Khanh Luu

On January 22nd-24th the IEEE Region 8 Operating Committee Meeting was held in Beirut, Lebanon.
On the 22nd the OpCom members had a chance to meet with the IEEE officers of the Lebanon Section, the Chapter officers and the Student Branch officers at an event that was organized by the Section at the Movenpick Hotel.
The Lebanon Section Chair Dr. Elias Nassar welcomed the Operating Committee and gave the backround and activities of his Section, Dr. Jozef Modelski, the Region 8 Director gave the attendees an overall presentation of IEEE and Region 8, Region 8 Past Director Jean-Gabriel Remy, gave a technical presentation on Mobile Communications.
A lively discussion followed with the Lebanon Section members asking various questions about IEEE and Region 8. The discussion continued during dinner as well.

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During the next two days the OpCom members had more contacts with the Lebanon Section OpCom and a friendly and fruitful atmosphere was developed among them.
The OpCom meeting went smoothly. The R8 plans for 2010 were discussed and set down and the preparation for the next Region 8 meeting to be held in Riga, Latvia in May was organized.
The Lebanon Section was very hospitable and its members are very active, energetic and working hard for IEEE.
It is no surprise that the Section has grown to more than 660 members in just a few years of existence.

Taking the opportunity of Easter approaching, we would like to wish you happy holidays and to reveal you some of the exciting news and updates regarding ISABEL 2010 (the 3rd International Symposium on Applied Sciences in Biomedical and Communication Technologies), Rome, November 7-10, 2010

( News and Updates ISABEL 2010 18.03.2010 ).

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The 95th Region 8 Committee Meeting will be held in Prague, Czech Republic on the 8th and the 10th of October 2010, following the invitation of the Czechoslovakia Section. One of the most important parts of the meeting is the Section Workshops on four very interesting subjects:

• SWOT Analysis for the Sections

• Improvement and enhancement of Region 8 Electronic Communications

• Criteria for the Best Section Award

• Increasing joint region-society conferences and improving the quality of R8 conferences

The Sections will be divided into 5 groups and with the help of Coordinators there will be discussions and presentations. The honorary guests of the meeting will be IEEE President-Elect Moshe Kam, IEEE Past President John Vig, VP Educational Activities Tariq Durrani, Executive Director & COO of IEEE James Prendergast, and Region 10 Director Yong-Jin Park. During the meeting elections for the Region OpCom will be held for the positions of the 3 Vice Chairs, Secretary and Treasurer.

More information on the meeting, the reports and the agenda can be found here

The 95th Region 8 Committee Meeting was held in Prague, Czech Republic from the 8th to the 10th of October 2010, following the invitation of the Czechoslovakia Section.

The honorary guests of the meeting were IEEE President-Elect Moshe Kam, IEEE Past President John Vig, VP Educational Activities Tariq Durrani, Executive Director & COO of IEEE James Prendergast, and Region 10 Director Yong-Jin Park.

IEEE Region 8 Director Jozef Modelski gave a presentation on Region 8, giving an account of the key events that happened in our Region these past months, explaining the strengths and the opportunities of our Region and giving the future events coming up.

On Friday night October 8th the award ceremony took place where some awards were given and a surprise cake was presented by the Czechoslovakia Section to celebrate IEEE day.

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During the meeting elections were held with the following results:

Secretary: Costas Stasopoulos

Treasurer: Brian Harrington

Vice Chair Technical Activities: Saurabh Sinha

Vice Chair Membership Activities: Ali El Mousa

Vice Chair Student Activities: Elias Nassar

Region 8 Nomination & Appointment  Committee: Terje Gjengedal , Samir Shaheen

One of the most important parts of the meeting was the Section Workshops on four very interesting subjects:

• SWOT Analysis for the Sections

• Improvement and enhancement of Region 8 Electronic Communications

• Criteria for the Best Section Award

• Increasing joint region-society conferences and improving the quality of R8 conferences

It was a very interactive process where some very interesting ideas and conclusions were drawn.

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The meeting ended with a standing ovation for the outgoing Director Jozef Modelski. The Director Elect Marko Delimar thanked him for his hard work and dedication to Region 8 and wished him good luck for the future.

You can find all the presentations and reports of the meeting here

On 22-23 January  2011,the IEEE Region 8 Operating Committee had its meeting in Vienna, Austria. The new Region 8 Director Marko Delimar gave his vision for the future and set his priorities. Among others, the organization of the next IEEE Region 8 meeting in London and the IEEE Sections Congress in San Francisco were discussed. A procedure was set up in order to produce tangible results in terms of recommendations for the Sections Congress. The whole operation of Region 8 was examined with special emphasis on Sections operations, Chapter-Society relations, student activities and member engagement. The steps to be taken in the near future were developed and special projects were assigned. Extra care will be given to identify problems in Sections and Chapters and to find ways to help them.

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On 22 January  there was a meeting with the Austria Section at the Technische Universität Wien. Short addresses were given by Region 8 Director Marko Delimar and the Austria Section chair Jan Haase. There were also presentations from the members of the Austria Section on Student Branches and special projects. The evening ended with a dinner where members of the Austria Section and OpCom members had the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas.

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From left to right: Saurabh Sinha, Elias Nassar, Costas Stasopoulos, Józef Modelski, Marko Delimar, Ali El-Mousa, Brian Harrington, Martin Bastiaans

The 96th Region 8 Committee Meeting was held in London, United Kingdom from 25  to 27 March 2011, following the invitation of the UK&RI Section.

The honorary guests of the meeting were IEEE President Moshe Kam, IEEE President-Elect Gordon Day, IEEE Past President Pedro Ray, Vice President (Member and Geographic Activities) Howard Michel, IEEE Standards Association President Steve Mills, Region 9 Director Tania Quiel, Region 10 Director Lawrence Wong, Executive Director James Prendergast, and many more.

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IEEE Region 8 Director Marko Delimar opened the meeting with  an overview of Region 8, giving an account of the key challenges in our Region, explaining the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of our Region and giving an outlook of the future.

On Friday evening 25 March the UK&RI Section presentation took place followed by a lecture from Christopher James, the Section Chair. The lecture was entitled “Communicating through the power of thought: Conversing through electromagnetic brain activity” and was attended by more than 100 people.

On Saturday afternoon five workshops took place with the aim of coming up with recommendations for the Sections Congress to be held in August. It was a very interactive process where very interesting ideas and proposals were drawn. The recommendations will be finalized by May.

On Saturday night the Awards Ceremony took place at the historical place of Great Fosters where many awards and tokens of appreciation were given.

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At the end of the meeting on Sunday afternoon, Marko Delimar thanked everybody for their contribution and especially the UK&RI Section for the successful organization of the whole event.

You can find all the presentations and reports of the meeting here.