Empowering Diversity and Inclusion: The WIE Session at WPTCE2024 [Women in Microwaves]

The Women in Engineering (WIE) session was successfully held on 10 May 2024, at the Uji Campus of Kyoto University, Japan, during the 2024 IEEE Wireless Power Technology Conference and Expo (WPTCE2024). The session was financially sponsored by IEEE WPTCE2024, the IEEE Microwave Theory and Technology Society (MTT-S) Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Ad Hoc Committee, as well as the IEEE Power and Electronics Society (PEL-S) WIE, and technically supported by the MTT-S Women in Microwaves (WIM). The event was organized by Prof. Qiaowei Yuan of the Tohoku Institute of Technology, Japan. The primary objective of the session was to underscore the significance of D&I activities for the broad IEEE community, shed light on the ongoing initiatives of the MTT-S and PEL-S, and explore the way forward in the future. Additionally, the aim was to discuss the interconnections among D&I activities and other affinity groups, such as WIM and Young Professionals. Two months before the event, the organizing team conducted a survey on both Google and the WeChat platforms to facilitate broad participation from users worldwide. The session was conducted both online and offline to ensure widespread participation.