The 2017 IEEE International Young Scientists Forum on Applied Physics and Engineering (YSF-2017) is one of “the club of six” IEEE IAS co-sponsored student led technical conferences for 2017. The Forum was successfully held on October 17-20, 2017 in one of the most beautiful cities of Ukraine, in magnificent Lviv with its historic part recognized as a World Heritage by UNESCO. The event was hosted by the Scientific Library of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv.

The event was co-organized by the O.Ya. Usikov Institute for Radiophysics and Electronics NAS of Ukraine and its Young Scientists Council; Ivan Franko National University of Lviv; Karpenko Physico-Mechanical Institute NASU, and IEEE IRE NASU AP-S, ED-S, MTT-S, IA-S, SSC-S Student Branch Chapters. The YSF-2017 gained a lot of support from sponsors: IEEE Industry Applications Society, IEEE Ukraine Section (West) Joint Chapter and IEEE Ukraine Section Young Professionals Affinity Group became the technical co-sponsors of the event, while IEEE Ukraine Section (East) Joint Chapter, IEEE Ukraine Section Women in Engineering Affinity Group, EPS, Kharkiv EPS Young Minds Section, and EuMA provided Forum with the financial support. IEEE Units legally represented by Public Union “IEEE Ukraine Section”.

The YSF-2017 gathered together over 150 young scientists, engineers, and invited speakers (including more than 40 IEEE members) from all over the world: the geography of participants included 29 cities of 10 countries including USA, UK, Spain, Poland, Estonia, Turkey, Italy, Hungary, Egypt, and Ukraine. The technical program included presentations on a broad range of topics including Biological and Medical Physics; Optics and Photonics; Computational and Experimental Electromagnetics; Microwave and Teraherts Electronics; Nano- and Metamaterials; Information Systems and Nondestructive Testing; Power Electronics and Industry Applications; Solid State Physics; Nuclear and Plasma Physics; Multiwavelength Astronomy; Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

The list of invited speakers of the Forum included two IEEE distinguished lecturers of GRS and NPS societies: Dr. Valery Zavorotny (NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, Colorado, USA) and Dr. Patric Muggli (Max Planck Institute for Physics, Munich, Germany), respectively; IEEE Industry Applications Society president – Dr. Tomy Sebastian (Michigan, USA); OSA chief scientist – Prof. Gregory Quarles (Washington D.C., USA); Dr. Leonid Ponomarenko (Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK); Dr. Carlos Roncero-Clemente (University of Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain); DSci. Valeriya Trusova (V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Kharkiv, Ukraine).

The unique feature of the event, which traditionally gains interest among the participants, is a successful combination of a scientific program with various soft skill trainings. This year Forum offered workshops on scientific writing in English, improving skills of public speaking, grant proposal writing as well as insights into the grant programs of the European Union, NATO, DAAD and other organizations.
On the October 21, 2017 the YSF-2017 satellite event, the CS-oriented workshop “Microscope, Money, and Two Useful Nails”, was organized at the Ukrainian Catholic University. It was aimed at collaboration between young scientists and Ukrainian IT companies.

Last, but not least, the YSF has always been not just a scientific platform for the career development of young scientists, but also a place for effective communication. The fascinating social program of this year’s Forum prepared by the organizers was an integral part of the event. The welcome reception of the Forum, aimed at enhancing the participants’ networking, was organized by the IEEE Ukraine Section Women in Engineering Affinity Group at the Robert Doms Beer House. Social program also included library excursion, city tour and the farewell party.

As YSF-2017 is an IEEE conference, there was IEEE booth working each day of the Forum which contributed greatly to the promotion of IEEE itself and its units involved in the organization of the event.