Prepared by: Bhawani Shankar Chowdhry, Chair for Karachi Section
IEEE Karachi Section was formed as a Subsection on 22nd May 1978, and later upgraded to Section on 17th July 1982. It is one of the three Sections in Pakistan with Lahore and Islamabad Sections being the other two. The newly inaugurated Quetta Subsection also comes under the ambit of the IEEE Karachi Section. IEEE Karachi Section has more than 50 student entities which includes 30 IEEE Student Branches, 5 IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) Affinity Groups, and over 20 IEEE Student Branch Chapters in the cities of Karachi, Hyderabad, Jamshoro, Sukkur, Nawabshah, Khairpur, and Quetta. The Section also comprises the Young Professionals (YP) and WIE Affinity Groups, and Technical Society Chapters of Power and Energy Society (PES), Computer Society (CS) and Communication Society (ComSoc). It also has a joint Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) Chapter with IEEE Islamabad and Lahore Sections. A new chapter of Industrial Applications Society (IAS) is also proposed to start this year.
In 2014, IEEE Karachi Section volunteer, Mr. Ahsan Saeed, got selected as the recipient of the Global MGA Young Professionals Achievement Award for exemplary contributions to IEEE Young Professionals in Region 10 and for continuous support to the IEEE Academic project. Similarly, Engr. Sarang Shaikh won the 2018 MGA Young Professionals Achievement Award for outstanding contributions to volunteer and member development at the regional level. IEEE Karachi Section was also awarded the Outstanding Section Membership Recruitment and Retention Awards in 2016 and 2019, as well as the R10 Section Incentive Award in 2018. In 2017, IEEE Karachi Section Chair received the prestigious Distinguished National Professor Award by the Government of Pakistan.
IEEE Karachi Section organizes several conferences and events on a regular basis which include, among others, the IEEE International Multitopic Conference (INMIC), IEEE SCONEST, IEEE Pakistan Student/YP/WIE/SIGHT Congress (PSYWSC), Karachi Section Student Congress (KSSC), IEEE Technically sponsored conferences ICIET, ICICT, ICE CUBE, ICIEECT, INTELLECT, IMTIC, iCOMET, Young Professionals Summit, Volunteer Leadership Training (VOLT) and Student Professional Awareness Activities (SPAA). Apart from these major events, several other events are organized by Student Branches, YP AG and WIE AG.
IEEE Karachi Section strives to contribute towards the advancement of technology and to help professionals improve their local and global strata. Several volunteers from IEEE Karachi Section have served on various positions on Region and Global level including Engr. Parkash Lohana (R10 MD Chair 2020), Engr. Sarang Shaikh (MGA IEEE madC Global Chair 2017-2018) and Prof. Dr. Tariq Rahim Soomro (Southern Area Coordinator of R10 Computer Society for 2020).