By Marek Jasinski, Chair of the IEEE IES Student and Young Professionals Activity Committee (YPS-AC)

Women in IES and Student & Young Professional common event in Anchorage Alaska ISIE 2022

 

Organizing this Women in IES and Student & Young Professional joint event in Anchorage Alaska at ISIE 2022 was challenging. Especially because it was in hybrid mode and in a place where nobody from the committee lives. But it was worth doing it. It was a fantastic experience because people who attended the conference in person and hybrid handled everything with professionalism, despite many obstacles due to the COVID situation. 

Women in Industrial Electronics and Student & Young Professionals auditorium view (not via Zoom or Teams !!!)

Thanks to the organizers, including prof. Seta Bogosyan (General Chair-Woman) and prof. Milos Manic (IES President Elect – AdCom General Chair-Man), we had an excellent time. Alaska is a place where we can meet friendly local people such as Electrical Engineer Robert L. Seitz, IEEE R6 Alaska Past Chair… and also enjoy wild and pristine nature!  

Presentations by two recipients of the IES Student & Young Professionals Paper Assistance (IES-SYPA)

The presentation by the two IES-SYPA speakers, Giusy Iaria and Jiacheng Wang were fantastic! We would like to congratulate them again for their respective papers entitled: “A novel SEU injection setup for Automotive SoC”; and “Impedance identification based on foreign object detection for wireless power transfer systems.” 

Jiacheng Wang presentation assisted by the IEEE IES-SYPA program.

   

IEEE IES-SYPA diploma to Giusy Iaria
IEEE IES-SYPA diploma to Jiacheng Wang

 

Furthermore, our Invited Keynote Speakers: Ayda Akbelen, and Hady Habib Fayek (virtually), presented an excellent talk about their experience and their activity in IEEE: 

“Tools for Advancing Your Career-for Young Professionals” by Ayda Akbelen

Ayda Akbelen is the founder of Life Works Solutions, LLC, a consulting firm dedicated to helping professionals build satisfying careers. She has an in-depth understanding of issues impacting technology professionals in career management and advancement. She provides tools and a framework for her clients to chart a successful career path and achieve their goals.   

Ayda Akbelen presented “Tools for Advancing Your Career – for Young Professionals”

In her presentation, Ayda said that to develop professionally, you need exposure to various people and challenging work. One of the obstacles to career development is not being known within your professional community. As a result, you will be overlooked for growth opportunities. Increasing visibility and self-promotion are usually not top of mind for those working in STEM careers. To get recognition in your field, you need to take charge of your career and actively manage your reputation, promoting your effort and commitment to your work. In this interactive exchange, attendants learnt two essential tools for career management: developing your personal brand and effective networking. 

“Students-based sustainable, innovative solutions in Egypt” by Hady Habib

Hady Habib Fayek received his PhD in 2019 in Electrical Power Engineering, from Helwan University, Egypt, with associated research with Texas A&M University, USA. He got his B.Sc. degree in 2011 and M.Sc. in 2014 from Helwan University respectively.  He is currently a lecturer in the Energy Engineering Program, Faculty of Engineering, Heliopolis University. He is the chairman of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Egypt Chapter; he was the main organizer of many international conferences about smart cities and sustainable electrical engineering. He published more than 30 research papers about recent advances in the electrical power and energy sector in international conferences and journals. Hady is a guest editor and reviewer in many IEEE, Tech-science, MDPI, Elsevier and IET transactions, journals, and conferences. He is also a keynote speaker at many conferences and webinars.  

Hady Habib Fayek presented “Students-based sustainable, innovative solutions in Egypt”

In his talk, Hady explained how Egypt is turning its communities to be sustainable and intelligent. The students of Engineering in different fields have bigger chances to involve in renewable energies as a sustainable step and to apply IoT and artificial intelligence as thoughtful steps in their projects. Those projects are turning to be startups and products used by Egyptian citizens from different educational and financial levels. Examples of these projects are wind turbines to feed homes with electricity, 100% on-grid PV solutions, IoT electric vehicles, conversion of gasoline cars to electric vehicles and others, done by undergraduate students at Heliopolis University, which later turned into startups. 

A joint event with Women in IES  

Thanks to this Women in IES and Student & Young Professional joint event, we also listened to an excellent presentation by Mercy Chelangat from Kenya, organized by prof. Lucia Lo Bello and prof. Morgan Kiani. 

Mercy Chelangat – WiE invited Keynote speaker

It is difficult to tell how many fantastic people attended this conference in person or online. I feel that IEEE and especially IEEE IES construct a big engineering international family that would like to grow in scientific excellence, in peace, without borders and artificial distance between different cultures, genders, nationalities, etc. IEEE is also working on several solutions to help its young members in need. If you have new ideas, please do not hesitate to contact me at: marek.jasinski@ieee.org. I trust that all together we would do more and better.