The IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) Bangladesh Chapter has recently launched a new event series: Lead the Young Leader (LYL) with Technology Beyond the Border. The IEEE PES Bangladesh Chapter, in collaboration with IEEE SSIT Bangladesh Chapter, IEEE International Islamic University Chittagong PES SBC, IEEE BUET PES Student Branch Chapter, IEEE BRAC University PES Student Branch Chapter, IEEE Green University PES Student Branch Chapter, IEEE Power and Energy Society Rajshahi University SBC, IEEE East West University Student Branch, IEEE Stamford University Student Branch, and IEEE University of Rajshahi Student Branch, successfully organized the 3rd LYL series webinar titled “Electrical Vehicles for a Sustainable Society”, which started on September 30th, 2021 at 7 pm (GMT+6). The webinar speaker, Dr. Lina Bertling Tjernberg, has been a Full Professor in Power Grid Technology at KTH—the Royal Institute of Technology—since 2013. The webinar was moderated by Dr. Shaikh Fattah, Vice-Chair, IEEE PES Bangladesh Chapter (BDC) and Professor, Department of EEE, BUET. Md. Maisoon, Chair of the IEEE BUET PES SBC, welcomed the participants and discussed the rules and regulations, as well as the etiquettes that should be observed throughout the webinar.

Lina Bertling Tjernberg (Docent, Ph.D., MSc.) is a Professor in Power Grid Technology at KTH—The Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. She is Director of the Energy Platform, which coordinates and supports multidisciplinary research initiatives within the energy areas, and is the coordinator of lifelong learning at the school of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at KTH. She received the 2021 Power Woman of the Year award from Energy Minister Anders Ygeman for her work and a “strong force and guarantor of more equal skills provision in today’s and future sustainable energy systems”. Her research and teaching are focused on applying mathematics (e.g., statistics, optimization, life cycle assessment) to predict and model reliability and the impact of maintenance efforts for various electric power system applications. The research interests include future technologies (e.g. microgrids, battery storage, wind/solar), designs, and operation of the power grid, including electrified transportation.

Dr. Lina Bertling Tjernberg’s speech was based on how electric vehicles (EVs) are helpful for a sustainable society. She briefed about EV challenges and solutions as well as overall goals. She also gave a few examples related to EVs. She especially stated the situation in Europe and described the EV for sustainable development from a European perspective. Her speech also included plug-in electric vehicles (PEV). She addressed PEVs as a subset of electric vehicles. Dr. Lina Bertling Tjernberg also highlighted some statistics so that we could understand the current EV situation and its challenges. She also discussed why EVs are the leading technology for a sustainable society. European green deal calls and the European battery alliance were mentioned in her talk. She also gave examples of important projects and incentives like tax benefits for EVs in Europe. She mentioned the car race in 2011 where all the cars had environmental technology. She emphasized that investing in the R & D sector is needed for EV industry growth. From her talk, we came to know that the automotive industry is undergoing a massive electrification program and a new battery industry along the value chain is under development. She concluded her talk by mentioning the “EU Fit for 55” program. Through this virtual webinar, the participants got a chance to learn about these topics briefly and their aspects. Finally, the webinar came to an end with a question & answer session. Our keynote speaker, Dr. Lina Bertling Tjernberg answered our questions and cleared our doubts very nicely.

Some effective speeches were delivered by some of the honorable professors from different universities:At the end of the webinar, Prof. Celia Shahanaz, WiP R10 Representative and immediate past Chair of the IEEE Bangladesh Section; Prof. Moshiul Hoque, Chair of the IEEE Bangladesh Section; Dr. Md. Mosaddequr Rahman, Chair of IEEE PES BDC; Mohaimenul Islam, Secretary of IEEE PES BDC; and Mr. Redwan Farhan, Treasurer of PES BDC, expressed their wholehearted gratitude towards the honorable speaker and all the participants for their valuable participation in the webinar. The hosts, Md. Maison, concluded the session by thanking all the respected speakers, guests and audiences. There were more than 80 participants from more than 50 universities and many honorable participants who joined this webinar from all over the country.