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Theodoros Chatzinikolaou
Chair – Greece Section
Theodoros is, currently, PhD Candidate in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of the Democritus University of Thrace, and has received his Engineering Diploma with Integrated Master from the aforementioned Department. As an active IEEE volunteer, he strongly believes he can create a valuable impact on humanity and society via engineering through volunteerism, and, thus, he is, currently, the Humanitarian Activities Chair in IEEE Region 8. He has served various IEEE OUs including MGA SAC, his Region as Student Representative, as well as his local Student Branch by chairing it once, mentoring it twice, and distinguishing it as Exemplary four times.
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Abdullateef Aliyu
Past-Chair – Nigeria Section
Abdullateef is the General Manager of projects in Phase 3 Telecom, an aerial fiber-optic network infrastructure provider in West Africa, He is also a Senior Vice President of IEEE Smart Village and Currently chairs the IEEE Region 8 Students Activities Committee as Vice Chair of Student activities. He received his bachelor’s degree from Bayero University Kano (BUK), and master’s in ICT from the Northern University of Malaysia with Honors. He is an Alumnus of the United States telecommunication training institute (USTTI), Washington DC. He joined phase 3 Telecom in 2013 where he helped deployed numerous high-profile projects in Nigeria and across Sub-Sahara Africa for Mobile Network Operators (MNO) and led the implementation of the Phase 3 telecom 100G transmission network across Nigeria. He is a recipient of several awards and recognitions that include and not limited to the Leadership and Innovative Award by Phase 3 telecom in 2022, the Best Creativity Award by Phase 3 Telecom in 2022, the Excellence in leadership Award 2022 by IEEE Smart Village, the Award of Excellence by IEEE Nigeria Section 2022 for NIGERCON 2022, the Award of Excellence by the NSE Maitama branch 2021, MGA Board Young Professionals Achievement Award 2019, Recipient of Outstanding Volunteer of IEEE R8 ASYP Congress 2017 (EMEA), and IEEE Nigeria Section Merit Award 2017 (NG).
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George Papadimitriou
Switzerland Section
Georgios (George) Papadimitriou studied at the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at the National Technical University of Athens. Currently, he is working for HILTI, Global IT in Switzerland as an Enterprise Network Engineer. Previously he worked for Nokia Research & Development at their Technology Center in Athens, Greece. Since 2012, he volunteered as the Chair of the National Technical University of Athens IEEE Student Branch, the IEEE Greece Section’s Student Representative and the Region 8 Projects and Initiatives Coordinator fostering student collaboration and leading fruitful projects across the Region. In 2018 he was appointed to his second role in the Student Activities Committee as the Regional Student Representative and as a member of the Region 8 Strategic Planning Committee.
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Lavender Ndunya
Kenya Section
Lavender Ndunya is a young Kenyan professional with 5 years industry experience. She is a Customer Service Officer for British American Tobacco, handling account management for 8 export markets in the region. In IEEE, with 6 years of membership, she has taken up various roles in the section (previously Industry Engagement Lead) and now she serves as Section Treasurer. She also volunteers in R8 as Humanitarian Activities Committee Member. The core scope of the role is to provide guidance on funding opportunities, push for SIGHT activities in Kenya, Uganda, Zambia & Ethiopia and ensure the SIGHT sections remain active over the years. She holds BSc. Electrical & Electronic Engineering from JKUAT.
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Lucija Brezočnik
Slovenia Section
Lucija Brezočnik received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of the University of Maribor, Slovenia. She is a teaching assistant and Ph.D. candidate. She works on several projects in the industry and is the author of a few journal papers, more than 20 conference papers, one book chapter, and is a reviewer for more than 40 recognized peer-review journals. Her research interests include machine learning, computational intelligence, data science, swarm intelligence, software engineering, and agile software development. For her work, she received several international and local awards and grants for her research activities. She is also the current IEEE Slovenia Vice-Chair and past IEEE WiE Slovenia chair.
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Omar Salameh
Jordan Section
Omar is an IEEE Member since 2016, held several leading positions in the student branch, and was the professional activities officer in IEEE Jordan Section. Professionally, he is an Electrical Engineer with 4 years’ experience in power generation sector. Currently, he is doing my master’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Renewable Energy Systems at the University of Leeds, United Kingdom.
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Miriam Cunningham
UK & Ireland Section
Miriam Cunningham (IEEE Senior Member, IEEE-HKN) is a technology and innovation expert with over 25 years experience working with education and research, industry and government organisations to support ICT4Development/ Digital Development in Africa and Europe. Miriam specialises in contributing to policy analysis, research capacity building, adaptation and implementation of appropriate technology addressing societal challenges in low resource environments. Miriam has extensive experience as Co-Principal Investigator of large-scale digital technology innovation oriented cross-border and regional projects in Europe and Africa. She has co-organised over 45 large international conferences around the world, including both IEEE and government hosted conferences. Miriam is also Head of Research of the not-for-profit IST-Africa Institute, working in strategic partnership with Ministries and National Councils responsible for Innovation, Science and Technology in 18 African Member States. Miriam has served in senior IEEE volunteer roles including Member, IEEE SSIT Board of Governors (2020 – 2025) and IEEE Humanitarian Technology Board (2023).
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Neemat Abdelrahim
Sudan Sub-section
Neemat is a A final year software engineering student at Sudan university of science and technology (graduating by March 2023). She has 3 years of experience with IEEE as volunteer and almost 2 years as an IEEE member. Currently serving as the chairperson of her student branch and IEEE Sudan Subsection SAC representative. She has worked as an ambassador for several times in different events and activities such as IEEE Day 2021, PES Day 2021, IEEEXtreme 15.0 & 16.0, IEEE Entrepreneurship week 2022 and several volunteering experience.
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Nour Sbaoulji
Tunisia Section
Nour Sbaoulji is 23, Tunisian and a Software Engineering Student.
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Jan Verveckken
Benelux Section
Belgian, Raised in Germany and Belgium. Studied electrical-mechanical energy engineering, with a focus on electrical energy. PhD in control of power electronics at KU Leuven. A variety of employers, in the fields of strategy consulting, automotive production, innovation development, research engineering and finally, engineering education.
Ex-officio from IEEE Humanitarian Technologies Board
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Lwanga Herbert (Uganda Section) |
Magdalena Salazar-Palma (Spain Section) |
Maxwell Addison (Ghana Section) |
Mohamed Essaaidi (Morocco Section) |
Simay Akar (Turkey Section) |
Past Committee Members
2021-22 Committee Members
- Chair: Abdulateef Aliyu (Nigeria)
- Members:
- John Funso Adebayo (Nigeria) (Past-Chair)
- Lavender Ndunya (Kenya)
- Fairouz Fattoum (Tunisia) (SAC Liaison)
- Corresponding members:
- Manuel Ballesteros (Spain)
- Heba Qadoomi (Jordan)
- Miriam Cunningham (UK & Ireland)
- Walid Bin Habib (Germany)
- Ex-officio from IEEE Humanitarian Activities Committee:
- Simay Akar (Turkey)
- Lwanga Herbert (Uganda)