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52 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2025 which is one prime use case in the power elec- tronics segment. We are driving this extension, building on what Stan called the legacy, established con- ference topics. ey are on the agenda, but we are also expanding them into these new fields. at's the way I see it. Rak: With power electronics and automotive- related harsh environments, we were origi- nally thinking we would just have two sessions in the regular conference, not special sessions. However, the submissions we received for the regular conference were clearly related to power electronics and automotive electronics in harsh environments. Seeing the interest, the TPC responded by putting more emphasis on that area with one of the special sessions. Speaking to that decision, what stands out in this year's conference for attendees around automotive and EV? Rak: Advanced packaging and power electron- ics are not specific just to EV. ere are other industries, too, but we will highlight EV, and we're planning four subject matter expert pan- elists to cover key areas like design, materials and assembly processes, reliability in failure modes, and high voltage testing at the mod- ule and subsystem level. is is a key highlight that we are bringing to the conference as far as automotive is concerned. How about submissions related to sustainability? Welzel: We have two avenues for sustainabil- ity. ere are papers with a prime focus on sustainability, which are placed in the Sustain- ability for Electronics track, and then there are papers that will not end up in this track but are somewhat sustainability-related. For example, a submission on electronic assembly materi- als may contain a sustainability aspect in the discussion. is will also be highlighted in the conference program. So, there are two ways of looking at sustainability in that sense. It is defi- nitely an area that will see much future growth. Rak: It was somewhat surprising that about 30% of the submissions had some tie into sus- tainability. We will flag those contributions in the proceedings that impact sustainability, even if not directly. When talking about sustainability, keep in mind that by enhancing the durability or reli- ability of your product and making it last lon- ger, you are also enhancing sustainability by preventing the need to discard and replace parts. Attendees must look at all these topics more holistically to get the most from what the technical conference can offer them.