The 2018 IEEE International Conference on High Voltage Engineering and Application (ICHVE 2018) was organized by the National Technical University of Athens–Greece and endorsed by the IEEE Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society. The conference, chaired by Ioannis Gonos and co- chaired by Ioannis Stathopulos, Jian Li, and Nicolas Younan, was held in Athens, Greece, September 10 to 13, 2018, and was the fifth of a series of successful conferences (Chongqing, China: 2008, New Orleans, USA: 2010, Shanghai, China: 2012, Poznan, Poland: 2014, and Chengdu, China: 2016).
The 406 participants from 31 different countries had the opportunity to attend 32 oral sessions and 8 poster sessions and get acquainted with the trending high voltage research in over 190 presentations. The main research areas covered by the conference papers were electromagnetic fields, transients and EMC, aging, space charge and maintenance, grounding systems, monitoring and diagnostics, power and industrial applications, HV insulation systems, and HV testing and measurement. Out of the 475 full papers received, the International Scientific Committee accepted 394 papers for publication in the conference proceedings.
The opening ceremony included welcome speeches from Evangelos Sapountzakis (vice rector of the National Technical University of Athens), Nektarios Kozyris (dean of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, and chair of the IEEE Greek Section), and Bill McDermid, (former DEIS president and present DEIS treasurer) as well as a tribute speech in memory of Stan Grzybowski by Nicolas Younan of Mississippi State University. During the ceremony, the winners of the newly established Caixin Sun and Stanislaw Grzybowski IEEE Award presented their awarded work. During the keynote session, emerging fields of interest in high voltage research, such as medium and high voltage DC breaking technology, the recent advances on high voltage overhead lines and streamer dynamics, and DGA of natural ester insulation oil, were presented.
The attendees were welcomed at a reception held at the Divani Caravel Hotel during the evening of Sunday, September 9. The conference schedule included evening events in the center and outskirts of Athens, such as a dinner at the Hellenic Motor Museum, a visit of the Athens Concert Hall (Megaron), and a dinner event at Ribas Riviera in Varkiza. The private excursions provided the attendants with the unique opportunity to visit magnificent sightseeing destinations of Greece. The Athens City Tour and Acropolis Museum visit, the Cruise to the Islands of the Saronikos Gulf, the travel to Cape Sounio, and the all-day tour to Epidaurus and Mycenae were the perfect opportunity to discover the striking contrasts that make Athens such a fascinating city.
The 10 recipients of the highly regarded Best Student Award were announced by ICHVE 2018 Chair Ioannis Gonos and Stanislaw Gubanski during the conference closing ceremony followed by a brief presentation by Jinliang He about the next ICHVE destination in 2020, Beijing, China.
The conference organizers are sincerely honored by the support and contribution of all the participants, the organizing committee, and the volunteers who made this memorable experience possible and would like to invite everyone to the next stop of the ICHVE journey in Beijing.
Ioannis F. Gonos
Conference Chair
