A More Global IEEE

In the Asia Pacific Region

In 2012, IEEE continued to expand its presence in the Asia-Pacific region to better support growing membership and business activities. We moved our Tokyo and Bangalore offices into new larger quarters, added staff in Bangalore and in Beijing, and expanded the geographic scope and regional responsibilities of our Singapore office.

Chinese Edition of IEEE Spectrum Launched

In 2012, IEEE launched a monthly edition of IEEE Spectrum in simplified Chinese with distribution to influential readers in strategically targeted high-tech centers including Beijing and Shanghai, and Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Shandong, and Liaoning provinces. The Chinese edition is jointly published with the Institute of Science and Technical Information of China and its affiliate company Wanfang Data, two of China’s leading high-tech information sources.

In Europe

A year of strong outreach to the European Union, led by our Brussels office, is leading to new opportunities for engagement in Europe, particularly in standards and public policy.

IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu Honor Society Goes Global

Fulfilling our commitment to expand IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu globally, made during the merger of IEEE and Eta Kappa Nu in 2010, the first four chapters of the IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu honor society outside of the United States were installed in 2012. They are located at:

• University of Hong Kong
• Bharati Vidyapeeth College of Engineering, New Delhi, India
• Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
• Texas A&M University in Qatar, Doha, Qatar

UNESCO Partnership Fosters Engineering Education in Africa

In 2012, IEEE signed a partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the first step in a strategic relationship to generate a thriving and sustainable engineering community in Africa.

The partnership is a natural fit. Both IEEE and UNESCO have identified outreach in Africa as a priority and combine the organizations’ respective core strengths: IEEE’s technical expertise and international membership and UNESCO’s ability to convene a wide range of stakeholders, including governments, universities, NGOs, and pan-African organizations. A key goal is to improve institutional capacity and technology research activities at key universities on the continent.

Through this partnership, IEEE and UNESCO will be better able to help countries in Africa and elsewhere ensure that motivated young people enter the field in sufficient numbers. UNESCO and IEEE agreed to collaborate on several projects and initiatives, including accreditation programs, faculty training, and encouraging the participation of women in engineering.

International Student Competitions Grow

Participation in the 2012 Data Fusion Contest jumped 51 percent over the previous year. More than 1,150 participants from 78 countries took part in the 2012 contest, organized by the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society to evaluate and compare existing and new methods to solve remote-sensing problems using data from airborne and spaceborne sensors. Contestants examined three different data sets over San Francisco, Calif., USA, and were tested on their ability to extract important information about the city.

Indonesian Team Wins IEEEXtreme 6.0

A team from Indonesia’s Institute Teknologi Bandung won first place in the 2012 IEEEXtreme competition, a 24-hour programming competition for IEEE student members. Now in its sixth year, the contest has seen explosive growth. A record 5,000 IEEE members, including nearly 2,000 registered teams, competed in the 2012 edition. Total participation was up 25 percent over the 2011 event with representation from 60 countries. The winning team received an all-expenses-paid trip to the IEEE conference of their choice anywhere in the world.

Celebrating IEEE Day Around the World

Members around the world celebrated the third annual IEEE Day on 2 October 2012. This year’s theme was Engineering the Future and Beyond. Members were inspired to pursue the creation of new technologies that will enhance the quality of life as dramatically as those of the past century. More than 167 events were held worldwide, including members from all of IEEE’s 10 regions.

Data Fusion Technical Committee co-chair Qian Du (l.) and chair Fabio Pacifici (r.) congratulate Data Fusion Contest winners Richard Bamler (second from l.), Stephan Auer, and Junyi Tao for their paper, Combination of LiDAR and SAR Data with Simulation Techniques for Image Interpretation and Change Detection.