A Letter from America

I spend a sabbatical year at University of Minnesota, working with profs. Ned Mohan and Bill Robbins. They are heavily engaged in revision of the way courses in power electronics and e lectric drives are taught. Mainly based upon this but al so on the initiative of prof. Werner Leonhard (see EPE Journal Vol 10 n2 2) and the EPE chapler conference on education , E = TeM2, on all the sessions and panel discuss ions on education at EPE and EPE-PEMe conferences. (at EPE-PEMe 2002 there will be a tutorial and a session including a panel discussion on education), I wou ld like (0 open for some debate. Power electronics and Electric drives, PE&ED, are commodities, There are no jobs in designing electric machines, Few students apply for courses in PE&ED, AI some universities in USA courses in electric machines and even power electronics are cancelled, Some European universities introduce Master programs in electrical power engineering taught in English to compensate for the reduction in thei r native student enrolment.