News

(26-28th August 2013, Corinthia Hotel, Sudan Section)

RESEARCH MAKES A DIFFERENCE

The IEEE-Sudan Subsection has held its first conference, the International Conference on Computing, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, during the period 26-28^th August 2013, at Corinthia Hotel. The conference was technically co-sponsored by IEEE Region-8 , the University of Khartoum, Sudan University of Science and Technology and Eljazera University. It was supported by the Ministry of Science and Communications and the National Telecommunications Corporation. The conference was hailed a huge success by the organizers and attendees. It has attracted papers from 28 countries other than Sudan. A total of 341 papers were submitted and 138 were accepted.

The opening ceremony was attended by the Minster of Science and Communications, Dr. Eisa Bashari, the State Minster of Communications, the Chancellors of many Sudanese Universities or their representatives, deans of faculties of engineering and computer science of many universities, representatives of the industry.

The conference proceedings were attended by 500 delegates, from academia, researchers, postgraduate students and many undergraduates too.

The organizers are grateful to the 90 volunteers who worked day and night to make this conference the huge success it was. The conference has generated interest in research and publications.

A number of Sudanese universities and research institutes have already shown interest in organizing conferences and requested the IEEE-Sudan to co-sponsor their conferences.

We are grateful to the following keynote speakers:

• Professor Narayan Chandra Debnath, USA
• Dr. Fanny Klett, Germany, Region-8
• Prof. Dr. Hinghung Anthony Chan, USA

The conference event was reported on Sudan TV, Sudan Radio and various other local newspapers and media channels.

I am including a summary of the icceee13 Conference statistics  and the icceee13 Program .

Dr. Sharief F. Babiker
IEEE-Sudan Subsection Chair
Chairman, ICCEEE
University of Khartoum

American University of Beirut, Lebanon

The IEEE – AUB Student Branch in Lebanon had the honor of hosting the third IEEE Middle East Student Branch Congress (MEBSC) between May 28th and June 1st, 2013 on the American University of Beirut’s (AUB) campus. Attendees and speakers, from Cyprus, Egypt, France, Jordan, Palestine, Poland, Sudan, Turkey, and Tunisia came to be part of this conference. The opening ceremony was addressed first by AUB’s Provost Dr. Ahmad Dallal followed by Dean Makram Suidan, Dean of the faculty of Engineering and Architecture at AUB, succeeded by Dr. Ghassan Shaban, IEEE Lebanon Chair. IEEE Region 8 representatives gave a few words as well: Ms. Simay Akar, R8 Student Chapter coordinator, Mr. Muhammad Mustafa, TISP Global Team member, and Mr. Maciej Borowka, EPICS Global Team member. The opening ceremony ended with a speech by Mr. Yahia Sinno, MESBC committee Chair. The congress held several technical, professional, and IEEE workshops and lectures. In addition, participants attended many activities including an icebreaker barbecue and sightseeing of Beirut and Jeita grotto. At the Gala dinner, the name of the rally paper, FM TV competition and the traditional Delegation of Aspiration (DOA) competition were announced. The winning student branch of the DOA is An-Najah Student Branch (Palestine) and it will be hosting the next MESBC 2015.

Below is the list of lectures, plenary sessions, and workshops that were given during the MESBC 2013:

With the passing of Rolf Remshardt, IEEE has lost one of its most highly valued volunteers. His sudden death, only weeks after he was a special guest at the 50^th Anniversary celebrations of Region 8 in Madrid, has come as a terrible shock to his many friends across IEEE. For almost 30 years he provided an outstanding example of selfless and ethical service to the Institute. He was a major influence in policy- making: eight regional Directors benefited from his wise and friendly advice. His stewardship, as Treasurer, of the Region’s finances for 15 years enabled a huge expansion of its activities, underpinned by the substantial reserves he built up by careful investment and budget controls.

Rolf Remshardt earned a Diplom-Ingenieur degree and a PhD in electrical engineering from the Technical University in Stuttgart, Germany. He began his career at IBM in 1967, working as a development engineer, designing integrated circuits and semiconductor chips, and spent 2 years with IBM in the USA. During his nearly 30 years with the company he held several development and management positions.

Rolf joined IEEE as a Senior Member in 1983, and was elected Region 8 Treasurer. His IBM boss at the time, Director Walter Proebster, had persuaded Rolf to take on the job without warning him about the time commitment involved. Nevertheless, Rolf quickly demonstrated his skill in managing the complexities of dealing with many different currencies and exchange controls, in an era before credit cards became universal.

He was elected as Region 8 Director (1999-2000) at a time when there was a rapid expansion in IEEE activity in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Under his wise counsel the problems of IEEE membership in the ‘low-income’ countries were dealt with very effectively. This laid the foundations for the success of the enlarged Region 8 as it reached its 50^th year.

Rolf also served on many IEEE Boards and committees, including the IEEE Foundation as a Director and Vice-President Projects.

He was honoured by IEEE through the Larry K Wilson Transnational Award (2002) and the RAB Achievement Award (2006).

We mourn the loss of one of IEEE’s finest volunteers, and share the grief of his wife Renate and son Marc. We will all miss Rolf, as a friend and colleague, and as a happy companion.

Kurt R. Richter                                                                                                Charles W Turner
1991-1992 IEEE Director Region 8                                                                    1993-1994 IEEE Director Region 8

On January 2013 the first IEEE Entrepreneurs Network (EN) within R8 was established in Cyprus under the IEEE Cyprus Section. The idea of implementing such a Network in Cyprus initiated by the conclusion that current economic crisis is considered by many as a great barrier towards economic growth and employability, whereas entrepreneurship driven by innovation and networks of talented people can in fact mitigate the negative impacts of this crisis and lead to local prosperity. It was also based on the confidence that professionals who by education or experience give evidence of competence in an IEEE designated field (Engineering, Computer Sciences and Information Technology, Physical Sciences, Biological and Medical Sciences, Mathematics, Technical Communications, Education, Management, Law and Policy) should take a leading role in this effort.

The IEEE Cyprus EN’s main objectives are the following:

1. Networking between IEEE members and other professionals (non-members working in an IEEE designated field) in Cyprus who are interested in entrepreneurship, from which possible cooperation and start-ups may come up. Monthly meetings take place in the presence of the Entrepreneurs Network Executive Committee (Chair, Vice Chairperson, Secretary and Program Director) and any other IEEE members or non-members concerned in the Network’s goals and interests.
2.  Triggering of entrepreneurship in IEEE designated fields in Cyprus especially within the current financial crisis which increases unemployment. Professionals who by education or experience give evidence of competence in an IEEE designated field are encouraged to participate in the Entrepreneurs Network and join IEEE.
3. Arrangement of talks by entrepreneurship related experts, such as accountants, lawyers, angels, local SBA representatives, bankers, experts in Business Finance, marketing professionals, insurance experts, and industry leaders.
4. Organization of workshops or days of training in such topics as financing alternatives, protecting intellectual property, selling a business plan, project management and personal leadership style for success.
5. Support of entrepreneurs / future entrepreneurs and helping them both to meliorate their business plans and get in touch with angels and investors.
6. Holding face to face year round TechMatch event. TechMatch is a tool that helps member entrepreneurs conduct self-evaluations on their business plans, submit their business plans for review by other experienced entrepreneur members and to visibility by potential investors. The IEEE Cyprus EN supports entrepreneurs who have participated in the TechMatch event by assigning mentors, connecting the entrepreneur with local resources for further help, selecting the best plans in a competition and giving awards or advertising the plans in operating unit publications.
7. The goal of TechMatch is to support entrepreneur members in moving toward success and that is what the Entrepreneurs Network Executive Committee (EN’s EXCOM) undertakes. After the actual TechMatch event is over EN’s EXCOM provides ongoing support to entrepreneurs who have expressed interest. This can be in the form of assigned mentors for those entrepreneurs that express interest. The lead of the Review team together with EN’s EXCOM takes the responsibility for any handoff or continuity of support as expressed by the entrepreneur and assures there is direct communication with each entrepreneur according to their needs and expectations for their further development.

Apart from its official website within IEEE Cyprus Section’s website, IEEE Cyprus EN can be found in LinkedIn and Facebook.

Two webinars were organized in May 2013 by the IEEE R8 Educational Activities Sub-Committee (EASC) Continuing Education (CE), Niovi Pavlidou, Coordinator, and George Papadopoulos, Volunteer.

The first webinar entitled “Industrial automation” was organized on May 9, 2013. The webinar was intended to all members of the IEEE Components, Packaging, and Manufacturing Technology Society, Industrial Electronics Society (IES) and Industry Applications Society (IAS) members in Region 8. The webinar was quite well disseminated, resulting to 32 registrations. The event was organized on the WebEx facilities and the attendance was considered as satisfactory with about 35 participants taking place. Niovi Pavlidou welcomed the participants and introduced various subcommittees relating to technical activities, with emphasis on educational activities in R8. The central speaker of the webinar was Kevit Desai, Centurion Systems, Nairobi, Kenya. The webinar was technically hosted by George Papadopoulos.

The second webinar entitled “Computer in Parallel” was organized on May 16, 2013. The target audience was all members of the IEEE Computer Society members in Region 8. This webinar, which was generally considered as the most successful of the webinar series performed so far by the IEEE R8 CE, had 177 registrations, resulting to about 50 attendees. Niovi Pavlidou opened the session, with Nikos Pitsianis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, following with his presentation. The webinar was technically hosted by George Papadopoulos.

The events were recorded on the WebEx platform and are available to everyone for free in the website of IEEE R8 EASC https://ieeer8.org/category/continuing-education-works/ce-webinars/. Stay tuned to our future events.

George Papadopoulos, IEEE R8 Volunteer for Educational Activities
Niovi Pavlidou, IEEE R8 Coordinator for Educational Activities

On 13th February, IEEE Kenya officially launched its EPICS project to provide access for visually impaired persons to educational content on mobile devices with the signing of an MoU between IEEE Kenya, Automated Systems Research and the Kenya Society for the Blind.

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Left to right: Juliana Kivasu- CEO, Kenya Society for the Blind; Vincent Kaabunga –
Chair, IEEE Kenya; Moses Gichanga – CEO, Automated Systems Research

Under the EPICS project, five IEEE student branch members will work under the supervision of ASR to implement an automated system that will enable  visually impaired persons to access SMS and email-based content using low cost mobile phones. Additionally, eight visually impaired pre-university students from the Kenya Integrated Education Programme will also participate in the project.

The project is also being supported by SAMSUNG under their initiative to develop local content for the mobile platform.

It is envisaged that the system will ultimately become a revenue generation source for the society when the service is made available to the general public.

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Photos of IEEE President Peter W. Staecker with Dr. Imaana Kibaaya Laibuta, who is blind and is serves as a Commisioner at the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution.

The third organization of Job Fair Athens was a success.

“Job Fair Athens 2013” took place on the 3rd & 4th of April at Technopolis of the city of Athens. 36 companies, 4 startups, the EURES and several Universities have joined the event this year. The volunteers’ number exceeded 120 from all over Greece.
More than 2,400 people have checked-in at the event, which is a Job Fair Athens’ first! More than 500 job interviews took place on the spot.

Job Fair Athens is organized every year by the student IEEE NTUA SB and EESTEC LC Athens under the auspices of the National Technical University of Athens and it aims to inform all visitors about the situation on the labor market and help them integrate smoothly into it.
This year we were happy to have volunteers from several IEEE Student Branches of the Greece Section, such as the Patras University IEEE SB, the  University of Central Greece IEEE SB, the IEEE T.E.I of Ionian Islands SB and the IEEE SB of Thrace.

Here is a photo from all the people that helped this event to become reality:

You can find more information on our website www.job-fair.gr and on social networks: Facebook  –  LinkedIn  –  Twitter  – Google +

For the first time in Greece, in 29^th of March 2013, a team of the IEEE University of Central Greece (UCG) Student Branch, organized two TISP Workshops at the 1^st Highschool of Lamia.

Efthymia Arvaniti, Ad hoc member of the Pre-University Works Subcommittee of Region 8 delivered a presentation about IEEE, PUW and IEEE UCG Student Branch.

EPICS Project was discussed with the teachers, and they agreed on preparing a proposal for an EPICS Project in Lamia. Then, the benefits of the Teacher-In-Service-Program were presented, explaining the methodology and its objectives.

On the second part of the presentation, the 42 participating students, were divided in small groups of 3 members, and tried to build a ChairLift with simple materials of everyday use within limited time period.

The excitement of the students could not be described. They collaborated and worked in teams, exchanging ideas on the solution of the given problem. All of them understood what is to be a simple engineer, and many of them want to study in a field of engineering.
The local media advertised the event, and more schools contacted the IEEE UCG Student Branch to participate in the TISP Workshops.