Yearly Archives: 2020

Congratulations to Jacob Ziv for winning such a prestigious award at the 2021 Medals.

IEEE MEDAL OF HONOR, to JACOB ZIV (LFIEEE)—Andrew and Erna Viterbi
Faculty of Electrical Engineering Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

JACOB ZIV (LFIEEE)—Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering
Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

Professor Jacob Ziv has contributed in the most fundamental and profound way to the field of information theory for more than 5 decades of his professional activity. The most notable contribution of Prof. Ziv is the Lempel-Ziv (LZ) algorithm, which was a milestone contribution, reported in three basic papers. The LZ algorithm is an innovative and practical methodology that enables data compression and reconstruction in an efficient way, without assuming availability of the statistical characterization of the data. Apart of being highly innovative, based on solid and original theoretical grounds recognized by the most prestigious IT Society Best Paper Award, it has also strong interdisciplinary aspects, as well as immense practical implications.

The LZ compression algorithm has changed the very way communications and data storage and processing, are conceived. The LZ compression algorithm has had an unparalleled impact on the daily lives of computer users, as well as in innumerable operations of commercial electronic products worldwide. The evolutions of computing and communications technology continuously pose extremely severe demands on storage, bandwidth, and speed. LZ compression plays the pivotal role in meeting these demands, making the use of lossless data compression pervasive in day-to-day computing.

Among other most prestigious world-class recognitions Prof. Ziv is the recipient of the inaugural BBVA Foundation Frontiers in Knowledge Award in the category of Information and Communication Technologies for his seminal, groundbreaking data compression algorithm, which is present in virtually every computer in the world.

The scientific contribution of Prof. Ziv spans way beyond the LZ monumental achievement. His studies through the many years of his activity demonstrate deep insights and exceptional originality, and they immediately turn to be classical references, just after their publications. The impact of Prof. Ziv's technical contributions is profound, in the very meaning of this word. He is one of the very few whose fundamental contribution is world acclaimed, way beyond the professional circles of the information theory society or even the whole IEEE.

It is worth noting that Jacob has been recognized as a superior educational and administrative leader in his own country, serving as President of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities as well as chair for the research funding entity for all its universities. Outside his country, he has been honored by foreign membership in four of the most prestigious U.S. Academies and has been otherwise recognized with honors in Germany, Italy, Spain and the European Union.

Austria Section
Bernhard Jakoby
for contributions to fluidic sensor
Dieter Schmalstieg
for contributions to augmented reality

Benelux Section
Filip De Turck
for contributions to network resource management and adaptive service delivery
Jacquelien Scherpen
for contributions to nonlinear model reduction and passivity-based control
Johan Nuyts
for contributions to theory and algorithms for image reconstruction in emission and transmission tomography
Nathan Van De Wouw
for contributions to hybrid, data-based and networked control
Wim Bogaerts
for contributions to design methodologies for silicon photonics components and circuits

Denmark Section
Poul Sorensen
for contributions to wind power converter control and grid integration

Egypt Section
Salah Obayya
for contributions to computational photonics

Finland Section
Enrique Acha
for contributions to power electronics modelling and applications in electrical power systems
Mehdi Bennis
for contributions to resource optimization in heterogeneous and low-latency wireless networks
Tuomas Virtanen
for contributions to sound event detection and source separation

France Section
Claude Samson
for contributions to mobile and underactuated mechanical systems control
Laurent Larger
for contributions to optoelectronic delay oscillators and neuromorphic processing applications
Lori Lamel
for contributions to automatic speech recognition
Stephane Mangin
for contributions to ultrafast magnetisation manipulation

Germany Section
Haris Gacanin
for development of operations and management systems for home broadband networks
Mehdi Tahoori
for contributions to resilient nanoscale integrated circuits
Stephan Ten Brink
for contributions to iterative detection and decoding
Wil Van Der Aalst
for contributions to process mining and workflow processes
Wolfgang Utschick
for contributions to signal processing algorithms for multi-antenna communications systems
Xiaoxiang Zhu
for contributions to artificial intelligence and data science in Earth observation and global urban mapping

Israel Section
Sharon Gannot
for contributions to acoustical modelling and statistical learning in speech enhancement
Yakov Krasik
for contributions to plasma-based electron sources

Italy Section
Chiara Petrioli
for contributions to wireless and underwater networks
Gabriella Cincotti
for contributions to planar photonic devices and beam diffraction in anisotropic media
Gianluca Antonelli
for contributions to modeling and control of underwater robots
Gianluigi Pillonetto
for contributions to kernel-based linear system identification
Giovanni Mazzanti
for contributions to high voltage direct current cable systems
Luciano Tarricone
for contributions to microwave interactions with living systems and biomedical applications
Luisa Verdoliva
for contribution to multimedia forensics
Marco Mellia
for contributions to Internet traffic analysis
Roberto Oboe
for contributions to remote motion control systems

Portugal Section
Joao Gama
for contributions to mining data streams

South Africa Section
Saurabh Sinha
for leading micro/nanoelectronics research and education in Africa

Spain Section
Enrique Herrera-viedma
for contributions to fuzzy decision systems and linguistic modeling
Jose Lozano
for contributions to the estimation of distribution algorithms in evolutionary computation
Jose Neira
for contributions to simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) for robot navigation
Oriol Gomis Bellmunt
for contributions to grid integration of renewable energy sources
Sergio Vazquez
for contributions to control techniques for power converters and drives

Sweden Section
Erik Strom
for contributions to reliable low latency communications and synchronization of code-division systems
Stefanos Kaxiras
for contributions to high-performance and power-efficient memory hierarchies
Zhinong Ying
for contributions to mobile terminal antenna technology

Switzerland Section
David Basin
for contributions to formal methods for information security
Matthias Grossglauser
for contributions to the modeling and analysis of network traffic and data

Turkey Section
Hilmi Demir
for contributions to semiconductor nanocrystal optoelectronics, colloidal nanophotonics, and lighting

United Arab Emirates Section
Ling Shao
for contributions to computer vision and representation learning

United Kingdom and Ireland Section
Ashwin Seshia
for contributions to resonant-based inertial and mode-localized sensors
Dragan Jovcic
for contributions to improvements in multi-terminal HVDC transmission grids and development of HVDC transformers
Gan Zheng
for contributions to optimization and design of multiuser multi-antenna communications
Hanyang Wang
for contributions to mobile terminal antennas
Honghai Liu
for contributions to theory and applications of human-machine systems
Jaafar M.h. Elmirghani
for contributions to energy-efficient communications
Jonathan Garibaldi
for contributions to computational intelligence techniques in data analysis and decision support
Julia Schnabel
for contributions to medical image computing
Patrick Wheeler
for contributions to matrix power converter technology
Robert Henderson
for contributions to solid-state single photon imaging
Stephen Hodges
for leadership in pervasive computing systems
Yi Huang
for contributions to rectenna technology
Zhongdong Wang
for contributions to insulating liquids and frequency response analysis methods for power transformers

Western Saudi Arabia Section
Wolfgang Heidrich
for contributions to high dynamic range display and computational cameras

On 21 November 2020, the IEEE Member and Geographic Activities (MGA) Board approved the recipient of the 2020 MGA Achievement Award:

Jenifer Castillo

Region 9 – Puerto Rico and Caribbean Section, USA

“For sustained and outstanding achievements in promoting Students, YP, and WIE membership development in Latin America and the Caribbean”

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Albert Lysko

Region 8 – South Africa Section, South Africa

“For dedication and exemplary leadership in promoting, strengthening and proactively supporting IEEE activities and volunteerism at the local and global levels”

—

Suresh Nair

Region 10 – Kerala Section, India

“For exemplary leadership and outstanding contributions to the IEEE community by inspiring a generation of engineering professionals towards the vision of ethical advancement of technology for the benefit of humanity”

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TEAM: Engineers Assisting Ventilator Maintenance project

Region 9 – Rio de Janeiro Section

“For engaging IEEE volunteers to work collaboratively with external institutions on a project that served the Rio de Janeiro area in fighting against COVID-19”

—

Amit Kumar

Region 10 – Hyderabad Section

“For exemplary leadership and distinguished contributions in promoting IEEE activities at the Section, Council, and Region levels”

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Nia Kurnianingsih

Region 10 – Indonesia Section

“For organizing a successful regional Congress involving students, YP, WIE and LM, and excellent information management service to Region 10”

To recognize individuals, or a team, involved with MGA and its organizational units for singular achievement in the development and completion of a project(s) or activity(ies), directed to the fulfillment of one or more of the MGA goals. This award is designed to recognize those substantive projects or achievements of a relatively short nature (one to three years), but that has left an undeniable imprint on the fabric of regional operations.

The MGA Achievement Award is presented annually.

On 21 November 2020, the IEEE Member and Geographic Activities (MGA) Board approved the recipient of the 2020 MGA Young Professionals Achievement Award:

Machani Ajay Kumar

Region 10 – Hyderabad Section

“For enhancing collaboration through IEEE PES Day Activities and engaging Student and Young Professional members worldwide”

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Shashank Gaur

Region 8 – Portugal Section

For continuous hard work and dedication in making IEEE a better place for young engineers.

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Vijay Sabeen Paul

Region 10 – Victorian Section

For providing inspiring leadership to Young Professionals, with initiatives that inspire the advancement of technology for humanity.

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Saeed Hussain Ali Al Mansoori

Region 8 – United Arab Emirates Section, UAE

For outstanding contributions to the Young Professionals and IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society activities in the United Arab Emirates Section and Region 8.

—

Weizhi Meng

Region 8 – Denmark Section

For outstanding contributions in the formation of an IEEE Young Professional Affinity Group, and leading activities in Denmark and Region 8.

—

Ronny Israel Cabrera Tituana

Region 9 – Ecuador Section

For outstanding contributions to the IEEE mission through activities and programs for the benefit of Young Professionals in Ecuador and Latin America.

To recognize those substantive projects or achievements of a relatively short nature (one to three years), but which have left an undeniable imprint on the fabric of IEEE Young Professionals operations.

The MGA Young Professionals Achievement Award is presented annually.

For the updates of Region 8 events and activities scheduled for 2020, please click here.

For the complete list of Region 8 events in vtools, please click here.