Khanh Luu

Salva’s Electric Telegraph, Barcelona

in News 2019

New IEEE History Milestone in Barcelona

A new kind of electric telegraph was reported to the Barcelona Royal Academy of Sciences in 1804 by the Spaniard Francisco Salvá Campillo. The Milestone dedication ceremony took place on 2019 May 15 in the current location of that Royal Academy, in coincidence with the celebration of the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day.

The electric telegraph of Salvá was described in detail in a hand-written report read in front of the Barcelona Royal Academy members on 22 February 1804. That report is preserved in the Academy archives. In his report, Salvá suggest to “make the electricity be able to talk in order to transmit intelligence at a distance”. To meet that goal, the inventor arranged a modern communication system by following what later was known as the Shannon Model. That is to say, by using a transmitter made up with a Volta’s pile, a multiple communication channel set up with a number of wired cables, and a receiver based on Nicholson and Carlyle’s discovery of the electrolytic decomposition of water.

Salvá did not have the opportunity or the resources to complete construction of his invention and he just could carry out some partial physical demonstrations about the feasibility of his telegraph. In spite of that, his ideas inspired the telegraph proposed five years later by the German Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring to the Munich Academy of Sciences, and were described in a document more than 30 years ahead Cooke and Wheatstone’s, and Morse and Vail’s telegraphs.

The unveiling ceremony of the Milestone plaque in Barcelona collected more than 100 people coming from different Academies and Universities from Spain. It was presided over by the Chair of the Barcelona Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts, Mr. Joan Jofré and the Director of the IEEE Spain Section, Mr. Jesús Fraile. On behalf of the IEEE Board of Directors and the IEEE Region 8, Mr. Martin Baastians, past IEEE Vice President for Member and Geographic Activities and past Director of IEEE Region 8, attended the event.

Firstly, Mr. Joan Jofré and Mr. Jesús Fraile, introduced the activities of the Barcelona Royal Academy and of the IEEE Spain Section, respectively. Next, Prof. Sánchez Miñana addressed the audience speaking about the life and work of Salvá, and finally, Prof. Pérez Yuste, talked about the electric telegraph of Salvá and about the process to come up with this Milestone. Prof. Pérez Yuste, IEEE Senior Member and Professor at Technical University of Madrid, jointly with the doctorate candidate Ms. Begoña Villanueva, did the investigation and submission of the nomination required to get this Milestone approved.

After the speeches, all attendees moved to the entrance hall of the Academy to see the unveiling of the Milestone plaque. The citation shown is as follows:

On 22 February 1804, Francisco Salvá Campillo reported to the Barcelona Royal Academy of Sciences, in Spain, a new kind of electric telegraph. He proposed a new method of telegraphy by combining the generation of an electric current using the recently-invented voltaic pile with detection by water electrolysis. Salvá’s report described the elements required and how they should be arranged to convey information at a distance

More information about this Milestone and about Salvá and his electric telegraph can be found in the following two websites:

Application and discussion forum about the Milestone:

http://ieeemilestones.ethw.org/Milestone-Proposal:Salva%27s_Electric_Telegraph,_1804

Journal paper on Salvá and his electric telegraph:

Francisco Salva‘s Electric Telegraph, Proceedings of the IEEE, ( Volume: 98 , Issue: 11 , Nov. 2010 )
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5605308

History Activities in Glasgow Updated Again

in News 2019

The details about HISTELCON2019 to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, on 18-19th September 2019 at Strathclyde University Technology and Innovation Cenre, are now available on the conference website: www.histelcon2019.org.

There are a number of other IEEE events in Glasgow during that week including a History Milestone Unveiling at the Hunterian, which is a museum on the University of Glasgow campus and this will be followed by a free-to-attend technical symposium from 1500 to 1700. All of this is on 17th September 2019.

IEEE History Milestone about the Standardisation of the Unit of Electrical Resistance (the OHM)

This new IEEE History Milestone to recognises the work done to standardise the unit of electrical resistance. At the time, there were many incompatible and differing standards and selecting a single reproducible one was of great important for the successful design and operation of undersea communications cables. The availability of fast communications by cable between continents had a huge social impact, and led to the development of better and faster communications between the peoples of the world, with a huge impact on the lives of most people.

The afternoon technical symposium requires advance registration in order to estimate numbers. The link to register is:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-standardisation-of-electrical-measurement-units-tickets-60370453652

The symposium will take place in the James Watt South building, University of Glasgow (A1 on Campus Map), in Room 526.

Chair: Mike Hinchey (IEEE UK&I Section Chair)

Prof Peter Grant, Emeritus Regius Professor of Engineering and John Thompson, University of Edinburgh, “Early electrical resistance standards”
Prof Jan-Theodoor Janssen, Research Director, National Physical Laboratory, UK, “Evolution of the measurement of the Ohm over the last century”
Don Wright, Past President IEEE Standards Association and from Standards Strategies, Louisville, Kentucky “Changes in International Standardization over the last decade”

Closing remarks: Prof Charles Turner (formerly Siemens Professor of Electrical Engineering at King’s College London).

More details about this Milestone can be read at the ETHW website:

http://ieeemilestones.ethw.org/Milestone-Proposal:Standardisation_of_the_OHM

Tony Davies

2019 July 28th, updated 2019 Aug 18th

Alpha Engineers

in Alpha Engineers

The Alpha Engineers Competition is an IEEE R8 Professional and Educational Activities programme addressed to the IEEE Region 8 Sections and sub-Sections only, that aims at organizing events for promoting engineering to the community via various means. The goals of the programme are to:

Empower section volunteers to collaborate with their local pre-university community;
Promote STEM, in particular engineering;
Enhance the level of technical literacy of pre-university educators and pupils;
Encourage pre-university students to pursue technical careers, including engineering;
Increase the general level of technical literacy of pre-university students throughout their education;
Change the views on engineering and accentuate the importance of engineering in the world.

The sessions/events can be delivered by IEEE volunteers or invited speakers (IEEE members or non-IEEE members). A set of activities are eligible for the Alpha Engineers competition. These are being further described in Alpha Engineers Competition handbook.

Eligible Activities

Teacher In-Service Program (TISP) workshops.
TISP 2.0
Working with children training events for volunteers.
Engineering talks for parents.
Career talks for upper level pupils.
Online talks for schools.
Science Fairs Participation

Eligible Participants

IEEE Region 8 Sections and sub-Sections

Alpha Engineers Handbook

Alpha Engineers Contest 2019

in Alpha Engineers

Alpha Engineers 2019 Participation Form

Professional And Educational Activities Committee (PEAC)

in Professional and Educational Activities

Mission

Promote public awareness of engineering, technology, and other topics within IEEE Fields of Interest.
Coordinate educational activities programs in Region 8 on three levels: pre-university, university-level and post-university/continuing education.
Educate and support local volunteers to develop and execute professional and educational seminars and workshops in Region 8.
Develop programs that provide additional value to members.


Dalius Navakauskas (Lithuania) Chair	Natalia Piaseczna (Poland) Member	Dora Fourou (Greece) Member

Andrejs Romanovs (Latvia) Past Chair	Jenipher Ogara (Kenya) Cor. Member	Mohamed Ali Zormati (Tunisia) Cor. Member

Rabih Rammal (Lebanon) Cor. Member	Igor Matias (Switzerland) Cor. Member	Stamatis Dragoumanos (Greece) Cor. Member

Pre-University Activities Works Committee aims to encourage pre-university students to follow Engineering. In order to do that PUWC has a variety of programs and contest in order to:

Inform pre-university student parents about the Engineering way of thinking and its role in society
Encourage the technological literacy of pre-university students
Support Educators in implementing tryengineering.org lesson plans
Help pre-university students develop essential non-technical skills

The objective of this committee, working under the tutelage of the Professional and Educational Activities Sub-Committee is to support Student members in their path to develop their non-technical and technical skills and to spread and encourage the creation of education-driven university activities by IEEE volunteers on Region 8, such as :

Online Educational University-level resources
Peer-aided engineering study groups
Student-papers publications development
University educational-activities news spreading
Entrepreneurship Week

Continuing Educational Activities Works Committee aims to support IEEE members to their professional life by providing resources and programs that help them develop both their technical and non-technical skills.
Such programs are the PEA Speakers Program and the Entrepreneurship Week, IEEE’s eLearning Library and Technical English programs and many more.

Entrepreneurship Week Description

in Enterpreneurship Week

The IEEE Region 8 Entrepreneurship Initiative is an initiative started in 2018 and led by the IEEE Region 8 Young Professionals team aimed at the segment of existing and potential members that habit the Entrepreneurship ecosystem.

The end goal of this Initiative is three-folded: to strengthen the knowledge of our young entrepreneurs by providing them mentorship, boosting their network by putting them in contact with the relevant stakeholders, and getting them global exposure by sponsoring their participation in Summits and other Entrepreneurship events of the kind.

We believe that IEEE encompasses a unique strength in this domain with the technical foundations of the organization and the ability to shape the entrepreneurship endeavor innovative and impactful.

IEEE Region 8 Entrepreneurship Week is a program supported by IEEE Region 8 Young Professionals, IEEE Region 8 Professional and Educational Activities subcommittee, and IEEE Region 8 Action for Industry where the selected Entrepreneurship ambassadors are encouraged to organize a free-form event of the entrepreneurship spirit that also incorporates pitching competition for the teams with innovations, startups and capable teams with creative intentions in general.

Those events should be held during the annual Global Entrepreneurship Week. The “Global Entrepreneurship Week is a collection of tens of thousands of events, activities, and competitions each November that inspire millions to explore their potential as an entrepreneur while fostering connections and increasing collaboration within their ecosystems. In total, it is estimated to gather 10 million people, 35,000 events in 170+ countries.”

The nature of each local event, the topics, the speakers and the agenda are tailored by the Entrepreneurship ambassadors.

Ambassador needs to work with IEEE Student Branches, Young Professional Affinity Groups, or parts of sections such as Professional Activities, society chapters, or more. Bear in mind that this could also be a good source for part of the event organization funding.

PEA Speakers Program Description

in PEA Speakers

PEA Speakers program is a platform through which distinguished and experienced professionals can share their valuable knowledge in PEAC’s fields of interest to IEEE Region 8 members and help them by providing guidance on developing useful skills for their professional life.

The program contains two tiers of Speaker profiles: Distinguished Speakers and Experienced Speakers.

Distinguished Speakers –

These speakers are international thought leaders from academia, industry, and government and will be available primarily to present face-to-face sessions if requested by IEEE Region 8 OUs. Region 8 PEAsC funds the travel of these individuals to OU events and the OU is expected to cover local costs.

TISP Week

in TISP Week

The TISP week is a program to conduct teacher training workshops in multiple Sections and Regions within a span of one or two weeks.

Teacher In-Service Program (TISP) is a professional development workshop for school teachers to help them bring exciting hands-on activities to their classroom.
More information about the program can be found here: http://www.ieee.org/education_careers/education/preuniversity/tispt/index.html

This will showcase the incredible work being done by our education activities volunteers, train teachers to deliver Inquiry Based Science Education sessions and will also help train more volunteers in the local sections. This event will also help our local volunteers deliver a public service through training teachers.

We plan to conduct workshops in as many sections as possible and would like to invite your Section to organize a TISP workshop for school teachers during this TISP week.

The following rules will apply for organizing a workshop as part of the TISP week:

A minimum of 30 school teachers will be trained.
The event will a minimum of one or a maximum of two days long.
The event dates will fall within the TISP week dates.
As our funds are limited, we would like to request the local Section to fund the organization of the event. EAB can only fund the lesson plan materials* for the workshop and would be grateful if the Section can fund the rest of the local costs of venue, etc. The funding amount is up to USD 250 per workshop and it will be reimbursed after submitting the reimbursement form.
A member of the local organizing committee will participate in monthly TISP week organizing committee online calls.

We will help your local organizing committee plan an effective agenda for the workshop.

There are lots of information and TISP resources in our website, http://tispweek.ieee.org which I encourage you to visit.

For further details and questions don’t hesitate to email us at [email protected].

*Lesson plan materials are the materials described in the lesson plan’s pdf you will implement in the workshop plus the printouts of the pdf, student worksheet and educator feedback forms. Any other expense (e.g traveling, posters, promotional materials, coffee break, lunches, gifts etc) is not covered.

Distinguished PEA Speakers

in PEA Speakers

Acceleration Program Description

in Acceleration Program

1. Presentation

The IEEE acceleration contest is a program aiming to promote educational activities among IEEE volunteers and IEEE entities in Region 8, the program allows local initiatives to get higher visibility and to be supported by the prestigious IEEE R8 Technical & Educational activities board.

The program is looking for outstanding contributions and innovative initiatives in:

– An educational program for Pre-University Education;

– An educational program for University Education;

– An educational program for Continuing Education;

The contest aims to:

Provide an opportunity to IEEE Region 8 members to initiate programs in Educational Activities;
Showcase the innovation and drive of IEEE Region, 8 members, to an international audience;
Find creative programs which provide value to IEEE membership and the general public.

Awardees will receive financial support up to 500 USD and a certificate of appreciation.

Programs should be built by IEEE volunteers collectives and serve the values and technical fields of the organization. While local collaborations with local associations, administrations, and/or companies are highly appreciated.

The pre-university Education contest: Gather initiative working on pre-university education at all levels basic education as well as college education. The program targets pupils, educators, or both and should involve IEEE volunteers as key actors. Proposals focusing on STEM and IEEE try-engineering portals are encouraged to submit.
The university education contest: Target educational and technical activities arranged by IEEE volunteers for the benefices of the student members and /or the student community at large.
The continuing education contest: focus on activities promoting continuing education among members with a focus on IEEE continuous education resources and related materials.

2. Eligibility

Participation can be from an individual or a team (up to 4 team members);
Teams that were winners or runner up in previous Acceleration Contests and haven’t delivered the reports requested are not qualified to apply;
Individuals or teams can submit up to 2 proposals;
At least one IEEE member needs to be part of the team. If the entry is submitted by an individual then the individual should be an IEEE member;
The competition is open to all member grades.

3. Submission process

The proposal should should include the following sections, in the same order:

The title of the project.
Team members names and affiliations.
Summary of the idea (abstract, maximum 250 words).
Keywords: main technical field and target audience.
Introduction.
Description of the idea.
Is the program scalable and sustainable? How?
How does the idea align with MGA goals (https://mga.ieee.org/board-committees) – The idea doesn’t have to align with all goals.
Description of educational outcomes of the program.
Descriptions of the skills the participants will develop.
Additional information (optional).

Additionally, the submission shall:

Clearly include the full name of all team members and the Section name;
If the application is submitted by a Student Branch then the Name and Location of the Student Branch must be included;
Be endorsed by the Section Chair or the Section Educational Activities Chair.

4. Judging

Idea proposals will be judged in the following areas:

Innovation of the idea;
The educational outcomes of the idea;
Scalability of the idea;
Sustainability of the idea;
Humanitarian aspects of the idea;
The number of the MGA goals the idea is aligned with.

Acceleration contest is closed for 2025

The deadlines are the following:
– Submission deadline: 31st May 2025
– Decision: 16th June 2025

Titles of the Acceleration Program Activities for the Year 2025

Winners for this year are selected (they will be informed by e-mail personally). Big thanks to all who are interested in participating in the program. The PEAC received 42 applications, of which only 8 were chosen to be supported:

ARBoard: See beyond the circuit (Italy Section)
Advancing Space Science Education through CubeSat Development: Unlocking Academic and Research Opportunities in Al Sharqiyah (Oman Section)
Autonomous Vehicle Design Bootcamp (Kenya Section)
ElectroRural: Sparking STEM Interest through Basic Electronics in Rural Nigerian Schools (Nigeria Section)
GenAI for RoboticsL University Bootcamp & Challenge (Tunisia Section)
InduTech4Edu: Industrial IoT Education for Smart Manufacturing and Predictive Maintenance (Tunisia Section)
STEM Analytics for Future Innovators: Empowering UK Secondary School Students and Educators (UK and Ireland Section)
STEM Her Future: A Community-Driven STEM Bootcamp for Girls in Eziobodo Village (Nigeria Section)

Congratulations to the winners!

In case of any questions regarding the Acceleration Program please contact us at [email protected].

Europe, Middle East and Africa