By Warunika M. Hippola (South Asia and Pacific) and Pauline N. Kawamoto (North Asia), Region 10 Women in Engineering Committee (R10 WIEC)
Astounding jump in membership of R10 WIE groups reported Jan. 2026 – increase of 5000+ YoY to 39,418 members – approximately two-thirds of the 60,000+ WIE members worldwide! If you are a WIE supporter looking for a place to learn, connect, and engage, the IEEE Region 10 WIE “One-Cup-of-Coffee” online chat is the place to be.
This initiative was launched in 2025 to create a relaxed and welcoming space for the Region 10 WIE community to connect, while continuously fostering engagement and learning. It is not limited to WIE leaders—any WIE member or potential WIE member is warmly invited to join. Moreover, just like WIE membership itself, the platform is open to both men and women. If you are reading this, you may already know that WIE membership is open to men and is FREE for IEEE Student Members (including Graduate Student Members) and Life Members.
Region 10 WIE Committee (R10 WIEC) initiatives are organized around three main objectives: Connect, Support, and Inspire. These initiatives are thoughtfully designed to support our members while aligning with WIE’s core mission—promoting women engineers and scientists and inspiring girls worldwide to pursue academic and professional careers in engineering and science.
We strongly believe that building meaningful connections among peers is essential for empowering one another. To this end, we organize special sessions and coffee meetups at our flagship conferences, creating valuable opportunities to meet, network, and share experiences within the WIE community. As engineering and technology careers today rarely follow a single, straightforward path, we also strive to showcase the diverse achievements of WIE members—highlighting varied career journeys, including ventures into entrepreneurship.
If you believe there are important areas that WIE should focus on, we invite you to join the conversation and share your thoughts.
Let us come together to strengthen our community and empower one another in our journeys as engineers!