Letter from the Editor in Chief

Being at IEEE ECCE in Cincinnati, OH a couple of weeks ago, significant emphasis was given to aircraft electrification as a general theme during the opening plenary talks. Industry leaders from GE Aviation, United Technologies Aerospace Systems, and NASA all emphasized ongoing and future efforts and plans for aerospace and aircraft electrification. In parallel with these outstanding efforts from key industrial and government players in this field, automotive has been seeing a significant electrification trend. In August 2017, CNN reported on a General Motors initiative to sell a purely electric two-seater car for approximately $5,300 in China. Earlier in July 2017, Volvo announced going all-electric or hybrid-electric in 2019. Several other automotive giants have been going the electrification route as well. Among the key enabling technologies being adopted for these initiatives are those based on innovations from members of the IEEE Transportation Electrification Community, whether in direct efforts or through fundamental research contributions. With electrification, however, comes many infrastructural needs, in addition to many reliability and safety considerations, and challenges for packaging, system integration, cybersecurity and networks, autonomous or semi-autonomous capabilities, and others.