Meet the R8 WIE Committee!
The 2019 Committee can be reached on ma-wie@ieeer8.org, and consists of:
Ana Cigarán Romero (Germany), Chair
She is an active member of the IEEE Germany Section, where she is currently the Chair of the IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) Affinity Group and the Secretary of the IEEE Young Professionals Affinity Group.
Youmna El Bitar (Lebanon), Past Chair
“Attaining your goals has 4 ingredients: knowing yourself, enjoying what you’re doing, commitment, and time management.”
Youmna graduated from the American University of Beirut – Lebanon with a degree in Telecommunications Engineering, a subject she is passionate about since childhood. She is currently working as a Radio Engineer with a Lebanese mobile operator.
IEEE has always been at the core of Youmna’s volunteering work. She joined the IEEE AUB Student Branch in 2009 and started organizing activities and events in 2010. In 2011, she joined the Third Middle-East Student Branch Congress organizing committee as Speakers Representative, a role she assumed until the Congress took place in 2013.
In 2014, Youmna joined R8 SAC as Electronic Communications Coordinator, and in 2015/2016 as Projects Coordinator, where her main focus was establishing “Mind the Gap!” Student Contest in Region 8. In 2015/2016, she also acted as Region 8 Assistant Secretary.
Maria-Alexandra Paun (Switzerland)
“If you really want to achieve your objectives, three ingredients are key: motivation, perseverance and passion!”
Dr. Maria-Alexandra Paun received the Engineer Diploma in 2008 from Politehnica University of Bucharest, FILS, Romania, with a major in Computer Science, graduating top of her class. During 2008-2009, she was awarded a postgraduate Marie Curie research fellowship at the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK. Between 2009 and 2013, she was Assistant – Ph.D. student at EPF Lausanne, where she worked on the subject of Hall Effect sensors. During 2013-2015, Maria-Alexandra was a Visiting Researcher at University of Cambridge, UK, with Postdoctoral Fellowships from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). She is currently working on cochlear implants, on her own research project. She has published at present 39 scientific publications, with 27 ISI-indexed journal papers, 10 IEEE Conference proceedings, wrote a chapter in a book and her h-index is 7. Her research interests include the analysis and modeling of sensors (with an expertise in magnetic sensors), development of circuit and three-dimensional physical models, development of Hall Effect sensors in regular bulk and SOI (Silicon on Insulator) CMOS technologies, humidity sensors, cochlear implants.
She is Chair of IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) Affinity Group in Switzerland, Vice Chair and Secretary of IEEE Switzerland Section, and IEEE R8 Corresponding Member in the Women in Engineering Subcommittee.
Hzar Oqlah (Jordan)
“Women are born leaders, women always fit in!” – Hzar Oqlah
Hzar is a 3rd year undergraduate student at Jordan University of Science and Technology currently working towards her degree in Industrial Engineering.
She is a freelance graphic designer since 2012. She has been honored by the reception of an award from the US Department of State for the best Logo Design for the “SheCab Project”, winner of the Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund.
In 2013 she succeeded as a young Jordanian entrepreneur to start her first self-run business, by designing bookmarks and other crafts to sell them at Jerash Festival of Culture and Arts, Jordan. After that she has been working as a handicrafts designer in the festival from 2013 up till now.
She is an active member of IEEE Jordan Section, where she is currently the Chair of IEEE JUST Women in Engineering (WIE) Affinity Group and she was a member of the organizing committee of the IEEE Jordan Students and Young Professionals Congress 2017 (JSYP). Hzar has volunteered as a graphic designer in IEEEXtreme 11.0, Jordan.
Recently, she has joined the committee of IEEE Women in Engineering International Leadership Summit Tunisia 2018 as a graphic designer.
After winning a graphic design competition carried by R8 WIE, Hzar has joined IEEE R8 Women in Engineering Committee as “Publicity Officer”.
Ilhem Kallel (Tunisia)
Dr. Ilhem Kallel is an A. Professor with the Department of Computer Science Engineering in Higher Institute of Computer Science and Multimedia of Sfax, and a senior researcher with REGIM-Lab in National school of Engineers of Sfax (university of Sfax-Tunisia). She received the bachelor degree in computer science in 1988 from ISG Tunis, the DEA degree in Information Systems and new Technologies in 2003, from FSEGS, and the PhD degree in Computer Systems Engineering in 2009 from ENIS. Since 1988, Dr. Ilhem had many leadership positions and a rich professional experience dealing with developing and managing enterprise information systems within an industrial company, teaching fields of computer science and training of teachers.
Besides professional and associative activities, including those of IEEE, Dr. Ilhem is involved in many associative projects and activities. She usually takes part or organizes many scientific and social events (meetings, conferences, workshops, contests, competitions, training sessions, booths, soft skills training, etc.) and she is participating in international research cooperation projects and research mobility. She supervises engineering and doctoral research projects and contributes to the review process of many international conferences and journals. Her research interests are mainly in collective and hybrid intelligence, pedagogical innovation in education, intelligent multirobot systems, fuzzy modeling, swarm intelligence, multiagent systems, and systems’ quality assessment.
Dr. Ilhem Kallel is an IEEE member since 2001: from graduate student Member, to member, to
senior member on 2014. She is serving as a chair of Education Tunisia chapter for 2017-2020
(http://education.ieee.tn/), Tunisia-section Chair-Elect for 2019-2020 and next chair for 2021-
2022. On 2009, she founded and chaired for four years the affinity group IEEE Tunisia “Women
In Engineering”; among others, she was one past chair of IEEE “Systems, Mans and
Cybernetics”, and “Computational Intelligence” Tunisia Chapters, the chapters coordinator in
Tunisia Section for 2015-2016. She volunteered in many international competition programs.
She was the winner of the 2011 WIE Clementina Award for Region 8 (Europe, Africa and MiddleEast) for her professional and personal achievements; this award attests that she can serve as a role model for combining professional achievements and family life. Recently she wins the
2018 R8 Outstanding Women In Engineering Section Volunteer Award.
Moreover, she participates in the organization of many IEEE activities, conferences and
technical events. She invites many international Distinguished Lecturers from WIE, SMC, CI and
Education societies. Since 2017, she is focusing on education engineering and intelligent
tutoring systems on both associative IEEE activities and scientific research activities.
- IEEE Senior Member #41436656
- IEEE Tunisia section Chair-Elect (Vice Chair)
- IEEE Tunisia Education Chapter Chair
- IEEE Region8 WIE Subcommittee Member
Philippa Makobore (Uganda)
Philippa Makobore is the Department Head of the Instrumentation Division at the Uganda Industrial Research Institute.
She has a BSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alberta, Canada (2008), a Professional Certificate in Embedded Systems Engineering from the University of California, Irvine (2016) and is currently a Master of Science in Engineering (MSE) student in Interdisciplinary Engineering at the Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA. Her expertise is the design of diagnostic and therapeutic medical devices for low resource settings.
In 2016 the division secured a 1st place Innovation Award from the Patient Safety Movement Foundation, USA and in 2017 the 2nd place Innovation Prize for Africa for the design of the ECGF infusion set. UIRI has partnered with University of Pisa, Italy and five other partners on the UBORA project to design a Euro-African Open Biomedical Engineering e-Platform for the co-creation of open source medical devices funded by a European Union Horizon 2020 grant. She is a member of the African Biomedical Engineering Consortium (ABEC), IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) and the Canadian Medical and Biological Engineering Society (CMBES).