Letter from the Editor in Chief

It is my pleasure to issue the fourth-quarter IEEE TEC eNewsletter for 2017. In this issue, we have a variety of articles that address different transportation needs. An article from OTIS focuses on human vertical transportation technologies; while we tend to think of transportation systems as standard vehicles, escalators and elevators are similar to trains, trams, and similar traditional transportation systems: people step into a shared room which stops at different destinations to load or unload. In fact, most of the high-rise buildings and other very large buildings would not be suitable for human occupation or use without elevators and escalators, especially to those of us who have limited mobility. 

With the trend of autonomous mobility, which is typically reliant on energy storage charging/discharging, an article discusses innovations in wireless technologies and distributed charging opportunities for ground transportation. This article introduces some of the concepts that will be discussed in more details in the March/April 2018 issue that focus on wireless charging, in addition to other topics. 

I would like to thank all our authors, reviewers, associate editors, and guest editors that have supported the TEC, its activities, and its eNewsletter over the past two years. I look forward to more high-quality contributions and articles to our 2018 issues. 

Sincerely, 
Ali Bazzi, Ph.D.