IEEE Region 8 News December 2013

Vol 16 No 3 December 2013

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...... 1–5

THE 101st IEEE Region 8 Committee IEEE contacts...... 4 meeting was hosted by IEEE Bosnia and 100+ members convene in Section and Herzegovina section in the city of Sara- Chapter news...... 5–7 jevo. More than 100 Region 8 members and IEEE staff gathered on 4–6 October Sarajevo for R8 Committee for a busy agenda discussing and plan- Far left: ning activities and developments. Region 8 Region 8 Director Martin Bastiaans director- elect and Aleksander Szabo, vice chair of candidate Member Activities, reported an increase debate in membership, albeit slower than in Left: IEEE’s GOLD/YP news...... 8 recent years. Sections were asked to be just desserts active in recruiting new members and to sembly of IEEE volunteers will be taking Decade was given the new name ‘IEEE encourage renewals. place outside North America for the first Young Professionals’. The YP criteria will Tony Davies, History Activities co- time. be adjusted by adding an opt-in option, ordinator, reported on two new IEEE There’s also the Student Branch Con- and it will be a form of membership. Milestone dedications: 12 June to cel- gress 2014 planned in Krakow, Poland, Good news for you: there are to be ebrate the 1947 invention of holography from 7–10 August, organised by the local new benefits for IEEE members. The in London (UK&RI Section), and 5 July Student Branch. most important is GoogleApps@IEEE, Student news...... 9–12 to commemorate the 1895 Krka-Šibenik Meanwhile, three important confer- a suite of online products – mail, con- Hydro Power System in Croatia. ences will be organised by the region: tacts, calendar and a collaboration toolset Next year we will see some big events MELECON 2014 in April in Beirut, Leba- – made available at no cost. Please go in our Region. IEEE Sections Congress non; ENERGYCON 2014 in May in Du- ahead and try it out. 2014 will be hosted in Amsterdam, Neth- brovnik, Croatia; and HISTELCON 2014 There are also improvements to IEEE erlands, at the Rai Convention Center in September in Israel. member discount programs for Rosetta from 22–24 August. This worldwide as- IEEE GOLD Graduates of the Last ...continued on page 2

The closing dinner was held in Munich’s elegant Young Professionals refresh GOLD Künstlerhaus program with increased visibility AFTER many years of operation, the Gradu- The new program should result in im- ates of the Last Decade (GOLD) program is proved member awareness and retention, to be relaunched. and increased member engagement by Germany experiences day of Primarily, the name will be changed to making opportunities easier to find. ‘Young Professionals’, designed to appeal Although the process is planned to be time travel for 50th birthday to a broader audience and correspond to finalised in the middle of 2014, the first tran- ON 5 April 2013, IEEE Germany Sec- military applications to the pre- an increased visibility strategy. sitions are already visible. For example, the tion celebrated its 50th Anniversary sent, with thanks to our predeces- Although the name is the most signifi- Region 8 Student Branch and GOLD Con- where it all started, on 9 April 1963, sors who passionately built power cant visible change, several Young Profes- gress (SBC) is changing its name: it will be at the Technical University Munich. engineering, communication and sionals will be re-organising the programme officially known for the forthcoming event Our celebrations began in the information technology as we know to make it better serve the community of in Krakow in 2014 as Region 8 Student and afternoon with a colloquium intro- them today. young engineers. Young Professional Congress (SYP). duced by Prof Kennel as a “time Our trip arrived at the present The Young Professionals program re- Certainly, many of us will shed a tear for travel” series of talks. with Prof de Doncker’s presentation, quires changes at several levels: governance, Graduates of the Last Decade but it is time The first, by Prof Helmut Sch- ‘Power Electronic Substation – Edi- branding, classification and communication. to move on, say goodbye to GOLD and say ramm, ‘Where we come from: son’s Missing Link to realise the En- Therefore, the Region 8 GOLD/YP SC togeth- “Hello, Young Professionals, how are you Electrical Technology in Germany ergieWende’. The new energy trend er with MGA GOLD/YP and staff members doin’?” in the early 1960s’, described how set by Germany, now in the spotlight are working hard on making the transition of Rafal Sliz electric disciplines moved from ...continued on page 2 GOLD to YP smooth and successful. Region 8 Young Professionals region news Director reports on business Building wiki from the Region 8 Committee of educational IN October this year, the Region 8 Committee ries of separate meetings with several Section multimedia met for the first time in its history in Bosnia delegates about Section-specific legal issues A new project was launched Content from IEEE Academic and Herzegovina, in its capital Sarajevo. such as the proper registration in their home on 18 September called IEEE initiatives from Portugal, Turkey, The attendance of several high-level IEEE countries. Academic. It aims to create an Greece, South Africa, Pakistan staff members made it possible for us to or- Region 8 Director-Elect Costas Staso- online resource where students and USA are planned. ganise a number of activities of importance in poulos, who also acts as the Regional Vitality can access, for free, educational The beta version website addition to the meeting itself. Coordinator, used the opportunity to have material written in their language posted its first material from IEEE Region 8 treasurer Brian Harrington and separate discussions with Sections that had by professors in their own uni- Academic Portugal in October. myself, together with the France Section treas- shown a reduced level of activity, which may versities and schools. Feedback from you is urer Christine Nora and incoming treasurer even have led to problems in reporting and to “We want to build a ‘Wikipe- needed to help improve the Humberto Henao, discussed with the IEEE not yet receiving their rebate for 2012. dia’ for multimedia educational platform. Please visit online at chief financial officer Tom Siegert and MGA These discussions gave us a good insight content, with contributions from http://academic.ieee.org. All managing director Cecelia Jankowski about into the problems that these Sections face. IEEE Student Branches and uni- new items will be announced via how the financial program NetSuite can be In several cases, the report- versities all over the world,” said social media at facebook.com/ adapted such that it is workable for our Sec- ing problem could be solved Rui Costa, founder and coordina- ieeeacademic and twitter.com/ tions. and a missing rebate could tor of the project. ieeeacademic. IEEE general counsel and chief compliance be transferred. officer Eileen Lach, assisted by the interna- Martin Bastiaans tional paralegal David Meza, held a long se- Region 8 Director R8 Committee meeting in Sarajevo continued from page 1... entations at www.ieeeR8.org. Attendees found Stone, Clements Worldwide Life Above all, everyone enjoyed out how to gain Insurance and Vacation Center. the warm welcome hospitality and and retain IEEE’s ‘primary resource’ For Sections and Student Branches technical talks organised by Bosnia – its members that organise recruitment events, and Herzogovnia Section and ap- there is a new 2014 membership preciated the organisational work recruitment package available. by Section chair Dusanka Bosko- Many other discussions and vic and the local Student Branch breakout sessions took place so volunteers. please scan the reports and pres- Zhijia Huang New Membership Development Germany’s time travel birthday continued from page 1... come true. This is how Prof Hubert officers learn tools for the task worldwide, could rely on DC trans- Zutt brought everyone to outer A WORKSHOP to train new members happy with IEEE. every volunteer should be mission and distribution, as Thomas space with ‘Star Trek: how visions Membership Development The workshop included involved where members Edison, a founder of General Elec- become reality’. (MD) officers was held in the presentations on the global are the primary resource tric, sponsor of the day, would have He explained how late 1960s University of Westminster, and regional status of IEEE for IEEE. To coordinate the liked to see. The presentation of- futuristic fictional equipment, such London (UK&RI Section), membership, best practices efforts and keep in contact fered a deep insight into technology, as the cell phone, is now part of on 19 October. in Sections, data analysis with IEEE staff, an MD officer economics and politics, underlying everyone´s experience. Yet there is New MD officers gath- and communication tools, should always be appointed Germany’s assertive position in the still a lot to do for electrical engi- ered together with expe- new benefits for 2014, and in every Section. new enviroment-aware era. neers to reach Star Trek´s advanced rienced volunteers and breakout sessions for devis- The MD workshop will Then the space ship took off: a energy generation and storage – members of the Region 8 ing initiatives for increasing be repeated annually, with remote future is said to be science who knows what will be seen at the MD Subcommittee to share member satisfaction. a next edition planned for fiction’s domain. But find an engi- 100th anniversary? knowledge, learn the tools Membership Devel- in Middle East next Spring. neer who does not love to dream, A dinner closed the event in the and discuss ways of keeping opment is a task in which Antonio Luque and the fun is that dreams can really elegant Künstlerhaus, where the first gathering of the Section had been held. IEEE Germany Section Targets: industry, visibility, education celebrated its anniversary on histor- ic grounds with around 150 guests. BASED on the vision and mission of the IEEE OOIncrease IEEE’s footprint! This means to in- During the banquet, Prof Rohde Region 8 Committee and also analysis of its crease IEEE visibility (by technologists, public delivered a keynote talk about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and and media) and raise awareness about IEEE Section as it was in 1963. threats, the strategic planning subcommit- among non-government and government The current Section chair, Dr tee has proposed the following challenges organisations active in technology. Axel Richter, gave his greeting and for the Region. OOThink education! The challenge here the IEEE Region 8 director, Martin OOGo to industry! This seeks to make IEEE is to promote pre-university and lifelong Bastiaans, gave his best wishes from a professional home for people in industry education and consider accreditation and the Region. and therefore more attractive for industry certification. We should also improve soft Our thanks go to Gerald Anleit- professionals (focusing on local benefits) skills education and consider merging pro- ner who helped create an unforget- while also considering corporate member- fessional and educational activities. table day. ship models. Marko Delimar Arne Redl

2 IEEE Region 8 News December 2013 region news ‘Wise and friendly counsel’ – Remshardt remembered WITH the passing of Rolf Remshardt, As Region 8 director, in 1983, and was elected Region 8 Rolf also served on many IEEE IEEE lost one of its most highly Rolf Remshardt laid treasurer. Rolf quickly demonstrated boards and committees, including valued volunteers. the foundations for his skill in managing the complexi- the IEEE Foundation as a director the Region’s rapid His sudden death, only weeks expansion into ties of dealing with many different and vice-president for projects. He after he was a special guest at the Eastern Europe and currencies and exchange controls, in was honoured by IEEE through the 50th Anniversary celebrations the Middle East an era before credit cards became Larry K Wilson Transnational Award of Region 8 in Madrid, came as a the substantial reserves he built up universal. (2002) and the RAB Achievement terrible shock to his many friends by careful investment and budget He was elected Region 8 direc- Award (2006). across IEEE. For 30 years he was an controls. tor (1999–2000) at a time during We mourn the loss of one of outstanding example of selfless and Rolf Remshardt earned a Dip- which there was a rapid expansion IEEE’s finest volunteers, and share ethical service to our Institute. lom-Ingenieur degree and a PhD in IEEE activity in Eastern Europe the grief of his wife Renate and He was a major influence in in electrical engineering from the and the Middle East. Under his son Marc. We will all miss Rolf, as policy-making: eight regional di- Technical University in Stuttgart, wise counsel, the problems of IEEE a friend and colleague, and as a rectors benefitted from his wise and Germany. He began his career at membership in the ‘low-income’ happy companion. friendly advice. His stewardship as IBM in 1967, working as a develop- countries were dealt with very effec- Kurt R Richter treasurer of the Region’s finances ment engineer, designing integrated tively. This laid the foundations for Region 8 director 1991–1992 for 15 years enabled a huge expan- circuits and semiconductor chips. the success of the enlarged Region Charles W Turner sion of its activities, underpinned by Rolf joined IEEE as a Senior Member 8 as it reached its 50th year. Region 8 director 1993-1994

From 37 original submissions, just Galway academic recognised five authors were left to battle it out at the Oral Finals for outstanding achievement in Zagreb GERARD Hurley, a professor of electrical engineering at the National University of Ireland, Galway, received the IEEE Power Electronics society’s RD Mid- dlebrook Outstanding Technical Achievement Award at a ceremony Student Paper Contest finals in Denver, Colorado, USA. Prof Hurley (right) with IEEE president Professor Hurley received the Dr Peter Staecker at the Award Ceremony in Denver 2013 award to acknowledge his take place at EUROCON 2013 pioneering contributions to high University of Ireland in 2011. His THE Region 8 Student Paper from Isfahan University of Technol- frequency magnetic design, mod- work is acknowledged worldwide, Contest, running for more than ogy (Iran Section) and third prize elling of magnetic components and he published Transformers 45 years, is the traditional and to Diego Marmsoler from Techni- and analysis of planar magnetic and Inductors for Power Electron- probably the oldest IEEE student cal University of Munich (Germany devices for power electronic ap- ics, Theory, Design and Applica- activity in the Region. The SPC is Section). The KU Leuven Student plications. His work was essential tions. He is a Fellow of Engineers designed for student members Branch also won the IEEE Region to the development of electrical Ireland and a Fellow of the IEEE. and graduates who have yet to 8 Dick Poortvliet Award. power supplies for smartphones. This award is dedicated to start on their PhD. All of the finalists’ papers were He graduated from University the memory of Dr R David Mid- Some 37 student papers were included in the EUROCON 2013 College, Cork, in 1974 and from the dlebrook, one of the founders of accepted and graded, with contest- Proceedings. Massachusetts Institute of Tech- modern power electronics analysis ants coming from 22 Sections and George Paunovic nology in 1976, and was awarded and design. 34 different Student Branches. SPC coordinator the DEng degree by the National Gerard Hurley The first phase finished in March, with the selection of the best five papers for Oral Finals. Helping SBs and conferences: Technical Activities update They were from ISCTE Univer- THIS year, we’ve been really active in pro- some webinars to increase volunteers’ learning experience of members. A new sity Institute of Lisbon (Portugal), moting and supporting technical activities awareness about the systems and proce- IEEE Academic project has just been Isfahan University of Technol- within Region 8. dures for organising a conference. launched which will provide a web-based ogy (Iran), KU Leuven (Benelux), The Chapter Coordination Subcommit- We’ve seen a growth in the number platform of online education materials for Technische Universiteit Eindhoven tee was increased to include a new posi- of conferences requesting support of the students in different languages. (Benelux) and Technical University tion to oversee Student Branch chapters. Region, and an increase of satisfaction The Industry Relations Subcommittee of Munich (Germany). Workshops and a webinar were organised with the service. In 2013, there were more has been working to strengthen the ties The second phase, the Oral Fi- to promote the awareness of these and, than 450 IEEE sponsored conferences in between industry and IEEE Region 8. This nals, were held in Zagreb, Croatia, at the Region 8 Committee meeting in Region 8. was done by promoting membership in in- on 1 July, during EUROCON 2013. Sarajevo, it was decided to award a ‘Best The Educational Activities Subcom- dustry and attracting support for activities. The Jury awarded three prizes Student Branch Chapter of the Year’, start- mittee was very active in organising I would like to thank all the volunteers from the IEEE Life Member Fund: ing in 2014. workshops and increasing consciousness involved in the Technical Activities sub- first prize to Maarten Van de Put The Conference Coordination Sub- of the teacher in-service programme and committees for their great work. from KU Leuven (Benelux Section), committee published a handbook to help EPICS-in-IEEE. Webinars are held on cur- Carl James Debono second prize to Saeed Karimimehr conference organisers. It also conducted rent technologies to support the lifelong Region 8 vice-chair for Technical Activities

IEEE Region 8 News December 2013 3 editorial

Vol 16 No 3 December 2013

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 Your editors: Zhijia Huang and Roland Saam Board or Region 8 Committee.

News & articles Delivery problems Region’s 50th year also [email protected] Please notify all problems regarding membership, publications delivery and change of address directly to IEEE member services. See website Student News email www.ieee.org and email [email protected]. brought major changes [email protected] Extra copies THE year 2013 has come to an end man of the Young Professionals. IEEE Region 8 If you would like extra copies of Region 8 News for distribution at your with many IEEE events and changes Learn more about this new type of website IEEE events, please email a request to the editor before the deadlines www.ieeer8.org below, specifying quantity and delivery address. Please type ‘R8 News throughout the year. membership and the benefits that Extra Copies’ in your email subject line. We celebrated the 50th anniver- come with it. Editors Zhijia Huang Submitting articles sary of Region 8 at the spring com- In future, IEEE Region 8 ‘Student We welcome news, articles and letters from any member of the IEEE. mittee meeting in Madrid. Every Branches and GOLD Congress’ will [email protected] Please send these to the editor as plain text by email to [email protected], member at that time received the be rebranded ‘Student and Young Roland J Saam remembering to type ‘Region 8 News’ in your email subject line. If send- [email protected] ing photos or graphics, please make sure they are high-resolution files. special Jubilee book issue of IEEE Professional Congress’. The SYP Read our full guide to writing and submitting articles at www.ieeer8.org Region 8 News. 2014 will be held in Krakow, Poland. Editorial production –> R8News Newsletter –> Tips for contributors. In the autumn, we learned Every member can support or par- Alistair Dabbs Deadlines for upcoming issues about planning for the events to be ticipate in this congress where we all [email protected] March 2014 issue...... deadline: 1 January 2014 hosted by the Region in 2014. The learn a lot. It’s specially designed for Printing & mailing June 2014 issue...... deadline: 1 April 2014 IEEE Sections Congress is to be held students and young professionals, Theresa Smith September 2014 issue...... deadline: 1 July 2014 in Amsterdam, the first time it is tak- who are the future of IEEE. [email protected] December 2014 issue...... deadline: 1 October 2014 ing place outside of North America. There’s also a new member- Look out for more information on ship benefit – GoogleApp@IEEE – REGION 8 OPERATING Region 8 conferences MELECON, which brings you Google’s full suite COMMITTEE OFFICERS ENERGYCON and HISTELCON dur- of mail, calendar and collaboration 2013 ing the course of 2014. tools at no cost to you. Just log in to Operating Committee Past-Director V/C Member Activities A big change this year has been your IEEE account to find out more. (OpCom) Marko Delimar (Croatia) Aleksandar Szabo (Croatia) the rebranding of ‘GOLD’ (Gradu- Make sure that you renew and [email protected] [email protected] ates of the Last Decade) to ‘Young keep your membership, and we Director Secretary V/C Student Activities Martin Bastiaans (Benelux) Ali El-Mousa (Jordan) Pablo Herrero (Germany) Professionals’, and its establishment wish you enjoyable holidays and a [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] as another class of membership. very happy new year! Director-Elect Treasurer V/C Technical Activities Read about it in this issue’s article Zhijia Huang Costas Stasopoulos (Cyprus) Brian Harrington (UK&RI) Carl Debono (Malta) [email protected] by Rafal Sliz, our regional chair- Editor [email protected] [email protected] Appointed Members Student Representative Industry Relations Chair Christian Schmid (Austria) Andreas Neumeier (Germany) Signal processing for RF event GOLD Program Chair [email protected] [email protected] Rafal Sliz (Finland) Chapter Coordination Chair Standards Coordinator (ad [email protected] Elya Joffe (Israel) interim) is developing into open forum Membership Development [email protected] David Law (UK&RI) Chair [email protected] THE third IEEE Forum on Signal from Graz University of Technol- Conference Coordination Chair Antonio Luque Estepa (Spain) Jan Haase (Austria) Awards & Recognition Processing for Radio Frequency ogy, who gave an excellent talk [email protected] [email protected] Charles Turner (UK&RI) Systems was held on 18 June at the on ‘Modeling and Identification of Professional Activities Chair Educational Activities Chair [email protected] Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Non-ideal Ultra-Wideband Multi- Jan Verveckken (Benelux) Niovi Pavlidou (Greece) [email protected] [email protected] Austria. More than 30 attendees plication Devices’. Region 8 News Editor in Chief heard 11 presentations covering This event intends to be an Zhijia Huang (UK&RI) Ad Hoc Members Jubilee Book Coordinator many aspects of the merging fields open forum for early stage re- [email protected] Kurt Richter (Austria) of signal processing, RF systems, search results and future trends. Region 8 News Editor Electronic Communications [email protected] Roland Saam (UK&RI) Coordinator and circuit design. The event was offered free of Life Members Coordinator [email protected] George Michael (Cyprus) Jacob Baal-Schem (Israel) The keynote, ‘A Systematic Ap- charge thanks to financial support Sections Congress Coordinator [email protected] [email protected] proach for Designing Beamsteering from our sponsors, IEEE Austria (1) Voluntary Contribution Fund Women in Engineering Athanassios Skodras (Greece) Coordinator Algorithms for the Uplink of UMTS Joint COM/MTT chapter, Austrian Coordinator [email protected] Daniel Pasquet (France) Joyce Mwangama (South Africa) by Evolutionary Optimization Center of Competence in Me- Sections Congress Coordinator [email protected] [email protected] Techniques’, was given by Simon chatronics (ACCM), Telecommu- (2) History Activities Coordinator Saurabh Sinha (South Africa) Tony Davies (UK&RI) Schröter from Friedrich-Alexander- nications Research Center Vienna [email protected] [email protected] Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, (FTW) and x.test GmbH. Germany. The programme cov- The forum was chaired by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ered many topics, from SP in RF, in Andreas Springer from Johannes 3 Park Avenue, 17th Floor modeling of analogue electronics, Kepler University and Christian New York 10016, USA and SP in filter design. Vogel from FTW. IEEE prohibits discrimination in its activities. The student presentation con- Andreas Springer and For more information, visit www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/ test was won by Andreas Pedroß Christian Vogel whatis/policies/p9-26.html

4 IEEE Region 8 News December 2013 region news section news

Left: the unveiling of the Cyprus network brings plaque draws a considerable crowd. entrepreneurs together Inset: one of the CYPRUS Section believes it has established the first huge components of the system, still IEEE Entrepreneurs Network in Region 8. preserved. It was established in January 2013 with monthly meetings in Cyprus designed to bring people together who share interests related to starting a business. Events include talks and workshops for business planning, financing, leadership skills training. A TechMatch program is structured to give participants some continuing support for their development ideas through direct communications and mentoring. Further information is available from Anastasia Krka-Sibenik electric power system in Georgouli, Chair of the IEEE Cyprus Entrepreneurs Network. http://ieee.org.cy/category/communities/ Croatia gets IEEE Milestone recognition other-communities/en/ ON 5 May, Croatia Section dedi- for the first exploitation of water cated a IEEE Milestone for Krka-Si- resources to generate electricity Guest lecture paves benik at the site of the hydro power in Croatia, which brought public plant Krka, with the citation: “On electric lighting to the streets of way for collaborative 28th August 1895 electricity gener- Sibenik. The architects were Si- ated at this location was transmit- benik’s mayor Ante Supuk, his son mm-wave research ted through 11.5 kilometers long Marko, and Sibenik’s city surveyor, overhead transmission line to the Vjekoslav Meichsner. city of Sibenik, where six power complete multiphase alternating Croatia is very proud to have transformers 3000/110 V supplied current systems in the world and it the first Milestone of this kind in 340 street lamps. This early system remained in operation until World this part of Europe. of power generation, transmission War I.” The ceremony was opened by Dr Stander (centre) with his hosts at Mangosuthu and distribution was one of the first The year 1895 was significant IEEE Croatia Section past chair, Igor University of Technology Kuzle, followed by an introduction THE Mangosuthu University of Technology was pleased ENERGYCON 2014 by current chair, Mislav Grgic. IEEE to host Dr Tinus Stander, SMIEEE, on 27 May at its cam- Dubrovnik, Croatia • 13–16 May 2014 president Peter Staecker unveiled pus in Umlazi, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. IEEE EnergyCon is dedicated to experts carrying out the plaque, assisted by Martin Dr Stander gave a lecture ‘On-chip microwave pas- research focused to energy and power systems. It has Bastiaans, IEEE R8 director, and sives for mm-wave: perspectives on size and quality’, already become one of the premier IEEE forums for the Marko Delimar. Dražen Supuk, his research at the Carl and Emily Fuchs Institute for application of electronics, instrumentation, information and a great-grandson of Ante Supuk, Microelectronics, University of Pretoria. The talk was communication technology to the electricity industry. gave an interesting talk about the well received and linked to activities of Dr Pius Owo- www.energycon2014.org people who initially conceived this lawi, MIEEE at the Department of Electrical Engineering, idea and accomplished it. Mangosuthu University of Technology. The event was co-hosted by the APS/MTTS/EMCS chapter of the IEEE South Africa Section, and attracted Region 8 supports schools and colleges 12 attendees from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, Mangosuthu, and the Tshwane Universities THE Pre-University Works committee has of Technology. been working to promote IEEE’s Pre-Uni- With an ever-increasing demand with wideband versity programmes in Region 8. During two data transmission, mm-wave bands have been ear- years, we have been quite successful in add- marked for medium range terrestrial communication ing an education track (workshops on the such as LTE backbone links to rural areas. Mass penetra- Teacher In-Service Program), Engineering tion in the mobile market requires designers to look Projects In Community Service (EPICS-in- for simple-to-use packaged mm-wave front-ends, not IEEE), and social innovation, etc, to every only on-chip but also on-package and in-package. The Student Branch and GOLD Congress held IEEE Educational Activities Board’s Pre-Uni- Every Student lecture gave a brief look at current development on since June 2012 – seven congresses in all. versity Education Coordinating Committee Branch and some of the passive components required for them. GOLD Congress We have also been encouraging local (PECC) is organising a TISP Middle East, with since June 2012 Tinus Stander, Secretary events and activities in different parts of the some 100 participants participating from has featured IEEE MTTS/APS/EMCS Chapter, South Africa Section region. In September 2013, we participated in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, an EPICS [email protected] the UK&RI Section Student Branch and GOLD Palestine, Tunisia and UAE for this event in programme Congress, and organised a TISP workshop, January 2014. with 24 participants from 12 universities. If you intend to organise a TISP or an MELECON 2014 In October, PUW supported an Open EPICS-in-IEEE project then please email us at Beirut, Lebanon • 13–16 April 2014 Fest TISP in Greece with the help of the [email protected]. More information is avail- High quality peer-reviewed research from Mayor of Lamia, and the Greek Ministry of able at www.ieee.org/education_careers/ all over the world covering diverse topics Education. We also helped the TISP work- education/preuniversity. in electrical, communications, biomedical shops in Uganda and Kenya. Sohaib Qamar Sheikh and computer engineering. In collaboration with Region 8 PUW, the Pre-University Activities Coordinator melecon2014.org

IEEE Region 8 News December 2013 5 section news Hard work wins recognition at Iran Section annual meeting IRAN Section held its annual meeting on Dr M Ashourian, the counselor of Majlesi 15 May along with the 21st Iranian Confer- Azad University, was honoured to receive ence on Electrical Engineering (ICEE’13) at the Outstanding Student Branch Counselor Ferdowsi University, Mashhad, Iran. award and the IEEE Student Branch of Uni- Prof M Fotouhi, chairman of IEEE Iran versity of Tehran won the Student Branch Section, told us the plans of the Section for award. 500+ delegates attend the next two years, including membership In addition, the Student Branches of development, founding new chapters, and Ferdowsi University and Shiraz University so on. Dr F Abdollahi, secretary of the IEEE of Technology were recognised for their conference in Khartoum Iran Section, reported on her attendance at extensive activities. THE IEEE-Sudan Subsection hosted many Sudanese Universities or their the 100th IEEE Region 8 meeting in Madrid, Finally, the BSc, MSc and PhD Thesis the International Conference on representatives, deans of faculties of at which Iran Section received the 2012 Out- awards were given to A Sandoogh-saz Computing, Electrical and Electronic engineering and computer science standing Section Award. (University of Tehran), P Dehghanian (Sharif Engineering on 26–28 August at of many universities, and repre- At this meeting, Prof SK Yadavar Nikravesh University of Technology) and M Abdola- Corinthia Hotel in Khartoum with sentatives of the industry. and Prof AM Ranjbar received the IEEE Iran had (University of Tehran). Also, M Omid- more than 500 delegates. The success of the conference Section Distinguished Senior Researcher and Yeganeh (Sharif University of Technology) The conference was technically was a great success thanks in no Instructor awards and Dr Kh Mehrani was was honoured to receive the Iran Section’s co-sponsored by IEEE Region 8, small measure to its 90 volunteers. given the Young Researcher award. Woman in Engineering award. the University of Khartoum, Sudan A number of Sudanese universities University of Science and Technol- and research institutes have already ogy and Eljazera University and shown interest in organising confer- also supported by the Ministry of ences and requested the Sudan Sec- Science and Communications and tion to be co-sponsor. the National Telecommunications Sharief F Babiker Corporation. It attracted papers IEEE-Sudan Subsection chair from 28 countries with a total of 341 and chairman of ICCEEE submitted and 138 accepted papers. University of Khartoum The opening ceremony was attended by the minster of Science and Communications, Conference in Tunisia focuses on Dr Eisa Bashari, the state minster of Communications, advanced logistics and transport the Chancellors of Volunteers ensured the success of the event. ICALT 2013, the 2nd International Conference on Advanced Logistics and Transport, was held at El Moura- Contest encourages creativity di Hotel Sousse El Kantaoui, Tunisia, from 29–31 May. The conference in optimisation techniques was technically co-sponsored by From left: Mourad the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Fakhfakh, Zouhair Systems Society and the IEEE Sfax Kouki (second subsection. telligent Transportation Systems So- The conference prize winner), The technical program included ciety, forming a ITSS Tunisia chapter. general chairs Prof Taicir Loukil with speakers (member of the nine plenary talks, 95 papers, a doc- Awards were given for best during the contest jury) and toral consortium, two tutorials on paper, best student paper and best opening session Miss Mouna Kotti RFID and supply chain networks, doctoral project. (co-author of the and a workshop on smart cities. The next conference is planned winning paper). The speakers included: for 1–3 May 2014, in Tunis, Tunisia. OOChristoph Stiller, president of For more information, go online to IEEE Intelligent Transportation www.icalt.org. Systems Society, KIT (Karlsruhe Adel M Alimi and THE 4th ENG-OPTIM contest – tic Algorithms Comparison for the Awarding prizes Institute of Technology), Germany Habib M Kammoun for the best Engineering Applications of Opti- LC – Voltage Controlled Oscillators OOVincenzo Piuri, University of http://sites.ieee.org/tunisia-sfax papers mization Techniques – took place Optimal Design’. We offer our sin- Milan, Italy on 30 April during the 5th Inter- cere congratulations. OOKlaus Schilling, IEEE Robotics and national Conference on Modeling, Learn more about our activi- Automation Society, University of Simulation and Applied Optimiza- ties at the Council on Electronic Würzburg, Germany tion at Hammamet-Tunisia. Design Automation (CEDA) Tuni- An IEEE booth was organised by Four papers reached the final, sia Chapter by visiting http://sites. the IEEE Sfax Subsection to encour- and Pedro Pereira et al from FCT- ieee.org/tunisia/chapters/ age participants to join IEEE and to UNL, Caparica, Portugal, won the Mourad Fakhfakh promote membership in the IEEE In- first prize for his work: ‘Metaheuris- IEEE Tunisia CEDA Chapter chair

6 IEEE Region 8 News December 2013 section news

Industry trip by IEEE IAS Tunisia Chapter

ON 30 May 2013, the IEEE IAS Tunisia chapter organised an industry visit (during the ICALT’2013 conference) to LEONI Wiring Systems company located in Sousse, Tunisia. A group of six IAS members and ten invited researchers enjoyed the visit. LEONI is a global supplier of wires, optical fibres, cables, cable systems and related development services for applications in automotive and other industries. Several technical presentations about cable har- nesses for the automotive industry were given in the conference area. The product value chain was shown in an impressive technical tour. Habib M Kammoun, IEEE IAS Tunisia Chapter chair http://sites.ieee.org/tunisia-ias/ IAS/PELS/IES Joint Chapter investigates Wittenstein business and future vision THE IEEE Germany Section Joint IEEE IAS/ power density, custom designed for cycle PELS/IES Chapter gathered for its first meet- efficiency. He gave an example of a fully ing at the headquarters of Wittenstein Ag electric racing bike with a complete custom General chair Thanos Skodras (centre) with Program on 4–5 April. motor integrated into a standard bike, capa- Committee chairs Lysimachos Kondi (left) and Thursday evening’s reception at the ble of running a complete race. Christoforos Nikou hotel Bundschuh was followed by a short Dr Frank Michel closed the technical hike to see a wolf pack within the nearby session with an overview of Wittenstein’s Strong tech line-up and deer park. vision – ‘Industry 4.0’ – in which not only On Friday we were welcomed by Dr energy is processed by machines, but also fun social programme Forati, chairman of the Joint Chapter, and process-related information is gathered into Dr Thomas Kalker, CEO of Wittenstein ‘an internet of things’. In his example, the ensure event success Electronics, who gave an overview of the additional services are created out of the THE 18th International Conference on Digital Signal group’s businesses. Their products are process data by collecting them in a cloud- Processing, the oldest conference in DSP technically employed wherever systems and parts based service. co-sponsored by IEEE and EURASIP, was held on 1–3 July have to be driven and controlled with ut- Some brief IEEE business followed on the picturesque island of Santorini, Greece. most precision. Today they offer intelligent with Dr Omid Forati presenting the newly DSP2013 addressed the theory and application of mechatronic drive systems and servos, fo- elected Chapter officers. The meeting con- everything needed to manupulate signals by means cussed on their miniaturisation integration cluded with a tour around the Wittenstein of digital devices or network intelligence strategy. production facilities, as usual being one of IEEE Joint IAS/ techniques. Dr Ingolf Gröning spoke about electrical the highlights. PELS / IES The conference drives for sustainable mobility. Sustainablity Dr Andreas Wagener German Chapter achieved ‘multi- at Wittenstein means sustainable production as well as ef- Germany Section Headquarter in dimensional suc- ficient operation, for example by maximum Joint IAS/PELS/IES Chapter Igersheim cess’ by combining a good technical programme with professional networking and a fun social programme. Zero ‘no-shows’ out of the 183 papers were recorded! Three plenary talks were highlights: Touradj Ebrahi- mi (EPFL, Switzerland), Vincent Poor (Princeton Univer- sity, USA) and Fred Harris (San Diego State University, USA). Conference proceedings can be accessed online via IEEE Xplore Digital Library. For more information, go to the website at http:// dsp2013.dspconferences.org/ Professor Athanassios Skodras, chair DSP 2013 Greece Section chair

IEEE Region 8 News December 2013 7 GOLD/YP news GOLD programme strives for even better visibility THE Region 8 GOLD Subcommittee strives and GOLD Congress will also include a GOLD for excellence in the activities of young pro- Track. and your representative will be there. fessionals. Students are the future of IEEE, and we happily At the beginning of the year, the Region become the young professionals! 8 GOLD Subcommittee decided to improve Together with local organisers, we pre- the visibility of the GOLD programme among pared a GOLD session during EUROCON held students and young professionals. New pro- in Zagreb in July. The Region 8 Student Branch motional materials were prepared and several and GOLD Young Professional Congress will student events were presented woth the ben- be held in Krakow in the summer of 2014 and efits of the GOLD Program. the GOLD team together with SAC and local Students who were at the Student Branch teams are preparing the event of the decade! Congresses had the chance to listen, talk and In July, two GOLD Teams from our Region exchange knowledge with our subcommittee were recognised for their exceptional efforts. ‘Meet the IEEE Celebrity’, will present interviews All Student Branch members or GOLD representatives. During Tunisia was awarded the MGA IEEE GOLD with exceptional volunteers from our Region Congresses R8 GOLD/YP COMMITTEE the year, the GOLD program was presented Hall of Fame Award, and Finland the Region and worldwide. For more details check our include a at the Iberian, Central Europe, Middle East and 8 Outstanding GOLD Affinity Group Award. Facebook page or website: gold.ieeer8.org. strong GOLD UK&RI SBCs. The new Hellenic Student Branch A new initiative from our subcommittee, Amir Zahoor, GOLD Subcommittee track. EUROCON provides opportunity for GOLD sessions on entrepreneurship REGION 8 Graduates of The Last Decade and engineers in Croatia in relation to other EU Young Professional Activities committees countries. joined to provide a special session track de- An introduction to the Global Competitive- Portuguese GOLD AG chair Miguel Marques speaks up. signed for IEEE GOLD members attending the ness Index was given by Marko Lackovic of the EUROCON 2013 conference in Zagreb, Croatia. Croatian Competitiveness Council, with a focus With the local support of Croatian GOLD on ICT categories. Croatia was ranked in the What do you know volunteers, five lectures and a workshop were top third of countries by the latest World Eco- given during the first conference day. nomic Forum Global Competitiveness Report. Tomislav Pokrajcic, Croatia GOLD chair, Prof Željka Car of the University of Zagreb about GOLD/YP? presented activities of Region 8 GOLD groups talked about the necessity for active corporate BEING a member of an IEEE Student Branch has given and told how Croatia GOLD won the Region social responsibility in the ICT domain with an students amazing experiences, friends, networking 8 Outstanding Affinity Group Award in 2011. emphasis on accessible user interfaces. and a lot of skills that have complemented their de- Damir Sabol, co-founder of Zagreb En- The programme was closed with a ‘Body gree. But, what happens after graduation? trepreneurship Incubator, gave an overview Language’ workshop by Kurt Richter in which Did you know that of what it takes to build a successful startup participants learned the importance of un- there is a ‘Graduate company. derstanding non-verbal communication in a of the Last Decade/ Jan Verveckken, Region 8 Professional business environment. Young Professionals’ Activities chair, presented data that showed For more information, see www.ieee.hr/ IEEE community you entrepreneurship opportunities for young ieeesection/gold can belong to after graduation? GOLD/ Elena explains the benefits. YP is a community of young and vibrant professionals looking for opportunities and challenges to fulfil their hunger for success. By taking part in a GOLD/YP Affinity Group you will be able to get involved in plenty of both technical and non-technical activities that will launch your successful professional career. The R8 GOLD/YP session at the SBCs will show you what the community is, and all the benefits of getting involved in our activities. On 13–15 March the Iberian Student Branch Con- gress 2013 took place in Porto, Portugal, with great success. Congratulations to the organising team. Elena, member of the GOLD Committee, had the pleasure of attending the ISBC, enjoying the event and all the activities. She also gave a lecture about GOLD in collaboration with the Portuguese GOLD Affinity Group Chair, Miguel Marques. This session is framed in a new initiative that the GOLD/YP Committee started with the aim of promoting the GOLD/YP community among student members. Want to learn more? Elena Pareja Monturiol

8 IEEE Region 8 News December 2013 student news New branding for SAC, new name for COMMITTEE ACTIVITIES STUDENT R8 SBC... 2014 looks set to be even better

DEAR IEEE Student Friends! It will be a great opportunity for stu- A great year is now coming to an end dents to meet, learn about IEEE and with a better one to come. 2013 was its programmes, exchange ideas with a year full of excellent student activi- other fellow students and profes- ties and events, cross-sectional and sionals around Region 8 and have Develop a mobile app sectional congresses as it is usual in a memorable experience. Prepare odd years. So many nice memories your traditional delicacies, your nice and win big prizes from ISBC, MESBC, CEuSBC, HSBC and outfits, energy and your best smile SIX criteria will be judged: UI Design, User Experi- of course, all the Sectional Congresses like because SYP 2014 is going to Krakow! ence, Usefulness, Availability, Number of supported UK&RI, Egypt etc. More details will be announced at the official platforms and Open source support. website at www.sbckrakow.pl. Participants must send us their applications (in IEEE Region 8 SAC has a new jewel You can always visit us at our webpage www. proper format), screenshots and a short video of ap- Check out our new SAC Logo, above. This design ieeer8.org/category/student-activities and Fa- plication in which they will show how app is work- is now the brand of our Student Activities in our cebook page www.facebook.com/ieee.r8sac, ing. Applications that pass the idea stage will go to Region. At this point, we would like to thank David or send us your news and awesome activities at development. All applications that pass the judging Dias for his contribution this year, and to wish him [email protected] and we can share with the world threshold will be uploaded on online market account good luck in his new adventures. your experience. for every mobile platform and will be available to Keep up the excellent work and thank you for download for free. Student and Young Professional being part of the IEEE Family. See you at the next All information about madC is available online at Congress 2014 event. www.ieeer8.org – just look under Students activities Yes, you read correctly: our Regional Congress has Your Region 8 Student Activities Committee, –> Awards and Contest –> IEEEmadC. been renamed from SBC to SYP! This year’s event Pablo, Christian, Piotr, Efthymia, You can also follow us on our official Facebook will be held in the beautiful city of Krakow, Poland, Elias and Djordje page at www.facebook.com/IEEEmadC. from 6–10 August 2014. [email protected] After the competition, every participant will receive a t-shirt and the best three teams will receive University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan attractive prizes (smartphones, tablets, etc). The IEEE Foundation General Fund has given big support for IEEEmadC and IEEE Student Branch Osijek Technology day is great for catching up won the 2013 Student Enterprise Award for it. We invite all students to learn how to develop UNDER the patronage of Dr Kleif Al- co-operation of the student initia- his own project. It included sessions useful mobile applications, submit them to IEEEmadC Tarawneh, president of the Univer- tive TechnoEcho. It was a two-day such as: how to know things, how and win great prizes. And don’t forget to have fun sity of Jordan, the IEEE JU Student event at the Faculty of Engineering, to be an active millionaire, how to while doing it! Branch organised an event entitled gathering more than 300 University prepare yourself for interviews, and Josip Balen ‘Technology Catch-Up’ with the students from all over Jordan. how to think creatively. The first part introduced the lat- All of these together with inter- Arab Academy for Science and Technology, est technologies and tools that the active sessions and contests with a Alexandria, Egypt world is currently focusing on and big technology expo. This event was which have the highest rate in devel- one of the biggest events in technol- Student Branch shows its opment: smart phone development ogy field in Jordan and attendees tools, markets and their changes day received certificates for the training after day, web development, robot- they received. qualities in leadership ics, electronics and social media. Mosab Alawad IEEE Egypt Section, Alexandria, Sparks Centre, Compute Square The second part was about soft JU Student Branch vice chairman Participants at Arab Academy for Science and and Hashtag magazine gave us the Technology skills and managerial skills which Ahmad Ayyad Technology Student Branch wrote academic and media support. Catch-up event encouraged each student to start JU Student Branch chairman some more pages in its success This year we welcomed rep- story with its sixth annual event, resentatives from Egypt Section, ‘Leading Your Career, Leading Your including Alexandria Student Society 2013’. Branch, Helwan Student Branch From 8–10 February, the and Misr University for Science programme covered 30 hours of & Technology Student Branch. technical workshops and soft skills We succeeded in securing female sessions in three days. Our target speakers and attendees thanks to audience included graduates, stu- the involvement of IEEE Women in dents and schools. Engineering. For the first time, a short movie Daily feedback forms on or- was shown in the Planetarium, ganisation and programme content with the theme ‘Be Unique… were highly positive with excellent Change The World’. ratings for registration, help desk, Our main sponsor, ITIDA, gave hosting, transportation, organisa- us technical and financial support. tion, event agenda and venue.

IEEE Region 8 News December 2013 9 student news

American University of Beirut, Lebanon Technical and professional sessions enrich Middle East SBC at AUB THE IEEE AUB Student Branch in activities including a welcome Lebanon had the honour of host- barbecue and sightseeing tours of ing the third IEEE Middle East Stu- Beirut and the Jeita grotto. dent Branch Congress between 28 At the gala dinner, the name of May and 1 June on the American the rally paper, FM TV competition University of Beirut’s AUB campus. and the traditional Delegation of Participants from Cyprus, Aspiration competition were an- Egypt, France, Jordan, Palestine, nounced. Winner of the DOA was Arab Academy for Science and Technology, Poland, Sudan, Turkey and Tunisia An-Najah Student Branch, Pales- Cairo, Egypt came to be part of this conference. tine, which will host the next ME- The opening ceremony was SBC in 2015. addressed first by AUB’s Provost Region 8 was represented by AAST students experience that Dr Ahmad Dallal, followed by Dr Simay Akar, the Region’s Student Makram Suidan, dean of the Facul- Chapter co-ordinator, Muham- light-bulb moment once again ty of Engineering and Architecture mad Mustafa of TISP Global and ALMOST 130 years have passed IEEE AAST Cairo Student Branch at AUB, and Dr Ghassan Shaban, Maciej Borowka from the EPICS since spring 1884 when a group of decided to commemorate this an- IEEE Lebanon chair. Global Team. engineers, inventors and scientists niversary by a very special photo The congress held several Yahia Sinno was the ME-SBC got together to form a professional which represents Thomas Edison technical, professional and IEEE committee chair. Congress body for electrical engineering. holding a light bulb while Nikola participants at workshops and lectures. In addi- Ghassan Shaban From Thomas Edison came Tesla writes IEEE using Wireless the gala dinner tion, participants enjoyed many Chair, Lebanon Section the electric light bulb, from Nikola Electricity. Tesla the innovations of electric Ahmed Abd El Raouf power including wireless energy Mentor, IEEE AAST Cairo transmission. Student Branch

University of Central Greece, Lamia Budding online developers head off to web boot camp

University of Manchester, United Kingdom Mini-colloquium marks ten years of Student Branch in Manchester THE University of Manchester IEEE Student There were technical talks from research- Branch marked its tenth anniversary on 12 ers at UK universities, a talk on R&D process June with a one day mini-colloquium in part- from industry, and a talk on intellectual prop- nership with the newly formed University of erty rights for researchers in academia. Poster Manchester Electron Devices Society (EDS) sessions included research, innovative project IEEE Greek Section, University of and presented on the last day of Student Branch Chapter. ideas and educational, to interest both post- Central Greece Computer Chapter BootCamp. The colloquium consisted of a mixture of graduate and undergraduate students. and Student Branch organised its We would like to thank our oral and poster presentations centred on the Further details can be found at http:// first IEEE Computer Society Web trainers Alexander Kustov, head of theme ‘Engineering beyond the lecture room’. ewh.ieee.org/sb/uk/manchester/. BootCamp for web design, held in Image and Communication at the It gave an opportunity for the 45 participants Emerson Sinulingga, Student Branch Chair Lamia on 21–24 May. IEEE ISCTE-IUL SB, and Rui Costa, to learn from distinguished speakers who are Bevan Patel, Student Branch News Through some intense lec- co-ordinator of the IEEE-X Aca- actively involved in applied research. and Media Officer tures, exercises and tutorials on demic Project, for their knowledge HTML, CSS, MySQL, PHP, JavaS- and their passion. Also thanks to cript and WordPress, the Boot- David Dias, IEEE Computer Society Following Camp’s 15 participants acquired Region 8 Membership Develop- the theme ‘Engineering all the necessary knowledge in ment Coordinator, because noth- beyond the order to develop a simple but most ing would have happened without lecture room’, demanding website. his special contribution. attendees were The participants were invited Ioannis Mousmoutis treated to talks on R&D and to build a website around a topic Chair of IEEE CS UCG intellectual of interest, which they prepared Student Chapter property.

10 IEEE Region 8 News December 2013 student news

Al Ain University of Science and Technology, UAE Satellite designer Yahsat is focus of AAU field trip

THE IEEE AAU Student Branch and give a talk about their work. organised a field trip to Al Yah Sat- In May, the Student Branch ellite Communications Company attended the 4th Engineering Stu- (Yahsat) which deigns satellites for dents Renewable Energy Competi- the government and commercial tion, held at United Arab Emirates sectors in the Middle East, Africa, University. Fifty four teams rep- Europe and South West Asia. resented by 183 students from University of Valencia, Spain Abdelrahman Al Ashli and 11 universities from the UAE and members of the technical team abroad took part in the competi- welcomed the students with a tion which was opened by Prof Spain SBC participants attend profile of their services, such as Reyadh A Almehaideb, Dean of the BSS, the frequencies (C, Ku, Ka College of Engineering at UAEU, bands) and the steps followed with Dr Mallat. workshops (and tuck into paella) when launching a satellite. Dr Mallat mentioned that ES- THE National Student Branch Congress is an achievements and problems so that we could Our trip supervisor, Dr Nazih REC is becoming the focal point annual event that gathers representatives learn from them. Round-table discussions and Khaddaj Mallat of the College for students across the UAE. Their from all IEEE Student Branches in Spain for workshops were organised on topics related of Engineering and Information projects focused on the variety of three days. It is arranged by a different Student to new technologies and to IEEE organisation. Technology and counselor of our renewable energy: solar, wind, fuel Branch each year. We also enjoyed visits to the European Student Branch, highlighted the cells and hydrogen. The world is Between 21 and 23 March, this year’s Space Agency, Val-Space installations, and to college strength in the practical looking for ‘clean’ alternatives. Spanish SBC was held at the University of Va- the High Power Space Materials Lab at ETSE- side of the learning process. The Research is essential to find them. lencia’s ETSE-UV Superior Technical School UV (www.val-space.com) and the City of Arts visit was a good opportunity to dis- The AAU College of Engineering of Engineering. and Sciences (www.cac.es) in Valencia. cuss future cooperation between and Information Technology is a More than 40 students, most of them At the conference dinner, we had a great Yahsat and AAU. Dr Mallat invited leading contributer through its sig- representing their universities, together with time eating delicious paella, a typical Valen- the Yahsat technical team to AAU nificant research programs. the IEEE Spain Section, participated in this cian rice dish. event. The Opening Event was conducted by The Student Branch of the University of Spain Section chairman Pilar Molina, Student Oviedo was chosen to organise next year’s Na- Activities chair Juan Jesús Rodríguez, Rector’s tional SBC and Loreto Horcajada was elected delegate Daniel González and the director of as our new student rep. ETSE-UV Vicente Cerverón. Adrián Suárez Zapata The aim of N-SBC was to meet differ- Chair, University of Valencia Student Branch ent Student Branches, to speak about their [email protected]

Members of the Student Branch are taken on a tour of Yahsat. Bosnia and Herzegovina Power Electronics Society student National Engineering School of Sfax (ENIS), Tunisia members promote IEEE at conference Robots and training sessions IEEE Bosnia and Herzegovina Section helped organ- ize the 11th BH CIGRE Conference held during 15–19 for Hardware Freedom Day September. IEEE Tunisia Section Student to the event. The programme Power Electronics Society student members pro- Branch at the National Engineering featured an exhibit of robots built moted IEEE to other conference participants, giving School of Sfax, celebrated Hard- by students, and included training brochures and information. ware Freedom Day on 11 May. sessions with Arduino cards, pro- This co-operation was intended to introduce current ENIS Student Branch col- gramming and an introduction to and future activities of the IEEE Section and also to hear laborated with Robotics and Au- PIC microcontroller programming. about the interests of different stakeholders in electricity tomation Society and Industry Everyone obtained a good sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Application Society chapters. The insight into the amazing world of Since the conference was held in Neum, a pleasant day aims to promote benefits of open hardware, which was also small town on the Bosnia and Herzegovina seaside, it Other attendees could Open Hardware by increasing reflected in their positive feedback. was also an opportunity for some relaxation for our take advantage of the awareness of projects and com- For details and photos, please members. IEEE stand manned munities worldwide and of local visit www.ieee-enis.org. Elvisa Becirovic by PES volunteers to Open Hardware initiatives. Randa Hammami learn more about the Bosnia and Herzegovina IEEE PES Chapter chair organisation More than 60 students came Chair, ENIS Student Branch

IEEE Region 8 News December 2013 11 student news

Bath University, United Kingdom UK&RI SBC looks at volunteering, standards and world of academia IEEE Student Branch of Bath University or- project, with college students and profes- ganised the 3rd IEEE UK&RI Section Student sors creating free educational materials Branch Congress from 6–8 September. together. It gathers multimedia content cre- More than 80 participants came from ated by several local initiatives into an online UK&RI section, 14 Student Branches and 20 educational resource focused on students’ universities in UK and Ireland. A welcome needs at their universities and colleges, in from the Vice Chancellor informed us that their own languages. It began at the Student Blekinge College of Technology, Karlskrona, Sweden Bath was formerly the centre of ship design Branch in Lisbon, Portugal, and a workshop in the UK, and now the university is in the at the SBC marked the beginning of the work forefront of electrical machines, power engi- towards developing the IEEE-X Academic in Thesis poster competition neering and ground-penetrating radar. UK&RI Section. Visit academic.ieee.org for Ali El-Mousa, Region 8 secretary, more information. draws in plenty of entries brought two issues to our attention: the A presentation by Prof James Davenport value of interconnection with elder men- gave a clear description of the differences in IEEE Sweden Section, BTH Student from some of the large companies. tors to give students their experience and career titles for academics – the progression Branch organised its 2nd IEEE Thesis Also seminars on career develop- advice and the value of volunteering – an from ‘lecturer’ to ‘professor’ with the ‘old’ Poster Competition on 3 June with ment were offered from both per- invitation to discover things about yourself and ‘new’ styles in the UK, and the North a promising number of participants spectives of academia and industry. that you didn’t know. American and European systems. In many at Blekinge Institute of Technology. BTH Student Branch also or- Adrian Stephens gave an informed lec- systems, only professors are ‘real people’. Graduating students from the ganised events such as a Matlab ture about standards development and the It was an excellent SBC, well organised, electrical, mechanical, software workshop in April, at which more difference between process/specification informative and enjoyable. engineering and computer science than 75 students learned the basic development and de facto standards, such Rui Costa departments presented their thesis concepts and functions of one of as USB. Politics, economics and technology and research works in the form of the most widely used modelling are all involved. He said a standard is com- posters. A qualified jury of experts tools. In addition, an IEEE Officers/ plete when all are equally unhappy with the judged the quality. Cash prizes for Volunteers Training Workshop and outcome. the winners, certificates for all the IEEE Motivational Workshop were Rui Costa from Region 8’s Educational participants, and surprise gifts were held which gave us an overview of Activities committee presented the IEEE-X offered. IEEE’s structure and advice on how Academic project, a useful educational re- There were many opportunities to turn a Student Branch into a well- source. IEEE Academic is an international for interaction with representatives oiled machine.

Caledonian College of Engineering, Seeb, Oman Workshop explores safety issues in power distribution IEEE Oman Section, Caledonian ous activities organised by the CCE College of Engineering Student Student Chapter. Chapter organised a workshop on Some 40 students attended in ‘Distribution and Electrical Safety two sessions. Abdul Hameed cov- Regulations in Oman’ for electrical ered the role of the Majan Electricity power students on 16 March. Company, the power network and Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria Abdul Rehman welcomed the its control, connections, billing and guest speakers: Abdul Hameed payment in Sultanate of Oman. In JKU Linz Student Branch invites fellow Farag Guname of the Majan Elec- the afternoon session, the speakers tricity Company, Prof Vallavaraj of covered topics on electrical safety, ADUGS, Mansoor Ali of CCE and standards and Regulations in Oman. SBs on Ars Electronica Center visit Dr Dharmasa, the CCE-IEEE Branch Pawar Dharmasa ON 20 June, Johannes Kepler University has a huge 16x9-metre screen, where the Counselor. CCE-IEEE Branch Counsellor Student Branch held an event for which 21 floor is used to extend the screen, and Dr Dharmasa reported on vari- Sultanate of Oman guests from Student Branches at Ljubljana, everything in stereoscopic 3D. We travelled Graz, Klagenfurt and our twin, Passau, had through our solar system and watched the been invited to Linz to visit the AEC, Ars milky way from outside – virtual, of course. Electronica Center. Back to the KHG student dormitory near We all met at the AEC for a guided tour. the Johannes Kepler University, we integrat- The exhibition themes change each year to ed our traditional ‘stammtisch’ with the KHG keep up-to-date. One was called ‘Out Of summer party and had a great BBQ grill. This Control – What the web knows about you’. gave us the opportunity to plan some fu- It attempts to sum up which data is collected ture activities with our neighboring Student and stored about us in a global scale. Branches and build stronger connections in At the end we watched the ‘Deep Space’ a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. presentation in their unusual cinema. This www.ieee.jku.at

12 IEEE Region 8 News December 2013