich Stephani (SICED) on silicon carbide, on the threshold of new era in power electronics.

This EPE Conference will be the meeting place of professional people from industry and university, based upon the new record of more than 1100 synopses of very high quality which we received. Therefore, we expect more than 1000 engineers, decision makers, scientists and students from all over the world. For this 3-days conference the number of accepted contributions had to be limited onto 120 lectures presentation papers and more than 500 dialogue presentation papers.

You will also find a new form for the proceedings. In addition to the CD-ROM which holds the full papers at a minimal weight a comprehensive paper proceeding book will be handed out. One page per contribution enables a fast overview on the essential contents of every paper.

This time the exhibition is totally integrated into the conference. The exhibition booths are distributed in between dialogue presentation stands and the coffee break locations well beside the lectures halls enabling an excellent contact between exhibitors and attendees.

The conference take place in the Grazer Congress. Adjacent to the Town Hall and the Landhaus, located in the Old Town of Graz at the very centre of the town, this original old building with great ornaments  especially in the plenary session Stefanie Hall, the Chamber Music Hall and the main staircase offer splendid sight and a great environment for this EPE conference. The main hotels of the town centre are in an easy foot-walking-distance from venue.

A new record number of 15 tutorials selected out of more than 20 proposals are to be held before the conference on Saturday and Sunday. The will be lectured by top specialists in these fields. The tutorial locations are in the surroundings of Graz at interesting and marvelous places, we care for the bus transport from Graz. The attendees are being offered a sight-seeing directly after the tutorials. The nearby countryside is an excellent choice for vacation and recreation as well as for cultural activities and can be visited in guided tours of the accompanying persons programme. A post conference tour to the countryside of the day after the conference enables the attendees experiencing this recreational feeling without missing a scientific part of the conference.

Graz is situated in the south-east of Austria and can be easily reached by an international airport, but especially from the adjacent Eastern-Europe countries by car or railway, too. Therefore, the ninth EPE conference in Graz, located nearer to Eastern Europe than any EPE conference before shall be a symbol for the unification of Europe. We are convinced that this personal meeting of friends with common aims will be a success in the scientific field and in establishing we borders crossing co-operations.

Although being a residential town for some centuries Graz maintained its provincial and charming atmosphere. The Old Town of Graz now is a world's cultural heritage and worth visiting even without EPE conference. Renaissance buildings raise a Mediterranean feeling here, and the Provincial Armory with the world's largest collection of historical arms and body armor from times 400 years ago has an international reputation. The Venue and several hotels are in this historical circle.

Your are invited to visit the conference homepage http://epe2001.unileoben.ac.at for a detailed and continuously updated information of the scientific and social programme.

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to EPE 2001 in Graz. With your conference attendance, hopefully combined with some extra days for sight-seeing and recreation in Styria, you will be able to exchange scientific ideas, obtain information about new developments, proceed your business activities and confirm international friendship in charming and pleasant atmosphere.

Helmut Weiss

(Editorial, EPE Journal, Vol. 11 - N°2 - May 2001)

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