IIW Annual Report 2022

WORKING GROUP YOUNG PROFESSIONALS

Greetings to all IIW members and member societies. It has been a great honor to serve IIW and all of you as Acting Chairman for the IIW Working Group Young Professionals (WG-YP) starting November 1, 2022 following the retirement of former Chair, Mr. Ernest Levert from USA. I attended IIW for the first time in IIW2016 in Melbourne, Australia as a young professional. I graduated with M.S. and Ph.D. in Welding Engineering from the Ohio State University, USA in 2015 and returned to work as a researcher and then lecturer in Thailand after finishing my study. In Thailand, I also took IWE training course and earned my IWE Diploma in 2017. My current job is lecturer and researcher at the Sirindhorn International Thai-German Graduate School of Engineering (TGGS), King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok, where I teach, do research, and coordinate the joint master program in Railway Vehicles and Infrastructure Engineering. Recently, I also help my university establish a new approved training body for International Welding Engineer (IWE) and International Welding Specialist (IWS) to promote education in welding and joining to industry sectors in Thailand. IIWWG-YP, formerly TG-YL, has goals to attract more young people to IIW activities and support the development and training of YPs for future IIW leadership positions. In the past, WG-YP helped IIW on number of activities, including, YP ice breaking session and YP’s evening event, during which first time YP attendees would have opportunities to meet with IIWBoard of Directors, Commission Chairs, and other YP’s and fellow students from around the world. IIW has also organized IIW Young Professional International Conference (YPIC) several times since

2014 and 2015 in Hungary, 2017 in Germany, 2018 in France, 2019 in Hungary, and 2021 Online due to Covid-19 situation. IIW YPIC aims to support young welding professionals and scientists in their professional careers and help YPs networking and exchanging their ideas, experiences and research finding with others. From 2023 onwards, WG-YP is working with IIW secretariat to organize two types of events for YPIC, namely YPIC Live (onsite events) with support by IIWmember societies as host under the approval of WG-RA, and YPIC Digital (online events) organized and supported by WG-YP members and IIW secretariat. WG-YP are also working on developing the Mentoring Program closely with chairs of technical working units to make sure that can help support career growth for YP attendees to work closely with IIW leaders to develop their leadership skills and soft skills and get recognition within IIW community. Another upcoming output from WG-YP is the IIW Student Chapter Handbook, in which WG-YP members from leading societies such as USA, Germany and Canada are bringing their best practices to help develop a complete package to help establishing student chapters and activities to support students and YPs. As Chair of WG-YP, I strongly encourage all member

KITTICHAI SOJIPHAN (Thailand)

societies to give kind support for YPs and students to attend IIW events and share with them about IIW. The future of our welding community depends upon all of us to help our young people to have opportunities to learn more about welding knowledge within IIW, to participate in IIW IAB programs, to pursue their research and

professional careers and to come to YPIC events, IIW regional activities, and IIW Annual Assembly and International Conference to share their knowledge and gain networking with more people in the field.

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SHARING WITH PEERS