Vol 17 No 1 April 2014

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.

GOSTAI founder Jean-Christophe IN THIS ISSUE Baillie has been recognised for his innovative work in field of smart Region news...... 1–3 machines, receiving the Alain Gla- vieux Award. The Alain Glavieux Award is a prize jointly sponsored by IEEE and the French organisation SEE – La Société de l’électricité, de l’électronique et des technologies Section and de l’information et de la commu- Mr Baillie collects his award from (left to right) Region 8 director Martin Bastiaans, JAN chair Daniel Chapter news...... 3–6 nication (Company of Electricity, Pasquet, France Section award vice-chair Victor Fouad-Hanna and SEE president François Gerin Electronics, and Information Tech- nology and Communication). The award was devised to Smart machines entrepreneur promote the interaction between academia and industry as well as to help advance the sciences, tech- collects Alain Glavieux Award nology and innovation. It is given erating system for autonomous The award ceremony was held To read more IEEE contacts...... 4 every other year in the domain of robots and its wide application in in Paris at SEE headquarters on information Student news...... 6–8 on SEE, visit information and communication the industry and the digital society. 9 December. A €4,000 prize and www.see. sciences, automatics and system He founded the company Gostai certificate were presented by SEE asso.fr control, signal and image process- in March 2006 to foster the de- president François Gerin and IEEE ing, and related areas. velopment of the growing smart Region 8 director Martin Bastiaans. Jean-Christophe Baillie was machines industry, innovative Prof Daniel Pasquet awarded the prize at the end of software and hardware for service IEEE Region 8 Voluntary last year for the design of an op- robotics. Contribution Fund

GOLD/YP news...... 8 Sections Congress to discuss suggestions for IEEE’s future

The incredible atmosphere created by 500 participants from more than 50 countries of our THE IEEE Member and Geographic Activities Board, to- Region presents a unique oppor- gether with Region 8, is planning IEEE Sections Congress tunity to meet IEEE global leaders 2014 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, at the Rai Convention and representatives, to influence Center from 22 to 24 August 2014. the future of IEEE, to find a future Sections Congress is a triennial gathering of IEEE Date is set in Poland for employer, and to exchange ideas volunteers and staff, comprising workshops, discussions with Region 8’s Students and and debates. The event makes it possible for IEEE vol- R8’s first SYP Congress Young Professionals. unteers from all over the world to come together with Krakow is great tourist desti- other Section leaders, attend training programs and CALLING students and Young Pro- nation, an educational hub with develop recommendations to guide the future of IEEE. fessionals: the new IEEE Region 8 25,000 students and a place where The SC2014 theme is ‘Inspiring Our Leaders of To- Student & Young Professional many global IT companies are es- morrow’. The three program tracks will be: Enhance Congress 2014 is set for 6-10 Au- tablished. This mix gives a strong Member Satisfaction, Improve Volunteer Experience gust at the prestigious Akademia connection between companies and Reach Globally with Local Touch. Górniczo-Hutnicza of the Univer- and our AGH UST. We look forward At meetings around Region 8 over the past few sity of Science and Technology in to meeting you! months, the following recommendations were drawn Kraków, Poland. For more details, visit www. up and submitted to MGA for inclusion in the SC2014 The five-day intensive pro- sypkrakow.pl and join us on debate: gramme comprises plenary ses- Face­book at www.facebook.com/ 1. IEEE should provide a collaborative platform (one sions, workshops, industry visits, sypcongress2014 point stop) for professionals and its own organisation Join us at the Akademia Górniczo- networking and social events at Maciej Borówka ...continued on page 2 Hutnicza in Kraków this UNESCO world heritage site. Congress chair region news

THE IEEE Awards Board is pleased to Robert Nowak (fellow), University announce the 2014 IEEE Medal and IEEE honours outstanding of Wisconsin, Madison. Recognition recipients. The Honours Mário A T Figueiredo (fellow), In- Ceremony will take place on 23 August stituto de Telecomunicações, Instituto in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in conjunc- achievement in Region 8 Superior Técnico, Torre Norte, Lisboa, tion with IEEE Sections Congress 2014. Portugal. We highlight those from Region 8… Rüdiger Urbanke (senior mem- rial and device science and technol- For their paper entitled: Sparse ber), professor at the Ecole Polytech- ogy, including practical application, Reconstruction by Separable Approxi- OOIEEE SIMON RAMO MEDAL, for nique Federale de Lausanne, Lausanne, sponsored by The Federation of Elec- mation, IEEE Transactions on Signal exceptional achievement in systems Switzerland. tric Power Companies, Japan, to two Processing. engineering and systems science, “For fundamental contributions co-recipients: sponsored by Northrop Grumman to coding theory, iterative information Franz Laermer (non-member), THE 2014 IEEE Medal of Honour Corporation, to Lyndon Evans (non- processing, and applications. vice president at Robert Bosch Corpo- recipient is Bantval Jayant Baliga member), director of Linear Collider rate Research and Advanced Develop- (life fellow), distinguished university Collaboration at the European Centre OOIEEE/RSE WOLFSON JAMES CLERK ment, Stuttgart, Germany. professor at North Carolina State Uni- for Particle Physics (CERN), Geneva, MAXWELL AWARD, for groundbreaking Andrea Urban (non-member), versity, Raleigh, “For the invention, Switzerland. contributions that have had an excep- senior expert at Robert Bosch GmbH, implementation, and commercialisa- “For systems leadership of the tional impact on the development of Reutlingen, Germany. tion of power semiconductor devices Large Hadron Collider Project from electronics and electrical engineering “For inventing and developing with widespread benefits to society.” conceptual design through completion or related fields, funded by Wolfson Mi- the Bosch deep reactive ion etching The complete list of recipients of construction.” croelectronics, to David Neil Payne, process that has impacted the micro- and citations is available online at: (member), director of the Optoelec- electro-mechanical systems field.” www.ieee.org/about/awards/ OOIEEE RICHARD W HAMMING tronics Research Centre, Southampton, news/medal_recog_recipients_­ MEDAL, for exceptional contributions Hampshire, United Kingdom. OOIEEE WRG BAKER PAPER AWARD, citationslist.pdf to information sciences, systems, and “For ground-breaking contributions for the most outstanding paper re- The deadline for nominations for technology, sponsored by Qualcomm, to optical fibre technologies and their porting original work published in any the 2015 round of IEEE Medal and to two co-recipients: application to optical communications.” IEEE archival publications, to three co- Recognition awards is 1 July 2014. Thomas Richardson (fellow), vice recipients: For more information on how to president of Engineering at Qualcomm, OOIEEE JUN-ICHI NISHIZAWA MEDAL, Stephen J Wright (member), Uni- nominate, please visit www.ieee. Bridgewater, New Jersey, USA. for outstanding contributions to mate- versity of Wisconsin, Madison. org/awards Promote engineering with Sections Congress to pre-university resources discuss IEEE’s future continued from page 1... DO you need to connect with pre- These websites are intended to units in order to (a) enhance collaboration among university educators, parents and raise interest and awareness about members regarding research and professional issues, students? our professions. The types of con- (b) magnify visibility of activities and best practices, The IEEE Educational Activities tent include: career preparation (c) establish a virtual meeting point for innovators and Department offers several free information, profiles of students involved, sharing the portals with entrepreneurs searching for talented professionals e.g. online pre-university education and professionals, hands-on activi- local educators, parents and with job posting, and (d) increase the impact of IEEE’s activi- portals that can help including: ties, accredited degree programme schools. The lesson plans can also ties, such as contests and recognitions. TryEngineering.org, IEEE Try- searches, involvement opportuni- serve as hands-on activities for 2. IEEE should consider introducing a credit system to Computing.org, TryNano.org ties for students, and online games. use during member outreach at reward loyal members. There should be two reward and IEEE Spark. IEEE members can easily get schools, community events and programmes: one for academia and another for indus- outside programmes. try. Credits could be used, when collected, to pay for You can also submit a student conference fees or to access IEEE standards. Special Pick up free tips on how to or career profile, identify student consideration may be given also to members from de- run a technical publication involvement opportunities such veloping countries, such as offering of some extra credit A WEBINAR entitled Tips for a of IEEE Communications Letters. as camps or scholarships, or sug- points per year after membership renewal. successful technical publica- Every month, Letters publishes gest online computing resources. 3. A bundle program for IEEE Xplore (IEEE/IET Electronic tion was held in December by about 25 short articles on the Your ideas for new lesson plans for Library – IEL) should be introduced by IEEE for mem- the IEEE Region 8 Educational theory and practice of communi- students ages 8–18 are welcome. bers who need few articles customised to their needs Activities Sub-Committee, led cations. The benefit to research- Check out all of IEEE’s online but do not have the ability to pay for multiple society by Niovi Pavlidou and George ers is full review by experts and pre-university education resources: subscriptions. Special discounts should be given for Papadopoulos. an editorial board usually within www.tryengineering.org/ssa corporate bundles. The event was targeted at six months of submission. www.trycomputing.org/ssa 4. IEEE should support a regional distinguished lec- IEEE’s Young Professionals in It was recorded on the Web­ www.trynano.org/ssa turer programme including especially members from Region 8. After advertising on Ex platform and is available to spark.ieee.org/ssa industry. The goals are (a) members’ motivation from the IEEE e-Notice service, we everyone for free on our IEEE R8 received 126 registrations. The EASC webpages at www.ieeer8. Questions? Contact Liz Kur- industry to provide knowledge (followed by collabora- webinar was conducted on Web­ org/category/continuing-­ zawa at [email protected] tion potentials) to wider regional/sectional areas, (b) Ex and attended by 50. education-works/ce-webinars. explicitly support section-level collaboration, and (c) Niovi Pavlidou spoke about Stay tuned to our future events. enhance a section’s visibility to national professional Region 8’s initiatives for technical George Papadopoulos and and technical organisations. education. The main speaker was Niovi Pavlidou Thanos Skodras Prof George Karagiannidis, editor Educational Activities SC14 coordinator for Region 8

2 IEEE Region 8 News April 2014 region news section news Record your experience for posterity with GHN Latvia and Lithuania Sections join forces to THE 20th century was character- ised by tremendous technological hold multi-disciplinary workshop in Riga developments, most of them in THE First Workshop on Advances in In- fertilisation of ideas for many disciplines in Dalius Navakauskas, Lithuania Section electronics and computers, many formation, Electronic and Electrical Engi- automatic control, robotics, telecommuni- chair, invited everyone to attend a second developed by persons who are neering was jointly organised by Latvia and cations and information systems. workshop that is planned to take place next now IEEE life members, scientists, Lithuania Sections on 26–27 November A welcome by Andrejs Romanovs, Lat- year in Vilnius, Lithuania. engineers and technicians. 2013 at Riga Technical University, Latvia. via Section chair, was followed by two inter- The workshop was followed by a gala Several IEEE old-timers, sup- This was supported by Riga TU and Vilnius esting sessions. The technical program can dinner, discussions and a walking tour in ported by the IEEE Foundation, Gediminas TU, Lithuania. be viewed at http://ieee.lt/wp-ontent/up- the heart of Riga’s Old Town. initiated IEEE Global History The workshop brought together loads/2013/11/Program_AIEEE_13.pdf Andrejs Romanovs Network, which is sponsored by researchers and young scientists from At the closing ceremony, certificates [email protected] the IEEE History Center. GHN is information, electronic and electrical en- were given to 22 presenters representing Dalius Navakauskas a wiki-based platform dedicated gineering. The aim was to promote cross- five Latvian and Lithuanian universities. [email protected] to preserving and promoting the history of innovation in the fields of electrical engineering, its allied MTT-S Ambassadors set fields and its organisations. up local chair meetings The Global History Network website www.ieeeghn.org in- A REGION 8 MTT-S Chapter Ambassa- cludes IEEE STARS, peer-reviewed dors meeting was held in Nuremberg articles on the history of major during the European Microwave Week. developments; first-hand histories; Smart Grid communications is The main responsibility of the Am- topic articles; oral histories, IEEE bassadors is to serve as mentors for Milestones; an education portal; focus for Univ of Seville lecture Chapter chairs. and archives. In attendance were Shmuel Aus- It is a moral obligation for IEEE PROF Gerald Sobelman, distin- Rosa and Bernabé Linares-Barran- ter, Andrey Baev (standing in for Yury members and especially of IEEE guished lecturer of the IEEE Circuits co, who chaired the lecture session. Kuznetsov), Jan Macháč, and Dominique life members to share their expe- and Systems Society, visited the The Smart Grid is an emerg- Schreurs. Mourad Loulou from Tunisia rience and historical knowledge by Institute of Microelectronics at the ing technology that combines the was appointed Ambassador responsible writing accounts and narratives of University of Seville, Spain on 18 traditional electric power grid with for the African Chapters. technological developments that November 2013 to delivery a talk on advanced communications and A decision was made to organise they witnessed. ‘Communications in the Smart Grid’. computing capabilities to facilitate local Chapter chair meetings, the first It is also our duty to initiate In attendance were the director metering infrastructure, demand to be at the MICON Conference in Lviv, the setting up of IEEE Milestones of IMSE-CNM, Dr Santiago Sánchez- response, renewable energy re- Ukraine in June. in Electrical and Electronics Engi- Solano, and chapter officers Teresa sources and grid reliability systems. Jan Macháč and Daniel Pasquet neering. Serrano-Gotarredona, Jose M de la Jose M de la Rosa Region 8 MTT-S Chapter co-ordinators A series of History of Tech- nology Conferences provides an opportunity to present oral nar- Microwave Week provides opportunity ratives. IEEE Region 8 and IEEE History Center will co-operate for MTT-S Chapters to get together with the International Committee REGION 8 hosts 47 MTT-S Chapters, including MTT-S AdCom was represented by of History of Technology in hold- three Student Branches. The annual meeting president Madhu Gupta, by Tim Lee and Dick ing HISTELCON 2015 at Tel-Aviv of Chapter representatives takes place at Eu- Snyder. MTT-S Membership and Geographic University on 16–21 August 2015. ropean Microwave Week. In 2013, EuMW was Activities was represented by its Bela Szen- Experience does not go upon held in the Nuremberg Convention Center on drenyi and Jim Weiler. retirement! It is our duty as veter- 6–11 October. Chapter activities create opportunities for ans of this golden technological Chapter representatives and MTT-S skill improvement, interpersonal interaction, century to leave to our children AdCom met to exchange experiences. They motivating others, and managing events, re- and grandchildren a verbal ac- discussed support to the Chapters given by sources and people. count of how this was achieved. MTT-S, and the conditions. It was a good op- Daniel Pasquet explained the relationship vided an interesting insight into the IEEE members are urged to use portunity to learn how to run Chapters. between Chapters, Sections and Societies. lives of Chapters. the tools provided GHN and IEEE Representatives of all MTT-S chapters Alaa Abunjaileh, MTT-S AdCom, intro- A reception and dinner brought History Conferences to leave their worldwide were also invited, together with duced the new IEEE MTT-S 2014 Outstanding participants together with AdCom message to posterity. those from the AP, ED, and EMC societies. Chapter Award. members. Dr Jacob Baal-Schem The event was attended by 44 participants Jan Macháč, Region 8 Chapter coordina- Jan Macháč and Daniel Pasquet Region 8 Life Members representing 19 Chapters from Region 8 and tor, and Chapter representatives reported on Region 8 MTT-S Chapter Coordinator 4 from other regions. major events. An exhibition of posters pro- co-ordinators

IEEE Region 8 News April 2014 3 editorial

Vol 17 No 1 April 2014

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: Zhijia Huang and Roland Saam News & articles Delivery problems [email protected] Please notify all problems regarding membership, publications delivery and change of address directly to IEEE member services. See website Sections Congress comes Student News email www.ieee.org and email [email protected]. [email protected] Extra copies to Region 8 – at last! IEEE Region 8 If you would like extra copies of Region 8 News for distribution at your website IEEE events, please email a request to the editor before the deadlines FOR the first time, IEEE Sections late them and encourage you to www.ieeer8.org below, specifying quantity and delivery address. Please type ‘R8 News Extra Copies’ in your email subject line. Congress will be held in Region 8. consider nominees for 2015. Editors This is a triennial gathering of The most important event for Zhijia Huang Submitting articles active members from all over the students and Young Professionals [email protected] We welcome news, articles and letters from any member of the IEEE. Please send these to the editor as plain text by email to [email protected], world to meet with leaders and IEEE will be SYP2014 Congress in Kra- Roland J Saam remembering to type ‘Region 8 News’ in your email subject line. If send- staff, to get some training and to de- kow, Poland, from 6–10 August. [email protected] ing photos or graphics, please make sure they are high-resolution files. velop recommendations to set the More details are on our front page. Editorial production Read our full guide to writing and submitting articles at www.ieeer8.org –> R8News Newsletter –> Tips for contributors. direction for IEEE for the next three Please enjoy reading about the Alistair Dabbs years. It will be held in Amsterdam, many events featured in this issue [email protected] Deadlines for upcoming issues at the Rai Convention Center, from and write to us with your news. IEEE Printing & mailing July 2014 issue...... deadline: 1 May 2014 22–24 August. membership in Region 8 is grow- Theresa Smith October 2014 issue...... deadline: 1 August 2014 The IEEE Awards Board will run ing, helped by our many activities. [email protected] January 2015 issue...... deadline: 1 November 2014 the annual Honours Ceremony for Give your support to local events the 2014 IEEE Medal and Recogni- and volunteer to help spread the REGION 8 OPERATING tion winners during the Congress. knowledge of our profession. COMMITTEE OFFICERS This year many from Region 8 will Zhijia Huang 2013 receive the awards. We congratu- Editor Operating Committee Past-Director V/C Member Activities (OpCom) Marko Delimar (Croatia) Aleksandar Szabo (Croatia) [email protected] [email protected] Director Secretary V/C Student Activities Martin Bastiaans (Benelux) Ali El-Mousa (Jordan) Pablo Herrero (Germany) [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Director-Elect Treasurer V/C Technical Activities Costas Stasopoulos (Cyprus) Brian Harrington (UK&RI) Carl Debono (Malta) [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Appointed Members Student Representative Industry Relations Chair Christian Schmid (Austria) Andreas Neumeier (Germany) GOLD Program Chair [email protected] [email protected] Rafal Sliz (Finland) Chapter Coordination Chair Standards Coordinator (ad [email protected] Elya Joffe (Israel) interim) Experienced engineers reveal Membership Development [email protected] David Law (UK&RI) Chair Conference Coordination Chair [email protected] Antonio Luque Estepa (Spain) Jan Haase (Austria) Awards & Recognition the secrets of their success [email protected] [email protected] Charles Turner (UK&RI) THE IEEE Council on Electronic De- tions of Sfax, Tunsia (ENET’Com). Professional Activities Chair Educational Activities Chair [email protected] sign Automation, Tunisia Chapter The guest was Zouheir Koubâa, Jan Verveckken (Benelux) Niovi Pavlidou (Greece) [email protected] [email protected] continues its series of technical manager of the STEPEAV Group, Region 8 News Editor in Chief seminars entitled ‘Success Stories’. an expert in the fields of smart Zhijia Huang (UK&RI) Ad Hoc Members Jubilee Book Coordinator These events invite young buildings, acoustics, networks of [email protected] Kurt Richter (Austria) graduates to speak about their wired television, and audio-visual Region 8 News Editor Electronic Communications [email protected] Roland Saam (UK&RI) Coordinator work. It also invites engineers techniques. Life Members Coordinator [email protected] George Michael (Cyprus) Jacob Baal-Schem (Israel) who have had a successful career More than 120 people attend- Sections Congress Coordinator [email protected] [email protected] to speak about their experience, ed – more than there were seats in (1) Voluntary Contribution Fund Women in Engineering Athanassios Skodras (Greece) Coordinator how they built their career and the amphitheatre – making it a real Coordinator [email protected] Daniel Pasquet (France) Joyce Mwangama (South Africa) how they overcame problems. great success. Sections Congress Coordinator [email protected] [email protected] Future engineers can learn a Zouheir Koubâa answered (2) History Activities Coordinator Saurabh Sinha (South Africa) Tony Davies (UK&RI) lot from such experiences and are a wide variety of questions. The [email protected] [email protected] encouraged to develop their own event was extremely beneficial, projects. They make contact with not only for the undergraduates, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers a guest who will assist them to but also for the teachers who also 3 Park Avenue, 17th Floor achieve their project. attended the event. New York 10016, USA This third seminar was held on Mourad Fakhfakh IEEE prohibits discrimination in its activities. 12 February at the National School CEDA TN chapter chair For more information, visit www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/ of Electronics and Telecommunica- http://sites.ieee.org/tunisia-ceda whatis/policies/p9-26.html

4 IEEE Region 8 News April 2014 section news Amateur radio specialist travels through India on lecture circuit MY journey to India began in Sep- tember 2013, in Udaipur, Rajasthan state. The National Workshop on MODS’13 workshop features Amateur Radio and Software Defined Radio was organised at reports at top technical level Techno India NJR Institute of Tech- THE 14th IEEE Annual Joint Lithua- at JSC Geozondas. All technical re- nology. It was my second visit to Signal Processing, Computing Techno India nia-Belarus Workshop ‘Microwave ports were made at high technical that part of the country, and this and Control at JayPee Univer- NJR Institute of Technology and optoelectronic devices and and scientific level. time extended our workshop from sity of Information Tech – JUIT, in systems’ (MODS’13) took place in Such joint international work- two to three days. Shimla area of Himachal Pradesh. Vilnius on 6–7 December. shops provide opportunities not We wanted to offer students This gave another opportunity for The workshop was organised by only to exchange experiences and practical opportunities with real lectures and practical demos on Lithuania Section, MTT/ED/AP and best practices but also to promote electronics, such as to build de- assembling antenna cables and Education Chapters and Belarus friendship between neighbouring vices partially driven by computer connectors to simulate radio trans- MTT/ED Chapter, together with JSC countries. CPUs. With the help of the National missions. The future of the hobby Geozondas and Vilnius Gediminas The first day of the workshop Institute of Amateur Radio, and its at JUIT seems to be bright. Technical University. The workshop concluded with a dinner, and the enthusiastic leader Ram Mohan of It was good to gathered around 40 participants second day ended with a sightsee- VU2MYH, students had an exciting see so many from industry, academia and re- ing tour of Vilnius. chance to learn how to design, as- female students search institutes. Participants from both countries semble and test various subsystems Oral presentations were given are looking forward to the 15th of more complex radio devices. during the first day at Vilnius Ged- workshop, to be organized next Among the young participants iminas Technical University, while year in Minsk, Belorussia. it was good to see so many female demonstrations of working equip- Dalius Navakauskas students. My India journey concluded ment were held on the second day Lithuania Section chair The next event was the 2nd in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, with International Conference on Com- another three-day tutorial at the puting and Systems at the Univer- Indian Institute of Technology at Bruno Meyer visits Tunisia sity of Burdwan, Department of Banaras Hindu University (IIT- Computer Sciences, opened by BHU). The lack of practical oppor- to talk about power systems the state minister of Research and tunity was also evident in Vara- Human Resources. Compared to nasi but the enthusiasm of Prof SP ON 16–18 November, the Tunisia transmission systems operators as the complex workshop in Udaipur, Singh, the head of the Electronics Chapter of the IEEE Power & En- the key challenge in Europe. He ex- the amateur radio lecture was con- Engineering Department and his ergy Society welcomed Prof Bruno plained the challenges of designing strained as that part of West Bengal colleagues gave hope that more Meyer, IEEE Fellow, CEO of Arteria transmission systems with the new state does not have active amateur amateur radio activities would be France and 2013 IEEE PES President- technologies in power electronics, radio enthusiasts. possible in years to come. Elect nominate. Bruno was the first IT, and renewable energy. My next talk was at the 2013 Miroslav Skoric IEEE distinguished lecturer in the He emphasised the importance IEEE International Conference on Austria Section power and energy field. of smart grids in the current model The good collaboration be- market of the energy industry. Some tween the Tunisia Chapter, PES projects of the European network of German, Austrian and Swiss Chapters Student Chapter at the National En- transmission system operators for gineering School of Sfax (ENIS) as electricity were presented as well partner to investigate electric drives the only PES student chapter in both as the French operator RTE. ON 4–5 July last year, the IEEE IAS/PELS/ power supplies up to 690V 500kW and a Tunisia and Africa, and the student These talks attracted more than IES German and Austrian Chapters met variable DC link up to 1000V 300kW are branch of the National Engineering 120 graduate and undergraduate together with PELS Swiss Chapter in Graz, used for education and research. School of Monastir (ENIM) was the students as well as faculty mem- Austria. Their hosts were the ELIN Motoren The first day closed with dinner at Bras- primary key for the success of his bers in the two venues. They were GmbH and the Electric Drives and Machines serie Bruno, located in the center of the old visit. preceded by a visit to the research Institute of Graz University of Technology. historical city of Graz, a UNESCO world Two meetings were organised: laboratories in ENIS with Profes- Dr Brandstaetter, head of R&D at ELIN, heritage site. in ENIS (Sfax) on 16 November and sors Nabil Derbel and Ahmed Mas- introduced us to their products and manu- The second day of the meeting featured in ENIM (Monastir) on 18 November. moudi, and Professors Abdelmajid facturing processes. The product range two keynote lectures. Prof Ralph Kennel Prof Meyer presented the Soci- Benamara and Anis Sakly of ENIM. comprises motors from 37 to 35,000kW, from Technical University Munich com- ety and its benefits for members, Rami Messaoud, ENIS induction generators and synchronous gen- mented on the recent achievements on en- and especially for students, and pre- Hatem Chaabouni, ENIM erators. Electrical machine manufacturing is coderless control of AC drives. Prof Maarten sented his technical talk on R&D for Habib M Kammoun, PES Tunisia fascinating, especially the coiling process, Kamper from Stellenbosch University, South Bruno Meyer the electric isolation, and the techniques to Africa gave us a detailed insight into syn- with the Student construct such machines. chronous reluctance machines, and areas Chapter board of At Graz University, Prof Annette Muetze, where they may provide a viable alternative the PES at ENIS showed the participants their new facilities. to conventional. These include a laboratory to introduce 300 http://ieee.org/r8/germany/ias-pels first-year students to the basics of power Ingo Pletschen electronics and electric drives. Multiple Joint IAS/PELS/IES German Chapter

IEEE Region 8 News April 2014 5 section news student news Academic Core Team meets to discuss initiatives and strategy ON 7–8 February, the IEEE Academ- To cope with the need of hav- ic Core Team organised its first face- ing relevant educational contents to-face meeting in Lisbon, Portugal. available to students locally, IEEE The team members discussed is trying to create the first truly the current status of the local initia- multi-language online platform to TELSIKS celebrates 20 years of tives, future strategies and goals to be available for every student, pro- be achieved. fessor or enthusiast, for free. This innovative student-driven By setting ambitious goals and successful telecoms conferences project which started in Region defining a well-planned strategy for FOLLOWING its 20-year tradition, the 11th cable services in the country and region’. 8 has successfully kick-started 16 achieving those goals, 2014 is the International Conference on Telecommu- OOWorkshop on ‘The Appropriate Design initiatives in four different IEEE Re- year IEEE Academic will certainly nications in Modern Satellite, Cable and of the Reconstruction Filter and its Influ- gions around the world, with a lot of make the difference in improving Broadcasting Services (TELSIKS 2013) was ence on the Output Power and Efficiency of participating Student Branches and education worldwide. held in Niš, Serbia, on 16–19 October. Class-S and Quasi Class-S Power Amplifiers’, universities. Efthymia Arvaniti This is one of the leading scientific con- given by Dr Kurt Blau, Ilmenau University of ferences in the region in the field of infor- Technology. mation and telecommunication technolo- OORound table on ‘Women’s participation Student session at ELMAR gies, systems and services. The conference in science and technology – opportunities, CROATIA Section is planning a stu- in proceedings available at the sym- proceedings are now available in the digital challenges and way forward’. dent session at the 56th IEEE Intern- posium. Authors of the best student IEEE Xplore database. The TELSIKS conference organising com- taional Symposium ELMAR-2014. paper will be awarded with the Best Authors of the papers came from more mittee has established the level of the confer- The topics are image and video Student Paper Award during the than 100 different institutions all over the ence to connect scientists with professionals, processing, multimedia, commu- opening session. Croatia Section world. The most important events were: encourage students and young professionals nications and navigation. All pro- and ELMAR Society offer financial OORound table on ‘Digitisation: Rational use to do research and support the transfer of spective BSc and MSc students are support. The deadline is 14 April. of the radio frequency spectrum’. research results into industry and supporting invited to submit their papers. David Diaz OOConference on ‘Development and imple- activities. They want to keep an appropriate Papers accepted by two inde- www.elmar-zadar.org/2014/ mentation of advanced cable services and environment for development of national ICT pendent reviewers will be published student_session effective business models – DIACAS 2013’, industry and society in general. with the topic ‘Financial models in realisation Bratislav Milovanović Caledonian College of Engineering, Oman of redistribution of media contents and de- TELSIKS 2013 chair velopment and implementation of advanced [email protected] Cloud computing guest lecture CALEDONIAN College of Engi- operation. In the later part of his neering (CCE) Student Chapter talk, he mentioned the significant organised a guest lecture on 25 technical edge of mobile over web November on ‘Cloud Computing applications. He also elaborated on and recent Track in IT sector’. software applications needed in the The event started with a wel- area of native language like Arabic come address and the introduction Designer as per the market survey. of the guest speaker by Dr Dhar- He completed his talk with the masa. Nearly 40 students and staff topics of software certification and attended the talk. the development of the software/ Mr Amrithajit presented the IT Sector in Oman. HIS and IAS events organised to various applications of Android, Dr Dharmasa run in partnership in Tunisia its sources and their principles of CCE- IEEE Branch Counselor FROM 4–6 December, the 13th International the HIS field and a tutorial on ‘Machine vs Call for contributors to WIE’s Conference on Hybrid Intelligent Systems and Human Intelligence’ presented by Tarek M the 9th International Conference on Informa- Hamdani (Saudi Arabia). interactive online chat series tion Assurance and Security were jointly held More than 80 participants enjoyed the IEEE Women in Engineering members whose experiences by the REGIM-Lab from University of Sfax (Tu- high quality of the presentations. The confer- started an initiative in 2013 and knowledge could prove to nisia) and MIR-Labs (USA), in co-operation ences were a good opportunity to share skills, whereby live chats hosted by be of great interest and value with IEEE Sfax Subsection, in Laico Hotel at methods and insights; to exchange ideas, ex- various presenters are broadcast when shared with others. Yassmine Hammamet. periences and thoughts; and to create values on a regular basis. Please view recordings of The conferences were technically co- by implementing new ideas. The chat series gives mem- the past online live discussions sponsored by the soft computing technical During the conference, an IEEE stand bers the opportunity to listen which are listed as links here: committee of the IEEE SMC Society and the was organised by the IEEE Sfax Subsection and engage with presenters on www.ieee.org/member- Tunisia Chapter of the IEEE SMC Society. in order to encourage and help participants a wide variety of topics. Follow- ship_services/membership/ The technical programme included three to join IEEE. ing the success of the first online women/women_events.html plenary talks from world-renowned speakers: In the gala dinner, awards were delivered interactive sessions, WIE would If you are interested, please Imre J Rudas (Hungary), Constantinos S Pat- to the best paper and best student paper in like to hear from you. email Keyana Tennant at keyana. tichis (Cyprus) and Farhat Fnaiech (Tunisia) each conference. The Women in Engineering [email protected]. It also featured four oral sessions related Adel M Alimi and Habib M Kammoun organisation has many talented Joyce Mwangama to the IAS field, nine oral sessions related to www.mirlabs.org/his13

6 IEEE Region 8 News April 2014 student news SYP Congress 2014 in Poland is one COMMITTEE ACTIVITIES STUDENT R8 not to be missed, so keep up to date

DEAR IEEE student friends! More to be announced on the official congress 2014 is well under way and we are all looking website http://sypkrakow.pl and interesting infor- forward to the biggest student event – the IEEE Re- mation and facts can be found on the facebook gion 8 Student and Young Professional Congress. page of SYP Congress 2014 at www.facebook.com/ This time we invite you to join us in the beautiful city sypcongress2014. University of Thessaly, Greece of Krakow, Poland, from 6–10 August. The organising team of the IEEE AGH-UST New IEEE Region 8 SAC member UTH Student Branch Student Branch is working hard to make this event We are glad to announce a new addition to our memorable, preparing an agenda with a variety of team, the Electronic Communications coordinator, leads TISP 2 events technical, professional and social activities. High- Youmna El Bitar. Welcome Youmna! lights include an extraordinary gala dinner in the You can always visit us in our webpage www. FOR the second year, IEEE Student Branch of Uni- Wieliczka Salt Mine, a barbeque on the Piłsudski’s ieeer8.org/category/student-activities and fa- versity of Thessaly (Lamia) got involved with the Mound, interesting workshops and keynote pres- cebook page www.facebook.com/ieee.r8sac, Teacher in Service Program 2.0. During November, a entations from IEEE officials. or send us your news and awesome activities at team of volunteers organised two workshops at the SYP Congress is a great opportunity for all stu- [email protected]. We are eager to hear from you Fourth High School of Lamia and three at the First dents and Young Professionals to meet, learn about and share your news with the world. High School of Lamia. IEEE and engineering, exchange ideas and engage Keep up the excellent work and thank you for Students were asked to perform the ‘Tall Tower with professionals and industry from all around Re- being part of the IEEE family. See you all in Krakow! Challenge’ activity. They were provided with simple gion 8. Visits to scientific centers and the famous Your R8 Student Activities Committee: materials such as straws and paper clips, and they multicultural dinner are planned, so this is also a Christian, Djordje, Efthymia, Elias, tried, by using them, to build the tallest and strongest call to prepare your traditional delicacies, your nice Pablo, Piotr and Youmna tower they could. outfits, a lot of energy and your best smile. [email protected] Students also conducted the ‘Arduino Blink Chal- lenge activity. Each team was supplied with an Arduino Uno board, a breadboard, an LED and a 220ohm resis- Student Chapter tor. They built a program and a circuit to turn the LED on and off via the Arduino Uno. activities report At the end of the workshops, all had managed to THE number of Student Branches achieve the goals of the activities and had their first increased last year as more be- exposure to the field of engineering. came aware of the benefits of IEEE Ioannis Mousmoutis membership. UTH (Lamia) Student Branch Motivation of students is evi- dent in their Chapter activities and their organisation and attendance Univerity of Alexandria, Egypt at student branch congresses: IEEE Turkey SBC February 2013, Eight months of Protons Izmir, Turkey; IEEE Iberian SBC March 2013 Porto, Portugal; IEEE Central Eastern SBC May 2013, reaches its conclusion Opole, Poland; IEEE Middle East ON 2 November, Alexandria Stu- The second phase of the pro- SBC May 2013, Beirut, Lebanon; dent Branch in cooperation with gramme marked the selection of IEEE UK&RI SBC Sept. 2013, Bath, the Faculty of Engineering, Science the different projects the students UK; IEEE Hellenic SBC Nov. 2013, club and Ideas Gym, celebrated were to work on. There were 11 Nicosia, Cyprus. Faschang wins Smart Grid the closing of one of its latest pro- teams, which consisted of three to A project management work- grammes, ‘Protons’. seven participants each, working shop series was delivered by Simay student video competition Protons is a non-profit pro- on three main fields of technology: Akar, Region 8 co-ordinator. Stu- AT the IEEE SmartGridComm Conference in October, gramme initiated by the Student Home Automation, Programming dents designed specific projects held in Vancouver, Canada, the IEEE Student Video Branch that adopts the organisa- and Robotics. based on their technical interests competition took place. The winner of best Smart tion’s vision to improve humanity The programme lasted eight which were presented during Grid application video was Mario Faschang (pictured through technology. Launched in months and was completed with these workshops. More than 70 below)for his Electric Vehicle in Smart Grid Showcase. March 2013, it targeted school stu- a projects fair, in which the partici- participants from 37 Sections pre- Mario is a member of the Energy&IT research dents aged between 13 and 17, guid- pants got the chance to demonstrate sented their projects. group, at the Institute of Computer Technology at ing them through three phases with their projects. The most important benefit the Vienna University of Technology. His research the help of mentors and instructors, The winning teams were award- was the opportunity for partici- topics focus on voltage control and introducing them to different ed some valuable prizes along with pants to share ideas with their in low voltage distribution grids fields of technology through interac- a scholarship from Ideas Gym to colleagues from other student with high density of distributed, tive sessions and workshops. participate in international com- branches and developing them alternative power generation and Participants also received ses- petitions. within this inspiring environment. electromobility. sions about soft skills, where self- Raghda Ibrahim Mohammed Simay Akar Congratulations! learning was strongly emphasised Alexandria Student Branch Region 8 Student Branch sgc2013.ieee-smartgridcomm.org and encouraged. secretary Chapters co-ordinator

IEEE Region 8 News April 2014 7 yp/student news Discover concepts behind our brand new YP logo

SINCE the beginning of the year, of colour in the logo is mean to the Young Professionals logo has represent a colourful, energetic,

YP COMMITTEE YP been updated to give the group vibrant and timeless icon. The its own brand and a new identity colours that make up the icon University of Cyprus, Nicosia to grow with. have the following representa- The group’s new identity is tions: based on an illustration that rep- Gold: a tie to the roots of the Hellenic SBC helps develop skills resents the sum of the whole be- original GOLD group. ing made up of individuals while Blue: connects the group to the and takes a close look at TISP 2.0 they are connected to build IEEE master brand colour. THE Hellenic Student Branch & GOLD Con- something great together. The Green: signifies growth and gress 2013 was hosted by the University three separate parts of the icon youth. of Cyprus IEEE Student Branch in Nicosia, each represents an individual in Templates are available from from 1–3 November. The participants were the group. The negative space at our website yp.ieeer8.org for students amd Young Professional members formed between the three in- all volunteers to download and from Greece, Cyprus and other countries of dividual shapes forms a ‘Y’ to utilise freely. Region 8, and its purpose was for partici- help identify ‘Young’. The use Rafal Sliz, R8 YP pants to socialise, exchange experiences and ideas, and to develop new skills. TISP 2.0, a Region 8 initiative, was an- The Congress programme included nounced. Educational portals were demon- SBC presents initiatives keynotes from IEEE distinguished lecturers, strated and guidance to the participants was Student Branch presentations, technical given in order to conduct TISP workshops in for activities in Croatia workshops and presentations of current their local areas. IEEE programmes. Among others, a Teacher Overall, the response from the partici- in Service Program training workshop was pants was positive and we expect them to presented by Ioannis Mousmoutis, chair of organise TISP workshop in their local areas the University of Thessaly (Lamia) Student in the future. Branch and his team. The workshop aimed For more information, please contact us at increasing participants’ involvement. at [email protected]

University of Pavia, Italy Microsoft and PhD students speak THE third IEEE Croatia Student test) was introduced by the team Branch Congress was held on from Osijek Student Branch. They at Pavia Student Branch events 28–29 September in Zagreb, Croa- started the madC competition and tia. Representatives of all Student are organising the first Regional Branches in Croatia attended. It edition of the contest. was also an opportunity for all Rui Costa told us how to start Student Branches of the Croatia the IEEE Academic programme in Section to gather and celebrate the Croatia Section which helped the IEEE Day on 1 October. us to plan those activities. TISP Our goal was to present new was presented with a workshop programmes and initiatives re- during which participants devel- lated to student activities both on oped a robot arm made of com- Regional and Section level. Open- mon office materials. UNIVERSITY of Pavia Student ised on 27 November to address ing remarks by Marko Delimar, The Congress wound up with Branch again proved itself to be the latest scientific innovations for long-term advisor of the Zagreb presentations about recent ac- one of the most active in Italy in the modern treatment of diabetes. Student Branch, were followed by tivities and forthcoming events 2013. Several recent events brought At this event, three PhD en- a presentation about development of all the participating student young students closer to the world gineering students showed their of student memberships, given by branches. Many exciting ideas of research and encouraged them to current research activities to help Aleksandar Szabo. were born, new friendships were meet and to share their ideas with characterise with high accuracy the IEEE Young Professionals made, and what is most important, each other. chemical processes for the diagno- presented their work to promote the enthusiasm for organising IEEE On 12 November, three speak- sis of diabetes. Another project was their collaboration with the student activities in the new academic year ers from Microsoft were invited to a design for an artificial pancreas branches. has never been higher. the Engineering Faculty of the Uni- able to replace humans. The new Region 8 student Ivana Stupar versity of Pavia to discuss the latest Stefano Moscato and competition IEEE madC (mobile Croatia Section Student hi-tech. Andrea Giannini application development Con- Activities chair Another meeting was organ- Student Branch, UNIPV

8 IEEE Region 8 News April 2014