As 2023 IEEE president, it’s my objective to work with all members—significantly our college students, younger professionals, and affinity committee members—to make IEEE a extra profitable and resilient world technical group and for there to be world recognition of IEEE as a power 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 participating 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 stage have supplied me deeper insights into understanding the wants of members from numerous communities and the way IEEE can greatest 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 embody 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 sources for upskilling, and progressive collaboration amenities with colleagues worldwide.
I admire each the worldwide nature of IEEE in addition to the wealthy range of the engineering and technical fields by which our members excel. We should proceed to search for alternatives to offer extra worth and providers to professionals working in business, academia, and public service, whereas paying eager consideration to underrepresented communities similar to 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 expertise for the good thing about humanity. Every of us can play a important function in enhancing residing circumstances for society. IEEE members are accountable residents and subsequently search to assist handle world challenges utilizing technological options.
Right now the world faces its largest modern-day risk: local weather change. We see the consequences that excessive climate—similar to adjustments in climate patterns, crop losses, and rising sea ranges—has on communities worldwide. It’s pure for us to wish 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 the world over to handle the causes, mitigate the affect, and adapt to local weather change. IEEE acknowledges this world disaster and is dedicated to serving to alleviate the consequences of local weather change via 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 problem. Our scholarly publications, convention proceedings, technical requirements, and different supplies might help foster the alternate of technical information and data for the important local weather points that our planet faces. Two vital sources 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 expertise societies in Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, and South America to establish 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 widespread options. For instance, IEEE had a major presence on the U.N. Local weather Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt in November final yr the place I spoke at occasions organized by two engineering organizations: the World Alliance of Universities on Local weather and the Worldwide Renewable Vitality Company.
I imagine IEEE’s affect begins on the native stage, starting with constructing consciousness of the multitude of sources membership supplies. With greater than 340 sections world wide, native engineers, technologists, and laptop scientists can ship expertise options for his or her distinctive communities. Our focus ought to be on figuring out IEEE members and their colleagues on the native stage who may be the factors of contact for these searching 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 era 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 via analysis, information sharing, expertise developments, options improvement, and extra.
Allow us to make use of the alternatives that IEEE presents—similar to worldwide cooperation, persevering with skilled improvement, and impressive expertise improvement—to construct a extra sustainable future.
—SAIFUR RAHMAN
IEEE president and CEO
This text seems within the March 2023 print problem as “Making IEEE a Pressure for Change.”
