IEEE (Student Branch) in Vidya on a resurgent path

The background

The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) had a very active presence in Vidya sometime back. However, due to certain circumstances, there was a lull in the activities of this highly respected professional association of engineers. Of late, Dr Sudha Balagopalan, Dean-Academics, took the initiative to inject more enthusiasm in the functioning of IEEE (Student Branch) in Vidya and Ms Sruthi M (AP, ECE Dept) has taken charge as the Counselor of the Student Branch.

Membership Development Session

As part of the revival of the activities of IEEE in Vidya, a “Membership Development Session” was conducted on 22 October 2020 at 7.30 PM. Prof Sabarinath Pillai (Vice-chair, IEEE Kerala Section) and Dr Nitin Padmanabhan, an alumnus of Vidya, served as the resource persons for the session. The session was conducted via the Google Meet platform.

Prof Sabarinath G Pillai explained in detail about the functioning of  the IEEE. He alluded to many motivational comments by great scientists and mathematicians about importance of getting involved in professional communities. The IEEE, which is an association dedicated to advancing innovation and technological excellence for the benefit of humanity, is the world’s largest technical professional society. It is designed to serve professionals involved in all aspects of the electrical, electronic, and computing fields and related areas of science and technology that underlie modern civilization. Initially IEEE was meant for Electrical and Electronics & Communication engineers, but now it’s a community of engineers from all streams. He also commented that IEEE Kerala Section has received many appreciations for being most pro-active section among the world branches. He talked about the benefits of taking membership in the IEEE and discussed about some social projects published in IEEE Explore. He also shared some experiences of his students during placement interviews being an active IEEE member.

The presentation was followed by an interactive session with students. Students inquired about the procedure to take membership. As many as 36 students from ECE, EEE, CSE and CE departments attended the session. The session was moderated by Ms Sruthi M and Mr Anil M (AP, ECE Dept).