The 2019 IEEE Region 8 Chapter of the Year Award Winners

It is well known that IEEE covers a variety of technical interests, from Aerospace and Electronic Systems, Computational Intelligence, Oceanic Engineering to Vehicular Technology. In total, IEEE has 39 technical societies that provide benefits to members within specialized fields of interest. Chapters are local units associated with one or more technical societies and they are your first level of contact points to join technical activities and network with other IEEE members.

IEEE’s work is based on volunteering, and IEEE aims to recognize the work done and time offered by each member-volunteer. This is being applied in every Organizational Unit that makes up IEEE, such as Chapters. In IEEE Region 8, there are over 1000 technical Chapters and Student Branch Chapters running exciting technical events and linking the triangle of members, Societies and Section.

Every year, all Chapters have the opportunity to apply for the IEEE Region 8 Chapter of the Year Award. Specifically, the Award is intended to recognize the outstanding performance of Region 8 by

  • Technical Chapters, and
  • Student Branch Chapters

in serving their members and the technical community and establishing goodwill within and between the Region 8 Sections. Any active single or joint Society or Council or Student Branch Chapters of Region 8 is eligible for the award. The selection is based on the outstanding performance of the nominated chapter, reflected by the completed nomination form and supporting documents.

In selecting award recipients, the relevant committee considers contributions of the nominee to chapter activities. Albert Lysko, Chair of the IEEE R8 (EMEA) Chapters Coordination subcommittee (ChCsC) elaborated on the importance of recognizing the achievements and process used to identify the candidates and awardees: “It is of the utmost importance to offer opportunity and recognize the excellence in IEEE chapters. It shows the appreciation for great work and offers opportunities to promote the outstanding Chapters and their leaders both locally, which helps the chapters and their leaders to grow, and globally, giving the due recognition to Sections for the support they provide. It is also important to ensure a fair process in recognizing the best of the best.

Here is how R8 ChCsC did it. First, our subcommittee, especially Matej Zajc, Sarra Ben Rabii and myself prepared an announcement calling for nominations and distributed it via eNotice and social media channels. Next, the submitted nominations were collected and passed onto us. We reviewed each submission and used a system of metrics to score the submissions and selected the Chapters and Student Branch Chapters (SBCs) showing the most vibrant activities. Our decision was then validated by the R8 Awards subcommittee and VC:TA. The rest was to prepare the texts of the awards, make the plaques and use the high podium of the R8 meeting to present the awards via the Section Chairs“.

This year’s award ceremony held during the 113th IEEE Region 8 meeting in Valencia on October 11-13. The winners of 2019 are as follows:

Technical Chapters:

Student Branch Chapters (SBCs):

Congratulations to the winners, their leadership and associated universities and Sections!