Vol 19 No 1 April/May 2016 Scan me with your smartphone to reach www.ieeer8.org Published quarterly and distributed to more than 70,000 IEEE members across Region 8 the R8N website. IN THIS ISSUE Region news ..................1–4 IEEE contacts........................2 Section and Chapter news ...................................5–7 Attending the third meeting of the Executive Committee of IEEE Serbia and Montenegro Section, held in Belgrade during TELFOR 2015 are (from left): Mladen Koprivica, Aleksandar Nešković, Vladan Pantović, Boris Dumnić, Branimir Reljin, Gordana Velikić, Božidar Radenković, Vera Marković, Vladimir Katić, Zlatica Marinković, Zorica Bogdanović and Biljana Stošić. 2016 is to be a year of tributes as Serbia and Montenegro Section marks 45 years YP news ..................................8 IEEE Serbia and Montenegro Section, wards. Special effort is put into student of developing stronger ties between the successor to the Yugoslav Section, activities, young professionals, women academia and industry, the Section will celebrates a significant milestone this in engineering, and the development of take part in industry-oriented conference year: its 45th anniversary. The Section industry relations. ZINC (GoZinc.org). continues to be a driving force for spread- The Serbia and Montenegro Section To mark the anniversary, the Section ing engineering spirit through knowledge supports many conferences in the Balkan will be organizing special tributes dur- dissemination, leadership in innovation, region, including ETRAN (etran.etf.rs), ing each of the conferences with IEEE Student news ..............8–12 and experience exchange. TELFOR (telfor.rs), TELSIKS (telsiks.org. fingerprint. For the latest details on our The Section has grown in this time rs), MIEL (miel.elfak.ni.ac.rs), NEUREL plans, please visit the Section website: to accommodate 12 Chapters, one Af- (neureletf.bg.ac.rs), ICEST (icestconf. ieee.uns.ac.rs. finity Group, and four Student Branches, org), PE (www.dee.uns.ac.rs), PES Gordana Velikic, Serbia and with almost 800 active members. The (pes2015.elfak.rs), and IEEESTEC (ieee. Montenegro Section CE Chapter Chair Section also organizes a range of high- elfak.ni.ac.rs). In addition to these well- Vera Markovic, IEEE Serbia and value activities recognized by IEEE re- established conferences, with the aim Montenegro Section Chair Message from the R8 director AS WE are now well into 2016, let us establishing a good and productive look at our key focus areas for the working relationship with each of year and do a quick self-assessment these companies and finding ways about how well we have progressed. for these to be beneficial in both di- rections. The first implementation 1. Getting closer to Industry stage has already started with Men- Costas As more than 50% of our members toring and Internship programs. Stasopoulos come from industry, we had taken the decision for more action and in- 2. S tudents and Young Slovenia welcomes Region 8 volvement in this area. To this end Professionals we set up a strong Action for Indus- Since students and young profes- Committee to Ljubljana try team and appointed Industry sionals are in the heart of our Region Ambassadors in the Sections. and are the future not only of IEEE The intention has been to move but also of our society, a lot of effort REGION 8 director Costas Staso- bringing the organization closer IEEE closer to industry, to restore the and resources have been directed poulos re-affirmed his priorities to industry, focusing on student industrial roots of IEEE and thereby towards their strengthening and for the Region during the 105th and young professionals, and improve IEEE’s service to industry. encouragement. IEEE Region 8 Committee Meet- encouraging Section vitality. The Members in industry were identi- Strong local teams were ing, which took place at the Grand vent was also an opportunity for fied and surveys were conducted to formed, an increased number of Union Hotel in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Section Chairs and both commit- better understand their needs. We Student Branches and Student on 10-11 October 2015. tee and subcommittee members are now in the next steps in terms of ...continued on page 3 The three priorities comprise ...continued on page 4 editorial Vol 19 No 1 April/May 2016 Region 8 News is published quarterly by the Region 8 Committee of the IEEE, and distributed free with IEEE Spectrum to more than 73,000 IEEE members. Read past issues online at www.ieeer8.org –> R8News Newsletter. Opinions expressed in IEEE Region 8 News are the authors’ own and do not necessarily represent the policies of their employers or IEEE Board or Region 8 Committee. Your editors (from left): Roland Saam, Zhijia Huang and Bojan Nikolic. News & articles Delivery problems [email protected] Please notify all problems regarding membership, publications delivery Find out what these changes Student News email and change of address directly to IEEE member services. See website [email protected] www.ieee.org and email [email protected]. mean and why they matter IEEE Region 8 Extra copies website If you would like extra copies of Region 8 News for distribution at your www.ieeer8.org IEEE events, please email a request to the editor before the deadlines THROUGHOUT last year, there was about the proposed IEEE Consti- Editors below, specifying quantity and delivery address. Please type ‘R8 News a lot of discussion and news regard- tutional amendment: www.ieee. Zhijia Huang Extra Copies’ in your email subject line. [email protected] ing the proposed amendment to org/about/corporate/election/ Submitting articles Roland J Saam the IEEE constitution. The Region 2016_constitutional_amend- We welcome news, articles and letters from any member of the IEEE. [email protected] 8 News team has also been busy ment.html Please send these to the editor as plain text by email to [email protected], Bojan Nikolic remembering to type ‘Region 8 News’ in your email subject line. If send- gathering information from the di- As a reminder for all volun- [email protected] ing photos or graphics, please make sure they are high-resolution files. rector, MGA news and other IEEE teers, the deadline for 2015 annual Editorial production Read our full guide to writing and submitting articles at www.ieeer8.org volunteers regarding the effects on reporting and rebate requirements Alistair Dabbs –> R8News Newsletter –> Tips for contributors. you, the grassroots IEEE member. is 15 March. Please submit the re- [email protected] Deadlines for upcoming issues We have more updates this issue. ports on time to get the rebate for Printing & mailing Please try to read and absorb the this year’s activities. You can also Theresa Smith August 2016 issue ..............................................................deadline: 1 June 2016 information about the changes. welcome new members in your [email protected] November 2016 issue ............................................deadline: 1 Septemer 2016 We have learned from MGA Section and invite them to attend news and from an article in The the orientation webinar simply REGION 8 OPERATING Institute that at its November 2015 search “orientation webinar” from COMMITTEE OFFICERS meeting, the IEEE Board of Direc- IEEE.org. tors endorsed revisions to the IEEE 2016 Constitution. It will be sent to the Corrections Operating Committee Appointed IEEE membership for approval this In our September 2015 issue, (OpCom) Members year in the form of an amendment. we published an article headed Director Awards & Recognition Professional Activities You can find more detail in the ar- ‘Uganda Subsection to focus on Costas Stasopoulos (Cyprus) Marko Delimar (Croatia) Ana Katalinić Mucalo (Croatia) ticle ‘Proposed Amendment to the community projects to kick-start [email protected] [email protected] Region 8 News IEEE Constitution on 2016 Ballot’ economic growth’. At the time of Director-Elect Chapters Zhijia Huang (UK & Ireland) at http://theinstitute.ieee.org/ publication, Uganda Subsection Margaretha Eriksson (Sweden) Nazih Khaddaj Mallat (United [email protected] briefings/business/-proposed- was not yet officially approved. [email protected] Arab Emirates) Roland Saam (UK & Ireland) atumtieonnd-omne-2n0t-1t6o--bthaell-oietee-consti- Pnelewa sSee cfitniodn sf uarnthde Sr unbeswecst ioanbso uatt PMmaa.sjr.tbt-inDa siBrtieaascattinoasra@nsi e(Beee.noerlgux) CAaddoeenllf .eAarlleiimmnici @e(Tsiu eneiesi.ao)rg rSD.tsaaavnaiddm aL@ardwise (eCUeoK.oo &rrdg Iirnealatnodr) A public web page has also been www.ieeer8.org. Secretary Educational Activities [email protected] posted containing information Zhijia, Roland and Bojan Cc.hscrihstmiaind @Scihemeeid.o (rAgustria) Manuel Castro (Spain) Student Representative Action for Industry Efthymia Arvaniti (Greece) Treasurer Nihal Sinnadurai (UK & Ireland) [email protected] Calling all students and YPs! Bb.rhiaanr rHinagrrtionng@tonie (eUeK.o &rg Ireland) Membership Development Young Professionals Adeel Sultan (United Arab Flavia Dinca (UK & Ireland) Register now for SYP Congress Vice-Chair, Member Activities Emirates) [email protected] Dusanka Boskovic (Bosnia & Herzegovina) Ad-hoc Members [email protected] THIS year’s Region 8 Student and city, as well as the city itself, and take Electronic Communications Life Members Vice-Chair, Student Activities George Michael (Cyprus) Charles Turner (UK & Ireland) Young Professional Congress will be part in some great social activities. Mona Ghassemian (UK & [email protected] [email protected] hosted by the IEEE Student Branches The incredible atmosphere Ireland) [email protected] Assistant Secretary, Social Women in Engineering Regensburg and Passau in Regens- generated by more than 400 partici- Media and Web pages Taqua Khairy (Bahrain) burg, Germany, on 17–21 August. pants from more than 50 countries VIgiocer -KCuhzalei r(,C Treocahtina)ical Activities Youmna El-Bitar (Lebanon) Region Vitality Coordinator Participants will have the oppor- in our Region presents a unique [email protected] History Activities Aleksandar Szabo (Croatia) Tony Davies (UK & Ireland) [email protected] tunity to develop their technical and opportunity to meet IEEE global [email protected] Section Vitality soft skills in a wide variety of work- leaders and representatives, influ- Corresponding members: Adam Jastrzebski (UK & Ireland) shops and lectures and to deal with ence the future of IEEE, exchange Antonio Perez Yuste (Spain), Voluntary Contribution Fund topics in diverse technical fields, ideas with like-minded students and Antonio Savini (Italy) Péter Kádár (Hungary) meet other IEEE members, and ex- Young Professionals, and even find The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers change ideas and experiences in a a future employer. 3 Park Avenue, 17th Floor well-designed five-day programme. For more details, visit www. New York 10016, USA Those attending will get to visit syp-regensburg.de and join us on IEEE prohibits discrimination in its activities. OTH Regensburg and companies Facebook at www.facebook.com/ For more information, visit www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/ whatis/policies/p9-26.html and laboratories in and around the syp2016. 2 IEEE Region 8 News April/May 2016 region news Lynn Conway with Letter to the editor (from left) Martin How strong is the case for Bastiaans (2013-14 Region 8 director), Barry Shoop changing IEEE Constitution? (incoming 2016 IEEE President) and Tariq Durrani (RSE VP International THE ‘IEEE in 2030’ Committee decisions until there has been and 2010-11 IEEE VP, Educational is proposing changes to the IEEE full consultation with the Re- Activities). Constitution that would have a gional committees? major impact on all IEEE mem- O Has the status of the elected bers and volunteers, especially regional representatives Mother of invention Lynn Conway in the Regions outside the USA. (delegates) under the new The present structure has proposals been downgraded? receives top medal in Edinburgh served IEEE since 1963, so there O Could improvements in the would have to be a convincing modus operandi of the Board case for making radical changes. be achieved without the need LYNN Conway, Professor Emerita at the eventually made personal computers and Here are some key questions for a change in the Constitu- University of Michigan, has received the smartphones possible. that might help clarify the issue: tion? 2015 IEEE/ RSE James Clerk Maxwell Medal Her textbook Introduction to VLSI O Have IEEE volunteers been O Will the new structure ensure “for contributions to and leadership in de- Systems, co-authored with Carver Mead properly informed with ar- that the interests of members sign methodology and pedagogy enabling of Caltech in 1979, was an instant best- guments for and against a residing outside the USA are rapid advances and dissemination of VLSI seller, which led to a design revolution change in the Constitution adequately represented as at design tools and systems”. The Award was that changed the face of the education of as the new proposals were present? presented in Edinburgh at the premises of electronic systems design wordwide. It was developed? O Why has so much of the gov- the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) on 12 central to the development of the micro- O Why is it necessary to change ernance been relegated to the November 2015. electronics industry and the rapid growth the Constitution at this time, Bylaws? This joint award was established in 2006 of Silicon Valley. and why is it judged to be an Charles Turner to recognise ground-breaking contributions The Oration at the medal ceremony was urgent priority? What would Former Region 8 Director that have had an exceptional impact on the read by Barry Shoop, the incoming (2016) be lost by postponing any and IEEE Secretary development of electronics and electrical IEEE President, and the event was attended engineering or related field, and is spon- by Martin Bastiaans, immediate past director sored by Cirrus Logic. of IEEE Region 8. Message from the R8 director The James Clerk Maxwell Medal is one of The ceremony was followed by an eru- the highest awards presented by IEEE. Previ- dite, informative and wide-ranging lecture continued from page 1... 3. Section Vitality ous recipients have included Oliver Jacobs delivered by Prof Conway on the topic of Chapters were formed or revived We want Sections, Branches and Af- and Andrew Viterbi of Qualcomm, Amal ‘Our travels through time: Envisioning his- and many regional Student and finity Groups to be alive and active, Bose of Bose Corporation, Tom Berners Lee torical waves of technological innovation’. Young professional Congress were function properly and democratical- of the World-Wide Web, and Sir David Payne The lecture was video-streamed live organized, over the last year, includ- ly; to organize events, involve mem- of optoelectronics fame, among others. over ieee.tv, and we hope that it will be ing Iberian SYP in Madrid Spain (5 bers, co-operate in conferences and Prof Conway’s work was a major inno- made available in due course at ieee.tv for April); Central European SYP in Za- workshops, and engage and provide vation to the field of microchip design that downloading. greb, Croatia (8-10 May); Western service to their members. Timely re- European SYP in Eindhoven, The porting is necessary to show vitality Have you ever thought about Netherlands (20-24 May); Middle and to receive the Section rebate. East SBC in Amman, Jordan (4-7 To support and strengthen our mentoring? Join our team! August); Egypt Engineering Day in Sections, a task force was appointed Cairo, Egypt (4-7 August); Hellenic to help them with functions and re- SYP in Thessaloniki, Greece (30 porting. This has been quite chal- WE are frequently challenged to justify to with Young Professionals especially in October-1 November ); and Nordic lenging as Region 8 is a vast and di- our younger members the cost of belong- mind. However, the IEEE MentorCentre SYP in Stockholm, Sweden (6-8 verse area with thousands of events ing to IEEE, especially after they graduate is not available to Student members. We November ). Hundreds of students and actions taking place every year. and begin to pay the full dues. A number plan to introduce a local mentoring service and young professionals took part, It has also been a rewarding task as of the most valuable benefits, such as tech- in Region 8 that focuses on Student/Grad- gaining valuable experience and set- it gave us opportunities to work as a nical publications, are readily available free uate Student members as well as Young ting the foundations for the future. team beyond national boarders and of charge through the internet these days, Professionals. A pilot mentoring program IEEEXtreme, the worldwide 24- also the chance to give our best to while interaction with other professionals will be introduced in the UK and Ireland hour programming competition, achieve real progress for humanity. has been greatly facilitated through social Section later this year. saw more than 750 teams from Re- I would like to say a big thank networking. We need volunteers willing to join gion 8 in 160 different schools take you to my hardworking team, to The mentoring of younger members the team of mentors, able to mentor for part, with Region 8 teams going on our members for their dedication, by experienced volunteers is a benefit that a few hours each month, either online or to win 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. Way appreciation and trust, and not least can be offered through a Section, Chapter, in-person, as circumstances allow. to go, Region 8! to IEEE for its constant and unfail- Affinity Group or Student Branch. It can We hope that this will encourage other This year, Region 8’s main Stu- ing support. It has been a super, re- provide an effective means of advising and Sections in the Region to organise a similar dent and Young Professional Con- markable and rewarding year. Let helping those at the start of their career service for their younger members. Check gress will be held in Regensburg, us use this as a strong foundation to improve their performance in their first the IEEE MentorCentre website for more Germany, on 17-21 August, where for new dreams, goals and plans for employment in industry, for example. information about mentoring. more than 400 people will meet, the future. IEEE MentorCentre is an online service Charles Turner learn, interact, make connections Costas Stasopoulos that offers this kind of help to members, Chair UK & Ireland LMAG and have fun. Region 8 Director IEEE Region 8 News April/May 2016 3 region news Slovenia welcomes R8C to Ljubljana continued from page 1... The Life Member Activities group to improve Section and Chapter re- to come together under one roof raised the question regarding loss porting and to establish continuity for the Region’s autumn gathering. of members after their retirement in operations and projects. During his address at the and suggested that older members The Student Activities Com- start of the meeting, the direc- in the Section could represent a mittee reported on a full range of tor touched on the issue of IEEE valuable volunteer resource since projects and ideas. First of these membership. Although there was they have more time available to will be the next Region 8 SYP a small decline in overall numbers, take on important tasks with many Congress in Germany. The team a few Sections –namely Bahrain, years of experience. set out goals to monitor Student Iceland, Latvia and Lithuania Sec- Young Professionals are setting Branch activities through a branch tion – had done a great job in re- their own goals but collaborating revitalization program and by en- cruiting and retention of members. with Student Activities Commit- gaging with industry relations. However, the ‘electronic member- tee. Together, they have organ- Cross-section congresses are be- ship’ category did not cover fixed ized Central European SYP, West ing organized, as well as the 2016 membership costs and showed European SYP and Middle East SBC Student Paper Contest, an Africa no signification improvement in in 2015. YP have also produced an focus group and the Mind the Gap Region 8 Clementina Saduwa Award 2015 retention in qualified countries. industry newsletter and an event contest. received by Eman Alashwali Further changes have been dis- exchange program. Delegates enjoyed the hos- cussed in MGA meetings. The Action for Industry team pitality by the Slovenia Section The director also shared infor- laid out its action plan with a pilot and their local volunteers. It was mation regarding the amendments industry internship for IEEE student a great pleasure to visit the city proposed to the IEEE Constitution. members, including initiatives to of Ljubljana and the spectacular From the Saturday sessions we support technical activities, to edu- Postojnska cave. also learned that the Professional cate volunteers and members, and Costas Stasopoulos closed the Activities team had been working to collaborate with industry. meeting with an invitation to com- to build and strengthen its net- Sunday’s agenda began with mittee members to join the next work, promoting activities through the Secretary’s report, followed meeting in March 2016, hosted in the Distinguished Speaker pro- by the Treasurer’s summary. The Monaco. Student Activities Committee gram and reaching out to industry. goal of the Region’s finance was Zhijia Huang IEEE holds special session at World Science Forum in Budapest, Hungary THE World Science Forum in November 2015 Recommendations from the Forum called attracted some 900 thought leaders and upon joint actions and the use of science and decision-makers on science and technology technology advice to reach sustainable goals, from over 100 countries, including several address climate change and reduce our vul- Nobel laureates, heads of state and ministers nerability to disasters. of science, technology and education. Also at the Forum, IEEE presented a spe- The main theme was ‘The Enabling Power cial session on ‘New paradigms for integrating of Science’, reflecting on the way how science sustainable development into science and en- opens new paths for the improvement of hu- gineering education through IEEE educational man life, business innovation and policy mak- activities’. 121 discussions ing (www.sciforum.hu). Tariq Durrani Group breakout session Honour society sets up in Johannesburg IEEE-ETA Kappa Nu (IEEE-HKN), IEEE’s hon- of Engineering and the Built Environment – our society for those studying IEEE fields of installed the Chapter on 15 July 2015. Also interest, has installed a Chapter at the Uni- present at the ceremony was IEEE president versity of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is Howard Michel (HKN–Gamma Kappa Chap- the second such Chapter in Region 8. ter) and Johan Meyer, head of the School of Saurabh Sinha (HKN–Eta Chapter) – IEEE Electrical and Electronic Engineering. representative, Educational Activities vice Nancy Ostin, Director, IEEE-HKN president and executive dean of the Faculty [email protected] 4 IEEE Region 8 News April/May 2016 region news Photo gallery: highlights of the IEEE Region 8 Committee meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia Region 8 Director, Costas Stasopoulos Tea break for WIE Discussions during tea break Section Chairs during the meeting Award time IEEE Region 8 News April/May 2016 5 section news Latvia and Lithuania focus on advances at AIEEE’2015 THE 3rd IEEE Workshop on Ad- Technical University and Vilnius electrical engineering fields of AIEEE general co-chair Andrejs vances in Information, Electronic Gediminas Technical University, science in an effort to encourage Romanovs. There followed many and Electrical Engineering –AIEEE’ Lithuania. More than 60 partici- new ideas. lively discussions over the two 2015, which took place on 13-14 pants from 11 countries joined the They came to discuss and days, in an exciting and balanced November 2015 at Riga Technical scientific conference and its social present the latest advances in in- programme comprising presenta- University, Latvia, was a very suc- program on two days. formation and computer technolo- tions that gave new insights into cessful event. It was jointly organ- The workshop brought togeth- gies, audio and image processing, the latest innovations. ized by Latvia and Lithuania Sec- er young scientists and researchers automatic control, robotics, tele- The workshop sessions were tions and was supported by Riga from information, electronic and communications, information sys- accompanied by a social pro- tems, system security, modelling gramme, which included a gala Sultan Qaboos University wins and performance, e-commerce dinner, discussions and guided and e-governance, cloud comput- tours in the heart of Riga Old Town ing, cyber-physical systems, next and at Rundale Palace Museum. Oman Robotics Challenge generation computing, wireless At the closing ceremony, sensor networks, internet and AIEEE general co-chair Dalius Na- web applications, among other vakauskas announced that a fourth key topics. workshop would be held in 2016 in Opening presentations were Vilnius, Lithuania. delivered by honorary chair of Andrejs Romanovs AIEEE’2015 Region 8 director-elect Latvia Section vice-chair Margaretha Eriksson, IEEE Latvia Dalius Navakauskas Section chair Leonids Ribickis and Lithuania Section vice-chair Power electronics in industry: seminar by guest lecturer IN MUSCAT, Oman, seven teams competition. Hybrid-programmed from different colleges and univer- and remote-controlled robots had sities in the Sultanate competed to be designed using both open in this year’s Oman Robotics Chal- source and commercial platforms. lenge. The event was held at the The robots had also to be able to Modern College of Business and move and carry light objects and to Science on 30 November 2015, drive them through different types organized by IEEE Oman Section. of terrain and obstacles. ORC 2015 aimed to inspire crea- After the gruelling rounds, the tivity and encourage team spirit, as team from Sultan Qaboos Univer- young Omani students were given sity was declared winner. DR MURALIDHAR from Higher Col- drive manufacturing companies the opportunity to solve problems, The winning team and coach lege Technology, Oman, delivered an are also coming forward in Oman transform abstract concepts to prac- received a US$400 cash prize, IEEE Guest Talk at Caledonian Col- to provide smart power electronic- tical applications and to compete in plaque and certificates of par- lege of Engineering on the topic of based control switches. a different environment. ticipation, plus the cost of travel to ‘Applications of Power Electronics in Towards the end of the seminar, The challenge consisted of Kuwait, where the GCC Robotics Various Industries’. It was a great op- Dr Muralidhar demonstrated a short six rounds with a two-hour win- Final Round was to be held in De- portunity for part-time students and video of his research: ‘(Five) multi- dow allocated for participants cember 2015. IEEE Student Members in the college level invertor operation to control to build, program and test their Arnold Santos to broaden their view of the subject. the speed of three-phase induction robots before starting the actual Secretary, Oman Section After a welcome speech by motors’. Participants were thrilled Pawar Dharmasa of CCE, Dr Mu- to see the control of shapes of volt- Google director gives talk at KTH in ralidhar began by presenting ap- age and current waves using active plications of power electronics in switches. celebration of Sweden’s IEEE Day different engineering sectors and The talk was followed by an inter- the role power electronic devices in active Q&A session and a memento MORE than 150 electrical engineers gath- the history of IEEE Day and the reasons for everyday life. Then he explained the was presented to the guest speaker ered to celebrate IEEE Day 2015 in Stock- its celebration. development of practical models of by the team of student participants. holm on 14 October 2015. The second speaker was Serge power electric convertors and inver- Pawar Dharmasa The event was organized by the Swe- Lachapelle, the director, product manager tors. He also in- den Section’s Women in Engineering Affinity and Stockholm site lead at Google. He re- troduced a num- Group, chaired by Nasim Farahini, along with counted the stories of several successful ber of real-time contributions from the Student Branch and startups acquired by Google, and advised examples and WIE Affinity Group at the Royal Insitute of students on how to make a successful transi- explained the Technology (KTH), chaired by Babak Taghavi tion from college to career. He also referred effectiveness of and Elena Vasileva respectively. to some of the efforts at Google to promote services in vari- During the event, Mats Edvinsson, Swe- women in technology and science. ous locomotives. den Section chair, shared with participants Nasim Farahini Various electric 6 IEEE Region 8 News April/May 2016 section news Region 8 to help promote Drones for Good Award DUBAI Museum of the Future Foun- towards expanding the scope of the dation has signed a memorandum UAE Drones for Good Award, the of understanding with IEEE, paving most prominent award of its kind the way for the second year of their in the world, through cooperation strategic partnership on the UAE efforts with government entities, Drones for Good Award. The tie-up private sector, international organi- with the world’s largest professional sations and academic institutions. association for the advancement of It has also enabled opportunities SIBIRCON examines the latest in technology comes as part of the for direct communication between Foundation’s efforts to promote owners of innovative projects and biotech and cognitive networks businessmen, companies, or- ganisations and RUSSIA’S first International Conference on lia from the Technical University of Crete business incuba- Biomedical Engineering and Computational (Greece) spoke about how distant cognitive tors interested Technologies (SIBIRCON) took place on monitoring made it possible to correct the in employing 28-30 October 2015. The three-day agenda behavior of a patient suffering from bipolar drones technol- attracted more than 100 researchers from disorder. Ideally, a specialist can ‘cut’ in the ogy in civilian Russia, Greece, Egypt, India, Taiwan and the cognitive networks that monitor patient’s applications. Netherlands, as well as representatives from condition and provide prompt psychologi- Based on some of the largest biological and healthcare cal support. the memoran- information technology developers, includ- Also featured was a report from Mariya dum of under- ing Thomson Reuters, Cisco Systems and Timofeyeva of the SL Sobolev Institute of the UAE’s leading position in the standing, IEEE will promote the Hewlett-Packard. Mathematics, who presented a paper enti- field of advanced technologies at second edition of the UAE Drones The issues discussed ranged from trends tled ‘A linguistic look at the Brain-Computer the regional and international levels. for Good Award during its various linking big data to personalized healthcare, Interface’. The memorandum of under- activities and events with the aim of in particular the analysis of data from mobile During SIBIRCON, the satellite young standing was signed by Saif Al raising awareness about the award devices, which is the basis of the concept of scientists school on ‘Modern research ap- Aleeli, chief executive officer of at the local and international level. electronic (e-health) or mobile (m-health) proaches to the investigation of affective and Dubai Museum of the Future Foun- IEEE will also encourage par- systems. A symposium on ‘Ubiquitous pub- cognitive functions in health and pathology dation and coordinator general of ticipation in the award, providing lic e-health computational and telecommu- in the focus of translational medicine’ also the UAE Drones for Good Award, an opportunity for innovators to nication technologies for rural and remote took place. This comprised a series of lec- and Nazih Khaddaj Mallat, chair of develop their projects with the sup- areas’ was hosted by the chair of Russia tures by leading experts and masterclasses IEEE Region 8’s Chapters Coordina- port of IEEE’s extensive network of Siberia Section, Alexander Markhasin. on methods of experimental and clinical tion Committee. more than 430,000 members from Among the topics raised at the confer- neuroscience. The Dubai Museum of the Fu- more than 160 countries around ence was the ability to create large health- Grigoriy Khazankin ture Foundation has been working the world. care cognitive networks. Chryssa Thermo- Secretary-treasurer, Russia Siberia Section Iran seminar on managing IT risk NIROO Research Institute hosted a After proving the necessity of talk last June by Ali Hessami, direc- taking care of the risk in technol- tor of R&D and Innovation at Vega ogy, he presented several models Systems, on ‘Assessing and Man- for risk assessment and risk man- aging Risks in High Technology’. agement. The talk covered the basic defini- The principles are of relevance tions, the meaning of risk, and how and value to all engineering and to assess and manage various risks technology researchers and every- in high technology systems. one who wishes to understand and Successful IEEE Day in Bahrain Prof Hessami referred to the tackle safety, security and many sinking of the Titanic and the Con- other forms of risks in complex will encourage similar events corde catastrophe, calling both of technical systems. them “the results of ignoring risk Ali Tadaion management”. Iran Section newsletter THE Bahrain Society of Engineers, undergraduate students to Senior located in Juffair, celebrated IEEE Members. Day on 6 October 2015 in a joint It was very satisfying to get posi- event between the Bahrain Section tive feedback from all participants and UOB Student Branch. and the UOB Student Branch was The global event was celebrated encouraged by Bahrain Section to through inspirational speeches, fun organize more such activities and and skill-provoking games, and events in order to encourage dia- discussions about upcoming tech- logue between members willing to nologies. Speakers ranged from learn and benefit humanity. IEEE Region 8 News April/May 2016 7 yp news student news University of Balamand, EYP: looking forward to a brand new year Lebanon E T Workshop on TIN MANY aspects, 2015 was a great The second issue of the Industry I Myear for Region 8 Young Professionals. Newsletter is also being prepared, with developing We had two new Affinity Groups join improvements to make it more relevant M the YP family in Ghana and Qatar, took require support with during last year’s and interesting to all readers, and if any your own Opart in five cross-section SYP congresses, cross-section SYP congresses. volunteer or member who is involved in Cand launched the very first issue of the We have also started collaborating industry would like to contribute mate- Android apps P Region 8 Young Professionals Industry with the Students and Young Professionals rial, we can be contacted at r8yp@ieee. YNewsletter. Congress 2016 organizers, one of the high- org. Your feedback and contributions The beginning of the new year will be light Regional events, which will take place are vital to the newsletter and allows it THE Student Branch, in collabora- dedicated to tying loose ends, finalizing in summer. In addition, a new approach to meet the expectations and needs of tion with the Faculty of Engineering, the last stages of the Event Exchange Pro- to Young Professionals Affinity Group the YP community, along with the larger organized a workshop on Android gram, where the platform is almost ready mentorship will be developed, which will IEEE community in the Region. Application development. Ali Mo- for release, as well as creating and up- enable both AGs and the R8 YP subcom- Finally, dormant AGs will be revived, hamad, a graduate student, Stu- dating a new set of useful materials and mittee to become closer and to increase and we aim to have all AGs in the Region dent Branch member and Android manuals for YP volunteers, to help them our support towards local volunteers. in working order by the end of this year. developer, shared his experience by with organizing events, funding strate- This year will see a shift in the award We wish everyone a wonderful and teaching attendees to build Android gies, and managing AGs. These materials nomination process, as well as the tradi- productive 2016! Applications from scratch. will be based on topics that volunteers tional deadlines. More details about this Flavia Dinca Mobile programming has be- have deemed to be most important and can be found on the YP website. Region 8 Young Professionals Chair come one of the essential skills of tomorrow’s engineers. Today, it can be integrated into every classroom. Visitors get a feel for 2050 climate in Berlin Mobile programming applications range from simple tools to the In- A VISIT to the multi-awarded smart cogeneration plants as well as ternet of Things. urban quarter in Berlin which has providing locally generated regen- Maged Najjar, chair of the De- already fulfilled the climate targets erative energy from photovoltaics, partment of Computer Engineering of the German federal government wind power and geothermics. and the Student Branch advisor, for 2050 was organized by the IEEE Also located in the Euref Cam- Young Professionals Network in pus, Schneider Electric specializes Berlin on 28 October 2015. It in- in electricity distribution, automa- cluded a visit to over five hectares tion management and produces large Euref Campus and to French installation components for energy corporation Schneider Electric. management. Participants had an Euref Campus, located near opportunity to find out about the Gasometer in Berlin-Schöneberg, innovative solutions presented by is an initiator of the energy transi- the colleagues from Schneider tion in Germany and a home for Electric, explore the energy effi- stressed “The motivation for hold- many companies in the fields of cient building technologies of the ing such workshops is the fact that energy, sustainability, environ- Euref Campus and get information mobile programming, especially mental protection and mobility. It about some of its key features. on Android OS, continues to expe- is a Federal Government research Ana Cigarán Romero rience remarkable growth and ad- Euref Campus is home to companies working on projects campus, known for CO2-neutral WIE chair and YP secretary, vancement. So, in addition to teach- concerning sustainability and environmental protection. energy supply provided by biogas Germany Section ing it to students in a classroom environment, we wanted it to share Finnish Young Professionals the benefits of such an experience with the whole UOB community.” The workshop took place over focus on printed electronics the course of November with a three-hour session each week. A AN EVENT focused on Printed In- of electronics components and relaxed atmosphere ensured easy telligence was organized by Finn- their implementation into flexible and friendly interaction between ish Young Professionals together substrates. participants, and a number of fac- with members of OEM Laboratory, The event also gathered many ulty members actively took part. University of Oulu and Printocent industry representatives related Participants showcased the ap- Consortium at the end of 2015. to printed electronics in the Oulu plications they created and received The aim of the event was to area, searching for talented stu- certificates. Dr Najjar also awarded present current solutions to a dents to do their masters theses a token of appreciation on behalf of broader audience, enabling stu- and internships. the faculty and the Student Branch dents to have the opportunity to Participants also had a chance Solar cells and to the workshop facilitator, Ali, to other electronics see new perspectives related to to familiarize themselves with IEEE whom this was a great experience printed on to emerging technologies such as activities and were encouraged to flexible substrates. by his own words. printed electronics. Guest speak- join, thereby growing their profes- The organizers hope that this ers from various companies pre- sional network and find a job of workshop is a small step towards sented their projects and outlooks, their dreams! greater endeavors in this respect. focusing on large-scale fabrication Rafal Sliz Michael Salem 8 IEEE Region 8 News April/May 2016 student news SYP Congress and much R 8 more to come in 2016 S T U D HEY, dear students! The time has come! 2016 is here, and as every even E year, the biggest student event in our Region is taking place. This time, it N is Germany and the city of Regensburg which are calling us all to meet T together at the IEEE Region 8 Student and Young Professional Congress A on 17-21 August. But R8 SAC has more news to share... C First of all, we would like to thank Heind El-Rawy for her contribution T in 2015 as Electronic Communications Coordinator (ECC) and welcome I Ruba Aburub as the 2016 ECC for SAC. V I Also, we would like to thank all Section chairs who appointed a T Al Ain University of Science and Technology (AAU) Student Activities coordinator and student representative for their Sec-IE tion. In 2015, we introduced the ‘Survival Guide’, a guideline for newly S NI field engineer leads hands-on formed Student Branches as well as those that have been dormant but C have been successfully revitalized. The reporting campaign led to a 72% O tutorial workshop on LabVIEW increase in the number of reports submitted by Student Branch chairs M and counselors: 246 reports were submitted in the 2014-2015 academic year compared to 143 reports during 2013-2014. This is a success for all M IN the framework of the keenness of Al Ain Region 8 students and Student Branches! I T University of Science and Technology (AAU) The 2015 IEEE Xtreme Programming Competition results are tre- T on the students and their interests in the lat- mendous for Region 8. From 2,468 teams, the top three winners were E est technologies, the College of Engineering teams from our Region. ‘Team Name’ from Iran, ‘EPFL1’ from Switzer-E and IT (CEIT) at AAU, in conjunction with land and ‘Powerhouse’ from Romania were the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place the IEEE UAE MTT & IM Joint Chapter and winners, respectively. Their backgrounds show that these achievements the IEEE AAU Student Branch, organized are not just pure luck. As Region 8 SAC, we’re Xtremely happy to see a technical workshop about LabVIEW, the these teams’ achievements and congratulate them. For more informa- software developed by National Instruments tion about the teams and their members, go to the Region 8 web site (NI), on 19 January. and clikc on the Student Activities link. The speaker was Leen Adnan, an NI field were able to directly access the LabVIEW This year’s surprise is the announcement of the winners of ‘Mind engineer, and the workshop was attended software in the computer lab and apply the that Gap!’, Region 8’s new student contest. ‘Mind the Gap!’ (or MtG) by guests from Dubai Electricity and Water applications explained by the speaker. is a contest challenging IEEE students in the Region to come up with a Authority (DEWA) and a group of academic Nazih Khaddaj Mallat (dean, College of project proposal that helps reduce the gap between generations and faculty and students of the college. Engineering and IT) said that LabVIEW will bring them together, using technology. Three winning proposals (sub- Ms Leen began with an introduction of definitely help our students in their courses mitted by three winning teams of 3 to 5 people) will be selected to win LabVIEW, which is an advanced program and particularly in their Capstone Project. He the first, second, and third prizes ($750, $500, and $250 respectively), used by engineering students, especially also added that the college, in collaboration and the winners will be announced during the Awards Ceremony at Networks and Communications Engineer- with IEEE UAE units, will continue to organ- the R8 SYP Congress 2016 in Regensburg, Germany. ing Department. She also talked about the ize similar technical events and provide an Stay tuned on Region 8’s SAC and MtG social media channels challenges in the field of software and stages excellent opportunity to students, instruc- (www.facebook.com/ieee.r8sac and www.facebook. of technology advances that have been ac- tors and different UAE communities to learn com/MtGR8SAC) and get the chance to learn more cess to such technologies, and explained about new technologies and advanced tools. about student news. the LabVIEW fundamentals, such as imple- The end of the workshop was open for Your IEEE R8 SAC Team mentation of virtual instrument (VI), loop the students and the audience to ask ques- www.ieeer8.org/category/student-activities structures and data access. The participants tions and take part in discussion. IEEEXtreme contest, Egypt ‘Learn Compete Win’ proves to be an unqualified success IEEEXTREME Egypt Section Ambas- provided a high-quality internet sadors came up with a new idea: to connection along with essential organize IEEEXtreme for all Egyptian internet technical support during teams at one place. They called this the competition. event ‘LCW – Learn Compete Win’ For this edition of IEEEXtreme, and introduced ‘Code = Power’ as 34 Egyptian teams registered and this year’s slogan. 28 teams participated, out of which As a kind of collaboration, IT- nine were through LCW’15. Three WORX hosted LCW and supplied teams from Egypt were ranked competitors with needed meals among the best 100 teams in the and refreshments during the 24 world. The LCW’15 closing video hours of competition which was can be watched here: https://goo. held on 24 October. ITWORX also gl/FdL2WT Nine Egyptian teams came through the LCW’15 initiative, three ranking among the best in the world. IEEE Region 8 News April/May 2016 9 student news University of Thessaly, Greece Lamia gets stuck in to IEEEXtreme FOUR teams from the IEEE University of Thessaly (Lamia) Student Branch, consisting of nine students in total, participated in IEEEXtreme 9.0 programming competition held on 24 October 2015. All participating teams – ‘ChildrenOfTheC’, ’ National Institute of Applied Science and Technology (INSAT), Tunisia RustyProgrammers ’, ’Creal’ and ‘ThatCouldWork’ – gathered on the Friday evening together with our Tunisian SYPC’15 attracts more than proctor, Athanasios Kakarountas, waiting eagerly at our University for the competition to begin. 320 for learning and networking Unlimited amount of water, coffee and snacks were offered to the participating teams throughout the competition in order to help them to perform INSAT Student Branch had the honour to host to the best of their ability. After 24 hours of fun, no the 3rd Annual Tunisian Student and Young sleep, lots of caffeine and a lot of coding, IEEEXtreme Professionals Congress in Sousse on 20-22 9.0 came to an end. December 2015. More than 320 students and Two teams made it to the 24-hour mark and the young professionals met together to network, other two didn’t head home until 20 hours after the learn more about benefits IEEE membership competition began. and to discuss present and future engineering The event was conducted in a pleasant atmos- challenges. phere and the students were fully concentrated on The two-day congress aimed to help their work for the majority of the competition. The participants to gain further insight, enabling highest-ranked team in our Student Branch, ‘Chil- exchange of knowledge and skills. The plenary mittee corresponding member) and Nadhem drenOfTheC’, took the 660th position in the global sessions and workshops in this congress fo- Beard (Region 8 Professional Speaker). ranking and the 242th in Region 8. cused not only on research and technological Mehdi Bouguerra, TSYP’15 chair, thanked We are looking forward to participating in IEEEX- developments but also on career issues and the organizing committee and the audience treme 10.0 when hopefully even more teams will take the importance of developing the necessary for their remarkable engagement, and passed a part in this wonderful experience which combines soft skills. the torch to the IEEE ULT Student Branch who knowledge and a team spirit. An interesting mix of speeches was of- will be organizing the next Tunisian Student Evangelia Kavrochorianou fered by national and international speakers and Young Professional Congress. Chair, Student Branch from both academia and industry, including Skander Mansouri Ilias Xanthopoulos Ruba Aburub (Region 8 Student Activity Com- Chair, INSAT Student Branch Secretary, Student Branch Caledonian College of Engineering, Oman ‘Smart appointments’ poster wins student competition SUMAIYA Saif Sultan Al Yarabi, a level 4 student of Telecommuni- cations at Caledonian College of Technological Educational Institute of Western Greece Engineering Sultanate of Oman, won 4th place in the international Mastering web hosting techniques student poster competition organ- ized jointly by the IEEE sections of TECHNOLOGICAL Educational Institute creative time afterwards. Student projects Gulf Cooperation Council Countries. (TEI) of Western Greece is a young institu- such as IEEE Academics and participation She won the award for her poster tion, having been established in 2013 after in IEEE student conferences are high priority ‘Smart Appointment System for the merging of Technological Educational for our agenda this year. Caledonian College of Engineering Institute of Patras with Technological Edu- Last April, the Student Branch organ- Faculty’ supervised by Saleh Salim cational Institute of Messolonghi. ized a web hosting workshop. Six university Al Araimi. The Student Branch is hosted in the students presented the basics about web- The student competition was Computer and Informatics Engineering site hosting and then touched on in-depth organized within the Application ing with worldwide participants Department (CIED) located in Antirrion of techniques of hosting more efficiently. An Developments section of the 8th from industry and academy. Nafpaktos. interesting discussion with the audience IEEE-GCC International Conference Appreciation certificates were The Student Branch is planning to organ- about the topic followed the presentation, and Exhibition held at Sultanate of distributed for the awarded posters ize at least one event per calendar month in and useful opinions were exchanged about Oman Qaboos University, Muscat, to motivate students, increase their order to help the students to learn and study Student Branch activities. Oman, last February. The imme- confidence, help them to identify important technological topics, to socialize More than 60 took part in the event. diate success of the conference their skills and encourage them to and get in touch with other university stu- Paris Kitsos launched it as a regional forum for look for better solutions in different dents from Greece and Europe and spend Student Branch counselor electrical and electronics engineer- fields of engineering. 10 IEEE Region 8 News April/May 2016