The 2008 IEEE Region 8 Student Paper Contest received 12 papers from 10 Student Branches in 8 countries:
- Austria, Graz University of Technology
- Belgium, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (2x)
- Egypt, Ain Shams University, Cairo
- Egypt, Cairo University
- Germany, University Karlsruhe
- Malta, University of Malta
- Qatar, Texas A&M University at Qatar
- Slovenia, University of Ljubljana
- South Africa, University of Pretoria (2x)
- South Africa, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
The oral finals took place in Ajaccio, Corsica, France, on 6 May 2008, as part of MELECON 2008, the 14th IEEE Mediterranean Electrotechnical Conference (5-7 May 2008).
The three winners were:
- Geert Hellings (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium) AlGaN Schottky diodes for detector applications in the UV wavelength range: hellings
- William Vandenberghe (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium) Analytical model for a tunnel field-effect transistor: vandenberghe
- Herman Myburgh (University of Pretoria, South Africa) Near-optimal low complexity MLSE equalization: myburgh
The other two papers selected for the oral finals were:
- Mohamed Bahgat (Cairo University, Egypt) A simple implementation for unmarked road tracking: baghat
- Vukosi Marivate (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa) An intelligent multi-agent recommender system for human capacity building:
marivate
The four jury members for the 2008 SPC were:
- Martin Bastiaans, Eindhoven, Netherlands, IEEE R8 SPC coordinator
- Kamel Hassan, Cairo, Egypt
- Carlos López-Barrio, Madrid, Spain
- Kurt Richter, Graz, Austria