Welcome to the January 2017 edition of the Section newsletter. It overviews some of 2016 highlights and then provides updates for upcoming events and opportunities.

 

Summary of 2016:

• IEEE South Africa is over 1000 members large, including 112 Senior members and 5 Fellows, with members participating in 40 IEEE technical Societies, technical Councils etc.
• In 2016, we run 6 international and local conferences and numerous technical and professional events.
• IEEE President Dr Barry Shoop visited us in 2016, following a 2015 visit by previous IEEE President Dr Howard Michel.

 

Here are some updates from South African Section of IEEE on recently transpired and upcoming events/requests:

• Section leadership updates. New Chair of the Section is Albert Lysko. Shaun Kaplan is now the Past Chair, taking over from Riana Geschke. Vice Chairs are Darryn Cornish and Dauda Ayanda. David Oyedokun remains the Section Secretary. Many positions in Chapters have got new people, too. Please refer to http://www.ieee.org.za/contact-us for details.
• Membership renewal. Please remember to renew your membership as the final deadline of February 28, 2017 approaches soon.
• Section and Chapter officers need to submit their L31 reports by 17 February 2017 for Section to receive bonus funding from IEEE.
• As Moin Hanif is leaving, the Section is looking to fill the position of Treasurer. Please submit nominations (self-nominations inclusive) and CV/Resume to Shaun Kaplan ([email protected]) by 14 February 2017.

 

 

Student challenge:

• The IEEE Computer Society (CS) Global Student Challenge is an international challenge open to all IEEE Computer Society student members. Students are invited to create an innovative solution, based on the IEEE Computer Society 2022 report, that will solve a real-world issue.

To participate, one needs to submit a PowerPoint presentation, video, or storyboard with a supporting essay on what technologies in the 2022 report are being utilized and why you think your solution will work. There are over US$2000 worth of prizes! Get started and enter your solution today!

Our volunteer, David Hislop ([email protected]) offered to mentor interested students. We also seek more of willing and capable mentors - please contact David Hislop.

 

 

Upcoming local events:

• IEEE ComSoc Distinguished Lecture “5G and Future Wireless Internet: Challenges and Emerging Technologies” presented by Dr Anthony Chan, FIEEE, to be held at CSIR Meraka building 43A in Pretoria (room: Auditorium) on February 9, 2017, at 10:00 – 12:00.
• Three wireless/information/electromagnetics talks at UCT on February 17, 2017: "Simultaneous Information and Power Transfer in Wireless Systems" by Prof Magdalena Salazar Palma, "The Physics and Mathematics of the Signal Propagation Mechanism in Cellular Wireless Communication Systems" by Prof Tapan K. Sarkar, and "Electromagnetic Simulations of Complex Devices: Uncertainty Quantification" by Prof Vikass Monebhurrun. Please contact Prof Riana Geschke ([email protected]) for details.

 

 

Upcoming calls for local conferences held in Cape Town:

Six conferences on ICT, Energy, Radio/antennas, as listed here, are already planned for South African soil for 2017, including these ones (where submissions are still open):

NB! Information is provisional.

• Regional flagship IEEE conference “IEEE Region 8 Africon 2017” will be held in Cape Town from 18-20 September 2017 (website will be at www.africon2017.org but is not functional as yet);
• Conference “2017 IEEE Radio and Antenna Days of the Indian Ocean” (RADIO) focussing on radio frequency (RF) engineering, including radio waves, antennas, propagation and electromagnetic compatibility, will be held from 25-28 Sep 2017, web site: http://www.radiosociety.org/radio2017/  ;
• Conference Global Wireless Summit 2017 will bring together researchers in Wireless Communications, Vehicular Technology, Information Theory and Aerospace & Electronic Systems and be held from 22-25 Oct 2017 (website to be at http://gwsummit.org/);
• Conference “2017 IEEE Future of Electronic Power Processing and Conversion (FEPPCON)” to be held in Kruger National park from 12-16 Jun 2017.

 

 

Noteworthy mention:

• Call for paper for the Computational Electromagnetics workshop (CEM’17) to be held in Barcelona in June 21-24, 2017, link http://cem17.computing.technology/ welcomes papers on electromagnetics, and high performance computing. Submission deadline March 1, 2017.
• We need volunteers to contribute to the research survey “A Quantitative Predictive Study of Critical Success Factors for Information Technology Projects in a Developing Economy”. This requires about 40 min, but is well worth it as it will assist to study what works in our economy. Please follow this link.

 

 

IEEE offers resources including:

• There are updated ECSA membership discounts of up to R1110 for South African IEEE members.
• Over 400 technical courses including free tutorials;
• Leadership courses (some may be access restricted to active volunteers);
• Access to the technical leaders in their respective fields, via IEEE Distinguished Lecturership programmes and related initiatives (how to do guide available);
• Job search (outside of RSA, at this point).

 

I hope you will find this summary useful. Please do not hesitate to tell us (via http://www.ieee.org.za/contact-us), should you have any questions/comments.