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- Face book 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- O IEEE 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 O IEEE/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/ O IEEE RICHARD W HAMMING tronics Research Centre, Southampton, news/medal_recog_recipients_ MEDAL, for exceptional contributions Hampshire, United Kingdom. O IEEE 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, O IEEE 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