American University of Sharjah (AUS) hosted the Fourth International Conference on Electric Power and Energy Conversion Systems (EPECS 2015) on, Tuesday, November 24, 2015, at the university’s Main Building. The conference aims to bring together researchers, engineers and practitioners from all over the world who are interested in the advances of power systems, energy conversion, power electronics and electric drives.

Distinguished keynote speakers at the event included Professor Yoichi Hori from the University of Tokyo, Japan, and Professor Josep Guerrero from Aalborg University, Denmark, with both speakers taking a look at future trends in the field. Also present at the opening ceremony were Dr. Björn Kjerfve, AUS Chancellor; Dr. Leland Blank, Dean of Engineering; and other members from the AUS community including faculty and students.

Organized by the Department of Electrical Engineering at AUS, the objective of EPECS’15 was to provide scientific and professional interactions for the advancement of the electric energy field in the UAE and Gulf region. Recent development of complex systems such as distributed power systems, electric vehicles and traction systems, and renewable energy systems were also discussed.

Dr. Kjerfve welcomed the attendees to AUS and said, “We are pleased to host renowned experts who have come from near and far to share their work with us and to apprise us of the latest and future trends in the field.”

Dr. Blank also welcomed the attendees and briefed the delegates on the progress and upcoming developments at the university.

Since the first establishment of EPECS in 2009 at AUS, the 2015 conference compiled 96 submitted papers from 21 different countries, with 75 accepted papers and 61 presented papers.

The EPECS conference was established at AUS in 2009 as a follow up to the NSF Workshop that was organized in December 2005 in collaboration with the University of Central Florida. EPECS’09 and EPECS’11 were held at AUS whilst EPECS’13 was held in Istanbul, Turkey last year and was hosted by Yildiz Technical University.

Sponsors of the conference were Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) and the IEEE PES Society.