Prepared by: Mayesha Tafannum, Lead Coordinator (Communications & Awards) & Mohammed Hussein, Lead Coordinator (SYP Transition)
Several funding opportunities have commenced, and a series of activities have been initiated and carried out under the wing of the IEEE R10 Young Professionals Committee this year.
With the notification of the new committee, on 26th February 2022, IEEE Region 10 Young Professionals 2022 had its first Virtual Committee Meeting, where the Chair, Dr. Saaveethya Sivakumar, shared the road map for the year 2022 and all the lead coordinators and committee members shared their initiatives and plans for the year 2022.
In early March, a call for IEEE R10 Young Professionals Student – YP Joint Activity Fund 2022 – Round 1 was announced. A total of 3 Sections were selected as winners of the fund. These funded activities were conducted over the past couple of months, which are: “Frontiers in Computing and its applications” by Bangalore Section YP, “IEEEpreneur: A platform to transform Idea to Product” by Hyderabad Section YP (in collaboration with India Council) and “YoungFest’22” by Karachi Section YP.
By the end of March, a call for the second Funding Project by IEEE R10 YP was declared, which was IEEE Region 10 Young Professionals UpSkill 2022. IEEE Region 10 Young Professionals UpSkill aims to initiate professional development activities at the section and council level for young professional engineers and provide a platform to enhance their soft skills for a successful career.
The following were the IEEE Young Professionals Affinity Group & Council qualified for the UpSkill Fund:
The UPSKILL 2022 events were conducted between July – October 2022.
Consecutively, the Call for Nominations for the two varieties of R10 YP Awards was publicized in March:
The purpose of this award is to recognize the achievements and activities of one best outstanding Young Professionals Affinity Group in Region 10. The winner of this award for 2022 was the IEEE Kerala Section Young Professional Affinity Group.
The purpose of this award is to encourage the high-spirited volunteerism and contributions of individuals and showcase their initiatives that have benefited academia/industry. The nominators could submit applications in two categories. The winners of this esteemed award of 2022 were:
The call for proposals for IEEE R10 Young Professionals Special Support Fund was notified at the beginning of April. IEEE R10 Young Professionals Special Support Fund is designed to provide financial support for newly formed or dormant Young Professionals (YP) Affinity Groups (AGs) of Region 10 to kick start activities to increase local volunteers’ engagement, satisfaction, and consequently gain enough momentum to function as a fully sustainable Young Professionals Affinity Group(s). This year the Special Support fund is awarded to the proposal, “IEEE Australia and New Zealand Students and Young Professionals Congress”, by IEEE Australia Council. The activity was held on 1st and 2nd October 2022.
The committee’s first virtual training event was held on 24th April 2022, spotlighting the topic: Awards and Funding Program Briefing via Webex meet. Around 30 participants participated in this training module and exchanged knowledge on how to structure a proposal and the types of events to organize for SYP or Upskill funds. The right things to mention while writing the R10 YP Award nominations. The overall aim was to help attendees submit a winning proposal and be one of the winning recipients of the R10 YP Awards and Funds.
The call for Proposals for IEEE R10 Young Professionals Student-YP Joint Activity Fund 2022 – Round 2 was announced in July. The winners of the second round of SYP Fund are:
The duration given to organizing activities was from 1st September to 31st October 2022.
In August 2022, the R10 YP Committee Members excitedly joined the Region 10 members at the premier IEEE Region 10 Student, Young Professionals, Women in Engineering and Life Member Congress 2022 (R10 SYWL Congress 2022), which was held in Jeju Island, Korea, from 11th to 14th August 2022. Among the other tracks at the congress, the YP Track was directed by the R10 YP Team, which included sessions on Technology as an enabler: Bridging the gap in Tech, Enhance the Opportunities with IEEE, Insights from IEEE Publications, Stepping YP, and much more.
This October, the committee’s most anticipated event, CLAP, was held during 1st to 2nd October 2022 via Zoom. IEEE Region 10 Young Professionals Career and Leadership Aid Program (CLAP) is a flagship career guidance program that started in 2021, exclusively organized to bridge the gap between Students & Fresh Graduates, and Professionals from Industry & Academia by creating a platform to exchange knowledge and help the future leaders to determine a way forward towards a prospective career.
This year, the aim was to create a bigger impact on the young leadership community by bringing esteemed speakers from all over the world for enthusiastic learners. Over 400 delegates across Region 10 participated in this program over the two days. More details on the event are available at the website: https://yp.ieeer10.org/career-and-leadership-aid-program.
Throughout the year, the R10 YP Committee also collaborated with volunteer support to organize IEEE R10Talk, which is a joint endeavor of the IEEE R10 Industry Relations Committee, R10 Professional Activities Committee, R10 Young Professionals Committee, R10 Women in Engineering Committee, R10 Student Activities Committee and R10 Life Members Committee focusing on enhancing the awareness of trending topics to the community. The list of events organized under the R10 Talk initiatives is as follows:
IEEE Region 10 Young Professional have had the pleasure of serving its members and supporting initiatives that benefit young professionals and students to ensure a smoother transition of students to young professionals. Stay stunned for more initiatives and projects to be shared!