News

[singlepic id=1286 w=104 h=138 float=left] With the arrival of 2009, comes a transition of the Region’s Management and on this occasion, I would like thank the entire outgoing R8 Directory  for their contribution and involvement, especially the Past Director Jean-Gabriel Remy and our OpCom members who ended their terms of office, in particular Baldomir Zajc, Martin Baastians, and George Paunovic, but also all outgoing Coordinators and Section Chairs. At the same time, I would like to welcome on board the members of our newManagement. For a complete list of 2009 Directory please look up the Committee fold.

It is one of the most enjoyable pieces of news to be spread at the beginning of the New Year. The most telling evidence behind our Region’s achievements and its high status in the Institute are our Fellow members. It is my unconcealed pleasure to congratulate all of the 63 newly elevated IEEE Region 8 Fellows, which is definitely a record-breaking number, on receiving this most acclaimed Institutes’ title (see www.ieee.org/fellows). Coming from various environments, they are its scientific leaders, missionaries and pioneers. Therefore, I would like to strongly encourage our younger members to follow those prominent examples, so as to contribute to the Institute’s strength and enhancement.

Jozef Modelski, R8 Director

[singlepic id=1285 w=150 h=125 float=left] Region 8 Committee members Marko Delimar (2009 IEEE Region 8 Director-Elect) and Saurabh Sinha (2009 IEEE South Africa Section Chair) were featured in the December Issue of The Institute (print and online version) in an article‘Meet The Volunteers Driving Membership Recruitment’‘. For more information please follow this link.

Every year in early November the IEEE Member and Geographic Activities Board collects nominations for their different, very prestigious awards. This year two of these awards go to two GOLD members in IEEE Region 8:

[singlepic id=1283 w=70 h=77 float=left] The IEEE MGA GOLD Achievement Award goes to
Adrian Pais, Benelux Section “for extraordinary leadership and valuable contributions to the development of the IEEE GOLDRush newsletter.”

[singlepic id=1284 w=70 h=91 float=right] The IEEE MGA Achievement Award goes to
Ahmed Osama Mikkawi, Egypt Section “for his outstanding efforts in the GOLD and Women in Engineering programs for fostering inspiration among IEEE members.”

Congratulations to Adrian and Ahmed!
Check out the whole list of awardees at
http://www.ieee.org/web/volunteers/mga/home/Awards/2008_MGA_Award_Recipents.html

[singlepic id=1282 w= h= float=left] 16th International Conference on Telecommunications
Marrakech, Morocco, 25-27 May 2009
http://www.ict09.org/ 

Paper submission deadline: 19 December 2008

The 16th ICT will be held on 25-27 May 2009 in the city of Marrakech, Morocco: a land of culture and history. The conference will bring together distinguished individuals from academia and industry to discuss and exchange ideas in various fields of Telecommunications. The 16th ICT will feature world-class plenary speakers, tutorials, technical presentations, and exhibition opportunities.

In the past few years, there has been a growing interest in integrating stand-alone wireless networks with infrastructured wireless networks to create more adaptable and robust communications systems. Moreover, the world of telecommunications is continuously adopting new Internet technologies, and there has been a trend towards decentralized and self-organizing network architectures. Security of communications systems becomes of paramount importance in these contexts.

ICT’09 Technical Programme will reflect on such trends.

• Wireless Communications
• Optical Networking
• Communication Networks and Managament
• Ad-Hoc and Sensor Communications
• Satellite Communications
• Signal Processing

[singlepic id=1281 w= h= float=left] At the 2008 Educational Activities Board Awards Ceremony at New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA on 14th November, Kurt Richter, an Emeritus Professor of the Technical University of Vienna at Graz, Austria, and a former Director of IEEE Region 8, received the 2008 IEEE EAB Meritorious Achievement Award in Continuing Education.

The citation is “for outstanding contributions as a teacher and organiser of management and leadership continuing education programs for IEEE members in Region 8”

The photo shows (left to right) IEEE Region 8 Director-Elect Jozef Modelski, Kurt Richter, and IEEE President Lewis Terman, taken at the conclusion of the awards-ceremony.

Dr. Kurt Richter introduced Leadership and Management Workshops in Region 8, and taught many of them himself, in Sections throughout the Region. The workshops are primarily targeted at students, recent graduates and early-career engineers, and it is estimated that more than 1500 people from Region 8 have attended these workshops.

[singlepic id=1280 w= h= float=left] In the recent IEEE elections, Prof. Roger Pollard, a former Chair of the UKRI Section and a long-term active member and former President of the IEEE Microwaves Theory and Techniques Society was elected by a large majority as Technical Activities Vice-President Elect for 2009.  This is a very high-level position in IEEE, and the first time that it has been filled by a member from Region 8.   Roger is Dean of Engineering at Leeds University in England, where he was previously Head of the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

[singlepic id=1279 float=left] The Annual IEEE Honors Ceremony was held in Québec City on 20th September 2008, at IEEE Sections Congress, before an audience which included IEEE members from all the 10 IEEE Regions and representatives from almost every IEEE Section.   This was the first time that the Honors Ceremony had taken place at a Sections Congress, which brought this important and spectacular event to a much wider audience than usual.

Dr. Maurice Papo, from the France Section, a former Director of Region 8 received the IEEE Haraden Pratt Award (given for outstanding service to IEEE).     Others honoured at the ceremony included Tim Berners-Lee who is credited with the initial ideas (while at CERN in Switzerland) from which the World Wide Web developed, and Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel Corporation, who received the IEEE Medal of Honour, who has become a household name among technical people for the ‘Moore’s Law’ which in 1965 defined properties of the semiconductor industry which led to its universal impact on so much of all our lives today.

The photo shows Maurice Papo and his wife, just after the presentation of the Award.

Nadezhda A. Dvurechenskaya, Vice Chair of IEEE R8 Russia Siberia Section, founder Member of IES/IAS/PELS Siberia Section Chapter, Novosibirsk, Russia, Member of the IAS Inter-Society Cooperation Committee, has been named 2008 IEEE IAS Andrew W. Smith Outstanding Young Member Award recipient. The honour is given each year to an individual “in recognition of his/her outstanding achievement in IEEE Industry Applications Society activities by an engineer less than 35 years of age”.

Nadezhda has been judged to have made an outstanding contribution to the profession in the form of IEEE IAS activities in IAS Chapter leadership, IAS committee work, conference leadership, and R8 Siberia Section leadership. The award consits of a suitably inscribed plaque, honorarium and expenses to attend the IAS Annual Meeting. Nadezda´s award has been presented in the President´s Banquet of the 2008 IEEE Industry Applications Society 43rd Annual Meeting, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Oct. 8, 2008.

[singlepic id=1278 float=center]

S Mark Halpin, IAS President (l) presents the award to Nadezhda A Dvurechenskaya (r)

[singlepic id=1277 float=left] IEEE members in University of Sharjah, Ghassan Dabbour, Ahmed Nahidh Alghefari, and Mohamed EL-Khatib have been participating in organizing a conference hosted by Vision Club (www.myvisionclub.com) in the University to combat poverty as what’s known by “Blog Action Day Poverty 08”.

Thousands of bloggers worldwide were addressed the tough subject of poverty. Dozens of poverty relief organizations, companies and popular blogs are participating.

United Nations Development Programme represented by Mrs. Naoual Driouich – The Deputy Resident Representative of UNDP in the UAE was participating in this day to show statistics from the United Nations established figures and discussed what the United Nations is doing in the fight against poverty. She went to explain that poverty is a violation of human rights. There are 1.4 million people who die of hunger and thirst in the world, we must feel for them and feel their suffering.

Direct Aid Foundation from Kuwait represented by Dr. Nabil Trekiet Deputy Director-General of the Assembly and the two Volunteers ladies Shaymaa and Fatima participated in this conference as well to show the Foundation role in Africa and how they helped hundreds of people there.

Then, a 15 minutes countdown was introduced, declaring the start of Direct Aid’s campaign to educate 171,600 children, teenagers, women and men in Africa.

At the end of the ceremony, Majd Elmashharawi – Vision Club President – thanked the audience for their attendance and their noble humanitarian work, showing a very impressive short documentary movie on the poor and their experience in this world.

To watch the video, photos and summary of the conference, please visit the Web site: http://www.myvisionclub.com.

Written by Eng. Soha Jawabreh
WIE reporter in Sharjah
[email protected]