News

IEEE-Oman section on its continuing commitments to keep its members and the professional community at large abreast with the fast evolving technologies organized two technical seminars focusing on the  latest developments and challenges in the area of Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) and Information Security Management System (ISMS) in industrial environments.

The seminars took place at the renowned National Oil and Gas Exhibition Center of the Sultanate of Oman on 9^th of October 2012. They were conducted in cooperation with the Oman Society of Engineers (OSE) and in partnership with TUV Rheinland, one of the leading global providers of technical, safety and certification services.

Mr. Anil Kumar, in-charge for TUV Rheinland business stream industrial services for West and North India regions, presented some of the pre-service and in-service plant inspection methods using the most advanced non-destructive testing techniques.

Dr. Ing. Oliver Weissmann, Vice President for Information Security of the TÜV Rheinland AG, tackled a very interesting topic that outlined all the mechanics of an information security management system directly applicable in industrial environments.

The event culminated with the awarding of the token of appreciation to the two invited expert speakers by Dr. Muhammad Bin Aref Abu-Zaki, one of the board members of OSE representing the transportation and communications sector and Dr. Ahmed Al-Naamany, IEEE Oman section Chairman.

The event was well received and attended by IEEE professionals and student members from various companies, colleges and universities all over the Sultanate Oman.

By Mr. Arnold N. Santos
ICT IEEE Student Branch Counselor

[singlepic id=1426 w=320 h=240 float=center]

Dr. Muhammad Bin Aref Abu-Zaki and Dr. Ahmed Al-Naamany presenting the Plaque of Appreciation to Dr. Ing. Oliver Weissmann

[singlepic id=1427 w=320 h=240 float=center]

IEEE professional and student members with Dr. Ing. Oliver Weissmann, TUV Rhienland VP for Information security

The IEEE EPICS Around the Globe Virtual Conference is a one day event that will be held on Saturday 27 October 2012 opening its virtual doors at 8:45 AM EST.  This conference will showcase the global reach of the EPICS in IEEE program and also provide a unique opportunity to see a new virtual platform in motion.

The IEEE EPICS Around the Globe Virtual Conference features knowledgeable speakers who are the cornerstones of the program from Purdue University and IEEE alongside IEEE student branches who have successfully developed and executed an EPICS project.

The speakers include:

Welcome: Dr. Michael Lightner, IEEE Educational Activities VP

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Moshe Kam, IEEE Past President

Plenary Session:  Dr. William Oakes, Director of EPICS, Purdue University

The conference features two tracks to allow registrants to participate in sessions based on their own experience and interest level (Beginner and Advanced), a trade show floor with booths from conference sponsors, IEEE entities, and Student Branches who have completed EPICS in IEEE projects, and meeting room space for opportunities to converse with fellow attendees.   Attendees can receive a Certificate of Attendance by submitting a request to [email protected].  Professional Development hours are also available with a nominal fee and can be requested on the registration page.

Registration

To register for this event, visit registration.ieee-elearning.org

Registration Fees Schedule:

*Pricing in US Dollars

IEEE Life Member:   $15*

IEEE Student Member: $15*

IEEE Member: $25*

Non-IEEE Member: $50*

Please direct any questions about the conference or registration issues to [email protected].

From 1 to 21 October 2012, the IEEE Job Site will host a free Cloud Computing Virtual Career Fair sponsored exclusively by Microsoft. The career fair will allow software engineers to conduct job searches and apply for open positions in Microsoft’s Server & Tools Business. Microsoft staffers will be available for a Live Online Chat during the week of 12 October.  Click here for more information – http://careers.ieee.org/vcf/careerfair.php or register at http://careers.ieee.org/cloudcomputing/

[singlepic id=1424 w= h= float=center]

We invite you to attend the IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies (ISGT) Europe 2012 from October 14 to 17, 2012 in Berlin. More than 400 papers of over 50 countries were submitted to the conference. This great participation has resulted in a dynamic-comprehensive and high-quality program centering on new technologies, solutions and experience for energy and grid transformation.

[singlepic id=1423 w=600 float=center]

The exhibition, the evening reception at Charlottenburg Palace, and the dinner in the industrial monument of Postbahnhof close to the Berlin Wall offer excellent networking among attendees. The famous Festival of Lights in parallel with the conference will add to the unique Berlin flavor. Program and registration updates are on the conference website at www.IEEE-ISGT-2012.eu.

We hope the program inspires you to register and to forward this information to interested friends and colleagues.

Best regards,
Kai Strunz
Professor TU Berlin and Conference Chair

HISTELCON 2012
The origins of electrotechnologies
5 – 7 September 2012
Pavia, Italy

HISTELCON 2012, the 3rd in its series (after HISTELCON 2008 in Paris and HISTELCON 2010 in Madrid), is organized by IEEE Italy Section, IEEE Region 8 and the Research Centre CIRSTE operating in the Museum of Electrical Technology at the University of Pavia, in conjunction with the ninth Historical Conference held by the IEEE History Committee and the IEEE History Center.

Conference objectives
HISTELCON 2012 aims to increase the understanding of the origins and of the early developments of electrical technologies – in particular of telecommunications.

• Original and innovative contributions are invited in areas including, but not restricted to:
• Origins and early developments of electro-technologies
• Milestones in different fields of electro-technology, both early and modern
• Scientists and Technologists involved in the above
• Museum items and educational methods illustrating the above

Call for papers
Abstract Submission
Interested participants are invited to submit their abstracts for oral or poster presentations to the Conference Secretariat by electronically sending a 500 words abstract, written in English, with the title, the name(s) and affiliation(s) of the author(s) in MS Word format. All abstracts will be reviewed by the Conference Technical Program Committee. Presented papers will be included in the Conference Proceedings and in IEEE Xplore. For each presented paper or poster, one presenter will have to register for the Conference. Guidelines for preparation of papers and posters will be provided in due time.

Special Sessions and Panels
Proposals to organize a special session and/or a Discussion Panel on a specific subject (e.g. related to an IEEE Technical Society) are welcome. Special session presentation abstracts will be reviewed in a similar way to regular presentations. The duration of a session or a panel discussion will be 90 minutes.

More Information at the Official Website

Two webinars were organized on July 3, 2012. The organizing team was comprised by Saurabh Sinha, IEEE Region 8 Vice-Chair: Technical Activities and Niovi Pavlidou, IEEE R8 Lead Volunteer for CE (Educational Activities Subcommittee (EASC)). The events were technically supported by George Michael, Electronic Communications Coordinator, IEEE R8. The webinars were quite well disseminated through the e-Notice service and, by George Papadopoulos, through the R8 Continuing Education Forum email lists.

The first webinar, entitled “Fuzzy Logic Systems in Educational Assessment”, was intended to all members of IEEE Education Society in R8, to the Section Chairs of R8, and to Region 8 EA officers. Niovi Pavlidou welcomed the participants and introduced various subcommittees relating to technical activities, with emphasis on educational activities in Region 8. The central speaker of the webinar was Dr Riadh Besbes, an educational supervisor for secondary schools in Tunisia. After the presentation a questions and answers slot was offered to the participants.  The duration of the webinar was one hour, the lectures and discussion slots as a whole. The event was organized on WebEx facilities and the attendance was considered as moderate.

Some technical problems with the voice quality have been referred. A main problem to be noticed is the non-availability of toll-free telephone number provisions with some Region 8 countries (for example, Serbia and Montenegro) and the attendees from these areas who joined the session were disappointed. The VoIP connection will strongly improve the success of the seminars and this feedback has been coordinated with the IEEE Member and Geographic Activities Information Management (MGA-IM) team by the continuing education coordination for Region 8.

The second webinar was supposed to start half an hour later. The title of the webinar was “Introduction to Electric Vehicles”, and the speaker was Vladimir Katic, IEEE Serbia and Montenegro Section. It was intended for members of IEEE Vehicular Technology Society (VTS) in Region 8, to the Section Chairs in Region 8 and to Region 8 EA officers. Though, even if the attendance was considered as satisfactory, the speaker was not able to use the toll-free phone line, because WebEx does not support it for Serbia & Montenegro.

After some efforts performed by the organizers and the speaker (including the use of other parallel platforms – Skype – in parallel to WebEx), Niovi Pavlidou apologized for the inconvenience, and closed the session promising that the VTS affiliated webinar will be offered again soon.

Prof. Niovi Pavlidou
IEEE R8 Lead Volunteer for Continuing Education
IEEE Greece Section Membership Development Officer

The IEEE VTS & AESS Joint Greece Chapter has organized a Final/Diploma Thesis Competition (Academic Years 2009 – 2011) in the scientific field of “Advanced Wireless Communication Systems” with great success. There were 19 submissions from institutes all over Greece. The submissions were performed to a server host provided and supported by the International Hellenic University (IHU). Each Thesis was evaluated by 3 independent reviewers, and they all admitted the level of the participations was high. The 8 submissions with the highest score, coming from 5 different universities, were qualified to the second-final round. The final round reviewing process was performed by the Scientific Committee of the Competition.

The final round presentations and the awards ceremony took place on February 17^th 2012, with about 60-65 alternating participants, students and academics, at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh), which provided the room. Two of the final round participants were not able to attend, so they provided a video-presentation and connected through skype for the questions section.

The winner of the Competition, Kampianakis Eleftherios, coming from the Technical University of Crete, was awarded with an iPhone 4 offered by the sponsor of the event Cosmote Mobile Telecommunications S.A. Also, gifts and certificates of participation were distributed to the participants of the Competition.

The final round presentations and the awards ceremony was live broadcasted and is available in the website of the Chapter (http://ewh.ieee.org/r8/greece/avtc/events/eventsen67.html). The symposium was very successful receiving congratulations and enthusiasm from all the participants of the event, the students-candidates and their Thesis supervisors.

The great success of the event has motivated the Chapter Committee to organize the Final/Diploma Thesis Competition every year. Stay tuned with our events at http://ewh.ieee.org/r8/greece/avtc/.

[nggallery id=48]

(1)  R8 OpCom Members

The IEEE Region 8 Nominations and Appointments (N&A) SubCommittee is soliciting nominations for the following leadership positions:

• R8 2013-2014 Secretary  (two years commitment)
• R8 2013-2014 Treasurer  (two years commitment)
• R8 2013 Vice Chair, Member Activities  (one year commitment)
• R8 2013 Vice Chair, Student Activities  (one year commitment)
• R8 2013 Vice Chair, Technical Activities  (one year commitment)

A description of the positions and expectations is available in:

• IEEE REGION 8 OPERATIONS MANUAL – pp. R8-4.4, R8-4.5, R8-4.6
• IEEE REGION 8 BYLAWS – pp. R8-3.1.5, R8-3.1.6,  R8-3.1.7

(2)  R8 N&A SubCommittee Members

The IEEE Region 8 Nominations and Appointments (N&A) SubCommittee is soliciting nominations for:

Three new members (term 2013-2014)
of the R8 Nominations and Appointments SubCommittee (two years commitment)

Candidates must fulfill one of the following criteria at the time of their election:

• be a Section Chair in office
• have been a Section Chair within the past 3 years
• have been a Section Chair and currently holding an elected or appointed position of the R8 Committee.

Please submit your proposals with short biography of candidate (please use the R8 template – available IEEE R8 Biography Blank )  to Jozef Modelski, Chair of the N&A SubCommittee at [email protected]

The deadline to submit nominations – 15 July 2012