IEEE Education Week events hosted by the IEEE Sri Lanka Section featured panel discussions, talks, and workshops that attracted hundreds of university students and teachers

IEEE Members across the globe celebrated IEEE Education Week from 2 to 8 April 2023. The annual weeklong celebration included participation from more than 75 IEEE Operating Units, Regions, Sections, and Technical Societies that highlighted educational opportunities such as live and virtual events, online resources, and special offers on educational products and services. The week culminated with an online quiz that awarded digital badges to participants who correctly answered questions about IEEE educational offerings.

“IEEE Education Week shows the collective impact IEEE has on lifelong learning and education at every level,” said Jamie Moesch, Managing Director, IEEE Educational Activities. “From pre-university STEM programs and university offerings to continuing professional education courses and tutorials, IEEE Education Week highlights the many ways to engage with education across the enterprise. This week was about bringing those resources together in one place and making sure our members and volunteers know about all of the amazing educational opportunities available to them.”

IEEE Education Week Participants

The target audiences that most benefit from participating in IEEE Education Week include:

• Engineers and professionals working in technical fields, 
• University students and faculty members, and 
• Teachers, parents and anyone seeking pre-university STEM education resources to inspire the next generation of engineers and technologists.

“Thanks to our partnership with IEEE Technical Activities and its many Societies and Councils, IEEE Education Week was able to showcase resources for our members that can help them enhance their skills and get ahead of the curve in the ever-changing landscape of engineering and technology. IEEE Education Week was also a great way to highlight all of the easy-to-use, free resources available for members to help inspire and teach the next generation about engineering,” stated Rabab Ward, Vice President, IEEE Educational Activities. 

Wide Variety of Events Available On-Demand

Below are just a few of the events held during IEEE Education Week, most of which remain accessible for on-demand access:

• Climate Change: IEEE’s Role in Bringing Technology Solutions to Meet the Challenge hosted by IEEE President and CEO Saifur Rahman 
• IEEE VTS Webinar Series on Advanced Air Mobility session “UAV Communications for 5G/6G” with Rui Zhang, National University of Singapore. Future webinars will be held on the first Monday of every month at 9 AM EST until July. 
• Resolving Cross-Hospital Variation Effects in AI-based Pathology Image Analysis hosted by IEEE Computational Intelligence Society
• Discovering 3D Printing Through Casmille e-Learning Platform hosted by IEEE Circuits and Systems Society 
• Pre-University STEM Education hosted by the IEEE Communications Society 
• Webinars, a blog writing competition, and networking opportunities hosted by the IEEE Education Society
• Ask Me Anything with IEEE Computer Society Leadership 
• IEEE Foundation and IEEE Educational Activities: Inspiring the Technologists of Tomorrow
• Lens-Free On-Chip Digital Holographic Microscopy: Resolution Analysis and System Design hosted by IEEE Signal Processing Society
• IEEE and Its Work in the Climate and Sustainability Space: A Town Hall
• How Societies Can Partner with Educational Activities on Continuing Professional Education

A live, in-person two-day event hosted by the IEEE Sri Lanka Section was the first of its kind IEEE Education Week to be held in the section and one of this year’s most successful and largest ones celebrated by any IEEE section. More than 50 IEEE volunteers who represented all 21 student branches in the country helped to organize the activities. The event featured panel discussions, talks, and workshops that attracted hundreds of university students and teachers. 

Educational Resources 

In addition, the IEEE Education Week website also highlights resources shared by various IEEE Organizational Units, some of which include:

• Newly launched additional 50 percent discount off of IEEE elearning courses
• IEEE TryEngineering Lesson Plans: Easy-to-use, simple, and engaging activities and lesson plans to help teach engineering concepts to pre-university students, with examples such as:
  • Climate Change
  • 3D Printing 
  • Water Rocket Launch
  • Build Your Own Robot Arm
  • And more! 
• IEEE TryEngineering Tuesday: A live and on-demand webinar series featuring IEEE Technical Societies with related activities for pre-university students, such as
  • Aerospace Engineering featuring the IEEE Aerospace and Electronics Systems Society
  • 5G, 6G, and the Metaverse: A Silicon Valley View featuring IEEE Communications Society 
  • Utility of the Future featuring IEEE Power & Energy Society 
  • Biomedical Engineering and Medical Imaging featuring the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society 
  • Coding featuring the IEEE Computer Society 
  • Girls in Stem featuring IEEE Women in Engineering
  • Photonics featuring the IEEE Photonics Society 
  • Ocean Engineering featuring the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society
  • And more! 
• IEEE Learning Network: Hundreds of continuing education courses from IEEE, all in one place.
• IEEE Teaching Excellence Hub: Resources and information for those teaching at the university level.
• IEEE Innovation at Work: Subscribe to read and learn about the latest headlines and information about emerging technologies, education, and training for technical professionals.
• And so much more! 

“Education is the foundation for a successful future and should never be taken for granted. Educational Activities in IEEE provides members with opportunities to achieve success in advancing technologies and communities. With the support of the Ambassador Program, I wish every member in the Region can be supported to seize the chance to learn and grow,” said Dr. Chi-Un “Leon” Lei, Chair of the IEEE Region 10 (Asia-Pacific Region) Educational Activities Committee.

IEEE Education Week 2023 proudly reported the following stats: 

• 3,200 visitors to the IEEE Education Week website from 2-8 April 2023, from 150 countries
• 180+ global events posted to the site supported by more than 150 Volunteer Ambassadors 
• 125+ resources provided
• Participation by 75+ Operating Units, Regions, Sections, and Technical Society Partners
• More than US $4,800 was donated to the IEEE Foundation to support educational programs

Planning for 2024 Is Underway

Join us for the next global IEEE Education Week scheduled for 14 to 20 April 2024. IEEE-affiliated groups can participate by offering events, resources, and special offers (such as discounted courses, reduced membership fees, etc.).

Check out the IEEE Education Week video to learn more about this annual event and how to get involved.

Follow updates on social media via #EducationAtIEEE and sign up for email updates at educationweek.ieee.org.

Thirty-five technologists from around the globe came together as part of an ongoing effort to develop the IEEE Computer Society’s Technology Predictions Report for 2023. In Q4 2022, these technology experts met to come up with the 19 trends most critical to engineering today [see endbar.]

The report not only produced this list, but also delivers a comprehensive analysis of each technology’s predicted success, the potential impact on humanity, predicted maturity, and predicted market adoption, and includes horizons for commercial adoption opportunities for academia, governments, professional organizations, and industry.

2023 Report Objectives

An annual work effort, the group does not make predictions for fortune’s sake, but rather, the work aligns with the goal of encouraging deeper community engagement around the topics which have broad backing; strong, diverse, research interests; and the potential to provide maximum societal benefits.

“Our goal with this year’s report was to align with IEEE’s mission of advancing technology for the benefit of humanity,” said Dejan Milojicic, former IEEE CS president (2014) and current Distinguished Technologist at Hewlett Packard Labs. “These predictions not only look to developments with individual technologies but also consider their impact on the world.”

A Methodical Approach

In preparing the report, IEEE experts developed a comprehensive list of highly cited research initiatives and technology topics. The report committee then evaluated each of those technology areas through the lens of the following criteria:

–   Predicted technology success in 2023

–   Potential for impact on humanity

–   Predicted maturity in 2023

–   Predicted market adoption in 2023

Over the course of a month, the team took systematic, iterative steps and reviewed a long list of technologies in consideration. Through dialogue and collaboration, the committee ultimately evolved the list by removing, merging and refining, and finally confirming the remaining technologies.

Members then evaluated each technology left on their list by grading them (A-F) on the above-referenced specifications, ultimately culminating in a comprehensive grade that secured their ranking on the list. The intent was to present the impact on humanity as a function of technological advancement, also qualifying those by relative maturity, market adoption, and positioning in time-to-adoption [see graphic].

“So often industry predictions are predicated on market spend, dynamics, and product developments, and while that is accurate, it doesn’t always capture the wider lens of potential,” remarked Milojicic. “We really strove to balance near-term implications with a broad array of possibilities to support the research community and funding agencies in identifying areas of potential this year and into the future.”

Predictions in Action

In fact, the group hoped that this methodical approach would help industry corporations and governments in prioritizing investments and academia and professional organizations in focusing annual efforts.

“The report does not stop at the predictions themselves, but it goes on to make recommendations for diverse organizations in our fields, including industry, academia, governments, and professional organizations, such as IEEE,” summed up Milojicic.

These predictions have already been backed up by analyst assessments. For example, the week following the initial release of these predictions, Research and Markets issued a report that indicated the global health and fitness tracker market will reach $10.5 billion in five years, and emphasized a burgeoning migration of medical device technology into general health, fitness, and well-being solutions. Reports of the remote healthcare and wearables space have continued to emerge over the past month, reiterating their importance in the global economy and supporting the predictions.

“IEEE offers unique perspectives that have elements of what market analysts firms do, as well as technology consulting firms,” said Nita Patel, 2023 IEEE CS president. “What differentiates us is tying the technology benefits to the benefit of humanity and engaging a diverse, representative group of scientists and engineers in culling the landscape to pinpoint the most impactful and evolving areas of our disciplines.”

Contributors

The team of technology experts contributing to these predictions represents a mix of IEEE volunteer leaders (TAB VP, IEEE president elect, IEEE CS president, FDC chair, and others) and technology executives across industry, academia, and governments (fellows, VPs, CTOs, professors, technical managers, and more). Specifically, this year’s report contributors included: Ali Abedi, Mohamed Amin, Rosa M Badia, Mary Baker, Greg Byrd, Mercy Chelangat, Tom Coughlin, Jayakrishnan Divakaran, Paolo Faraboschi, Nicola Ferrier, Eitan Frachtenberg, Ada Gavrilovska, Alfredo Goldman, Francesca, Iacopi, Vincent Kaabunga, Hironori Kasahara, Witold Kinsner, Danny Lange, Phil Laplante, Katherine Mansfield, Avi Mendelson, Cecilia Metra, Dejan Milojicic, Puneet Mishra, Chris Miyachi, Khaled Mokhtar, Bob Parro, Nita Patel, Alexandra Posoldova, Marina Ruggieri, Roberto Saracco, Tomy Sebastian, Saurabh Sinha, Michelle Tubb, John Verboncoeur, and Irene Pazos Viana. 

What’s Next

Throughout the course of the year, technology prediction team members will be monitoring progress in the predicted technology areas, and at the close of 2023, they will evaluate how their predictions measure up. Check back in December 2023 to access the official scorecard for this year’s forecast. 

“We don’t just want to throw our ideas out there and then let them float on the wind,” explained Milojicic. “We will hold ourselves accountable and will evaluate how accurate our predictions are at the end of the year and make that information available to the community. Each year, we refine our process, strengthening how we approach this important job, and a review of our work makes that possible.”

He continued, “This work is designed to be a vehicle to inspire the engineering community in new ways and spark new ideas. It’s a privilege to be a contributor, and I’m honored to be a part of this effort.”

For more information or to download the 2023 Predictions Report, visit the IEEE Computer Society’s website.  

Endbar:

Top Technology Trends to Reach Adoption in 2023

Ranked to present each advancement’s potential impact on humanity as a function of technological advancement, qualified by relative maturity, market adoption, and positioning in time-to-adoption, following are the top trends of 2023:

1. Remote Healthcare & Wearables
2. Augmented Reality
3. Software for the Edge2Cloud Continuum
4. Open Hardware
5. AI-Assisted DevOps
6. 3D Printing in Personalized Healthcare
7. Generative AI
8. IT for Sustainability
9. Autonomous Driving
10. Digital Distributed Manufacturing
11. Trusted Computing
12. Huge Graph Neural Networks
13. Adaptive, Generative Pharmaceuticals
14. Autonomous Robots & Brain-Machine I/F
15. Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)
16. Global Digitalization of Monetary Transactions
17. Space ITC
18. Sustainable Space Manufacturing
19. Disinformation Detection/Correction

With designs becoming increasingly complex, practicing engineers are challenged with finding the information they need scattered across multiple sources. Sourcing relevant and trustworthy results are often frustrating and time-consuming.

IEEE DiscoveryPoint for Communications(™) aims to solve these problems by providing, on a single platform, a range of relevant, current, and reliable product design and development information, and ultimately, allowing them to improve their workflow.

BENEFITS OF IEEE DISCOVERYPOINT FOR COMMUNICATIONS

●  Find answers to technical questions by referencing trusted, relevant content from multiple high-quality sources, including full-text IEEE publications.

●  Avoid time wasted searching multiple databases and find all the information you need—cutting-edge research, industry standards, parts & components, white papers, news and commentary, and more—in a single platform.

●  Easily obtain project-specific information by searching expertly curated content that covers every aspect of communications technology, including trending topics such as 5G, edge computing, big data, and more.

●  Discover practical industry data and solutions for real-world design challenges with resources tailored to support engineers in industry.

DISCOVERY OF DIVERSE, CURATED CONTENT

DiscoveryPoint accesses more than 1 million full-text research documents; over 10,000 technical standards; 7,500 online courses; 1,400 eBook titles; 18 million parts and various solutions from manufacturers and distributors; and 1,100 industry and product news bulletins, blogs, white papers, and more.

Content comes from a range of different organizations, including AT&T, IEEE Xplore Digital Library, F5 Networks, ITU Telecommunications, River Publishers, Qualcomm, Verizon, SMPTE, and more.

“There’s nothing on the market right now that fully supports the workflow of the design engineer and that delivers all the information needed in one place,” says Mark Barragry, senior product manager for corporate markets for IEEE Global Products and Marketing. In designing IEEE DiscoveryPoint, he says, “We reconstructed the work process of a product design engineer and put together a set of resources that meet all the information needs they would have during a standard product-development cycle.”

FOCUS ON COMMUNICATIONS CONTENT

IEEE has a wealth of content for telecom designers, Barragry says.

IEEE publishes nine of the top 10 most-cited journals in telecommunications. More than 40 percent of the U.S. patents related to telecommunications cite an IEEE publication. The organization also sponsors more than 2,000 conferences, many of which focus on communications, networking, and broadcast technologies. And the IEEE Standards Association has developed more than 900 standards related to communications, including the popular IEEE 802.11 WiFi standard.

Barragry adds design engineers who tested the platform before launch said they liked that it came from IEEE, who they saw as a trusted source.

A COMPLETE SOLUTION FOR PROBLEM-SOLVING

The results are organized into channels and categorized by type of material, such as research papers, standards, books, or industry news, to make it easier for time-strapped engineers to scan and discover content faster. For each search result, a  machine-learning feature examines the document and automatically generates a short summary of key points, so engineers can quickly determine what is relevant to the task at hand and what they can skip.

Over 30 curated Dashboards also provide quick access to current coverage of hot topics that engineers in communications need to understand and track, such as WiFi 6, cloud computing, IoT, and blockchain.

THE FUTURE OF IEEE DISCOVERYPOINT

IEEE DiscoveryPoint for Communications has already added various new content sources to the platform including more news outlets, eBooks collections, and standards bodies. The tool will soon have a channel dedicated to content created by IEEE’s many societies and welcomes engagement from IEEE entities with relevant communications content to participate.

IEEE is also planning extensions of this product portfolio to other industries and is currently performing in-depth research into potential sectors and practicing engineer workflows.

Visit the IEEE DiscoveryPoint for Communications website to learn more about the platform and to request a demo.

Portions of this article were first published in The Institute on 21 June 2022: https://spectrum.ieee.org/ieee-discoverypoint-launches

First and foremost, IEEE is a technical organization. IEEE has and continues to identify and lead efforts advancing new and emerging technology areas, especially throughout Technical Activities. It is critically important that Technical Activities provides an overall framework and business process that enables and supports a low-risk, low-cost way to pilot programs in new and emerging areas.

That is the inspiration for the TAB Technical Community 2.0 Ad Hoc, or “TC 2.0”. An approved TC 2.0 entity will be empowered to grow and innovate within a lightweight operational framework that reduces the burden on the TAB infrastructure. From my experience as the past chair of the IEEE Cloud Computing Initiative and past Future Directions Committee (FDC) chair, I’ve seen the major investments in volunteer and staff time and financial resources required to launch many new initiatives from Future Directions into the IEEE infrastructure. That is where we see TC 2.0 paving the path by providing a framework that supports long term sustainability, and continued success for these investments.

TC 2.0 aims to offer a new option for an overall framework and business process for new and emerging areas across Technical Activities, to assist in the support and consolidation of IEEE activities across a broad set of technical, socio-economic, and ethical focus areas. TC 2.0 aims to support the IEEE 2023 focus areas of innovation, coordination, cooperation, and communications.

The strategy of TC 2.0 pulls from the skills and deep institutional knowledge of its committee members who have been past or current Society/Council Presidents, Division Directors, TAB Treasurer to:

·   Support new and emerging technical communities from TAB for long term success.

·   Enable quick “start-up” cross-OU emerging activities.

·   Ensure accurate and concise charters for TAB Technical Communities.

·   Develop an overall lightweight framework and process to enable and support potential TC 2.0 candidates.

·   Provide a clear and finite lifecycle for each TC 2.0, which includes oversight and review.

As the Ad Hoc continues its work in 2023, we will continue to leverage the learning from our first TC 2.0 pilot, Smart Cities, and by invitation add one or two more pilots in 2023. Institutional change will take time, and we want to do this once. We intend to define and set a path for success for TC 2.0.

TC 2.0 is an important step in furthering our innovation, collaboration, cooperation, and communication within Technical Activities, IEEE, and beyond.

Please reach out to me with any questions and comments via Kathy Grise, k.l.grise@ieee.org.

The IEEE Climate Change Technical Community is an interdisciplinary program focusing on climate change and the role of technology in monitoring, mitigating, and adapting. The Climate Change Program connects technology solutions with ethics, public policy, law, education, and public awareness. IEEE’s Climate Change initiatives include Education Contents and Workforce Development; Wildfire Prevention, Detection, Prediction, and Mitigation; Managing the Food-Water-Energy Nexus for Sustainable Development; and Sustainable Technologies (Circular Economy). 

Join the IEEE Climate Change Technical Community to connect and collaborate with people across these areas, whether you are in industry, government, or academia, and stay up to date on news and content related to climate change from IEEE at: https://climate-change.ieee.org.

IEEE Education Week – coming 2-8 April, 2023 – highlights educational programs and resources for students, educators, and technical professionals on their journey of lifelong learning. Get the latest details about IEEE Education Week when you visit educationweek.ieee.org to learn how you can participate in 2023!

Dear Colleagues, 

As I approach the end of my term as Technical Activities Vice President, I am pleased to share with you some highlights from the past year, and closing thoughts. 

This year has been a tremendous year for me, an exceptional year in so many ways. It is exciting to chair this board, where people know more than me on so many topics! 

Dealing with the ongoing challenges of the pandemic, Technical Activities meetings – from the Society, Council and Technical Community (S/C/TC) level to the Technical Activities Board (TAB) –progressed from virtual meetings to in-person meetings.  In particular, I was pleased by the way our interactions went at the TAB meetings:  there were some lively discussions, thrilling proposals, but always a congenial atmosphere. This atmosphere permeates the value of participating in Technical Activities functions, from S/C/TC’s to serving on the TAB board, and powers the synergy of cross-Society collaboration. 

A sense of community

IEEE President Ray Liu has emphasized the value of IEEE as your professional home. I believe Technical Activities  is an important extension of this idea. Being actively involved in a S/C/TC, particularly at the board level, or  the TAB Board provides a sense of community! We learn each other’s names, mobile phones, what they do, some personal things and interests, and you know you can reach out to your fellow board members to share information and ask for information about things that extend beyond TAB or even IEEE. 

I want to thank all  members for what we did together this year, and I also want to thank the S/C/TC  members. Although I have chaired my last meeting in the role of TAB chair,  I hope to continue speaking to groups to share the story of what we accomplish in Technical Activities and how people can join us and become part of our community within IEEE. 

I believe we can do more of this community building within Technical Activities, as together, we can strengthen and obtain even more benefits from IEEE as your professional home, and in working together to advance technology for the benefit of humanity. 

If you would like to be a part of our Technical Activities community by getting involved in IEEE S/C/TC’s  or if you would like to know more about how you can get involved in Technical Activities, please submit your question to TA Answer Central, at: https://ta.ieee.org/ta-answer-central 

Year-end wrap-up

As we approach year-end, I would like to acknowledge the progress being made in the following focus areas thanks to the dedicated efforts of Technical Activities volunteers and staff. 

• Creating a Technical Activities Board (TAB)  program on climate change
  • 42 members from 18 Societies currently engaged
  • Currently Four Initiatives:
    • Education Contents and Workforce Development
    • Wildfire Prevention, Detection, Prediction, and Mitigation
    • Managing the Food-Water-Energy Nexus for Sustainable Development (UN SDG 17)
    • Sustainable Technologies (Circular Economy)
• Identifying disruptive technology while sharing and favoring cross-disciplinary work amongst Societies/Councils
  • Current work is being done at the Society/Council level; we hope to build to TAB level to enable knowledge-sharing and synergies
• Increasing visibility of the TAB Value Proposition with IEEE members
  • Accomplished through Spotlight newsletter and speaking engagements 
• Promoting diversity and attracting “new blood” in committees
  • Progress in building Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) at Grass roots level in Societies and Councils
• Continuing to build on existing good practices in place at TAB level

See my Q3 column for more of my thoughts on my primary goals of nurturing Technical Activities Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs, and promoting the value of Technical Activities to IEEE’s membership. 

Closing

In closing, I believe the role of the Technical Activities VP and “Chair” of TAB does not mean trying to convince people to do things, but rather, to encourage them to work together. I had some targets when I started my term; I believe I met some of them and some I did not, but that is part of life, and the learning process. But the joy of working together with so many talented people has been even greater than I had imagined it would be when the year began, and for that, I am grateful to my fellow board members and to all of you. I extend my best wishes to the incoming TAB Chair, John Verboncoeur, and the 2023 TAB Board for continued success!