Facta Univ. Ser.: Elec. Energ., vol. 22, No. 2, August 2009, pp. i-ii

Guest Editor Preface

The special issue of the journal Facta Universitatis, series: Electronics and Energetics contains the papers present at

XVIth International Symposium On Electrical Apparatus And Technologies
S I E L A 2 0 0 9

held from June 4-6, 2009 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

The International symposium on electrical apparatus and technologies SIELA has started in 1971 as a symposium on low-voltage electrical apparatus. Later its range has been widened and now it includes several areas, covering practically all aspects of application of the electricity. It has been established as the major forum on electrical apparatus in Bulgaria where specialists from the academia and from many firms get together.

The symposium was traditionally held in Plovdiv, in the end of May- beginning of June. Until 1995 the symposium was held every three years and after 1995 – every two years.

During the symposium exhibition is organized.

The main organizers of the symposium are the Union of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications (CEEC) and the Technical University of Sofia.

This year’s edition of the Symposium was held from 4th to 6th June 2009 in Bourgas, Bulgaria, in the building of Bourgas Free University. The Symposium was supported by the Bulgarian State Agency for Information Technologies and Communications. Support was also given by the IEEE and VDE.

The Symposium topics were:

  1. Study, design, field problems and optimization.
  2. Materials and technologies.
  3. Low-voltage apparatus.
  4. High-voltage apparatus.
  5. Actuators and sensors.
  6. Power electronics.
  7. Transformers, electrical machines and drives.
  8. Electrotechnological processes and apparatus.
  9. Renewable energy and power quality.
  10. Monitoring and diagnostics.
  11. Informatics, computer science and communications.
  12. Business and marketing.
  13. Education and training.

A total of 77 papers were presented in 2 invited sessions (3 papers), 3 oral sessions (25 papers) and 2 poster sessions (49 papers). The authors of the papers were from 12 countries.

The three invited speakers were: Prof. Nathan Ida (The University of Akron, USA), Prof. Christian Magele (Graz University of Technology, Austria) and Ivelin Burov (Bulgarian Institute of Standardization, Bulgaria).

The total number of Symposium participants was 95 from the following 9 countries: Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Turkey and USA.

The official language of the Symposium, used in all sessions, was English.

The SIELA 2009 Symposium maintained its scientific level and was highly estimated both by the participants and by the organizers.

Acknowledgment

As the Guest editor of this issue, I would like to thank all the authors for their valuable contributions and reviewers for their hard work under a tight schedule.

Professor Ivan Yatchev
Guest editor
Sofia, Bulgaria