Prepared by: Rajendra Asthana, Chair for IEEE R10 LM Committee
Updates from the Life Members Committee for 2022.
Region 10 Award winners for 2022
New Initiatives
During 2022, R10 Life Member Committee introduced the Life Member track in R10 flagship conferences, TENSYMP and R10HTC.
Life Members Track at IEEE SYWL 2022
IEEE Region 10 Student / Young Professionals / Women in Engineering / Life Members (SYWL) Congress 2022 was held at Jeju Island, South Korea, from 11th to 14th August 2022. The venue for the congress was Shinwha World Marriott Resort, Jeju, South Korea, and the theme for this year’s congress was “Sound and Young Influence for World Leading”. On 11th August 2022, R10 ExCom Meeting was held from 9 AM – 1 PM. The opening ceremony was organized from 1700 hours onwards. It included a welcome address by the General Chair and R10 Director, followed by Plenary Session I and a welcome dinner.
The next day (Friday), 12th August 2022, after Plenary Sessions II, III and lunch, the 1st parallel session on the LM track started at 1330 hours. Prof. Hajime Imai, Chair of LMAG Tokyo, talked about IEEE Milestones. IEEE had more than 240 IEEE Milestones with 45 Milestones in R10. Japan has the highest with 38 Milestones, India with 4 Milestones, and Australia with 1 Milestone. He elaborated on the identification of Milestone, the very exhaustive proposal paperwork evaluation, and approval. This was followed by the R10 LMAG meeting at 1400 hours and continued up to 1530 hours during the 2nd parallel session from 1600 to 1800 hours. During this session, Mr. Asthana, Chair for R10 Life Member Committee, made a presentation on LMAG Management & Procedures. This included all aspects related to LMAG; activities permitted to be carried out by LMAGs, LMAG probation, dissolution, LMAG officer’s roles and responsibilities, reinstatement, financial support to LMAGs by Region/MGA, awards instituted by R10 and LMC to recognize LMAGs as well as individual Life Members and expectations from LMAGs.
Presentation by LMAG Tokyo, Kerala, Delhi and Madras Chairs
The presentation on LMAG was followed by a presentation by LMAG Chairs. Dr. Naohisa Ohta made a presentation on LMAG Tokyo, Mr. Koruthu Varghese talked about activities by LMAG Kerala and how he achieved the highest number of activities in 2021, Dr. Harbans L Bajaj talked about LMAG Delhi’s strategy to achieve second highest activities in R10, and Mr. Sundaresh Subramaniam presented for LMAG Madras.
After deliberations, it emerged that significant issues faced by LMAGs are aging/health issues of Life Members, lack of interest of LMs due to various reasons, and the fact that most of them want to lead retired life instead of getting engaged in IEEE or other activities. LMAGs also felt that the rebate being offered to LMAGs was meager and not enough to organize activities. Besides, most of the LMs are also not very conversant with VTools. It was felt that LMAGs need support in the above areas to record better activities. LMAG track’s 2nd parallel session ended at this point.
During the award night on the same evening, started at 1815 hours, the following Life Members were awarded Regional Awards. The R10 Outstanding LM Volunteer award 2022 certificate was presented to Dr. Harbans L Bajaj, Chair for LMAG Delhi. This was followed by certificate presentations to LMAGs who carried out 6 or more activities during 2021. The first certificate was presented to Kerala LMAG for carrying out the highest number of activities (70) in R10, followed by LMAG Delhi for the second highest number of activities (44), and the third was LMAG Tokyo with 24 activities. Other certificates were presented to Hyderabad LMAG, South Australia LMAG, Sapporo LMAG, Singapore LMAG, and Nagoya LMAG.
On 13th August 2022, after plenary session IV, the 3rd parallel session LMAG track started at 1000 hours. The session started with a technical talk by Dr. Harbans L Bajaj, Chair for LMAG Delhi, on climate change. He described various natural happenings causing climate change. He introduced the concept of Net Zero emission as a catchphrase in a global attempt to stop climate change. Another technical talk on video coding of machines by Mr. Ambarish Natu (Australian Capital Territory Section) followed. He started with traditional coding methods, and with the rise of machine learning applications, derived the concept of video coding of machines. The talk covered architecture, use cases, current work being progressed and so on.
Presentations by Dr. Harbans L Bajaj (Delhi), Ambarish S. Natu (Australian Capital Territory), Sundaresh Subramaniam (Madras) and Dr. Tadashi Takano (Tokyo)
The next talk on spin-off technologies research in India was delivered by Mr. Sundaresh Subramaniam, Chair for LMAG Madras. He talked about technologies developed by the armed forces in defense research in India for social benefits. Some of the technologies he mentioned are “STENTS” used in heart surgeries at affordable prices, technologies adopted for developing artificial limbs, human disposal systems developed for high altitude military camps, and so on. The fourth and final talk on industry and technology in space travel was delivered by Dr. Tadashi Takano, Past Chair for LMAG Tokyo. He talked about the history of semiconductors and state-of-the-art technologies for the future. This ended the LM track at SYWL Congress. Team bonding activities, in the form of a visit to the beach, followed this. It was followed by a culture exhibition from 1700 hours, culture night from 1830 hours, and dinner.
