POWER – Phenomenal, Omnipotent, Women, Engineering, Responsibility
Isma Farah Siddiqui, Chair for IEEE Karachi Section WIE AG
The IEEE Karachi Section WIE Affinity Group, with the support of IEEE Region 10 WIE, organized a seminar on 7th December 2021 to enhance the interpersonal skills of women in engineering to a phenomenal level. The seminar topics were in close relevance to building mutual harmony for active participation. The first talk was on the communication skills to achieve target-oriented professional confidence in women, by Dr. Isma Farah Siddiqui, Chair for IEEE Karachi Section WIE AG. The second talk discussed the pro-active role of women in a variety of engineering fields, by Dr. Bushra Naeem, Vice-Chair of IEEE Quetta Subsection and Member of R10 MD Committee. The third talk focused on utilizing STEM opportunities in a variety of R&D areas for women, by Dr. Arifa Bhutto. Furthermore, postgraduate research poster presentations were also made to foster researchers’ participation. In the end, an award distribution ceremony was organized to appreciate the seminar speakers, guests, and participants. In total 55 participants attended the seminar.
Empowering Women – Creating a WAVE of Awareness
Sumaiya Aziz, Chair for IEEE Karachi Section HIET WIE AG
Empowering women has always been a significant move. To uplift the spirits of various IEEE WIE Affinity Groups, various supporting fund programs are offered. Similarly, a funding opportunity was granted by IEEE Region 10 WIE titled ‘IEEE R10 WIE Special Support Fund 2021’. Opportunely, IEEE HIET WIE AG (AG in Hamdard University Karachi, Pakistan) was one of the affinity groups that qualify for the support fund. The proposal on ‘W.A.V.E – Women, Aspiring, Viable Engineering’ submitted by Sumaiya Aziz (Chairperson for IEEE HIET WIE AG) planned to utilize the grant in a way that fulfills the objectives of the support fund. The event addressed women’s possibilities for a flying career and social challenges. The event conducted on 9th November 2021 influenced all the 200 participants as it endured a relatable point for every person. Such measures must be made more common to boost the confidence of young females who are passionate to contribute to the society.
Women in Engineering – NUST PNEC
Ayesha Quddus, Chair for IEEE Karachi Section Pakistan Naval Engineering College WIE AG
WIE with WEP arranged a ‘STEM Outreach Program’ for girls from grades 7 to 10 on 11th September 2021 (MS Teams), attracting 200 girls from Pakistan. With the aid of engaging activities, WIE’s members made school girls explore the gamut of engineering fields.
WIE and IEEE UTP Student Branch (Malaysia) collaboratively started an educative monthly webinar series ‘TechLearnathon’, led by international speakers in various tech fields.
Webinar-1: – ‘IEEE HAC and SIGHT Grant Sharing Session’ held on 29th August 2021 (MS Teams) gathered 62 registrants from 7 countries.
Webinar-2: – ‘An Introduction to PSIM for Power Electronics Simulations’ was arranged on 26th September 2021 (MS Teams); since IEEE Day was nearing, Mohammad Hafiz Ismail, Region10 Lead IEEE Day 2021, was called as Chief Guest, receiving 200 registrations from 5 countries.
Webinar-3: – ‘Data Visualization Using R Language’ held on 14th November 2021 (MS Teams), was a charm with 40 registrants globally.
.
IEEE Bangladesh Section WIE AG
GATE SET ARDUINO!
Sadia Afreen, Chair for IEEE Bangladesh Section WIE AG
IEEE BUP SB WIE Affinity Group organized its second outreach program, GATE SET ARDUINO! – a collective of engineering workshops for pre-university students on 1st and 2nd October 2021. The purpose was to guide pre-university students into choosing engineering as their future field of study and career prospects. 137 students (75 female and 62 male students) from 18 institutions registered to join the workshops. It was actualized in collaboration with four renowned clubs of Bangladesh. The program consisted of 2 consecutive sessions, conducted by two professionals in their respective fields. The first workshop’s speaker, Nasirul Mamenin Mouno discussed the basics of robotics and performed some simulations on Tinkercad. The audiences also participated in practicing it which made the session very lively. The second workshop overviewed the fundamentals of digital logic which was conducted by Suriya Tasmim Disha. Both sessions were extremely stimulated with participants asking queries on various matters. Afterwards, all the participants received e- certificates.
.
IEEE Region 10 Conference (TENCON) 2021
7th – 10th December 2021, Auckland, New Zealand
Prepared by: BeeTheng Lau and Tridibesh Nag, Editors for the Region 10 Newsletter Committee
IEEE Region 10 is the powerhouse region of IEEE with more than 140,000 members, 58 Sections, 35 Sub-sections and six Councils. TENCON conference started in 1980 in Hong Kong and since 1991 has emerged as the flagship event of IEEE Region 10. With the theme Smarter, Cleaner, Secure, & Resilient Living, the 33rdIEEE Region 10 International Conference, TENCON 2021, was successfully held from 7th to 10th December 2021. IEEE New Zealand North Section hosted it in Auckland (for the venue-based physical attendees) while others engaged the planned exciting and innovative programs virtually.
TENCON 2021 was initially planned to be held in blended mode, but due to the new variant of the virus, it was changed to a fully virtual event with a very interactive and new Whova platform. The adoption of the Whova platform has enriched the participants’ virtual conference experience, allowing them to engage with organizers, presenters, and other participants seamlessly, from sessions to Q&A, live presentations to networking with experts and peers. Many participants highly complimented this new technology provided in this IEEE flagship conference which truly demonstrated IEEE’s leadership in organizing world-class conferences.
The conference gathered reputed researchers and industry experts and presented various keynote speeches, special sessions, invited sessions, and regular parallel sessions focusing on the following themes:
✔Low-Carbon Energy Future
✔Future of Industrial Automation & Smart Manufacturing
✔Future of Space Technologies
✔Future of Work in the World of Automation
✔Smart Cities & Technologies
✔Future of Food, Nutrition, & Health
✔Community Spirit
✔Future of Learning & Computing
✔Other Topics
✔IEEE Societies Based
.
The conference commenced on Tuesday, 7th December 2021. Prof. Lance Fung, R10 Director-Elect 2021-2022, welcomed all participants to the conference and congratulated the organizers and volunteers for successfully hosting this conference and giving an insight into the power of IEEE.
Industry Track Session followed this opening remarks. The first session under this track was chaired by Sanjay Kar Chowdhury, Chair for IEEE Region 10 Industry Relations Committee. This session was on 5G Network and Security-Challenges and Opportunities by Prof. Ashutosh Dutta, 5G Chief, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
The next session was a panel discussion on Academia-Industry Engagement moderated by Parkash Lohana, IEEE R10 Professional Activities Chair. The panelists were Dr. Sudeendra Koushik, Innovation Director and Head of CampX of Volvo Group India Private Ltd, India; Prof. Dr. Zubair A. Shaikh, President, Mohammad Ali Jinnah University, Pakistan; Dr. Paulina Chan, Principal & CEO, Global Mutual Innovation Consortium, Hong Kong; Dr. Alpha Agape Gopalai, Senior Lecturer, Monash University, Malaysia; and Dr. Jane O’Dwyer,Chief Executive Officer, Cooperative Research Australia. They discussed the challenges and opportunities by which Universities and Industries can collaborate in three areas: teaching, research, and entrepreneurship.
Next was the WIE Track Session chaired by Emi Yano, IEEE Region 10 Women in Engineering Committee Chair. The session was on Journey Beyond the Horizon – The Success Story of Dr. PiyapanHannarkin, MD of Operational Energy Group Ltd, an incredible woman leader (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrzphFLq5Wg).
It was followed by Young Professional Track Session chaired by Dr. Saaveethya Sivakumar, IEEE Region 10 Young Professionals Committee Chair. The first keynote of this session was on Effective Scientific Writing and Publishing by Prof. Debatosh Guha, IEEE Fellow and Professor in the Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics at the Rajabazar Science College, University of Calcutta. The second keynote was on A Systematic Guide on Planning and Writing Grant Proposals by Prof. Nowshad Amin from College of Engineering, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Malaysia.
.
The second day, 8th December 2021 saw the official opening ceremony. General Chair Prof. Nirmal Nair welcomed all participants to the conference and mentioned that this conference is not about the past but the future technology. The opening ceremony proceeded with the keynote address by IEEE Region 10 Director, Mr. Deepak Mathur. Despite several obstacles, he congratulated the organizing committee members for successfully hosting TENCON 2021. In his presentation, he gave a very thorough presentation and overview of IEEE Region 10.
Prof. Tek Tjing Lie, General Co-Chair of TENCON 2021,then presented the technical report, where he informed that the conference received over 250 papers submissions from 16 countries. After careful review, 180 papers were accepted for presentation (72% acceptance rate) at the conference. The highest number of submissions comes from India, which made up 29% of the total submission, followed by Australia (19%) and New Zealand (18%).
The opening ceremony was followed by the first plenary discussion on Cyber Hygiene and Security; the panelists were Abhinav Chopra, Office of Helen Clark; Peter Jackson, Engineering Manager – Cyber SGS ECL; and Bhojraj Parmar,Head of Consulting – New Zealand Mandiant. The session was moderated by Kate Murphy, TENCON 2021 Industry Chair.
There were 18 high-quality technical sessions divided into two parallel sessions, with 7 to 12 papers presented in each session covering ten different themes for three days. All presentations were pre-recorded to ensure smooth delivery of the contents; the presenters then took up the questions live following their played-back presentation. Attendees had a chance to hear the interactive, lively and technical pitches and discussions from researchers, social entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers, professionals and technology leaders from more than 20 Asia-pacific countries. Some of the sessions are shared below:
Prepared by: DulshaKularatna-Abeywardana, Secretary for IEEE New Zealand North Section WIE
IEEE TENCON 2021 Robot Design Competition was organized in conjunction with IEEE Region 10 as part of the IEEE TENCON 2021 conference held in Auckland, New Zealand in December 2021. There were three categories, junior school, senior school, and University which attracted fantastic, creative and highly technically advanced entries. The junior and senior school entries were all from local primary and high school students in Auckland, New Zealand. The University category attracted entries from all over the region including India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand. This competition was organized by Dr. Ho Seok Ahn from the University of Auckland, with Prof. Jennifer Dela Cruz from Mapua Institute of Technology coordinating the entries for IEEE Region 10. Special thanks also goes to the IEEE Region 10 Vice-Chair Dr. Zia Ahmed and the General Chair for IEEE TENCON 2021 Dr. Nirmal Nair for facilitating this competition. These entries were judged by Dr. DulshaKularatna-Abeywardana, Dr. Mahla Nejati and Mr. Jongyoon Lim from the University of Auckland, Dr. Arslan Kiyani from Dell Technologies and Dr. Inkyu Sa from CSIRO’s Data 61. Gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded along with technical awards and the major prize winners in each category were –
Junior school:
–Gold – Ella Jihyeon Ahn (Forrest Hill Primary School), Claire Yoonseo Lee (Takapuna Primary School), Zoe Seohyeon Ahn (Forrest Hill Primary School)
–Silver – Sejong Park (Pinehurst School), Hyungyoon Kevin Noh (Remuera Intermediate School), Siyun Moon (Murrays Bay Intermediate School)
–Bronze – Yihan Lu (Browns Bay School), Zidong Oscar Zhao (Pinehurst School), Joshua Zhang (Greenhithe School)
Senior school:
–Gold – Peter Cheong (Kings College), Tony Hyunseo Lee(Kristin School), Young Min Ko(Auckland Grammar School)
–Silver – Daniel Sung Hyun Shin (Kings College), Joey Sehan Back (Rangitoto College)
–Bronze – Eric Qin (Kristin School), Jonathan Gong (Kristin School), Michael Yang (Saint Kentigern College)
University category:
–Gold – Muhammad Rabani Mohd Romlay from International Islamic University, Malaysia (IEEE Kuala Lumpur Subsection), for “RoVision”
–Silver – Che-Ming Chang, Gal Gorjup from the University of Auckland, NZ (IEEE NZ North Section), for “ARoA platform”
–Bronze – Anup Sharma from the Dibrugarh University, India (IEEE Kharagpur Section) for “COVIDRAKSHAK: Autonomous Room Sanitizing Bot”
Winners in the junior school category
RoVision – University category winning entry by Muhammad Rabani Mohd Romlay from IEEE Kuala Lumpur Subsection
.
.
Life Member (LM) Committee
Prepared by: Rajendra K. Asthana, Chair for R10 Life Member Committee
Second LMAG Meet 2021
The second LMAG meet was held on 18th September 2021 in virtual mode. 42 participants attended the meeting from 16 LMAGs & LMAC members. Besides LMAG officers, the meeting was also attended by Prof. Toshio Fukuda, Past IEEE President; Prof. Akinori Nishihara, Past R10 Director; Mr. Deepak Mathur, Region 10 Director and Dr. Suresh Nair, IEEE India Council Chair. The meeting was inaugurated by Mr. Deepak Mathur, with opening remarks by Prof. Akinori Nishihara.
Presentations were made on R10 Operation Manual, LMC Operation Manual, LMAG reimbursement system (based on SAP Concur software implemented from 3rd May 2021), Overview of MGA Awards and Recognition Program, LMC LMAG Achievement Award Procedure & Documentation, and R10 LM website. South Australia LMAG also made a presentation on radar’s window on the world. This was followed by presentations by every LMAG Chairs present. The closing remarks were given by Dr. Suresh Nair with vote of thanks by Dr. H. L. Bajaj.
.
Third LMAG Meet 2021
The third LMAG meeting was held on 20th November 2021 in virtual Mode, with ten LMAG Chairs participating. During the meeting, LMAG Chairs reviewed their 2021 activities and fund plans and presented their current status. LMAG Chairs were briefed about AG probation and dissolution criterions and requested to avoid such a scenario for their LMAGs. The meeting also discussed the 2022 plan and incoming Chairs, Dr. H L Bajaj proposed a vote of thanks.
.
Fourth LMAC Meet 2021
The fourth LMAC meeting was held on 5th December 2021 and was attended by all 8 LMAC members and Region 10 Director, Mr. Deepak Mathur. Host Ritvik Bansal welcomed all the participants. Mr. Deepak Mathur then talked about LM activities of R10 and inaugurated the meeting by appreciating the participants and their enthusiasm. Participants deliberated and finalized the plan for 2022 and added some new activities such as the LMAG Anniversary celebrations on the completion of 5, 10 and 20 years of LMAG formation. Dr. Harbans Bajaj thanked the Director and each and every member present for their participation and valuable suggestions.
Other Updates
1.New LMAG at Queensland, Australia was approved on 23rd September 2021 with John Gough as Chair. This is the 5thLMAG formed during the year.
2.LMAG Tokyo organised an award ceremony physically on 10th December 2021 in Tokyo. The event was attended by IEEE LMC Chair, Mr. T Scott Atkinson, Region 10 Director, Mr. Deepak Mathur and R10 LMC Chair Mr. Rajendra Asthana, besides several LMAG Chairs from Region 10.
.
3.Delhi Section organised a special face-to-face meeting on 2nd December 2021 attended by past Region 10 Director, Dr. Harbans L. Bajaj (1997-98) and present Region 10 Director, Mr. Deepak Mathur.
.
.
IEEE Queensland Section
Energy Transition Workshops
Daniel Eghbal, Educational Activity Chair for IEEE Queensland Section
IEEE Queensland Educational Activities, one of the 2021 R10 New Innovation Challenge funding recipients, organized two workshops on 22nd and 23rd November 2021 for university students in Queensland on energy transition. The goal was to develop suitable tailored content for educational purposes for university students by leveraging existing capabilities available within IEEE Queensland Section. The workshops were planned and organized in collaboration with Power and Energy Society Chapter in Queensland and the Student Branches at UQ and QUT. Very positive feedbacks were received after the two workshops (10 and 20 participants respectively) with keen interest for planning similar events in 2022.
Australia is amongst the leading countries with highest penetration of distributed energy resources (DER) and already embarked on its energy transition journey. This creates a great opportunity for university students who are the future leaders of the industry in Australia to learn more about technical challenges and opportunities associated with energy transition driven by the 2050 net Zero Emission target and customer uptake of renewables and electric vehicles. And IEEE community is best positioned to assist students in developing their knowledge and skills to prepare for an exciting and one in lifetime career opportunity.
.
IEEE Malabar Subsection
Design Thinking and Resume Preparation Workshop
Sabiq P V, Chair for IEEE Malabar Subsection
An online workshop on design thinking and resume preparation was organized by IEEE Malabar Subsection in association with KMCT College of Engineering for Women, Kozhikode on 23rd October 2021. The event was named as Empower 5.0. The objective of the workshop was to provide answers to the question “what is design thinking and why is it so popular?” The resource person for the program was Rajith Karunakaran, Design Thinker, Corporate Trainer (Grade A, MEPSC), Regional Mentor of Change (Atal Tinkering Lab), and Adobe Creative Educator (Level 2).
The program was conducted in two sessions. The first session was on ‘Designing the Future – Design Thinking Simplified’. Here the importance of design thinking in the present scenario was highlighted. He started his session by stating the idea of design thinking, and advanced design thinking concept. He stated that design thinking is a human-focused, prototype-driven, innovative design process. Design thinking helps in developing a practical and innovative solution to a problem. It is an iterative process from which one can understand the user and redefine the problems by attempting an alternative strategies and solutions that might not be instantly apparent with our initial level of thinking.
It is important to build a good resume. With that intention, the second session of the workshop focused on building flawless resume. Many tips for preparing a CV were discussed. Both the sessions were very much interactive. A total of 75 students participated in the workshop.
.
IEEE Madras Section
IEEE Madras Section Activities
Kumarappan N, Chair for IEEE Madras Section
IEEE MASCON 2021
A new initiative of the IEEE Madras Section to organize the first ever hybrid conference of 2021 with many precautions and overcoming the hurdles was an immense success. IEEE Madras Section International Conference 2021 (MASCON2021) took place for two days from 27th to 28th August 2021 at Le Royal Méridien, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The initiative to this first ever hybrid signature conference of the Madras Section was taken and executed by Dr. N Kumarappan, General Chair for MASCON2021.
The technical tracks had about 547 registered papers from 12 countries out of which about 200 papers were selected, 121 papers were accepted and 87 were registered to be presented at the conference. The event started with plenary talks from various industries across the globe such as Mr. John D. McDonald, GE’s Grid Solutions, Georgia, USA; Dr. Ganesh Sankaranarayanan, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, USA; Dr. S. K. Ramesh, California State University, Northridge, USA; Dr. Suresh Sundaram, Department of Aerospace Engineering IISc, Bangalore; Dr. N. Kumarappan, Annamalai University; Mr. K. Mukund, Vice President Tech Mahindra Bangalore; and Mr. Ravikiran Annaswamy CEO and Co-founder, Numocity Technologies, Bangalore. The inspiring presidential address was delivered by Mr. Deepak Mathur, Director of IEEE R10, and the guest of honor was Dr. Suresh Nair, Chairman IEEE India Council who passed his support to the team connecting virtually.
IEEE MAS SB LEADD
On 28th July 2021, 6PM IST, IEEE Madras Section paved a gateway for students to pursue and haunt their dreams. IEEE Madras Student Branch Leadership Enhancement and Development Drive (IEEE MAS SB LEADD) is a 5-day resolute solicitous virtual event sponsored by IEEE Region 10, IEEE Region 10 Students Activities Committee, IEEE Madras CIS Chapter, and IEEE Madras Young Professionals.
Following the inauguration, Dr. N. Kumarappan, Chairperson of the IEEE Madras Student’s Activities delivered a keynote talk. Dr. Rajasree Jain, Secretary for IEEE India Council joined as the guest of honor. The various events including SB mentor-mentee discussion, workshop on effective IEEE event proposals and report writing were organized. As part of the event, a panel discussion was also conducted. Membership development kits were provided for all the Student Branches.
IEEE MAS E-TECH SYMPOSIUM
IEEE MAS E-TECH, a two-day symposium was organized by IEEE Madras Student Activities Committee and Student Coordination Team on 4th July 2021. Dr. N. Kumarappan, Chair for IEEE Madras Section addressed the participants and welcomed the gathering. The chief guest address was delivered by Mr. Deepak Mathur, Director for IEEE R10. Various events like career enhancement programs, student paper contests, and project expo were organized. The winners of IEEE MAS E-TECH were felicitated with awards worth twenty thousand at MASCON 2021.
International Workshop by IEEE CIS Madras Chapter (23rd to 26th July 2021)
Kumarappan N, Chair for IEEE CIS Madras Chapter
Day-1: Dr. Vincenzo Piuri, IEEE Region 8 Director presented a topic on “Artificial Intelligence in Cloud/Fog/Edge Computing and Internet-of-Things”. This is followed by Dr. Cesare Alippi, Professor of Information Processing Systems, Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy who delivered a talk on the topic “Neural Graph Processing: An Embedding-Based Approach”.
Day-2: Dr. G. Saravana Kumar, Professor, Department of Engineering Design, presented the topic “Machine Learning Applications in Medical Image Analysis”. Dr. S. Jagannathan, Professor of Computer Science, Missouri University of S&T, USA then delivered a talk on the topic “Artificial Immune System as a Function of Approximator for Fault Prognostics Applications”.
Day-3: Started with the topic “Hybrid WIPSO – GSA Algorithm Based Optimal DG and Capacitor Planning Considering Different Load Types and Load Levels” by Dr. N. Kumarappan, Chair, IEEE Madras Section. This is followed by the lecture on the topic “Meta-cognitive Neural Networks” by Dr. Narasimman Sundararajan, School of EEE, NTU, Singapore.
.
IEEE Kerala Section
EVHack – BOSCH – IEEE Hackathon
Sooraj V Namboothiri, Student Representative for IEEE IA/IE/PELS Kerala Jt. Chapter
EV Hack (Bosch – IEEE Hackathon) is an Electric Vehicles Online Hackathon organized by IEEE IA/IE/PELS Kerala Jt. Chapter in association with Robert Bosch Engineering & Business Solutions India. This hackathon is exclusively for 3rd year undergraduate engineering students around PAN India. The winning teams of the Hackathon is granted a 6-month internship, partly in RBEI and their parent institute after meeting the BOSCH interview process. EVHack was ignited with a webinar series which mainly focused on the technological aspects of electric vehicles. A bootcamp was organized on 15th May 2021 to educate the participants about Electric Vehicles and provide them with a clear idea regarding the hackathon. The final phase commenced on 17th July 2021 with an inauguration ceremony. The chief guest was Mr. Deepak Mathur, IEEE R10 Director and Mr. Vadiraj K, VP and CTO of RBEI. A total of 22 teams presented their solution on 17th and 18th July. The top 3 teams were announced as winners.
.
IEEE PES Kerala Chapter: APPEEC 2021
Alina Thomas Thanangadan, Global Publicity Outreach Coordinator for IEEE PES Kerala Chapter
The 13th IEEE PES Asia-Pacific Power and Energy Engineering Conference 2021 (APPEEC 2021) was hosted virtually by IEEE PES Kerala Chapter from 20th to 23rd November 2021, with the theme ‘Power and Energy for a Greener World’. The first day of the conference kicked off with the SPAA activities organized by IEEE PES KC and IEEE SB SCTCE. This was followed by the tutorial sessions on various topics, YP Track & WiP Track. The second day began with the inaugural ceremony. The ceremony was graced by the presence of several distinguished guests. Six keynote sessions were held across the four days. The third day saw the initial sessions of paper presentation. Industry workshops by Eaton, GE Digital India, and KSEBL were also held. The conference came to an end with the final paper presentation session and the closing ceremony.
.
IEEE Karachi Section
IEEE Karachi Section Grand SAC Meetup
Bhawani Shankar Chowdhry, Chair for IEEE Karachi Section
Muhammad Rafay Shaikh, Section Student Representative for IEEE Karachi Section
IEEE Karachi Section celebrated the IEEE Day on 15th October 2021. The event was attended by chairpersons from all over Karachi along with their branch counselors. The event was planned to bridge the gap between the Student Branches all over Karachi and bring them together on a single platform. The event was managed by the SAC team and attended by the ExCom of IEEE Karachi Section. In total 50 people attended the event. Various activities were executed to engage the audience, from fun activities to interactive sessions.
The event started with the name of Allah the Almighty and was followed by the national anthem. Then the Student Branch of Ziauddin University was inaugurated. The counselor of the Student Branch expressed his immense joy on bringing IEEE to the Ziauddin University’s campus. This was followed by the much-awaited Chairpersons and Branch Counselors meetup. This session was extremely productive as the officials from the Karachi Section shared their experiences and shed light on the working of IEEE organization. A fun activities session was also planned for the Student Branch chairpersons.
The SAC team then had a special collaboration invitation session planned, where Student Branch chairpersons invited each other to collaborate in organizing events. Moving forward, there was a small interactive session planned, where the compatibility of the chairpersons and branch counselors was tested via a short quiz having questions related to the activities of the society.
Lastly, there was a networking dinner planned, which gave the guests a chance to interact with each other freely and discuss the problems that they might be facing as well as things they have planned in regards to the working of the society. The event was concluded with a short cake cutting ceremony and ending note by the officials of IEEE Karachi Section.
Industry-Academia Dialogue Forum on Industry 4.0
Abi Waqas, Chair for IEEE IES Karachi Chapter
Funded by IEEE Region 10, IEEE IES Karachi Chapter conducted a seminar on “Industry 4.0 and Skill Development for the Youth” on 13th December 2021. An understanding of current aspects of both IoT and AI is necessary for this generation to focus their attention on the combination of IoT and AI. As Christian Kubis said ‘’Industry 4.0 is not really a revolution. It’s more of an evolution.”
Dr. B.S Chowdhry and Dr. Tariq Soomro initiated this event and highlighted the IEEE’s efforts and importance in collaborating with industries and academic institutes in emerging area of technologies. Abi Waqas mentioned the social and volunteer work as fundamental constituents of career growth. He also highlighted that technical knowledge and professional ethics not only matures a good engineer but also help in transformation into a good human being. Guest speakers for the seminar were Muhammad Ali Mughal, Bhagwan Das, and Fayaz Ali Dharejo. 210 participants attended the forum.
.
IEEE Hyderabad Section
IEEE GRSS Summer School 2021 – Hyderabad Chapter
Mousmi Ajay Chaurasia, Chair for IEEE GRSS Hyderabad Chapter
The IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) Hyderabad Chapter in collaboration with Muffakham Jah College of Engineering & Technology and Geethanjali College of Engineering and Technology, Hyderabad organized a 3-day GRSS Summer School on “Artificial Intelligence in Remote Sensing Applications” from 21st to 23rd October 2021. The inauguration was held in hybrid mode and Mr. Deepak Mathur, Director, IEEE Region 10 was invited as the Chief Guest of the function with a limited audience of 70 participants. The entire event was conducted through online mode and more than 1200 participants from across the globe registered (Malaysia, Australia, Mexico, Germany, Nigeria, Italy, Spain, Turkey to name a few). From India, participants from reputed universities and renowned industries such as IIT Kanpur, IIT Roorkee, ISI Kolkata, ISRO and Samsung took part.
Recent spurt in adoption of artificial intelligence based techniques by Industry giants for commercial use has created a demand to reskill the young professionals. Also, many startups that provide AI based solutions to customers have sprung up and are on the lookout for graduate students who have prior exposure and working knowledge in AI in remote sensing applications. This in turn has led to a requirement to provide additional skills to new job aspirants. This summer school attempts to fulfill the above requirements through a balanced program incorporating theory, implementation and applications of remote sensing.
We have put together six lecture sessions and three hands-on cum tutorials sessions, all covering a range of topics and areas of interest related to the remote sensing applications, crop classification, QGIS, and Google earth implementation techniques. The program was widely covered by the press in various local newspapers and dynamic media e.g. Sakshi, Times of India, Namaste Telangana, Andhra Jyothi, Eenadu etc. The program was hectic, very informative and useful in today’s context. All the sessions were highly interactive, lively and interesting, and credit goes to all the participants and the speakers.
Finally certificates of participation were distributed to all participants. Soft copies and recorded links of all the sessions were also given to all participants. An online overall event feedback was taken. The participants were extremely happy and satisfied with the event and strongly suggested to organize more similar events in the future. The objective of the program has been successfully achieved, with the entire organizing team had put all their efforts to set this milestone, leading to a grand success.
Three GRSS Student Chapters were inaugurated after this event. There was also a 50% increase in GRSS membership in Hyderabad Section and a significant increase in GRSS membership at the global level.
