IEEE Region 10 continues to nurture and develop strong awards and recognitions program to promote outstanding volunteer services and contributions. Please join us in congratulating all the award recipients for the recently announced 2020 IEEE Region 10 Awards.
R10 Outstanding Volunteers Award
Sameer S. M. – in recognition of outstanding contribution and services to the IEEE Kerala Section and IEEE Region 10
S. M. Sameer received B.Tech degree in Electronics & Communication Engineering from University of Kerala in 1994, M.Tech in Telecommunication Systems and Ph.D. in Wireless Communications in 2003 and 2009 respectively from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India. After various tenures in industries, he joined as a lecturer in the Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering at the National Institute of Technology Calicut, Kerala, India in 1998, where he is presently working as a Professor. He has published over 50 journal papers including papers in reputed IEEE Transactions, 60 conference papers and also holds two US patents. Sameer S. M. is a Senior Member of the IEEE and a regular reviewer for many reputed international conferences and journals. He was the General Co-Chair of TENCON 2019, the flagship conference of IEEE Region 10. He is the immediate past Chairman of IEEE Kerala Section.
Debabrata Das – in recognition of outstanding contribution and services to IEEE Bangalore Section and IEEE Region 10
Debabrata Das is serving as Professor at the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore. He was Principal Investigator of multiple sponsored projects from Intel, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, Motorola Research, Tejas Networks, Cognizant, Nokia and Government of India in areas of Wireless Networks. He has more than 160 peer reviewed papers in journals and conferences. He has received four best paper awards. Dr. Das is recipient of IEEE Region 10 Outstanding Volunteer Award 2020, IEEE MGA Achievement Award 2012 and Outstanding Volunteer Award of Bangalore Section in 2008. He was the Chairman of IEEE Bangalore Section in 2017. He has been an active IEEE volunteer for more than 15 years.
Atul Negi – in recognition of outstanding contribution and services to IEEE Hyderabad Section and IEEE Region 10
Atul Negi is a Professor at the School of Computer and Information Sciences, University of Hyderabad, India. He holds Ph.D. and M.Sc (Engg.) degrees from University of Hyderabad and IISc, Bangalore, respectively, and is B.E. ECE (distinction) from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India in 1986. He has been an active volunteer for IEEE Hyderabad Section since 1999 and served as the Chairman for IEEE Hyderabad Section from 2012 to 2013. He served as the Vice Chair Educational Activities of IEEE India Council during 2017-2018. He served in committees for TENSYMP 2015 & 2017 and TENCON 2008 & 2019. He also served India Council in organizing IEEE Indicon 2011 & 2019. Presently, he is a mentor for start-up companies in business incubators at the University of Hyderabad. His technical contributions on Telugu OCR, PCA, IoT and other topics are well cited.
R10 Educational Activities Outstanding Volunteer Award
Mohd Hafiz Ismail – in recognition of outstanding contribution and services for educational activities to the IEEE Malaysia Section
Mohd Hafiz Ismail is an academic staff at the Faculty of Electronic Engineering Technology, Universiti Malaysia Perlis. He was the Executive Committee (Educational Activities) of IEEE EMBS Malaysia Chapter (2018-2019) and Co-Founder/ Vice Chair of IEEE Malaysia Sensors and Nanotechnology Joint Councils Chapter (2017-2019). He was also the recipient of IEEE Malaysia Section Outstanding Volunteer Award 2019 and part of the IEEE Malaysia Section Educational Activities committee which has been awarded the IEEE R10 Outstanding Educational Activities Group Award 2019. Hafiz is currently the Educational Activities Chair of IEEE Malaysia Section and has just been appointed as IEEE Day 2020 Regional Lead for Region 10. Since 2018, Hafiz has been involved as advisor, coordinator, instructor and speaker for 15 national and state levels university and pre-university programs, in collaboration with Ministry of Education Malaysia, Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, National STEM Centre Malaysia, various State Education Departments, IEEE Organizational Units and private educational companies. STEM initiatives by IEEE Malaysia Section led by Hafiz has been awarded the STEM Mentor-Mentee Merit Award during Malaysia Technology Expo.
R10 HTA Outstanding Volunteer Award
Bijoy Antony Jose – in recognition of outstanding contribution and services for humanitarian technology activities to the IEEE Kerala Section
Bijoy Antony Jose is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Electronics in Cochin University of Science and Technology and a Senior Member of IEEE. He received his B.Tech. from School of Engineering (2004), M.S. from the State University of New York (2006) and Ph.D. from Virginia Tech (2011). He worked at Intel Corporation California for 3 years and as a software architect at Intel Bangalore for one year. He received the Early Career Research Award from DST Gov. of India in 2016. He received a grant of $35000 from IEEE HAC for uplifting technology facilities at a flood-affected school in 2019. He is the principal investigator to multiple funded projects, technology consultant to several companies and is currently serving as the Secretary of IEEE Kochi Subsection.
R10 SAC Outstanding Volunteer Award
Shrikant Tangade – in recognition of outstanding contributions and services for SAC programs and to the IEEE Bangalore Section
Shrikant Tangade is a Senior Member of IEEE and currently the MDC Chair & SAC Mentor for IEEE Bangalore Section (2020), SAC Ambassador for IEEE Asia-Pacific R10 (2020) and Secretary for IEEE Standard 1920.2 Working Group. He has also volunteered as IEEE Bangalore Section SAC Chair in 2019, IEEE SAC Co-Chair in 2018 and IEEE REVA University Student Branch Counselor from 2016 to 2019. He is working as an Assistant Professor with the School of Electronics & Communication Engineering, REVA University, Bengaluru, India since 2011. He is also a recipient of the “IEEE Outstanding Volunteer Award 2019” by IEEE Bangalore Section, “IEEE Outstanding Branch Counselor Award 2017 & 2016” by IEEE MGA Global and IEEE Bangalore Section, respectively.
R10 WIE Outstanding Professional Volunteer Award
Divya M G – in recognition of outstanding contributions and services to WIE program and to the IEEE Bangalore Section
Divya M G served as the Chair for IEEE WIE Affinity Group at Bangalore Section (2019). She is currently the Vice-Chair of the Bangalore Section (2020) and a Senior Member of IEEE. She is currently working as Joint Director, SDOS Group, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Bangalore. Her education background is B.E, M.S, and MBA. She has over 25 years of industry experience. She was the recipient of “IEEE Bangalore Section Best Volunteer 2019” award. She strongly believes that this recognition is for the entire team of “WIE AG Executive Committee 2019”. One of their new initiatives is “Ottige Kaliyona” – a starring event for community outreach program. This program aims to empower students of government & municipal schools with many life and technical skills. The IEEE WIE Bangalore Section has successfully conducted a series of such programs across the Section.
*Divya M G features in this issue’s WIE Personality of the Month column on page 19.
R10 WIE Outstanding Student Volunteer Award
Sai Divya Nallapaneni – in recognition of outstanding contributions and services to WIE program and to the IEEE Hyderabad Section
Sai Divya Nallapaneni is a final year student with majors in Electronics and Communication Engineering and minors in Computer Science at G. Pulla Reddy Engineering College, Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, India. She currently serves as an R10 Regional Student Ambassador of the IEEE Computer Society, Zonal Student Representative of the IEEE Ananthapur Subsection, Chairperson of the IEEE Computer Society GPREC SB Chapter, and an active volunteer at IEEE GPREC WIE AG. She made significant contributions to women in the computing field and volunteered for many events. She is also a recipient of the Grace Hopper Celebration India Scholarship and IEEE CS Richard E. Merwin Scholarship.
R10 Life Member Outstanding Volunteer Award
A. G. Hareendralal – in recognition of outstanding contributions and services to Life Member program and to the IEEE Kerala Section
Hareendralal (M’82, SM’90, LSM’16) was the Kerala Section Chair in 1992. From 2000 to 2008, he was the Secretary of the UAE Section of Region 8, and it became one of the leading and the fastest growing Sections in the Region. He was the PES UAE Chapter Chair from 2000 to 2005. He was the PES Kerala Chapter Chair during 2016 to 2017, winning the Outstanding Small Chapter Award. From 2016 to 2019, he was the Chair of LMAG Kerala Section, winning the Outstanding LMAG Award. Currently, as the Chair of the Intersociety Activities Committee, he leads 7 other professional bodies and organizing Weekly Webinars every Wednesday from 15 April onwards. He is the Director of Anantha Gangah Institute of Engineers, a Finishing School for Electrical Engineers.
R10 YP Outstanding Volunteer in Academic Award
Nandan S. – in recognition of outstanding contributions and services to YP academic program and to the IEEE Kerala Section
Nandan S. is working as Assistant Professor in the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering of LBS Institute of Technology for Women, Trivandrum, Kerala, which is a Government of Kerala undertaking institution under APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University, Kerala, India. His research areas of interest include Wireless Communication, 3G-4G Mobile communications, Cognitive radio and MIMO OFDM Systems for Communication. Mr. Nandan S. is an active volunteer of IEEE, he is currently the Chair of Student Activities Committee of IEEE Kerala Section. He has also held the responsibility of Secretary – Educational Activities of Kerala Section in the year 2017 and 2018. He was the Vice-Student Activities Chair of Kerala Section in 2018 and the recipient of “Outstanding Volunteer Award of IEEE Kerala Section 2017”. He was part of the organizing committee for IEEE TENSYMP 2017, Women In Engineering Summit 2019, IEEE TENCON 2019 and several other international conferences.
R10 YP Outstanding Volunteer in Industry Award
John Benedict B – in recognition outstanding contributions and services to YP industry program and to the IEEE Hyderabad Section
John Benedict B studied Electronics and Communications for his Bachelor’s Degree and currently works for Amazon as its Team Manager for Digital Platforms and Devices. He also freelances for startups providing expertise in AWS Cloud Management and Data Analytics. He has been a part of humanitarian projects in his state in collaboration with the state government. He has been a volunteer with IEEE since 2011 and has served in his Student Branch and most recently in the MGA. He has taken up roles and responsibilities where ever possible. He is a part of the team in the PES Membership Development Team which saw yearly membership improvement. He also serves on the IEEEXtreme team which has seen increasing participation numbers every year. He currently serves on the MGA Potentials Board as its associate editor.