Ed Bloom: Lifetime Achievement Award Winner

Sep 1, 2007 12:00 PM
By David Morrison, Editor

“We all decided we could do this course,” says Bloom, remembering their plan. “We'll put together a course, and we'll do it nationwide. We'll run around the nation for a year and see what kind of response we get.”

The course consisted of three days of instruction by McLyman, whom Bloom selected because of McLyman's extensive experience in designing, building and testing magnetics components. Bloom might have taught the class himself, but he needed to concentrate on promoting the course to ensure it would be well attended. The first class took place on April 20, 1982, in Los Angeles and was then repeated in five other cities over the next five months (see the original brochure to the right).

Both Bloom and Joy were responsible for organizing this first course on “Modern Power Conversion Magnetics Design,” and in launching that course, they were also expanding e/j Bloom associates, which Bloom launched in 1979. Through this business, they later extended their course offerings to several power electronics topics, hiring other experts such as Dan Mitchell and Fred Lee to teach courses on stability analysis and control methods.

Bloom himself went to the blackboard, teaching an advanced course on his specialty, integrated magnetics, which was offered as a followup to McLyman's magnetics course. The company also went on to offer instructional videos, books and design tools, all chosen to aid the power electronics designer.

But as Bloom recalls, with that first course on magnetics design, he, Joy and McLyman were championing the cause of power electronics education. And through that course, many people in industry became acquainted with Bloom and Joy. However, at that time, the Blooms already knew many of the notable figures in the power electronics industry through their work in organizing the IPCS.

The IPCS was created to be a “clearinghouse through which advanced technical information, educational and career improvement opportunities will be made available to technical and professional personnel in the Power Conversion and Power Conditioning industries.”[2] Though it was a small regional organization, the IPCS provided one of the first forums for power electronics specialists to meet and discuss issues of the day in their field.

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© 2007 Penton Media, Inc.