IEEE President’s Word: Making IEEE a Pressure for Change

As 2023 IEEE president, it’s my purpose to work with all members—significantly our college students, younger professionals, and affinity committee members—to make IEEE a extra profitable and resilient international technical group and for there to be international recognition of IEEE as a drive for change.

For greater than 40 years, IEEE has been an integral a part of my pursuit of excellence in my skilled life. It has given me the chance to talk at greater than 200 IEEE occasions, the place I’ve had the pleasure of partaking with lecturers, younger professionals, and midcareer engineers in business and authorities, a few of whom are girls and underrepresented minorities. Such engagements on the grassroots degree have supplied me deeper insights into understanding the wants of members from numerous communities and the way IEEE can finest present them with alternatives to advance their profession.

By way of proactive outreach, we are able to display the advantages of membership and IEEE’s relevance to present and potential members. These choices embrace unparalleled networking alternatives at greater than 2,000 worldwide IEEE conferences—each nose to nose and digital—in addition to entry to the best technical literature, huge assets for upskilling, and modern collaboration services with colleagues worldwide.

I admire each the worldwide nature of IEEE in addition to the wealthy range of the engineering and technical fields through which our members excel. We should proceed to search for alternatives to supply extra worth and companies to professionals working in business, academia, and public service, whereas paying eager consideration to underrepresented communities reminiscent of girls and entrepreneurs, in addition to our college students and younger professionals, who’re our future technologists.

Realizing IEEE’s mission

IEEE’s mission is to advance know-how for the good thing about humanity. Every of us can play a crucial position in bettering dwelling circumstances for society. IEEE members are accountable residents and due to this fact search to assist handle international challenges utilizing technological options.

At this time the world faces its largest modern-day risk: local weather change. We see the results that excessive climate—reminiscent of modifications in climate patterns, crop losses, and rising sea ranges—has on communities worldwide. It’s pure for us to need to contribute.

Because the world’s largest group of technical professionals, IEEE has each the chance and the accountability to help in organizing the response of engineers, scientists, and technical professionals internationally to handle the causes, mitigate the affect, and adapt to local weather change. IEEE acknowledges this international disaster and is dedicated to serving to alleviate the results of local weather change by pragmatic, accessible technical options for sustainability, and offering engineers and technologists with a impartial house for dialogue and motion.

IEEE has vital ongoing, related efforts and experience that may be delivered to bear on this challenge. Our scholarly publications, convention proceedings, technical requirements, and different supplies will help foster the trade of technical information and data for the crucial local weather points that our planet faces. Two vital assets are the IEEE Local weather Change web site and the IEEE Local weather Change Assortment within the IEEE Xplore Digital Library. The gathering is a repository of greater than 7,000 IEEE articles addressing the causes of local weather change together with methods to mitigate and adapt to it.

IEEE additionally has been reaching out to all main engineering and know-how societies in Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, and South America to determine areas of collaboration and portfolios of options to handle local weather change. Our group has the credibility to carry specialists to the desk to current numerous viewpoints and search frequent options. For instance, IEEE had a major presence on the U.N. Local weather Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt in November final 12 months the place I spoke at occasions organized by two engineering organizations: the International Alliance of Universities on Local weather and the Worldwide Renewable Power Company.

I consider IEEE’s affect begins on the native degree, starting with constructing consciousness of the multitude of assets membership offers. With greater than 340 sections all over the world, native engineers, technologists, and pc scientists can ship know-how options for his or her distinctive communities. Our focus ought to be on figuring out IEEE members and their colleagues on the native degree who could be the factors of contact for these on the lookout for options to those advanced points. One other focus ought to be bringing lecturers and business practitioners collectively to share their concepts and experiences with each other and with the subsequent technology of engineers.

I welcome all IEEE members and volunteers across the globe to contribute their experiences and insights in order that collectively we are able to discover and uncover options to handle local weather change. I encourage our group to be contributors and influencers for local weather motion by analysis, information sharing, know-how developments, options growth, and extra.

Allow us to make use of the alternatives that IEEE presents—reminiscent of worldwide cooperation, persevering with skilled growth, and bold know-how growth—to construct a extra sustainable future.

—SAIFUR RAHMAN

IEEE president and CEO

This text seems within the March 2023 print challenge as “Making IEEE a Pressure for Change.”