The IEEE PES Bangladesh Chapter, with support from IEEE Bangladesh Section, arranged the IEEE PES distinguished lecture program (DLP) on  Dec. 20-27, 2017, where Professor Saifur Rahman, Director, Virginia Tech Advanced Research Institute, United States, served as the DL. Under this DLP, seven distinguished lectures were arranged with great enthusiasm at six different universities, which created an everlasting impact on more than 700 different participants. A brief description of those events is presented here.

Talk-01 (Dec. 20): Primeasia University

The first DL talk was titled “Role of IoT in Energy Efficiency in a smart city connected community.” The talk was organized by the Departments of EEE and CSE of Primeasia University. Prof. Saifur Rahman described how a smart city relies on widely distributed smart Internet of Things (IoT) devices to monitor the urban environment in real-time, collects information for intelligent decision making and facilitates various services to improve the quality of urban living. Along with a large number of students and faculty members, Prof. Dr. Abdul Hannan Chowdhury, Vice Chancellor of Primeasia University, Head of the Departments (EEE, CSE, ITHM) and Proctor of the university were present in the seminar.

Prof. Saifur Rahman with guests at Primeasia University

Talk-02 (Dec. 21): IEEE R10-HTC 2017 at Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET)

The next DL talk was arranged at BUET in the fifth IEEE Region 10 (Asia Pacific) Humanitarian Technology Conference (R10-HTC) 2017. The talk was scheduled right after the inaugural ceremony and attended by a large number of audiences. The theme of the conference was “Smart Technologies for Humanity” and the title of the talk was “IEEE Humanitarian Technology Promotion Efforts: The Role of the Power & Energy Society.” Prof Saifur Rahman first mentioned the Power Africa Workshop in 2012. He then described some notable humanitarian activities in which PES was involved:

  • powering a health center in the mountains of Hawaii
  • a microgrid with the integration of PV to provide an affordable means of power to sustain a future health center compound
  • the SunBlazer project (in Haiti) which demonstrated a sustainable business model serving 1200 homes and 7200 citizens
  • the IEEE Smart Village program in various parts of Africa which is now dramatically bettering the lives of more than 100,000 off-grid villagers.

The Department of EEE, BUET and IEEE BUET Student Branch helped in organizing the event. Apart from faculty members and students from BUET and some other universities, several foreign delegates and distinguished scholars were present, such as Prof. Michael Ligtner, 2006 IEEE President, Prof. Vincenzo Piuri, 2019 President Elect Candidate, Prof. Abdul Mannan, Chairman, University Grants Commission of Bangladesh, Professor Saiful Islam, Vice-Chancellor of BUET, Prof. M. S. Alam, Texas A&M University–Kingsville, USA and Amarnath Raja, CEO and co-founder of InApp, past IEEE HAC Chair.

Prof. Saifur Rahman with audience in IEEE R10-HTC 2017 at BUET
Prof. Saifur Rahman is interacting with audience during the talk in IEEE R10-HTC at BUET

Talk-03 (Dec. 22): ICCIT 2017 at University of Asia-Pacific (UAP)

Prof. Saifur Rahman delivered the next DL talk at the 20th International Conference on Computer and Information Technology (ICCIT 2017) held at the University of Asia-Pacific (UAP). In his keynote, he explained how energy efficiency and IoT deployments offer a much higher value proposition in the context of a smart city in a connected community. He stated that to make urban living more safe, secure and environmentally sustainable, focus must be given on environmental quality, public safety, city planning, industry facilitation, resource utilization, energy conservation, traffic control, telemedicine, homecare, interpersonal communications, social activities and entertainment. He added that the smart city can provide real time and remote monitoring for different aspects of data management in areas such as transportation, communication, video surveillance, and sensor integration throughout the city. The session was attended by a large audience from academic as well as industry community. Among others, Prof. Dr. Jamilur Reza Choudhury, Vice Chancellor, UAP, Mr. Qayum Reza Chowdhury, Chairman, Board of Trustees, UAP, Dr. M. S. Alam, Conference General Chair, and Professor, Texas A&M University – Kingsville, USA, and Dr. Fahmida N. Chowdhury, National Science Foundation (NSF), USA were present during the talk.

Prof. Saifur Rahman is delivering the talk in ICCIT 2017 at UAP

Talk-04 (Dec. 23): Ahsanullah University of Science & Technology (AUST)

The next DL talk was held at AUST on Dec. 23, 2017. The department of EEE, AUST organized the event. The presentation session started with a brief introduction to IEEE and IEEE PES. It also covered topics such as role of IoT in energy efficiency and its contribution on the safety, security and improvement of the environment. Again, how urban challenges such as pollution, energy efficiency, security, parking, traffic, transportation, and others can be solved by utilizing advanced information and communication technologies (ICT) in data gathering and communications interconnectivity via the internet- was discussed. The Building Energy Management Open Source Software (BEMOSS) was also introduced. Faculties from various departments of AUST, guests from other universities and a large number of final year students were present in the seminar and made the event successful

Prof. Saifur Rahman with the faculty members of AUST
Prof. Saifur Rahman with the audience at AUST

Talk-05 (Dec. 24): United International University (UIU)

Another DL talk was presented at UIU on Dec. 24 2017. The Department of EEE, UIU and IEEE UIU Student Branch organized the event. The talk was on robust smart grid and an IoT platform for energy management systems for smart buildings. Different aspects of smart buildings in terms of efficient energy management were presented in detail. A large number of students and faculty members and Prof. M. Rezwan Khan, Vice Chancellor of UIU were present in the event.

Prof. Saifur Rahman is delivering the lecture at UIU

Talks-06 & 07 (Dec. 26-27): Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology (RUET)

The last two DL talks were presented at RUET. The first one was organized by IEEE RUET IAS Student Branch Chapter in association with Department of EEE, RUET and IEEE RUET Student Branch. In his talk Prof. Saifur Rahman mainly presented roles of IOT in the smart city to the smart grid. More than 300 students and tech enthusiasts from different universities and institutes participated in the seminar. The next talk was delivered at the International Conference on Electrical and Electronic Engineering (ICEEE 2017) which was organized by the Department of EEE of RUET. In his talk he discussed the opportunities for energy efficiency applications in commercial buildings in Bangladesh. Faculty members, authors, participants, researchers and scholars from various universities and industry delegates were present in the talk. Prof. Abdul Mannan, Chairman, University Grants Commission (UGC) of Bangladesh presented a crest to Prof Saifur Rahman.

Prof. Saifur Rahman with participants after the seminar at RUET
Prof. Saifur Rahman is delivering the talk in ICEEE 2017 at RUET
Prof Saifur Rahman is receiving the crest from Prof Abdul Mannan, Chairman, UGC

Dr. Shaikh A. Fattah, Past Chair, IEEE Bangladesh Section & Prof., Dept. of EEE, BUET
Dr. Tareq Aziz, Chair, IEEE PES Bangladesh Chapter & Assoc Prof, Dept. of EEE, AUST
Rakibul Islam Chowdhury, Humanitarian Activity Coordinator, IEEE Bangladesh Section