As 2023 IEEE president, it’s my aim to work with all members—notably 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 teachers, younger professionals, and midcareer engineers in trade and authorities, a few of whom are ladies 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 finest present them with alternatives to advance their profession.
Through proactive outreach, we will exhibit 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 modern collaboration amenities with colleagues worldwide.
I admire each the worldwide nature of IEEE in addition to the wealthy variety of the engineering and technical fields through which our members excel. We should proceed to search for alternatives to offer extra worth and providers to professionals working in trade, academia, and public service, whereas paying eager consideration to underrepresented communities comparable to ladies 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 advantage of humanity. Each of us can play a vital function in enhancing dwelling circumstances for society. IEEE members are accountable residents and subsequently search to assist tackle world challenges utilizing technological options.
Today the world faces its largest modern-day risk: local weather change. We see the results that excessive climate—comparable to adjustments in climate patterns, crop losses, and rising sea ranges—has on communities worldwide. It’s pure for us to wish to contribute.
As 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 deal with the causes, mitigate the impression, and adapt to local weather change. IEEE acknowledges this world disaster and is dedicated to serving to alleviate the results of local weather change via pragmatic, accessible technical options for sustainability, and offering engineers and technologists with a impartial area for dialogue and motion.
IEEE has vital ongoing, related efforts and experience that may be delivered to bear on this difficulty. Our scholarly publications, convention proceedings, technical requirements, and different supplies may help foster the change of technical data and data for the vital local weather points that our planet faces. Two vital sources are the IEEE Climate Change web site and the IEEE Climate Change Collection within the IEEE Xplore Digital Library. The assortment 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 determine areas of collaboration and portfolios of options to deal with local weather change. Our group has the credibility to deliver specialists to the desk to current numerous viewpoints and search widespread options. For instance, IEEE had a big presence on the U.N. Climate Change Convention (COP27) in Egypt in November final yr the place I spoke at occasions organized by two engineering organizations: the Global Alliance of Universities on Climate and the International Renewable Energy Agency.
I consider IEEE’s impression 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 needs to be on figuring out IEEE members and their colleagues on the native stage who might be the factors of contact for these searching for options to those complicated points. Another focus needs to be bringing teachers and trade 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 will discover and uncover options to deal with local weather change. I encourage our group to be contributors and influencers for local weather motion via analysis, data sharing, expertise developments, options improvement, and extra.
Let us make use of the alternatives that IEEE gives—comparable to worldwide cooperation, persevering with skilled improvement, and impressive expertise improvement—to construct a extra sustainable future.
—SAIFUR RAHMAN
IEEE president and CEO
This article seems within the March 2023 print difficulty as “Making IEEE a Force for Change.”