2nd IEEE Tunisian Student Branches Congress (TSBC) 2014

The IEEE Tunisia section and the IEEE Student Branch of the National Engineering School of Sfax (ENIS) had the honor of hosting the second IEEE Tunisian Student Branches Congress (TSBC) on December 22-23, 2014 in Sousse – Tunisia.

Website: http://tsbc.ieee-enis.org/

The TSBC 2014 was the biggest engineering event in Tunisia which brought hundreds of IEEE students from different student branches in Tunisia. The aim of the congress is to learn more about IEEE, to boost IEEE activities by training and motivating the student branch members, to exchange ideas and experiences and thoughts, to collaborate, to increase effective networking, to enhance technical and soft skills, and to Share skills and methods.

During two days, 260 attendees from 15 student branches in Tunisia attended the high quality talks presented by 8 distinguished speakers.

The program featured professional and technical activities. Participants enjoyed the following plenary talks and workshops:

“IEEE” & “Project Management Skills”, By Margaretha Eriksson, 2015/16 IEEE R8 Director‑Elect, Sweden
“How develop your leadership skills?” & “Oral Presentation Skills” By Kurt Richter, IEEE Life Fellow, 1991/92 IEEE Director Region 8, Professor Emeritus from Graz University of Technology, Austria
“Benefits of IEEE Student Chapters”, “IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES)”, and “IEEE Women In Engineering (WIE)” By Simay Akar, IEEE R8 Student chapter coordinator, Turkey
“IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS)” & “Nuclear Energy Today and the Future – What in the World is Going on?” By David J. Vaglia, IEEE IAS Distinguished Lecturer, Westinghouse Electric Company, USA
“How to Succeed as a Young Entrepreneur” By Lassaad Mezghani, Counselor of Entrepreneurship Development, Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and ICT, Tunisia
“IEEE Pre-University Activities: EPICS-in-IEEE Program” & “IEEE Technology Engineering and Management Society (TEMS)” By Sohaib Qamar Sheikh, IEEE R8 Pre-University Activities Coordinator, Ove Arup and Partners Ltd, United Kingdom
“ITU, Innovating Together” By Bilel Jamoussi, Chief, Study Groups Department, ITU-T, Switzerland
“The Black Dog & Indiscipline Tree” By Nadhem Bardaa, IEEE R8 Professional Speaker, NTraining Manager, Tunisia

An IEEE booth was ready during two days to present the IEEE student transition & elevation benefits and to congratulate the recent IEEE graduates members.

Furthermore, a SB contest was organized: On the first day, 3 student branches (ENET’Com, ESTI, and INSAT) were selected as the best student branches in Tunisia according to their activities on 2014. At the end of the congress, a debate was organized between them following their TSBC’15 hosting proposals. After voting session, the winning student branch is the National Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology (INSAT) student branch and it will be hosting the next TSBC 2015.

We trust all speakers and members who participated in this year’s congress had an amazing time and we look for a greater congress next year!

Gratitude was expressed to our IEEE partners: Region 8, Sfax subsection, YP and WIE Tunisian affinity groups, and the Industry Applications Society; and our sponsors: Interface Group, International Institute of Technology (IIT Sfax) and International School of Business (ISB Sfax).

Habib M. Kammoun, TSBC 2014 General Chair.