George Michael


2023-2024 R8 OpCom and 2023-2024 R8 N&A Committee Candidates

Dear Region 8 Committee members,

On behalf of the 2021-2022 Region 8 (R8) Nominations and Appointments Committee (N&AC) it is my pleasure to announce the slate of candidates for the incoming elections of the 2023-2024 R8 Operating Committee (OpCom) members and the 2023-2024 R8 N&AC members:

  • R8 Secretary (one position):

o   Ljupco Karadzinov, North Macedonia Section

  • R8 Treasurer (one position):

o   Adam Jastrzebski, UK & Ireland Section

  • R8 Vice Chair (VC) for Member Activities (MA) (one position):

o   Vinko Lesic, Croatia Section

o   Andrejs Romanovs, Latvia Section

  • R8 Vice Chair (VC) for Student Activities (SA) (one position):

o   Abdullateef Aliyu, Nigeria Section

o   Theodoros Panagiotis Chatzinikolaou, Greece Section

  • R8 Vice Chair (VC) for Technical Activities (TA) (one position):

o   Marios Antoniou, Cyprus Section

o   Albert Lysko, South Africa Section

  • R8 N&AC (3 positions):

o   Vicent Egessa, Kenya Section

o   Jan Haase, Germany Section

o   Ilhem Kallel, Tunisia Section

o   Dalius Navakauskas, Lithuania Section

o   Sergio Rapuano, Italy Section

o   Catarina Silva, Portugal Section

 

Note that to the previous slate, the names of any successful candidate by petition (for the positions of Secretary, Treasurer, and the three Vice Chairs) will be added, as mentioned on the R8 Operations Manual R8M-5:

“… In the case of the R8 Secretary, R8 Treasurer and the three R8 Vice Chairs (MA, SA, TA) a candidate may be added to the slate provided by the R8 N&A Committee by a petition including the signatures of at least 15 voting members of the R8 Committee. Valid signatories comprise anyone who is a voting member of the Committee during the calendar year in which the petition is submitted. If the petition is not submitted by the candidate, it must be accompanied by the written confirmation of the willingness of the candidate to serve if elected. The petition must be submitted to the Director or Secretary twenty-one (21) days before the election is due to take place, and after verification of validity, awareness of the additional candidate(s) must be made available to the R8 Committee fourteen (14) days before the election.”

This year, nominations by petition must reach the Region 8 Director by 25 September, 2022. Note that during the R8 Committee meeting, petition candidates from the floor will not be accepted.

 

All candidates’ biographies/IEEE activities/statements will be distributed to the R8 Committee members prior to the R8 Committee meeting in Cairo, Egypt, 14-16 October, 2022.

For all further details please refer to the IEEE R8 Bylaws and the IEEE R8 Operations Manual, available at the R8 website (http://www.ieeer8.org) in the documents section (http://www.ieeer8.org/category/documents/). In particular I would like to highlight that the R8 OpCom members (Secretary, Treasurer, VC MA, VC SA, VC TA) will be elected by the R8 Committee voting members (OpCom members and Section Chairs or their alternates), while the R8 N&AC members will be elected by the Section Chairs (or their alternates).

 

During the incoming R8 Committee meeting for those positions with just one candidate and for the R8 N&AC, no oral presentations will be necessary. The candidates for R8 VCs (MA, SA and TA) are expected to give a 5-minute presentation of themselves. Questions and Answers (Q&A) will follow.

 

If you have any question or comment please feel free to contact the R8 N&AC Chair, Magdalena Salazar Palma, at [email protected], or the R8 N&A Committee at [email protected] .

Best regards,

 

 

Magdalena Salazar Palma

IEEE Region 8 Nominations and Appointments Committee Chair


IEEE Algeria Section Activities January-April 2022

A new breath has been brought to the IEEE Algeria Section by the new office which was elected by the end of January, where many activities have been launched for the promotion and the enlargement of the membership within the whole country.

 

The IEEE Algeria section is technical sponsoring many international conference locally and abroad where many IEEE members are involved.

 

The more active chapter within the Section is the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Chapter which organized many workshops along the year and a summer school is schedules to be organized next July.

 

IEEE Student Branch University of Boumerdes is the first IEEE student branch in Algeria founded in 2016, located at the institute of electrical and electronic engineering university of Boumerdes. Indeed, The IEEE Student Branch University of Boumerdes organized several activities from January 2022 to April 2022, which can be summarized as follows:

 

 

Webinars:

 

1- Let’s Talk mars with Pr. NOUREDDINE MELIKSHI where we discussed curiosity and perseverance missions.

2- Techknowledge: a series of technical webinars aimed to introduce student to new technologies that they need in future including: Quantum computing, Cisco systems

 

Continuous trainings:

 

1- Deep learning training: participants learnt basics of programming techniques then practicing them through a set of labs to help them get started with deep learning.

2- PCB Design: a series of workshops targeting beginners in circuit design, modeling and PCB design.

3- Graphic Day: graphic design training for beginners finished with a challenge and winners got the chance to volunteer with our SB.

4- Machine Learning Bootcamp aimed to develop our member’s skills in machine learning followed by a 30days of programming challenges to put our student skills into action.

 

IEEE programs:

 

1- IEEE PES DAY 2022: we have three ambassador from our SB, we organized REMENA gathering to talk about energy situation in MENA region, as well as webinars in smart grids and grid protection training.

2- IEEE Smart Cities Week 2022 in collaboration with Tipasa smart cities we organized a week of conferences, webinars and challenges in different smart cities topics.

 

Competitions:

 

1- 4 of our members won She’s in tech entrepreneurship challenge in Fintech category.

2- One of our members in finalist of Innovate FPGA competition organized by INETEL.

 


IEEE Computer Society SUPCOM SB Chapter Chair

With Meta’s announcement to invest in the Metaverse, the world’s interest has shifted toward AR/VR technologies. IEEE Sup’Com Student Branch, in collaboration with IEEE SMU Student Branch, Vsober and Talan decided to join in on this movement. We are currently planning a first-of-its-kind event: The Metaverse Tunisian Summit. The 3-day conference will take place from September the 30th to October the 2nd and will tackle an emerging technology: Augmented Reality and XR technologies.

 

We are targeting 300 participants from Tunisia and the MENA Region. The event is intended for students and engineers passionate about AR/VR technologies. The explorers and the less experienced will participate in virtual webinars before the start of the Summit and attend panels, workshops, and exhibitions during the Summit. The Exhibition will feature the solutions provided by startups and companies. A first experience to get in touch with this technology’s applications. The passionate and the experienced will participate in a Hackathon to implement their knowledge and come up with cutting-edge technology solutions.

 

The hackathon will start virtually before the Summit and will continue face to face. The winners may have the chance to attend and present their ideas during the Francophonie, held this year by Tunisia to gather people from French-speaking countries and allow them to expose different accomplishments.


WIE International Leadership Summit Tunisia 2022

IEEE Sup’Com WIE Affinity Group is glad to announce that the second edition of WIE International Leadership Summit in Tunisia will be held from the 10th to the 11th of September 2022.

 

The IEEE WIE International Leadership Summits are small- to medium-scale events held locally worldwide and focused on Empowerment, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, and Emerging/Disruptive Technology. WIE Summits provide regional opportunities for networking, mentorship, training, and collaboration. ILS aims to provide a forum for women in technology to network with peers and gain insights from industry, entrepreneurship, academia, and government leaders. Attendees share their unique points of view through real-life projects and experiences, discuss lessons learned, identify challenges and limitations, and collaborate on critical skills for leadership development in projects in teams. Up to ten WIE Summits will be conducted globally in 2022 in different countries.

 

ILS Tunisia 2022 will include panels with international speakers, team building activities, workshops, mentoring sessions, and a competition. The event will focus in all its parts on “The empowerment of women in rural areas”. ILS Tunisia 2022 is a two-day catalytic experience of rich learning, new ideas, fresh perspective, and inspiring stories from leading experts spanning a wide range of fields and backgrounds.

 

Join us to learn more invaluable leadership insights, further your professional development, create evergreen strategies for tomorrow’s challenges.

 


IEEE MELECON 2024 – Porto – Portugal – 25-27 June 2024

IEEE MELECON 2024 (https://2024.ieee-melecon.org/) is one of the flagship conferences of IEEE Region 8 and will be held in Portugal, Porto on 25-27 June of 2024, supported by the IEEE Portugal Section. IEEE MELECON 2024 is a major international forum presenting design methodologies, techniques, and experimental results in emerging electro-technologies. It is one of the flagship conferences of the IEEE Region 8 (the largest region of IEEE including Europe, Africa, and Middle East). It is expected to bring together researchers and practitioners from different fields of Electrical Engineering with special focus on challenging and emerging issues in the fields of Power, Energy, and Power Electronics, Smart Industry and Manufacturing, Future Healthcare, and Digital Transformation.. The technical program will include plenary sessions, regular technical sessions, special sessions, panels, tutorials, and special events devoted to students and young professionals, Women in Engineering, entrepreneurs and industries.

 

Save the date and join us for IEEE MELECON 2024 (https://2024.ieee-melecon.org/) at the Alfândega do Porto Congress Centre, Porto, Portugal.

 


The 12th IEEE Iran Section Awards Ceremony

The award ceremony was held virtually in the Zoom cloud platform with the presence of Prof. Saifur Rahman, 2022-2023 IEEE Director-Elect, electrical and electronics prestigious professors from all over Iran, industry entrepreneurs, and deans, counselors, and student branches.

 

 

The ceremony had 600 registrants and 350 unique participants in the Zoom session in addition to more than 100 live Instagram users on the IEEE Iran section Instagram page. In the beginning, the host welcomed all prestigious guests around the world and started the session officially. IEEE Iran section 2019-2020 board of directors was introduced to the audience by a video clip. Then Prof. Vahid Ahmadi IEEE Iran section chair appreciated Dr. Yazdanian, the ICT Research Institute chair, for all supports and collaborations with IEEE Iran Section. Plaque of appreciation handed over from IEEE Iran Section to Dr. Yazdanian. Prof. Ahmadi introduced Prof. Saifur Rahman, 2022-2023 IEEE Director-Elect by mentioning his academic career and invited him to distribute his talk. Prof. Rahman mentioned the great potentials of the IEEE Iran section and its active members whose remarkable work is entirely voluntary for other members’ growth. He is also talked about plans for IEEE members and the rule of IEEE in past, present, and future of human’s life.

 

 

It was time to introduce IEEE Iran section awards and a video clip to give specific details about each one was played. Then, IEEE Iran section Awards and Recognition Committee Chair, Prof. Jawad Faiz, started to give information about nominees of the 2021 awards. List of awards, giver, and recipients of them are:

 

• Lifetime Teaching Award: The late Prof. Shahrokh Farhangi from the University of Tehran, given by Prof. Jawad Faiz
• Lifetime Research Award: Prof. Hossein Hosseinian from the Amirkabir University of Technology, given by Prof. Ahmadreza Sharafat.
• Prof. Hakkak Award: Prof. Khashayar Mehrani from the Sharif University of Technology, given by Prof. Hakkak’s family.
• Prof. Jabehdar Award: Prof. Zainalabedin Navabi Shirazi from the University of Tehran, given by Prof. Parviz Jabehdar.
• Prof. Caro Lucas Award: Prof. Mohammad Reza Akbarzadeh Totonchi from the University of Mashhad, given by Prof. Reza Faraji Dana.
• Prof. Fakhraei Award: Prof. Vahid Ghafarinia from the University of Mashhad, given by Dr. Hadi Moradi.
• Industry Veteran Engineer Award: Eng. Hamidreza Keshavarz from Crouse Industries, given by Eng. Hossein Riazi.
• Top Entrepreneurs Award: Eng. Abdolreza Yaghoubzadeh from Pooyandegan Rah Saadat Co. , given by Prof. Hamid Soltanian Zadeh.
• Outstanding Student Branch Counselor Award: Dr. Sayed Amin Atabak from Shahr-e Kord Technical and Vocational College, given by Prof. Hossein Askarian Abyaneh.
• Women in Engineering Award: Dr. Leyla Mohammadi form Iran Telecommunication Research Center, given by Dr. Zohreh Azimifar
• Young Researcher Award: jointly Dr. Mohsen Hamzeh from the University of Tehran and Dr. Amin Aminzadeh Gohari from Khatam University, given by Prof. Mahmud Fotuhi Fiuzabad
• Best Ph.D. Thesis Award: Dr. Mahtab Khalilifar from Shahid Chamran University, given by Prof. Nosrat Granpayeh.
• Best M.Sc. Thesis Award: Jointly Engineer Mohammad Raispour from Amirkabir University of Technology, Engineer Hamed Lastjerdi from Sharif University of Technology, given by Dr. Mohammad Reza Yousefi.
• Best B.Sc. Thesis Award: Jointly Eng. Abolfazl Qiyasi Moghadam from Shamsipour Technical And Vocational College and Eng. Ali Ramezani from Amirkabir University of Technology, given by Dr. Maryam Tayefeh Mahmoudi.
• Outstanding B.Sc. Thesis Award: Jointly Engineer Danial Farajzadeh from Buein Zahra Technical University and Eng. Fatemeh Esmaili from Sahand University of Technology, given by Dr. Maryam Tayefeh Mahmoudi.
• Best Student Branch Award: Tarbiat Modares University, Counselor: Dr. Orouji and Chair: Bashir Falegari, given by Dr. Amir Abolfazl Suratgar.
• Outstanding Student Branch Award: Jointly, Shamsipour Technical And Vocational College Student Branch Counselor: Dr. Rezvanian, Chair: Eng. Abolfazl Qiyasi Moghadam, and Shahrekord Technical and Vocational University Student Branch, Counselor: Dr. Seyed Amin Atabak, Chair: Reza Goyandeh Najafabadi, given by Dr. Amir Abolfazl Suratgar.

 

 

The final words were from Eng. Mojgan Azizi, the IEEE Iran Section Web Development committee chair and the conductor of the 12th IEEE Iran Section Awards Ceremony Executive Team. She admired the relentless and unparalleled efforts of team members and noted there was not such a fabulous event without them. At last, A memorable group photo was taken with all the prestigious guests.

 


The professor of Amirkabir university and the head of the communication committee of the Iran section was selected as an IEEE featured author

Professor Gevork B. Gharehpetian, a professor at the department of Electrical Engineering of Amirkabir University of Technology and one of the most prominent researchers in the country in the field of smart grids and power systems, was introduced as the prominent author of IEEE. This professor of Amirkabir University of Technology has been selected by IEEE for his investigation of the topic “Improving frequency control of multiple micro-grids in distribution networks” in January 2022. The selection of this professor of Amirkabir University of Technology and two other outstanding professors from Ohio State University, USA and ETH Zurich, Switzerland, has been announced in IEEE Xplore. Professor Gevork B. Gharehpetian has so far managed to write more than 1,300 journal and conference articles with more than ten thousand citations in the field of power systems. Also, he is the author and translator of more than 15 domestic and international books and is among the first one percent of the world’s most cited scientists.


2022 Call for Nominations for R8 positions

Dear IEEE Region 8 members,

This is an urgent reminder that the IEEE Region 8 Nominations & Appointments (N&A) Subcommittee is soliciting nominations for the following leadership positions:

  • IEEE Region 8 2023-2024 Vice Chair, Member Activities (two-year commitment)

  • IEEE Region 8 2023-2024 Vice Chair, Student Activities (two-year commitment)

  • IEEE Region 8 2023-2024 Vice Chair, Technical Activities (two-year commitment)

  • IEEE Region 8 2023-2024 Secretary (two-year commitment)

  • IEEE Region 8 2023-2024 Treasurer (two-year commitment)

Please note that the term of the Vice Chair positions is two years as approved during the recent R8 Committee meeting in Warsaw, Poland, and that they cannot be reelected for a second consecutive term. The Secretary and Treasurer positions are open for re-election.

The Region 8 N&A Subcommittee is also soliciting nominations for the members of the 2023-2024 IEEE Region 8 Nominations and Appointments Committee. Candidates must fulfil one of the following criteria at the time of their election (see the Region 8 Operations Manual, section R8-6.1.2.2):

  • be a Section Chair in office

  • have been a Section Chair within the past 3 years

  • have been a Section Chair and currently holding an elected or appointed position of the R8 Committee.

Please note that the positions for the elected members of the R8 N&A Committee are open for re-election.

Please submit nominations by filling up the IEEE R8 Nomination Form (available at the IEEE Region 8 website in the ‘Documents’ section: https://ieeer8.org/category/documents/ ; https://ieeer8.org/download/17296/ ). Please make sure that the nominee is willing to serve if elected, and that all sections of the Nomination form are filled up with the relevant information.

Please send the nomination forms to Magdalena Salazar Palma, Chair of the IEEE Region 8 Nominations & Appointments Committee (R8 N&A C), at [email protected] , and to the R8 N&A Committee at [email protected] , by July 31, 2022.

These IEEE Region 8 officers and the members of the IEEE Region 8 N&A Committee will be elected at the second Region 8 Committee meeting of this year, 2022, which as of today is scheduled for October 15-16, 2022. The Region 8 Committee members and all the nominees will be informed about the recommended slate of candidates for officers and R8 N&A Committee members 5-6 weeks prior to the meeting.

For all further details, including petition processes, please refer to the IEEE Region Bylaws and the IEEE Region 8 Operations Manual (available at the IEEE Region 8 website in the ‘Documents’ section: https://ieeer8.org/category/documents/ ), in particular the sections R8-3.1.5-7 in the Bylaws ( https://ieeer8.org/download/33755/ ), and the sections R8M-4.4 to R8M-4.6 ‘Secretary, Treasurer and Vice Chairs’ and R8M-5 ‘Elections and appointments procedures’ in the Operations Manual ( https://ieeer8.org/download/33756/ ).

Thank you and best regards,

Magdalena Salazar Palma
Chair, IEEE Region 8 Nominations & Appointments Committee