Prepared by: H. Tokuda, Chair for IEEE Tokyo Section
IEEE Tokyo Section was founded in 1955 as IRE Tokyo branch and then renamed accordingly after the merger of IRE and AIEE in 1963. After a set of reorganizations in 1998 and 2006, by which 8 newer sections came into being in Japan, Tokyo section has covered the Kanto region. The membership has reached 7,761 at the end of 2019 from 72 at the time of the inauguration. This section has shown active engagement including 20 IEEE Milestones being recognized along the way. What sets the section remarkably apart is its various activities such as 176 workshops offered by 38 chapters, with support from 8 committees and 2 affinity groups, with significant outreach to people in a wide range of age groups. The section holds about 10 lectures every year, with invited speakers from distinguished experts in each field. In 2019, 11 events took place, including “High Electron Mobility Transistor, HEMT” IEEE Milestone Dedication Ceremony and Commemorative Lectures. Three recent events are featured as follows:
Lectures in “Yume Koko Class”
The section organized the lectures in a class called “Yume Koko Class” at Daini Tanabu Elementary School in Aomori prefecture on 4 October, 2019. This event was jointly held by Special Interest Group on Humanitarian Technology (SIGHT) Tokyo; IEEE Tokyo Young Professionals (YP) Committee and Japan Council (JC) YP Coordinator, in cooperation with Sendai YP and Sendai Women in Engineering (WIE). Three speakers gave an introduction of IEEE to 66 sixth grade students.
Tokyo SYWL Workshop 2019 & IEEE Day Party 2019
Tokyo SYWL Workshop & IEEE Day Party 2019 were hosted by IEEE Tokyo Student Activities Committee, IEEE Tokyo YP Committee, JC WIE Affinity Group and IEEE Tokyo Life Member Affinity Group (LMAG), with the co-sponsorship of IEEE Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, The University of Electro-Communications and Meiji University Student Branches, on 5th October 2019, at Nihon University, College of Humanities and Sciences. 40 people attended this vibrant event. These occasions, aimed at further cooperation with and more activities in Student Branch, YP, WIE, LMAG (SYWL) of Tokyo Section, and at sharing knowledge from various generations and regions to broaden the minds, presented some lectures titled “IEEE and me” by the representatives of each group, followed by a discussion on careers among the members of SYWL. The social event for the celebration of IEEE day took place after the workshop. The SYWL members of Tokyo Section met and mingled around the birthday cake that was specially made for “IEEE Day” in memory of its 10th anniversary.
The 16th IEEE TOWERS
The 16th IEEE TOWERS (Transdisciplinary-Oriented Workshop for Emerging Researchers) took place in Empowerment Studio of University of Tsukuba on 19th October 2019, hosted by the 16th IEEE TOWERS Executive Committee. There were 65 poster presentations and 105 attendees having an active group discussion on the theme “How to eliminate fringe science?” and participating in “poster presentation stamp rally”, where attendees go to different poster presentations to collect as many stamps as possible. This workshop, as part of student activity, was operated by the students and aimed at networking among young researchers from different fields for future collaboration.
Unfortunately, the spread of COVID-19 has forced the Tokyo Section into avoiding activities which involve people’s physical contact as of June 2020. However, it now tries to manage to maintain its communication by network technologies, for example, in the executive meetings and technical lectures, and will get its activities up to speed back again soon, once the pandemic ends.