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2|PageCONTENTS
WELCOMING MESSAGES......................................................................................................................................... 5

MESSAGE FROM 2019-2020 IEEE REGION 10 DIRECTOR ................................................................................................................ 5
MESSAGE FROM 2021-2022 IEEE REGION 10 DIRECTOR ................................................................................................................ 6
MESSAGE FROM IEEE REGION 10 NEWSLETTER COORDINATOR.......................................................................................................... 7
1.

SPECIAL REPORTS ON R10 FLAGSHIP EVENTS ........................................................................................................... 9IEEE REGION 10 CONFERENCE 2020 (TENCON2020) ................................................................................................................... 9IEEE R10 HUMANITARIAN TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE 2020 (R10HTC 2020) ................................................................................. 12IEEE R10 SYWL VIRTUAL CONGRESS 2020 (SYWL2020) ............................................................................................................. 17

2.

TECHNICAL COLUMN....................................................................................................................................... 26

NEUROMORPHIC SYSTEM AND INTEGRATED CIRCUITS ..................................................................................................................... 26
FROM IMAGE/VIDEO COMPRESSION TO MULTI-MODAL DATA ORGANIZATION FOR THE FUTURE IOT ERA ................................................ 29
3.

R10 PERSONALITIES OF THE MONTH ...................................................................................................................... 33
R10 PERSONALITY OF THE MONTH – ATUL NEGI ........................................................................................................................... 33
R10 WIE PERSONALITY OF THE MONTH – QIAOWEI YUAN ............................................................................................................ 34
R10 YP PERSONALITY OF THE MONTH – ARAVINDHAN ANBAZHAGAN ............................................................................................... 35
R10 STUDENT PERSONALITY OF THE MONTH – INDHUMATHI GUNASEKARAN ...................................................................................... 36
R10 LIFE MEMBER PERSONALITY OF THE MONTH – A. G. HAREENDRALAL ......................................................................................... 37
R10 COVID19 PERSONALITIES OF THE MONTH – C SUBRAMANIAM, SYUHAIDA ISMAIL AND WAN NURUL MARDIAH WAN MOHD RANI ...... 38

4.

R10 ORGANIZATIONAL UNITS OF THE MONTH ....................................................................................................... 41
R10 LARGE SECTION OF THE MONTH – HONG KONG SECTION ......................................................................................................... 41
R10 MEDIUM SECTION OF THE MONTH – TAINAN SECTION............................................................................................................. 42
R10 SMALL SECTION OF THE MONTH – AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY (ACT) SECTION ..................................................................... 43
R10 STUDENT BRANCH OF THE MONTH – UCET ISLAMIA UNIVERSITY OF BAHAWALPUR....................................................................... 44
R10 STUDENT BRANCH OF THE MONTH – BANGLADESH UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY ................................................... 46

5.

R10 UPDATES....................................................................................................................................... 49

R10 SECTION INCENTIVES 2020 ................................................................................................................................................. 49
R10 EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES COMMITTEE UPDATE ...................................................................................................................... 51
R10 WEBINAR: A DIALOGUE WITH IEEE MANAGEMENT COUNCIL SPEAKERS ...................................................................................... 52
6.

SECTION AND SUBSECTION ACTIVITIES ................................................................................................................... 55
IEEE BANGLADESH SECTION ...................................................................................................................................................... 55
IEEE GUJARAT SECTION ............................................................................................................................................................ 57
IEEE HIROSHIMA SECTION......................................................................................................................................................... 58
IEEE KARACHI SECTION............................................................................................................................................................. 58
IEEE MADRAS SECTION ............................................................................................................................................................ 60
IEEE MALAYSIA SECTION .......................................................................................................................................................... 61
IEEE SRI LANKA SECTION .......................................................................................................................................................... 62
IEEE TOKYO SECTION ............................................................................................................................................................... 63
IEEE WESTERN AUSTRALIA SECTION............................................................................................................................................ 63

7.

AFFINITY GROUP AND CHAPTER ACTIVITIES ........................................................................................................... 66
IEEE WOMEN IN ENGINEERING AG BANGLADESH ......................................................................................................................... 66
IEEE WOMEN IN ENGINEERING AG SENDAI.................................................................................................................................. 66
IEEE YOUNG PROFESSIONALS AG SAPPORO ................................................................................................................................. 67
IEEE YOUNG PROFESSIONALS AG SENDAI .................................................................................................................................... 67
IEEE LIFE MEMBERS AG TOKYO ................................................................................................................................................. 68
IEEE LIFE MEMBERS AG SOUTH AUSTRALIA ................................................................................................................................. 69
IEEE EDS MALAYSIA CHAPTER ................................................................................................................................................... 70

3|PageIEEE EMBS MALAYSIA CHAPTER................................................................................................................................................ 70
IEEE PELS MALAYSIA CHAPTER ................................................................................................................................................. 71
IEEE RAS MALAYSIA CHAPTER................................................................................................................................................... 71
IEEE SPS BOMBAY CHAPTER ..................................................................................................................................................... 72
IEEE MTT/AP/EMC ISLAMABAD JOINT CHAPTER......................................................................................................................... 73
IEEE PELS/IES BOMBAY JOINT CHAPTER..................................................................................................................................... 73
8.

STUDENT BRANCH AND STUDENT CHAPTER ACTIVITIES ......................................................................................... 75
IEEE AIUB STUDENT BRANCH [BANGLADESH SECTION] .................................................................................................................. 75
IEEE UCET IUB STUDENT BRANCH [BAHAWALPUR SUBSECTION]..................................................................................................... 76

9.

OTHER ARTICLES....................................................................................................................................... 78

IEEE INMIC 2020 .................................................................................................................................................................. 78
IEEE ICCCA 2020 .................................................................................................................................................................. 79
IEEE PES WOMEN IN POWER CONGRESS IN REGION 10 ................................................................................................................. 80
WOMEN OF WISDOM (WOW) WEBINAR SERIES .......................................................................................................................... 81
VIRTUAL POCO 2020 .............................................................................................................................................................. 82
QUARTER TECH TALK TABLE 1.0 ................................................................................................................................................. 84
10.

AWARDS AND FUNDING ....................................................................................................................................... 88

IEEE FELLOWS ELEVATED AS OF JANUARY 2021 - REGION 10 .......................................................................................................... 88
IEEE REGIONAL EXEMPLARY STUDENT BRANCH AWARD 2020 ......................................................................................................... 91
IEEE DARREL CHONG STUDENT ACTIVITY AWARD 2020 ................................................................................................................. 92
IEEE OUTSTANDING BRANCH COUNSELOR AND CHAPTER ADVISOR AWARD 2020 ............................................................................... 93
IEEE GLOBAL STUDENT BRANCH WEBSITE CONTEST 2019 .............................................................................................................. 94
LARRY K WILSON REGIONAL STUDENT VOLUNTEER AWARD 2020 .................................................................................................... 95
CONFERENCE CALL FOR PAPERS ...................................................................................................................................... 97

4|PageWELCOMING MESSAGES
Message from 2019-2020 IEEE Region 10 Director
Dear All IEEE Region 10 Members,
Happy New Year 2021!
As my two-year term as Region 10 Director reached a close at the end of 2020, I
would like to express my sincere thanks to all for your collaboration and support in
the operation and management of Region 10 under my directorship. The year 2019
proceeded as planned, but 2020 was assuredly like no other.
We experienced a fine start of 2020 under the leadership of President Toshio Fukuda, our first IEEE
President to hail from Region 10. In January we held the Region 10 Executive Committee meeting in
New Zealand and the IEEE Board of Directors Strategic Retreat in Fukuoka, Japan, without any special
problems, but by the time of the Board of Directors meeting that convened in Boston in February wewere wearing masks and using disinfectant.
The situation had worsened by March so that all events were moved online, including the Region 10
AGM, three flagship conferences, and our biennial SYWL Congress. We have been learning how
effectively to conduct online meetings and conferences, developing skills whose usefulness is I thinkbound to extend beyond the immediate pandemic.
Furthermore, even with COVID-19 expanding, Region 10 is still growing. One new Section (Vizag Bay),
five new Subsections (Quetta, Laos, North Karnataka, Rourkela, and Mysore), several Affinity Groups,
and numerous Chapters and Student Branches were all formed during 2020.
IEEE’s Member and Geographic Activities Board has been discussing regional realignment since 2018.
Region 8 (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) and Region 10 (Asia-Pacific) proposed to split their present
regions into two each, as their respective memberships comprise 18% and 32%, of the IEEE total. The
MGA Board unanimously agreed to six (6) Regions in the Americas and four (4) Regions in Eurasia, Africa,and Oceania. However, among our overall membership that decision does not necessarily represent
everyone’s first choice.
This year we shall move further in discussing how best to determine new regional borders. In Region
10, for example, we have been considering a split of the current Region 10 into two. I have great
confidence in the leadership of my immediate successors: Deepak Mathur, 2021-22 Director, and Lance
Fung, 2023-24 Director, and hope we can reach agreement on the two new Regions for Asia-Pacific in
the very near future.
Meanwhile, please continue to devise and participate in vibrant and innovative IEEE (online) activities,
and keep staying safe and healthy!
With much gratitude for the past two years,
Akinori Nishihara
2019-2020 IEEE Region 10 Director

5|PageMessage from 2021-2022 IEEE Region 10 Director
Happy New Year!
Wish 2021 brings hope, health, and prosperity to you and your loved ones.
There are many lessons to learn from 2020, which was unprecedented and very
challenging. But, challenges bring opportunities. It is my great honour and privilege to serve
Region 10 as Director for 2021-2022. I take this opportunity to thank you all for your kind
support and electing me to this position.
I would like to congratulate the leadership of Prof. Akinori Nishihara, which was exemplary and outstanding. He
led the 2019-2020 Region 10 team in an excellent way and provided immense value added member engagement
during this time of pandemic.
As we march towards 2021, we are fully aware of the challenges brought forward by the pandemic; and we haveto look for opportunities in these challenges. IEEE is a ‘member centric, volunteer driven and staff supported
organization’. We saw its true reflection during 2020, where volunteers and staffs together made wonderful
opportunities available to its members. Numerous events – webinars, conferences, congresses, competitions,awards ceremonies and many other activities were conducted in the virtual format.
IEEE also took very prompt initiative and created COVID-19 Resources for members in the form of products,
services, courses, and tools from across IEEE to help members and their families. All our volunteers and staffs
deserve sincere appreciation for this. I am truly grateful to them for their selfless contributions.
In 2021, it seems, we would be continuing our activities in virtual mode, at least for quite some time. However,
it is also pragmatic to see that at some places activities are getting started in a hybrid mode. I too wish that the
pandemic gets over soon and we are able to start our in-person events.
Irrespective of how 2021 pans out, the Region 10 team will be committed to go full gear forward with our goals.
Following are our thrust areas and major priorities for 2021-2022.
Thrust areas:
Membership Activities: Member retention and continuation of students to Young Professionals.
Technical Activities: Section-Chapter collaborative programs, conference quality and industry engagements.
Professional Activities: Entrepreneurship and career advancement programs.
Major priorities:








Conferences and its quality
Member value, member engagement and member satisfaction through collaborative programs
Industry academia partnership
Diversity: more leadership and volunteering opportunities for YP and women.
Programs for students and YP, where YP helps students in their career growth.
Sustainable ‘Humanitarian Technology’ projects.
Promote ‘Reaching Locals’ initiative.

Apart from these, if you believe that there need to be any other specific areas of focus, please feel free to reachout to me personally. I am open to your ideas and feedback, and look forward to your continued support in the
coming year, to propagate our combined vision of “Joy of Volunteering”.
Wishing you once again a very happy and promising time ahead.
Deepak Mathur
2021-2022 Region 10 Director

6|PageMessage from IEEE Region 10 Newsletter Coordinator
Dear Region 10 Members,
Happy New Year! It is my pleasure to welcome you to the January 2021 issue of IEEE
Region 10 Newsletter. It is two years since I first took over as the chair for the IEEE
Region 10 Newsletter Committee, and it has been a wonderful experience for me towork with my Newsletter Committee members as well as the Region 10 ExComm
members in producing eight (8) newsletter issues throughout the two years. I amvery thankful to the 2019-2020 Region 10 Director, Akinori Nishihara, for giving me
the chance to helm the committee and contribute to IEEE at the regional level. And
thank you also to the new Region 10 Director for 2021-2022, Deepak Mathur, for
entrusting me again to continue leading the Newsletter Committee under his
leadership for the next 2 years.
This first newsletter issue of the year features excellent content for your reading pleasure. As you may havebeen aware, we started our technical column last year with articles from the winners of the R10
Postgraduate Research Paper Contest. This year, we plan to expand the technical content by inviting renown
researchers to write on the latest development on various research fields within the scope of IEEE. For thisissue, we are honored to have two (2) of our IEEE Fellows, Byung-Gook Park and Seishi Takamura, to write
about their latest work on Neuromorphic System and Integrated Circuits and Image/Video Coding
Technology for IoT Era, respectively. This issue also features special report on three (3) flagship R10 events
conducted during the last quarter of 2020, namely the IEEE Region 10 Conference (TENCON2020), IEEE R10
Humanitarian Technology Conference (R10HTC2020), and IEEE R10 Student, Young Professionals, Womenin Engineering, and Life Members Congress (SYWL2020), all of which were carried out virtually.
The newsletter continues with another five (5) Personalities of the Month as well as five (5) Organizational
Units of the Month in this edition. We received many requests from Student Branches across the region tofeature in our Student Branch of the Month column, that we decided to feature two (2) of them in this issue.
Besides, we also continue to feature another one of our COVID-19 heroes in the COVID-19 Personality of theMonth column. This time, the honor goes to the team from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia from the Malaysia
Section for their effort in studying communication effectiveness at construction sites during COVID-19
outbreak in Malaysia. And we are very glad to continue receiving tremendous support from various Sections,
Chapters, Affinity Groups, and Student Branches/Chapters across Region 10 in reporting IEEE activities
occurring within their unit. We thank all these volunteers for their contributions to this newsletter.
And I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank and honor my R10 Newsletter Committee
members (Prof. Fattah, Prof. Prashant, Redwan, Wathmini, Naila and Nabeel) for their incredible hard workand efforts in assisting me for the last 2 years.
And to all readers, enjoy the newsletter, and stay safe wherever you are.

Mohammad Faizal Ahmad Fauzi
Chair, IEEE R10 Newsletter Committee

7|PageSPECIALREPORTS8|Page1. SPECIAL REPORTS ON R10 FLAGSHIP EVENTSIEEE Region 10 Conference 2020 (TENCON2020)
16th – 19th November 2020, Virtual Osaka, Japan
Written by: Mohammad Faizal Ahmad Fauzi, Chair for the R10 Newsletter Committee
With the theme Advancing Technologies for Sustainable Development Goals to Transform Our World,the 2020 IEEE Region 10 Conference (TENCON2020) were successfully held from 16th to 19th November
2020 by the IEEE Japan Council. The 35th edition of TENCON was initially planned as physical event toheld in Osaka, Japan, but due to the COVID19 pandemic, it was changed to a fully virtual event instead
using the Zoom platform. The conference consists of keynote speeches, special sessions, invited
sessions, as well as the regular parallel sessions. 257 papers were presented throughout 3 days, divided
into 46 tracks which covers various electrical and electronic engineering disciplines.
TENCON2020 Tracks
Machine Learning, Cloud and Data Analytics (12) Signal and Image Processing (6)Power & Energy (6)Circuits and Systems (4)Wireless Communications & Networks (4)Robotics, Control Systems & Theory (3)Multimedia Engineering (3)Computer Architecture & Systems (2)Biomedical Engineering (1)Antenna & Microwave (1)Devices, Materials & Processing (1)Social Implications of Technology (1)Software & Database Systems; Photonics;
Engineering Education & Engineering
Disasters and Humanitarian Technology (1)Management (1)The conference started from Tuesday 17th November 2020. TENCON2020 General Chair, Takao Onoye
and Honorary Chair, Isao Shirakawa welcomed all participants to the conference. The Technical
Program Chair, Minoru Okada then presented the technical report, where he informed that theconference received 426 papers submission from 22 countries. After careful review, 289 papers were
accepted for presentation (67% acceptance rate) at the conference, in which 257 papers were
eventually presented. The highest number of submission comes from India which made up 31.3% of
the total submission, followed by the Philippines (23.3%) and Japan (12.9%).
The opening ceremony was proceeded with the address by IEEE Region 10 Director, Akinori Nishihara,
and IEEE President, Toshio Fukuda. In the afternoon session, Md. Altaf-Ul-Amin from Nara Institute of
Science and Technology delivered the first plenary talk on Applications of KNApSAcK Database andDPClus Algorithm: Plants to Metabolites to Target Proteins in the Context of Jamu Medicines and IBD
Gene Prediction. The first day also saw 16 regular sessions as well as 2 special sessions (Recent Advances
9|Pageon Autonomous Mobile Robots) conducted in 6 parallel tracks. All presentations were pre-recorded withthe presenter taking up the questions live following their played-back presentation.

The second day saw another keynote speech delivered by Keisuke Fujii from Osaka University, where
he discussed the topic on Quantum Computing: State of the Art and Prospects. Besides, it also features
the first invited session on IEEE Region 10 Special Industry Track. Welcomed by the Industry Relations
Chair, Chris Lee and chaired by Sugie Toshihiko, the session lined up 4 prominent speakers namely
Kazuo Yano, Kazuko Ishikawa, Stefan Winkler and Davis Chen. The second day also saw a session
specially conducted for the winners of the 2020 IEEE R10 Postgraduate Research Paper Contest to share
their excellent research work. Another 16 regular sessions as well as a special session on New Trends ofBiometrics rounded up the second day of the conference.

The third and final day of the conference saw another 2 invited sessions on R10 YPC-PAC Workshop:
How to Plan and Manage Online Contest, organized with the support of the R10 Young Professionals
Committee (YPC), and Engaging More Women in Technical Activities: Following SPS and PES Models,with the support of the R10 WIE Committee. The YPC-PAC workshop, chaired by R10 YPC Chair, Takuo
Suzuki, featured 3 excellent young speakers, namely Takashi Yoshida, Shravan Kumar Kalyankar andNavaneethakrishnan Ramanathan, sharing their experiences in managing online contests anddiscussing the establishment of a fair and adequate judging committee.

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The WIE track, co-chaired by R10 WIEC Chair, Emi Yano and IEEE SPS WISP & 2017-20 IEEE PES WIP R10
Representative, Celia Shahnaz, lined up 6 prominent women speakers including the 2021 IEEE WIE
Chair, Jenifer Castillo; 2021 IEEE Signal Processing Society President, Athina Petropulu; and 2021 IEEE
Power and Energy Society President, Jessica Bian. Celia Shahnaz, Ruomei Li and G. Bhuvaneswari
completes the list of excellent speakers for the session. In this special WIE track, participants foundmotivation and realized the value of WIE utilizing the advantage of virtual mode while learning theopportunities to engage in different technical societies, such as SPS and PES. Another 14 regularsessions were carried out before the closing ceremony brought the 35th edition of TENCON to an end.

Four papers were selected for TENCON2020 Student Paper Awards; 2 from special sessions, andanother 2 from the regular sessions. The four papers are:Special Session:
1. Improved Double-Tree RRT* Algorithm for Efficient Path Planning of Mobile Robots, Liquan Jiang,
Shuting Wang, Jie Meng, Xiaolong Zhang, Yuanlong Xie
2. An Efficient and Robust Approach to Solve the Kidnapped Robot Problem Considering Time
Variation, Jie Meng, Shuting Wang, Gen Li, Liquan Jiang, Yuanlong Xie, Haodong Sun, Chao Liu
Regular Session:
1. Individual Learning Effectiveness Based on Cognitive Taxonomies and Constructive Alignment, Phat
Huu Nguyen, Preecha Tangworakitthaworn, Lester Gilbert
2. A Concentric Double-Ring Resonator Based Plasmonic Refractive Index Sensor with Glucose Sensing
Capability, Md. Farhad Hassan, Infiter Tathfif, Mohammed Radoan, Rakibul Hasan Sagor
Overall the 2020 edition of TENCON, the flagship conference of IEEE Region 10, was very successful
despite the virtual mode, with 534 total number of participants (i.e. Zoom unique sessions). Well doneto the organizing team from the Japan Council, led by Prof. Takao Onoye. See you in Auckland, New
Zealand in December 2021 for the 36th TENCON!

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IEEE R10 Humanitarian Technology Conference 2020 (R10HTC 2020)
1st – 3rd December 2020, Virtual Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia
Written by: Mohammad Faizal Ahmad Fauzi, Chair for the R10 Newsletter Committee & General CoChair for IEEE R10HTC2020
Like the other two flagship Region 10 conferences, TENCON2020 and TENSYMP2020, the organizing
committee for R10HTC2020 decided to conduct the conference as a fully virtual event this year due to
COVID19 pandemic. With the theme Digital Ecosystem for Humanity, the 8th edition of the R10HTC
series were successfully hosted by the IEEE Sarawak Subsection on a Zoom online meeting platformfrom 30th November to 3rd December 2020. It is a historic moment as this was the first time a Subsection
has been entrusted to host a flagship Region 10 conference. The conference is made up of rich varietyof events including keynote and invited speeches, regular and special sessions, as well as workshop.
Besides, in conjunction with the conference, IEEE Malaysia Section conducted the Panel of Conference
Organizers Workshop (POCO), with sponsorship from Region 10. In total, 87 papers from different
aspects of humanitarian technologies were presented in 16 regular sessions and 3 special sessions
throughout the conference. The regular sessions cover topics such as Electrical & Electronic
Engineering, Computing and Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Healthcare & Biomedical
Engineering, Power & Energy, Education, Food Science & Agriculture, Smart City & Smart Village, andIndustrial Revolution 4.0. The three special sessions were on Integrating Humanity into Industry 4.0,
Social Innovation and Creativity during COVID-19, and Technology for Ageing Population.

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While the conference proper only started on Tuesday 1 st December, the first day was filled withtechnical workshop, special session on humanitarian technology, as well as POCO workshop. The
workshop on Data Analytics Using Machine Learning Techniques were facilitated by Rathimala Kannan.
The workshop is especially relevant to those interested in developing business data analytical to makeinformed business decisions. The special session on humanitarian technology consists of three lecturesdelivered by prominent speakers in the area. Celia Shahnaz delivered a talk on Humanitarian Activities
and Technologies during Covid-19 Pandemic in Asia Pacific Region, while local speaker Then Yi Lung
discussed the Activities of IEEE Sarawak SIGHT. The final lecture of the special session was given by Jing
Dong (R10 HAC Chair) and Shaikh Fattah on the Introduction for IEEE SIGHT; Effective Community
Engagement to Design Sustainable Humanitarian Projects to Combat COVID19. Finally, the POCO
workshop featured 12 speakers discussing conference leadership practices, challenges in theconference landscape, envisioning the future, and launching new conference initiatives. Separate
report on POCO2020 is included in the Other Articles section of the newsletter.

The first day of the conference proper started with a brief opening ceremony where all participants
were welcomed by the IEEE Sarawak Subsection Chair, Victor Wong. R10HTC2020 General Co-Chair,
Mohammad Faizal Ahmad Fauzi then shared with the audiences how the Sarawak Subsection, which
was only formed in 2015, were able to convince Region 10 to entrust the young Subsection to host oneof its flagship conferences. Technical Program Chair, David Bong then shared the technical review
aspect of this year’s conference. Overall 154 submissions were received from 12 countries, with 26% of
the papers from Malaysia. After rigorous review process, 108 papers were accepted (acceptance rateof 70%), and 87 papers registered for presentation at the conference. The conference General Chair,
Lau Bee Theng then proceeded to officially open the conference, before R10 Director, Akinori Nishihara
gave an update on IEEE Region 10 activities and initiatives. The conference is also honored to have
Professor John Wilson, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer of Swinburne Universityof Technology Sarawak to grace the event via a pre-recorded video.

The first keynote of the conference was delivered by Sye Loong Keoh from the University of Glasgow,
Singapore, with the title Internet-of-Things (IoT): Accelerating the Smart City Revolution. 38 oral
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presentations, divided into 8 regular sessions, rounded up the first day of the conference. To ensuresmooth run of the conference, all presentations were pre-recorded with the presenter taking up live
questions following their respective played-back presentations.
The second day of the conference started with another keynote speech on A Journey Towards Creating
Impact with Technology for People, delivered by Surapa Thiemjarus from the Assistive Technology andMedical Devices Research Center (A-MED), National Science and Technology Development Agency(NSTDA), Thailand. Her talk is followed by an invited talk on Humanitarian Activities and Technologies
for the 21st Century, given by Supavadee Aramvith. Another 34 presentations were carried out in 8 oral
sessions to complete the proceedings for the second day.
The third and final day of the conference werescheduled for special sessions. The three special
sessions on Integrating Humanity into Industry
4.0, Social Innovation and Creativity during
COVID-19, and Technology for Ageing Population
were carried out concurrently with 15
presentations. Before the special sessions, thethird day started with the final keynote by Jiong
Jin from Swinburne University of Technology,
Melbourne who delivered a talk on Energy
Sustainable Fog Information System for Infrastructure-less. This is followed by the final invited talk by
Lance Fung, the 2021-2022 R10 Director-Elect on Educational Activities and Digital Technology for
Humanity and Life-Long Learning.
The conference concluded with a closing ceremony officiated by Jing Dong, IEEE Region 10 HC Chair.
During the closing ceremony, 5 best paper awards were announced:
Best Paper Award
1. Integrating Humanitarian Technology in Computer Science Education to Internalize
Independent Campus Policy: A Case in IPB University, Auzi Asfarian, Dean Apriana Ramadhan,Firman Ardiansyah
2. Effectiveness of an Automated Reading Tutor Design for Filipino Speaking Children, Ronald
PascualBest Student Paper Award
1. A Preliminary Study on Effectiveness of an Ingeniously Developed Wearable Assistive Device,
Vishnu Rajendran S, Harish Mohan T, Bhavani Rao R, Jogesh S Nanda, Karishma Sebastian
2. Feature Selection Based Twin-Support Vector Machine for the diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease,
Surendrabikram Thapa, Surabhi Adhikari, Awishkar Ghimire, Anshuman Aditya
3. Towards an Efficient and Secure Blood Bank Management System, W.A.D.T.L. Wijayaweera,
P.A.J. Sanadaruwan, U.D.L. Dolapihilla, D.W.N.R. Karunathilaka, W. H. Rankothge, N. Gamage
In conjunction with IEEE R10HTC 2020, the Sarawak Subsection as the host was also awarded 2 grants
from IEEE R10 TENHUMCH and IEEE HAC to conduct three humanitarian projects in Sarawak(https://r10htc2020.org/projects).

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Project 1 – Community Empowerment: Promoting Safe and Sustainable Food Production
Food security in a community
exists when all people at all
times have both physical andeconomic access to sufficient
food to meet their dietary needs
for productive and healthy lives.
The pandemic caused by the
new coronavirus COVID-19
threatened food shortages due to supply chain disruption and labor shortages. Many households arevulnerable to the impact of a severe pandemic due to the impacts on the economic and social systems. This
Humanitarian Engineering project aims to boost the local communities’ resilience of food supplies (i.e.,enhance food security) through encouraging the establishment of family/kitchen gardens with the use oforganic fertilizer, compost.
As our population increases and farmland
disappears to commercial and residential
development, it is becoming increasingly
important to produce food, clothing, forest andfloral products on less land for more people.
Fertilizer plays a crucial role in improving
agriculture efficiency, in particular organic
fertilizer to promote food production in an ecologically sound way. The five-week project successfully
reached out to over 50 local community members in the sub-urban areas of Kuching, Sarawak. Virtual
workshops were conducted to educate and guide participants on systematic and informed homecomposting of kitchen waste. Each participating household was provided with a set of composting kit andon-site guidance was given on the setting up of the composting system. Swinburne University Sarawak
researchers guided the participants throughout the project via virtual platforms on the know-hows andtechnical challenges of the composting process.

Project 2 – Enhancing Humanitarian Engineering Within the Vulnerable Communities
Knowledge of household on
clean water and hygiene isimportant particularly invulnerable
communities
where water supply is
insufficientandhighlycontaminated. Water scarcity
and inferior water quality
could significantly affect thehealth and well-being ofchildren. IEEE in collaboration
with Swinburne University ofTechnology Sarawak and local NGO, organized a humanitarian project for vulnerable communities in
conjunction with the IEEE Region 10 Humanitarian Technologies Conference 2020 held virtually in Kuching.
The project was spearhead by Ir. Dr. Angelia Liew, Dr. Hadi Nabipour, Dr. Tay Fei Siang, Mohd Elfy Mersal,
Dr. Lau Bee Theng (General Chair for IEEE R10 HTC2020) and student volunteers from various engineering
background. The team visited a small squatter village near Lorong Chawan, just a kilometre from the Kuching

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city center on 20th December 2020. The 51 households of about 230 villagers including 61 children mostly
collect their drinking water from a standpipe.
The aims of the project were to bring basic clean water knowledge alongside awareness of the Covid-19
pandemic within vulnerable communities and to encourage our engineering students to contribute tobuilding a more sustainable, stable, and equitable world, to promote creativity and problem-solving skills toengineer inexpensive solutions for real-world challenges. The team successfully conducted three workshops
on the importance of clean water and ways to build homemade water filter, for 45 children. Each child wasgiven a set of water filtration kit to try at home. Also distributed were Pack of Hope stationaries and Packof Love Christmas goodies for each child, and masks and sanitisers for each household. The project serves
as a platform for humanitarian efforts and provides a rewarding and enriching experience for the student
volunteers, boosting their personal development and their understanding of the challenges facing the world
today. The project received a USD1000 fund awarded by the IEEE Humanitarian Activities Committee Events
Fund in conjunction with the conference.

Project 3 – Tackling Challenges to Water-Energy-Food Security (WEF) Nexus
The Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus is a framework used to show the inter-connection between thesethree resource sectors. According to the Population Division of the United Nationals Department of
Economic and Social Affairs, the global population is expected to reach 9.7 billion in 2050 and could peak at
11 billion by the end of the 21st century. As the global population continue to increase, issues such as foodscarcity, availability of freshwater and energy shortage would become more prominent global challenges.
IEEE Sarawak Subsection decided to undertake this humanitarian project to raise the awareness level for
the WEF nexus among Malaysian students. As Malaysia is a country that is endowed with stable governanceand rich natural resources and biodiversity, Malaysian students rarely venture to contemplate on thepotential issue of resource scarcity in the future.
It is believed that educating Malaysian
students on the WEF nexus is an important
step to starting a student discourse on thechallenges and potential solutions on the
WEF Nexus in the coming years. The project
reached out to 45 students through a seriesof coding and electronics bootcamps held inthree main cities in Sarawak i.e. Kuching, Sibu
and Miri in December 2020. The program received an award of USD4000 fund from the IEEE Humanitarian
Activities Committee 2020. The project was initiated by Associate Professor Lau Bee Theng, in conjunction
with the IEEE Region 10 International Humanitarian Technology Conference 2020, that was co-organizedwith Swinburne University, Sarawak. The modules for the workshop were developed by Dr. Xavier Chee
from the biotechnology program.

Well done to the organizing team from the Sarawak Subsection, the first Subsection to host a flagship
Region 10 conference!
16 | P a g e

IEEE R10 SYWL Virtual Congress 2020 (SYWL2020)
19th September to 4th October 2020
Written by: Zia Ahmed, General Chair for R10 SYWL2020
The IEEE Region 10 Students, Young Professional, Women in Engineering and Life Members (R10 SYWL)
Congress is a flagship R10 biennial event, which provides a platform for IEEE volunteers from Sections acrossthe region to learn and train for enhancement of their personal and professional skills, interact with eachother and network to learn best practices. The congress, originally scheduled to be held at Bangkok, Thailand
in September, 2020, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 restrictions and the R10 leadership decided to holdthe congress virtually. As engineers and scientists are playing a key role in the fight against COVID-19
pandemic, the theme selected for the Virtual R10 SYWL Congress 2020 was “Pandemic to Opportunity –Collaborative Leadership Towards Technology Advancement for Humanity”. One of the main objectives oforganizing the congress was to explore new horizons of collaborations and moving forward in advancing
technology during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The R10 SYWL Virtual Congress was conducted over 16 days, from 19th September to 4th October 2020, via
WebEx sessions and live streaming on Facebook. More than fifty volunteers helped to successfully conduct
the R10 SYWL Virtual Congress 2020 consisting of four tracks (Students, Young Professionals, Women in
Engineering and Life Members) and three public sessions (Educational Activities, HAC and IEEE SA). 120
speakers, including 44 female speakers, delivered keynote speeches, technical talks and participated inpanel discussions. The ratio between academia/non-academia speakers was about 66:59.
The R10 SYWL Virtual Congress 2020 was launched with an Opening Ceremony on 19th September 2020.
R10 SYWL General Chair Dr. Zia Ahmed welcomed IEEE President Professor Toshio Fukuda, MGA Vice
President Prof. Kukjin Chun, R10 Director Prof. Akinori Nishihara and R10 Director-Elect Deepak Mathur tothe congress. Prof. Fukuda and Prof. Nishihara delivered the keynote addresses. The four Track Chairs also
addressed the participants and outlined their program for the congress.
During the 16-day congress there were a total of 25 sessions, consisting of opening ceremony, 7 sessions
under the Students Track, 4 sessions under the WIE Track, 4 sessions of YP Track and 5 sessions of LM Track,3 special sessions related to Educational Activities, Humanitarian Activities, and IEEE Standard Associationand finally a closing ceremony. There were a total of 1,362 registered participants nominated by Sections
for attending the online WebEx session. Most of the sessions were also lived streamed and archived via R10
Facebook SYWL page, which attracted more than 10,000 additional participants. There were also 5 contests
and numerous networking sessions and a cultural performance show at the closing ceremony.

Students Activities Track
Student Track consisted of Seven
Sessions, delivered by 37 globally
recognized speakers/moderators.
Each session consisted of bonus
networking sessions for attendees.
All sessions were partnered with 78
Student Branches from R10. The
sessions were in collaboration withIEEE Industry Engagement Society,
IEEE Entrepreneurship, IEEE Etta
Kappa Nu Society, IEEE Industry
Relations Society, IEEE Volunteer
Leadership Program and IEEE Centre for Leadership Excellence.

17 | P a g e

R10 Student Activities Committee launched the Student Branch Partnership Program to provide an
opportunity for Student Branches to partner with the R10 SYWL Virtual Congress so as to maximize students’participation in the student-oriented programs. The program partnered with 78 Student Branches across 19
Sections covering 8 countries within R10 and enormously boosted students’ participation in a plethora ofinteractive activities spread throughout the 2 weeks of the congress. The partnered SBs contributed byinitiating through screening/broadcasting student track sessions to extended audiences within their Student
Branch community.
The best part of R10 SYWL Congress was the opportunity of connecting to a broader IEEE member network.
As such, exclusive virtual networking sessions were designed at the end of every Student Track session whichallowed to foster a much stronger web of networks at various OU and geographic levels i.e. Student
Branches, SB Technical Society Chapters, Affinity Groups, Sections and across countries in the Asia-Pacificregion. The purpose of organizing the networking activities was for the participants to mingle with eachother, widen their connections, learn from each other, and have fun while attending a virtual congress.
Interactive games such as the Puzzles and Bingo with IEEE were organized to make the sessions much fun
and engaging. Moreover, the speakers and delegates also conducted informal sharing sessions about bestpractices when volunteering and about IEEE student member benefits. Surprise prizes were presented tothe most engaged student attendees of the congress. Mayesha Tafannum, who was one of active delegatesfrom Bangladesh Section and one of the Networking Surprise Prize winners, mentioned that “This experience
is incredible! From being able to listen to prominent speakers on wonderful topics to attending the
networking sessions! The best part was the networking sessions where we were able to connect withdifferent members from different sections of R10. Attended each of them and getting to know new people
across our region and it felt amazing”.
Exciting student contests were also held throughout the congress. The joint contest by Student Activities &WIE Committees gave an opportunity to SBs/SAC/WIEs to showcase the best practices and activities toimprove membership retention and development. The contest was sponsored by Life Member Funding forstudent activities. The contest aimed for giving recognition to the SBs/SAC/WIEs groups at Student andSection WIE AG levels. The theme of the contest was “Engage and Educate”. The Student Branch, Section
SAC and Section WIE Affinity Groups were invited to participate in the contest and showcase the activities
that they had organized so as to engage and educate IEEE members through creative posters. The 5
shortlisted best contestants of each category underwent a Facebook poster contest and a 3-min LIVE video
presentation. The winners were:
Category
Section SAC
Student Branch
Section WIEStudent Branch WIE

18 | P a g eWinner (Prize: USD 500)IEEE Malaysia Section
College of Engineering Karunagappally
IEEE Bangalore Section WIEIEEE BVP SB WIE

Runner-Up (Prize: USD 250)
IEEE Bombay Section
Silver Oak College of Engineering & Tech
IEEE Gujarat Section WIEThe NorthCap University SB WIEThe contest was also a great platform to recognize active SBs/SAC/WIEs of IEEE Region 10 and provided an
opportunity to showcase their best practices and activities to IEEE Region 10 Top Leadership.
The R10 SYWLC Student Track Virtual Nethack aimed to improve participants’ communication andnetworking skills to a wider online viewing community. The contest facilitated the recognition of these
networking skills and to learn the best practices and activities organized in other SB/Section/Region. The
theme of the contest was to promote “Virtual Networking”. The competition was conducted through teambuilding activities such as virtual meets, team tasks and quizzes. All members of the top 3 teams received
USD27 IEEE membership subscription and the winners were:
Rank

Team’sName

Team Members(Section)
Rabbia Saleem (Australian Capital Territory)
Satyaki Banik (Bangladesh)

1

Mars

Nayab Ali (Islamabad)
Akash Nair (Kerala)
Khurram Waqas Malik (Lahore)
Minahil Ali (Islamabad)
Kevin Hung (Hong Kong)

2

UranusAdhithyaa G. (Kerala)
M. Abdul Rehman (Lahore)
Nishita Kalpesh Pali (Pune)
Rashid Noor (Islamabad)
Mengke Li (Hong Kong)

3

SaturnGaius G D’cruz (Kerala)
Mujtaba Ahmad Khan (Lahore)
Siddharth Saoji (Pune)
Group photo taken at Final Round Judging LIVE Presentations

Young Professionals (YP) Track
The YP Track had 4 sessions and 1 contest. All sessions were well-attended via WebEx by registereddelegates and a large number of members joined the sessions through live streaming of Facebook.
In the first session, Flavia Dinca, IEEE YP Chair introduced the IEEE Volunteering Platform, a new IEEE web
system for volunteers. The history of development and some key features were explained. A live
demonstration was also conducted to show how to use it, and questions from the floor were answeredusing a test user. The second session was about elevation to Senior Membership in which Mr. Amarnath
Raja provided practical advice for becoming an IEEE Senior Member. Three more speakers shared theirexperience about why they became an IEEE Senior Member and what kind of preparation was needed.
The third session entitled “Entrepreneurship and Industry Engagement” was jointly held with the R10
Industry Relations Committee for panel discussion on cutting-edge technologies, IoT and 5G. Participants
were informed how to connect such technologies to business as a start-up. One young entrepreneur as a
keynote speaker shared the basics of entrepreneurship and experience of transitioning from a PhD student
into an entrepreneur. Other invited keynote speakers highlighted challenges and opportunities related to
the Internet of Things and 5G Technology.
The fourth YP session provided an opportunity to exchange information about activities of young
professionals amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. In this YP session, the representatives of Section YP Affinity

19 | P a g e

Groups shared their best practices with YP volunteers. The session focused on how to cope with pandemiccrisis and make YP activity plans adjusting to the “new normal.”The YP Track contest offered a networking opportunity for Young Professionals and strengthened YPs’
network on Facebook to communicate directly and casually. Each participant submitted his or her one-page
proposal to the Facebook Group for this contest, and all the participants evaluated posts with each other.
Full contest details are available at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/334250581186452.

Winners’ one-page proposals of YP pitch contest.

Women In Engineering Track
R10 WIE Committee organized 4 sessions, some of which were exclusively designed for female engineersand professions to discuss strategies to deal with issues relevant to their career, challenges of work-lifebalance and scarcity of female leadership in academia and industry. In one session “WIE Best Practices,
Challenges and Opportunities”, distinguished female speakers discussed best practices, challenges andopportunities from their professional career and how IEEE had helped them. Throughout the congress WIEvolunteers were grouped in various teams to deliberate on key goals of WIE – Retention, Recognition,
Mentorship, Leadership, Collaboration and came up with recommendations for R10 to implement in its WIE
program. The exercise created an
opportunity for discussion to
inspire delegates and live
audienceforinnovation,
facilitated knowledge sharing andprovided support through highlyinteractive sessions designed toinitiate discussion and foster
collaboration.
The
sessionon
CareerDevelopment for Mid-Career WIE
focusedonintroducing
professional career development
skills for women who are in the
middle of their careers. It aimed to enable women engineers and researchers to reach their full potential
and shine. Dr. Lisa Lazareck-Asunta, Global WIE Chair and R10 Director, Prof. Akinori Nishihara also joined
the session as panelists. The expert panel also discussed how to support and encourage the next generationof the WIE members to move forward together.

Life Members Track
Life Members (LM) Track achieved a new record of LMAG Chairs engagement across R10 for the first time.
The IEEE R10 SYWL Virtual Congress provided a platform to Life Members to share their experience andexpertise with fellow LMs and live audience. In addition, LMs were exposed to new technologies, IEEE vTools
and Collabratec for continuing to pursue their technical and social interests. LM delegates and online
audience were also informed about the significance of IEEE milestone program and the process of applying

20 | P a g e

for milestone recognition. R10 LM Committee also organized a photography competition for Life Member
delegates. The following LM sessions were organized during the 2020 R10 SYWL Virtual Congress.
LM Session 1: Sharing Success Stories – Thesession was held on 27th September 2020 andmoderated by Dr. Leon Lei (Hong Kong
Section) and Prof. Jong Chang Yi (Seoul
Section). The following members shared theirsuccess story with participants:
Prof. Nim Cheung, IEEE Life Fellow from
Hong Kong Section,
 Mr. Hareendralal, IEEE Life Senior
Member from Kerala Section,
 Prof. Hyuckjae Lee, IEEE Life Member
from Korea Section.
Each speaker highlighted achievements in their career and explained how they benefitted with theirinvolvement with IEEE at various levels. 38 participants attended the session.
LM Session 2: LMAG Meet – The session on 28th September 2020 was inaugurated by Past R10 Director, Dr.
Harbans L. Bajaj. 108 participants attended the LMAG Meet session. R10 Director, Prof. Akinori Nishihara
also attended the session.
Mr. Asthana made a brief presentationon the activities of Life members atregional as well as MGA level. He also
explained to the participants about the
expectations from LMAGs by the Regionand MGA Board. All sixteen LMAGs wereinvited to the meet but only 9 could
attend. One common problem faced bymost of the LMAGs was found to be poor
or no response from LMs due to a variety of reasons. Consensus was reached for the following items:
 To keep discussing such problems in all future meetings and try to work out a solution,
 During every future SYWL, all LMAG Chairs would meet face-to-face, All LMAG Chairs would meet once annually (virtually) to discuss their plan for the year. Most suitable
time suggested was February, Countries where there are more than 1 LMAG such as Australia, India and Japan will try to meet oncea year inviting all LMAGs in that country.
LM Session 3: Life Member Activities – Prof.
Akinori Nishihara, R10 Director inaugurated thesession on 29th September 2020 and DirectorElect Mr. Deepak Mathur delivered thewelcome address. 107 participants attended
this LM session. R10 LM Chair Mr. Asthana
delivered a talk and highlighted the following:

Detailed about LMs, LM Affinity Group,
LMAG Management & Procedure,
Finances and Role of Regional LM
Coordinator at Region & MGA,

21 | P a g e








Functions of LM Committee,
Need of LMAGs and their importance/role,
Financial & administrative support to LMAGs,
Benefits for life members,
Relationship between R10 LM Committee & LMAGs,
Various Awards for LMs/LMAGs at Regional & MGA level etc.
LM Session 4: Vtools and IEEE Collabratec – The fourth LM
session was held on 1st October 2020. The session wasmoderated by Mr. Sundaresh Subramaniam andinaugurated by SYWL General Chair, Dr. Zia Ahmed. 343
participants attended the session.
vTools training was delivered by Ms. Ewell Tan from theSingapore Office. Ms. Mehak Azeem presented theinformation about the IEEE Collabratec and explained its
various features and benefits. She recommended everyone
to use Collabratec to keep updated about IEEE news anddiscussions on various topics.

LM Session 5: IEEE Milestones –This LM session was held on 2nd October 2020. R10 Director, Prof. Akinori
Nishihara presented an overview of the session and Director-Elect Mr. Deepak Mathur delivered theinaugural address. Professor Hajime Imai from Tokyo LMAG was the invited presenter and Prof. Naohisa
Ohta, Tokyo LMAG moderated the session. 89 participants attended the session. Among the main points
made during the session were: Definition of IEEE Milestone – the achievement should be more than 25 years old. The milestonehonours the achievement and NOT a person or place, Procedure for Milestone approval. The proposer must be current IEEE Member, who needs to obtainsponsorship from appropriate IEEE organizational unit(s) including plaque & dedication ceremony.
Normally, the time taken is from 9 to 15 months,
 The proposer(s) obtains permission
letter from owner of site wheremilestone plaque is to be placed. IEEE
History Committee appoints an
advocate to review the proposal,
 On approval from the History
Committee, it submits the milestone
proposal to IEEE Board of Directors for
final approval,
 Sponsoring Organizational Unit(s) planthe dedication ceremony, Japan had so far dedicated 34
Milestones with another 4 undervarious stages of approval. Some
examples are the first word processor inJapanese, Electronic television, first
direct broadcast satellite service, etc.
 Tokyo Section has 20 Milestones, whichis the highest among the Sections.

22 | P a g e

Education Activities Session
The Educational Activities session in the 2020 R10SYWL Congress invited Professor Stephen Phillips,
Vice-President of IEEE Educational Activities Board(EAB) and Mr. Jamie Moesch, Manager Director ofIEEE EAB. They spoke on the development andupdates of EAB programs, services and products,
including IEEE Learning Network (ILN), eLearning
modules, English for Technical Professionals and inparticular, they introduced the IEEE Ad Hoc
Committee on Lifelong Learning and Continuing
Education, plus the new program IEEE Academy to
be launched in 2021.
The session also focused on the IEEE R10 Reaching
Locals project, which aims to reach out to local
community with local languages in order to:

raise the awareness of IEEE’s brand and logo,enhance public understanding of engineering and technology,
provide a trusted source of educational resources and services,inspire a worldwide audience and expand knowledge for the benefit of humanity.

Professor Takako Hashimoto (Japan), Dr. Nia Kurnianingsih (Indonesia), Dr. Amit Kumar (India), Professor
Gao Yun An (China) and Dr. Paulina Chan (Hong Kong) presented the Reaching Locals activities at their local
communities and discussed the lessons and best practices from their experience. The session also had active
participation from the audience with Q&A and feedback.
Aravindhan Anbazhagan and Purva Ekatpure did an excellent job of assisting with the promotion andmanaging of the session. Their contributions to the event and to R10 EAC in 2019-2020 are greatly
appreciated.

IEEE Standards Association
IEEE Standard Association (IEEE SA) session led by Mr. Sri Chandrasekaran from IEEE SA and moderated by
Dr. Supavadee Aramvith, took place on 29th September 2020. The theme of IEEE SA session was impact of
IoT in Smart Cities. Firstly, Mr. Sri Chandrasekaran gave brief introduction to IEEE SA. There were four
speakers for the session. Sandeep Agarwal from the Center for Development of Telematics gave a talk on“Mapping Public Wi-Fi Network Architecture to Smart Cities through IEEE P2872”. Mr. Ashish Mahajan fromIoT Sec Australia gave a talk entitled, “Understanding Security in the Medical Internet of Things”. Mr.
Nishant Krishna of TechMachinery Labs talked about “Bringing Cognition in the Edge using ROOF Computing- IEEE P1931”. Finally, Greg Adamson, Chair IEEE DIITA Program, talked about lost of the smart cities. The
session was well received with 25 participants and over 74 live viewers.

IEEE Humanitarian Activities Session
IEEE HAC Session on COVID-19 response, the first session to happen at IEEE R10 SYWL 2020 Virtual Congress,
was held on 19th September 2020. The theme of the session was HAC response to COVID-19. Dr. Supavadee
Aramvith (HAC Communications Chair) and Prof. Jing Dong (R10 HTA Chair) moderated the session. The
panelists included Mei Lin Fung (HAC Assessment chair), Nirupama Prakash Kumar (HAC Project Chair),
Simay Akar (SIGHT Communication Chair), and project leaders from Region 10 whose projects were
supported by HAC/SIGHT COVID-19 Project Funds - Allya Koesoena (Indonesia Section), Maheshi

23 | P a g e

Dissanayake (Sri Lanka Section), Suresh Merugu (Hyderabad Section), Jayakrishnan MC (Kerala Section). The
session was well received with 63 participants and 680 live views.

Closing Ceremony
The Closing ceremony for the 2020 R10 SYWL Virtual Congress was held on 4th October 2020. General Chair,Dr. Zia Ahmed; General Co-Chair, Dr. Supavadee Aramvith, and Director-Elect, Mr. Deepak Mathur
addressed the participants. Prof. Elmer Dadios, Chair for Awards & Recognition announced various award
winners for 2020; Ms. Emi Yano and Dr. Saaveethya Sivakumar, winners for R10 SAC & WIE Contests; Prof.
Takuo Suzuki, R10 YP Contest winner and Mr. R. K. Asthana, winners for R10 Life Member Photography
Contest. R10 Director, Prof. Akinori Nishihara, the gave closing remarks. The last session of the congress was
the Entertainment Program, which was organized by the Entertainment Committee and hosted by Mr.
Muzamil Mahmood.
The R10 SYWL Virtual Congress was supported by:
1. IEEE Entrepreneurship Committee
2. IEEE Industry Engagement Committee
3. IEEE Centre for Leadership Excellence
4. IEEE HKN Group and5. R10 Industry Relations and Education Activities Committees

24 | P a g e

TECHNICALCOLUMN25 | P a g e

2. TECHNICAL COLUMN
Neuromorphic System and Integrated Circuits
Byung-Gook Park, FIEEE, Seoul National University
Human brain is known to be composed of 1011 neurons and 1015 synapses that are capable of PFLOPs (1015(peta)
floating point operations per second) performance. Currently, a supercomputer that consists of 105 CPUs and1015 bytes of memory can also achieve PFLOPs, but consumes a few MW power, while human brain uses only 20
W. Why do the two systems with similar computing power show a whopping 105 times difference in energy used
for one second?
If we ask this question to IEEE members, the expected answers would be the event-driven characteristics ofneurons, massively parallel computation, the lack of bottleneck between processors and memories, etc. Thereis, however, an answer that can be understood by a layperson yet technically sound: it is that a digital computer
based on a CPU (central processing unit) is not a hardware designed for neural network computation. A CPU is a
general-purpose hardware that can process not only simple arithmetic calculations but also all sorts of
instructions. It is a von Neuman machine executing sequential operations, which may experience a tremendous
inefficiency in energy consumption when it is driven into the unfamiliar territory of massively parallel computing.
In order to solve the problem of inefficiency, GPUs (graphics processing units) are used with CPUs in the current
artificial neural network hardware. Utilizing thousands of computational cores that execute simple arithmetic
calculations, the energy efficiency has been improved dozens of times in GPUs.
The fact that the improvement of energy
efficiency does not scale well with the numberof cores shows that there is a limit in
improving the energy efficiency by blindly
increasing the number of cores without afundamental change in interconnection
scheme, role distribution between memoryand core, and the storage characteristic ofmemory. Recently, dedicated neural-network
Fig. 1: Building blocks of biological neural network: (a) neuron,processors such as NPUs (neural processingand (b) synapse
units) and TPUs (tensor processing units) haveraised energy efficiency significantly, but they still appear to fall behind the human brain. Especially, if we consider
the capability of long-term memory in addition to that of simple arithmetic calculation, current NPUs and TPUs
that use a volatile memory as their main memory cannot compete with human brain. For example, if a DRAM
(dynamic random access memory) is used for synaptic weight storage, more than 1 kW will be wasted to justrefresh 1015 bytes, which correspond to the memory capacity of human brain.
In order to solve these issues and implement an integrated circuit (IC) with the energy efficiency of human brain,
we need in-depth understanding of biological neural networks. The first step is to take a close look at the building
blocks of biological neural network: neurons and synapses. A neuron receives input signals, adds them up, andintegrates them temporally. If the integrated signal exceeds a threshold, the neuron generates a spike. A synapse
is located at the position where a neuron contacts another neuron, and it multiplies the input signal by a weight(computation) and transfer it to the post-synaptic neuron (interconnection). In addition to the roles ofcomputation and interconnection, the synapse acts as a memory cell that stores the weight for a short and longterm. Such an important stature of synapse is in strong contrast with the passive and subordinate role of thememory of a digital computer that is separate from the CPU (or GPU) and has only an information storage function.
Interconnection is the “heart” of a neural network. It is the synapse that takes care of the interconnection strength
as well as its storage. Once the synapse combines the function of memory with that of interconnection, thebottleneck between processors and memories is automatically resolved. In the biological neural network, thememory plays a key role in computation (memory-centric computing), enabling massively parallel processing.

26 | P a g e

Rosenblatt, a pioneer in the study of artificial neural network hardware, proposed the concept of perceptron by
mimicking the functions of neurons and synapses in 1957 [1], and it was implemented as a hardware called Mark
1 Perceptron. The Mark 1 Perceptron was designed for image recognition and had a photocell connected to an
artificial neuron. The weight of the synapse was implemented with a potentiometer, which was adjusted by anelectric motor during training. Perceptrons aroused great expectations in the early days, but when it was revealed
that there was no general method to train multi-layer perceptrons, they suffered from a severe downturn for aconsiderable period of time, eventually surviving only in the form of a software.
In the mid-1980s, when the error
back-propagation
technique,which can be used to train
multilayer perceptron, wasintroduced [2], interest in
artificial
neuralnetworks
increased dramatically. At thesame time, attempts have been
made to implement artificial
neural networks with VLSI CMOS
ICs. However, as it became clearthat it was difficult to apply theerror backpropagation technique
to deep neural networks of threeor more layers, the artificial
neural network faced a downturn
once again, and expectations forthe implementation of neuralFig. 2: Building blocks of NNIC: (a) synapse device and (b) neuron circuit
network ICs (NNICs) faded away accordingly. Research on NNICs was resumed only in the mid-2000s, when theclue to the solution of the error backpropagation problem in deep neural networks began to appear. The complete
solution was found with the advent of the rectified linear unit (ReLU) in 2010 [3], and then earnest effort has been
made in the area of NNICs.
In order to manufacture an NNIC with a degree of integration similar to that of a biological neural network, it isnecessary to implement an artificial synapse with weight adjustability and long-term memory (non-volatile)
characteristics, which are essential characteristics of biological synapses, as one device. Neurons also have to beconstructed with a smallest number of devices. To achieve these goals, various synaptic devices based on flash
memory [4], RRAM (resistive random access memory), PRAM (phase-change random access memory), and
MRAM (magnetic random access memory) have been developed. Integrate-and-fire neurons that can increaseenergy efficiency through event-driven characteristics are drawing attention [5]. Fig. 2 shows the building blocksof NNIC. An artificial neural network made by combining these building blocks is called a spiking neural network(SNN), and SNN is in the spotlight as a third-generation artificial neural network most similar to a biological neuralnetwork.
The problem that SNN has not been able to solve for a while is that it is difficult to find an effective supervised
learning method in deep neural networks. It was known that the learning method used in biological neuralnetworks is spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) [6], but STDP is a learning method that is performed between
two layers, so that supervised learning method such as the error backpropagation technique cannot be
implemented in a deep neural network. This difficulty is overcome as the equivalence between the SNN and theconventional neural network using the ReLU is discovered [7]. Two neural networks that seem to behave very
differently at first glance perform the same operation if they have the same structure and synaptic weights (Fig.
3). Due to this equivalence, the same result can be obtained by transferring the weight obtained by training asoftware neural network having the same structure to the synapse of an SNN and using it for inference. This has
opened the way for the weights obtained by using advanced software learning techniques, gained through27 | P a g e

decades of hard work, to be implanted into highly energy-efficient hardware. The day when an NNIC rivaling
human brain in energy efficiency will emerge does not appear to be far from now.
Fig. 3: Equivalence between (a)SNN and (b) neural network with
ReLU activation function

References
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]

F. Rosenblatt, “The Perceptron - a perceiving and recognizing automaton,” Report 85-460-1, Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory, 1957.
D.E. Rumelhart, G.E. Hinton, R.J. Williams, “Learning representations by back-propagating errors,” Nature. 323 (6088): 533, 1986.
V. Nair and G. Hinton “Rectified linear units improve restricted Boltzmann machines,” Int. Conf. Machine Learning,
2010.
H. Kim, et al., “Silicon-Based Floating-Body Synaptic Transistor With Frequency-Dependent Short- and Long-Term
Memories,” IEEE Electron Device Letters, 37(3), 249, 2016.
J. Park, et al., “Compact Neuromorphic System With Four-Terminal Si-Based Synaptic Devices for Spiking Neural
Networks,” IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, 64(5), 2438, 2017.
G.Q. Bi, M.M. Poo, “Synaptic modifications in cultured hippocampal neurons: dependence on spike timing, synaptic strength, andpostsynaptic cell type,” J. Neuroscience, 18, 10464, 1998.
P. O’Connor, M. Welling, “Deep Spiking Networks,” arXiv :1602.08323, 2016.

Byung-Gook Park received his BS and MS degrees in Electronics Engineering from Seoul
National University (SNU), and PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford
University. He worked at the AT&T Bell Laboratories and Texas Instruments before hejoined SNU as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, where he is currently a Professor. His research interests include the design
and fabrication of neuromorphic devices and circuits, CMOS devices, flash and resistive
memories. He has authored and co-authored over 1600 research papers in journals
and conferences, and holds 120 Korean and 50 U.S. patents. He served as an IEEE Seoul
Section Chair and is serving as an IEEE Region 10 ExCom Member. He is an IEEE Fellow,
NAEK Member, and KAST Fellow.

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From Image/Video Compression to Multi-Modal Data Organization for
the Future IoT Era
Seishi Takamura, FIEEE, NTT Media Intelligence Laboratories

Image/Video compression overview
Almost every day every moment we are enjoying watching video, teleconferencing, taking/taken video/photo,
posting/sending them, and looking at pictures via smartphones, TV, PC etc. More and more amount of data has
been transferred over the internet. The visual data in Internet protocol (IP) traffic has been reported that IP video
traffic accounted for 75% of all worldwide IP traffic in 2017 and will be 82% by 2022 [1]. Those traffic are mostly
occupied by already compressed video (not raw data captured by sensors). Image/video coding, which is thesame as compression, has been researched nearly a century. Its incunabulum dates back to the creation of AT&T
Bell-Lab's first videophone system, called Ikonophone, in 1927 [2]. An analog television standard, NTSC, wasstandardized in 1941 and TV broadcasting had spread over the world.
Later, digital video representation system emerged in 1970s, whose (at the time) huge data amount naturally
required compression. CCITT (current ITU-T) created the first video coding standard, H.120, in 1984, andsucceeded by H.261 in 1990. In 1992, the first and still widely used image coding standard, ISO/IEC 10918 JPEG
was created. ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 11(MPEG) created MPEG-1 (used by video CD etc.) [3], MPEG-2 (with ITUT, widely used by DVD, HDD recorders, digital broadcasting etc.), MPEG-4, and MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding(AVC, with ITU-T, currently the most widely used coding scheme, by Blu-ray disks, digital broadcasting etc.) in
1993, 1995, 1998 and 2003 respectively. In 2013, MPEG-H High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) was created, andits 3D video extensions were created in 2015. It has been used by ultra-high definition (UHD) TV, etc. Veryrecently, latest video coding standard, MPEG-I Versatile Video Coding (VVC) [3] was created in July 2020.
Fig. 1:
Evolution of video coding
technology and compression
performance

Roughly, compression performance has been doubled each time major video coding standard is established
before HEVC, and steadily improving over the years (Fig. 1). VVC (with reference software VTM10.0) achieves
25% less bitrate for still image and 30-36% less bitrate for video compared to preceding standard HEVC (withreference software HM16.2). Besides its high coding efficiency, VVC is also capable of various functionalities suchas screen content (non-camera-captured contents such as PC screen or gaming) coding, adaptive resolutionchange, spatial scalability, tile-based streaming and 360-degree video coding. Though VVC runs x6~x24 slower
than HEVC, decoding is not very slow (less than x2). Recently, very fast and efficient software implementation of
VVC codec is developed, which provides x100 faster encoding than VTM while maintaining even better subjective
quality [4].
Visual image compression performance comparison between coding standards JPEG, JPEG2000 and VVC areshown in Fig. 2. They are all compressed down to 1/100 of original size. If you take a closer look, the differences

29 | P a g eare obvious. In JPEG, both background and feather area have blocking artifacts and pseudo color distortion
around bird’s eye is observed. JPEG2000 still suffers from feather detail, while VVC has no obvious impairment.
Fig. 2:
Coded images of JPEG(left),
JPEG2000(middle) and VVC(right)
at the same compression rate
(1/100)Organizing Increasing IoT data
Multi-modal IoT sensors (such as camera, microphone, thermometer, LiDAR, hygrometer, etc.) are expected to
be deployed around the world to collect omni-ambient data, which will make various applications possible. For
example, weather forecasting, disaster prevention, smart cities, surveillance, security, intelligent transportsystems, infrastructure maintenance, etc. It has been reported that the growth in storage devices is expected toincrease 10-fold per decade, which is estimated to reach 100 zettabytes (ZB) (1 ZB = 1021 bytes) by 2030 and 1
yottabyte (YB) (1 YB = 1024 bytes) by 2040. However, the growth of IoT data is expected to increase 40-fold per
decade, which is estimated to reach 1 YB by 2030 and 40 YB by 2040 [5]. That literally means most of obtained
data shall be abandoned without being recorded. It is easily expected that visual data occupies most of the dataamount, so undoubtedly VVC will be a killer compression tool. However, since it is single-modal (i.e., only visual)oriented, still it deserves room for improvement when dealing with multi-modal data. Suppose there are two
signal sources X and Y, if they have a correlation, it is always better to compress X and Y (or even more) jointly.
This encourages us to leave from conventional single-modal data coding and advance toward multi-modal datacoding. Fig. 3 shows an example of such multi-modal data acquisition situation.
Fig. 3: Example of correlated multimodal data from same provenance

Conclusion
In this article, we overviewed the long history of video coding technology and introduced the state-of-the-art
performance. Then we have extended the compression target from conventional video to future omni-ambient
data, and highlighted that multi-modal coding technique shall gain more importance in future IoT era. It is

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expected more research efforts will be contributed to this area, and organizing such extravagant amount of data
will open up new types of applications.
References[1] Cisco Visual Networking Index: Forecast and Trends, 2017–2022 White Paper[2] M. Lauri, “Mobile Videophone”, Proc. Research Seminar on Telecommunications Business, Helsinki University ofTechnology, pp. 37-41, Spring 2007
[3] ISO/IEC 23090-3, “Information technology — Coded representation of immersive media — Part 3: Versatile videocoding”, July 2020.
[4] A. Wieckowskielal.,“Towards a Live Software Decoder Implementation for the Upcoming Versatile Video Coding (VVC)
Codec,” Proc. IEEE ICIP 2020, Oct. 2020
[5] S. Takamura, “Data-coding Approaches for Organizing Omni-ambient Data,” NTT Technical Review, Vol. 17, No. 12, pp.
28-34, Dec. 2019

Seishi Takamura received the B.E., M.E. and Ph.D. degrees from the University ofTokyo in 1991, 1993 and 1996, respectively. In 1996 he joined Nippon Telegraph andTelephone (NTT) Corporation, where he has been engaged in research on efficient
video coding and ultra-high quality video coding. He has fulfilled various duties in the
research and academic community in current and prior roles including Associate
Editor of IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, Executive
Committee Member of IEEE Tokyo Section, Japan Council and Region 10 (Asia-Pacific).
He has also served as Chair of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29 Japan National Body, Japan Headof Delegation of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29, and as an International Steering Committee
Member of the Picture Coding Symposium. From 2005 to 2006, he was a Visiting Scientist at Stanford University,
California, USA. He is currently a Senior Distinguished Engineer at NTT Media Intelligence Laboratories. Dr.
Takamura is a Fellow of IEEE and IEICE, a senior member of IPSJ, and a member of MENSA, APSIPA, SID and ITE.

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R10
PERSONALITIESOF THEMONTH

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3. R10 PERSONALITIES OF THE MONTH
R10 Personality of the Month – Atul Negi
Hyderabad Section
Atul Negi first joined as an IEEE Student Member in 1993 and completed 28 years as an IEEE Member. He has
been actively contributing as an IEEE volunteer since 1998. His first volunteering assignment was as the Student
Branch Counselor of IEEE Student Branch, University of Hyderabad. He was elected to the executive committeeof the IEEE Hyderabad Section and served as the Students Activities Chair during 1999-2000. After serving in theexecutive committee, he was elected as the Computer Society Chapter Chair during 2004-2005. After serving as
Section Treasurer and Section Vice-Chair during the years 2006-2007, he was elected Section Chair for IEEE
Hyderabad Section during 2012-2013.
Registration at WIECON2012

During this period, he was part of two major events for Region 10 in Hyderabad,the first being the Region 10 WIE Congress (WIECON2012) in March 2012 which
attracted 607 participants from many states of India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
In July 2013, Hyderabad Section hosted the Region 10 Congress of WIE, Students
and GOLD (Young Professionals used to be known as Graduates of the Last
Decade) in a grand manner. Dr. Negi was also part of the initiation of thefollowing Chapters in IEEE Hyderabad Section: Computational Intelligence Society Chapter, CAS/EDS Joint
Chapter, Photonics Society Chapter, and Education Society Chapter. As Section Chair, he helped initiate theConference Organizers Workshop series for IEEE Conference organizers.
Region 10 Meeting 2013 Receiving Large
Section Award, Hyderabad Section from
Toshio Fukuda then Director Region 10.

Dr. Negi was a member of the organizing committee and publications coChair for TENCON2008, when it was hosted by IEEE Hyderabad Section
under the leadership of Prof. Arun Agarwal at University of Hyderabad.
He was also active as the track co-chair for Computational Intelligence
track in TENCON2019 in Kochi, hosted by Kerala Section. For TENSYMP
2015 organized by Gujarat Section, he was Tutorials Chair and he helped
as track chair during TENSYMP2017 organized by Kerala Section.
Dr. Negi was active in IEEE India Council and was the publications chair
and Computing Track co-chair for INDICON2011. During INDICON2019, he
was Tutorials Chairs as well as the invited speaker. He was the Vice-Chairof Educational activities for India Council during 2017-2018. He has
attended Sections Congress in Sydney in 2017 and was part of the CAS
Chapter team giving lectures at IoT Workshop at Bandung Indonesia
Section CAS Chapter. For his efforts as an IEEE volunteer, he was awarded
the 2020 R10 Outstanding Volunteer Award.

Dr. Atul Negi is currently working as a full professor in the School ofComputer and Information Sciences at University of Hyderabad,
Telangana, India and previously worked as Director at PIES, Indore, India.
He holds the Ph.D. and MSc (Engg.) degrees from University of Hyderabad
and Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India, respectively. He
graduated with distinction in Electronics and Communication Engineeringfrom Osmania University, Hyderabad, India in 1986. He has delivered the
IETE Distinguished K. K. Nair memorial lecture in 2012 and was a keynote
and inaugural speaker at several national conferences in India. His work on
pattern recognition and document imaging is well cited and he has morethan 100 publications in peer-reviewed conferences and journals.

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With R10 Director-Elect Prof. Lance
Fung at Mini-POCO in Hyderabad

R10 WIE Personality of the Month – Qiaowei YUAN
Sendai Section
Qiaowei YUAN (https://researchmap.jp/qiaowei?lang=en) received her BE, ME,
and PhD from Xidian University, Xi’an, China, in 1986, 1989, and 1997, respectively.
From 1990 to 1991, she was a special research student at Tohoku University,
Sendai, Japan. From 1992 to 1995, she worked at Sendai Research andDevelopment Laboratory, Matsushita Communication Company, Ltd. (Panasonic
System Networks R&D Lab. Co., Ltd.), engaging in researching and designing ofcompact antennas for second generation mobile phones. From 1997 to 2002, with
Sendai Research and Development Center, Oi Electric Company, Ltd., she wasinvolved in researching and designing of small antennas for pager communications
and the parabolic antenna for 26.5 GHz fixed wireless access (FWA)
communication. From 2002 to 2007, with Intelligent Cosmos Research Institute, Sendai, Japan, she was involvedin the research and development of adaptive array antennas and RF circuits for mobile communications. From2007 to 2008, she was an Associate Professor at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. From 2009 to
2019, she served as the Associate Professor/Professor at National Institute of Technology, Sendai College.
Currently, she is the Professor and the head of IoT technology research project in Tohoku Institute of Technology.
She was also a visiting scholar at ElectroScience Laboratory of Ohio State University in USA from April 2015 to
September 2015.
Although Dr. Yuan has switched her career from industry to academic, her major has never changed, focusing onelectromagnetic wave engineering. Dr. Yuan received the Best Paper Award and Zenichi Kiyasu Award in 2009,
from the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers (IEICE) of Japan. She has also
received the Achievement Award from IEICE in 2015, and other Achievement Awards from IEICE TechnicalCommittee on Wireless Power Transfer from 2016 to 2017, and IEICE Technical Committee on Antenna
Propagation in 2020, respectively.
Dr. Yuan is an IEEE Senior Member belonging to IEEE
Sendai Section, Japan. Currently, she is the Chair of Sendai
Women in Engineering (WIE) Affinity Group, the executive
committee member of IEEE Sendai Section, WIE
committee member of IEEEMTT Society, IEEE MTT-25
wireless power transfer and energy conversion committee
member (https://mtt.org/profile/qiaowei-yuan/).
In April 2017, together with previous Sendai WIE Chair Dr.
Basabi Chakraborty and Treasurer Mr. Hitoshi Kikuchi, Dr. Yuan dedicated herself to establish Sendai WIE andserved as the first Vice-Chair of Sendai WIE during 2017 to 2018. From 2019, as the Chair of Sendai WIE, Dr. Yuan
has been working on increasing the number of Sendai WIE members, organizing high quality events involving
more and more young females to enjoy science and technologies, and connecting with otherdomestic/international WIE groups. As a result, the number of Sendai WIE members has increased to 19 from 6
at the establishment and several annular activities have been successfully organized. Sendai WIE has alreadysubmitted five R10 Newsletters for reporting its activities since its establishment. Sendai WIE will continue its
journey to move forward actively with more and more members in the Tohoku area of Japan to continuously
support women in engineering (https://www.ieee-jp.org/section/sendai/AG/wie/index.html).
Dr. Yuan feels that she has benefited and been inspired by other fabulous WIE leaders and WIEs, widening her
humanity network by attending and prompting various IEEE volunteer activities. Dr. Yuan will be R10 committee
member from 2021 and is looking forward to promoting and participating many more R10 WIEs activities.

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R10 YP Personality of the Month – Aravindhan Anbazhagan
Madras Section
Aravindhan Anbazhagan is an engineer, educator, soft skill trainer and an aspiring entrepreneur. Professionally,
he graduated with his undergraduate degree in Computer Science Engineering from Sri Muthukumaran Instituteof Technology, Chennai in 2016. Because of his interest and passion in education and social sector, he served asa full-time teacher at Chennai Middle School, MGR Nagar as part of the Teach For India Fellowship Program from2016 to 2018. He also served as a member of the staff team of Teach for India - Chennai from 2018 to 2020. He
recently founded a virtual education startup, EduRiseGlobal (www.eduriseglobal.com) with a vision to provide
quality online education for everyone.

IEEE Membership at MES College ofEngineering, Kerala

His journey with IEEE started seven years ago in 2013, when he was inspiredby his seniors to join the world’s largest technical and professionalorganization. He actively took up the leadership responsibilities and involvedin organizing more than 30 activities with the support of his Student Branch &CS Chapter team, including the White Talks initiative, SPAC 2015. He was also
actively involved with the activities of IEEE Madras Section as a student
ambassador of IEEEXtreme, IEEE Day and IEEEmadC. This was also the time hedeveloped his leadership, content writing, and public speaking skills, whichaccording to him were very helpful as he approached his professional life.

After his graduation, Aravindhan continued contributing to IEEE and served ondiverse committees, including IEEE CS India Student Activities Committee (Chair
2017-2018), IEEE Madras Young Professionals Committee (Member 2017-2019;
Chair 2020), and IEEE Region 10 Educational Activities Committee (Member 20182020). He initiated the IEEE Young Professionals Committee of IEEE Professional
Communications Society and served as the YP Representative during 2019-2020. He
also actively contributed to the growth of educational activities in India and iscurrently leading the IEEE Inspire India team, a project funded by NIC.
Over the past 7 years, he has involved himself with more than 150 student andyoung professional activities and delivered guest lectures and membershipdevelopment talks at over 75 institutions. He enjoys interacting with the students
and shares his experiences. Aravindhan represented IEEE Madras Section at theflagship events including, IEEE R10 SYWL (2015, 2016 & 2020) and IEEE Sections IEEE MGA Young Professionals
Achievement Award 2019
Congress (2017). He led the Program Committee of All India IEEE Computer Society
Students & Young Professionals Congress 2018 held at Goa, which had a participation of over 150 delegates.
During the lockdown, he has spoken at more than 40 webinars organized by various IEEE OU’s around the globe
and initiated the ProSpeakers Mentoring Program with the IEEE ProComm Young Professionals team, throughwhich 8 first-time speakers received the opportunity to get mentored, and to speak at a forum for the first time.
Aravindhan has won many laurels as an IEEE volunteer including, IEEE CS Richard E Merwin Scholarship (2014),
IEEE MGA Larry K Wilson Achievement Award (2016), IEEE EAB Meritorious
Achievement Award in Pre-University Education (2018), IEEE CS Continuous
Service Award (2019) and IEEE MGA Young Professionals Achievement Award(2019). According to Aravindhan, one of the key motivation factors with IEEE, isthe opportunity to network and work with other incredible volunteers aroundthe globe, through which he has learnt a lot of new things and acquired new
skills. He believes in the quote, ‘You don’t need to be someone to do something
Speaking at TEDx event held atforothers; you have to do something for others to become that someone.’
GCEK, Pune during 201935 | P a g e

R10 Student Personality of the Month – Indhumathi Gunasekaran
Madras Section
Ms. Indhumathi Gunasekaran is an Associate Software Engineer at Accenture,
India. She completed her Bachelor in Engineering in Electronics andCommunication Engineering from Panimalar Institute of Technology (PIT),
Chennai, India. She is currently serving in the roles of Regional Student ambassadorof Region 10, Publicity and Promotions Lead of IEEE WIE International Leadership
Summit 2020, Member of PELS Students Sub-committee, Member of PELS Womenin Engineering, Founding Chair of Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society and IEEE
Brand Ambassador. She has served as the Section lead of IEEEXtreme 14.0, Student
Chapter Ambassador of Power and Energy Society, Chairperson of Computer
Society Chapter of IEEE Panimalar Institute of Technology Student Branch & ViceChairperson of IEEE PIT SB. Indhumathi was previously the IEEE Student Branch
Secretary and Chairperson of Women in Engineering AG of the Student Branch.
Indhu has won the IEEE Women in Engineering Inspiring Student Member Award in 2020 for her distinguishedleadership and outstanding contributions as a volunteer, at the Section and Regional levels, serving the IEEE andIEEE Women in Engineering for the benefit of its members and the engineering profession; IEEE CS Richard E
Merwin Scholarship for her outstanding leadership as a Student Volunteer; IEEE CS Upsilon Pi Epsilon Scholarshipand Grace Hopper Celebration India Scholarship in recognition of her outstanding academic and professional
accomplishments.
Acknowledging her achievements, she has been awarded the "Outstanding Student Award 2020", "Emerging
Student Volunteer” award for the year 2018 and "The Best Student of the Year 2018" by Indian Society forTechnical Education (ISTE) Tamil Nadu Section level in their 18th Annual Convention. She has also proved herself
in academics with outstanding performance. She secured the first rank in her department during the university
examinations for several academic years. She has been an active participant, volunteer and has coordinated andorganized many co-curricular and extracurricular activities. She has been and will always be a source ofinspiration for upcoming minds in her alma mater. In her spare time, she founded and served as organizing
secretary for She-the coder and initiated several school education programs. Her kindness, determination andcourage have resulted not only in several achievements but also blossomed her into a remarkable person.
Indhumathi Gunasekaran speaks of her experience with IEEE, “My IEEE journey has been a journey full of learningand discovery. When I first stepped into IEEE, I was not completely aware that IEEE would take me here to theone who I am today. During my initial days, I wasn't aware of the opportunities underlying for a Student Member
in IEEE. But then I found ways to explore more by taking part in various programs right from my SB events to lotsof global events. Attending conferences and volunteering for a greater cause expanded my network globally,
resulting in gaining valuable connections of multiple eminent personalities from industries & academia.
I have started my journey as a delegate and gradually grown to be a volunteer in coordinating & organizing
several international events. All through the various phases of this journey, IEEE has taught me numerous things—including dealing with uncertainties, being open-minded, developing social responsibility, cultural awareness,balancing personal and professional life, building self-esteem and giving back selflessly. Through IEEE, I was able
to give back to the community by helping others in whatsoever way I can (by mentoring other students, taking
part in STAR Program, reaching out to the children in need, taking initiatives in organizing technical programs,etc.). In fact, I found time to spread smiles. Every skill learned, mattered!
I could say that the important component required for the growth of any Engineers would be the knowledge ofground-breaking technologies, mentoring and networking. And IEEE gives you the best combination of all thesethree. The free access to IEEE publications helped me in staying current with the technology. Having the rightmentors by my side helped me in achieving greatness not just in terms of work, but also in terms of life in its

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overall fundamentality. A special thanks to my mentor Mr. Arun M. (SBC | Assistant Professor, ECE | Panimalar
Institute of Technology) for the mentorship that he has given me over the past years. Having the opportunity tolearn from him has made a substantial change in my life. I never imagined I would be able to make as muchprogress as I have. Thanks to Mr. Arun M., for teaching me so much. I'm always grateful to him for his supportand kindness.
Finally, it isn't super easy for anyone to keep up the life curve growing. Many of us quit at times when we are
faced with rejections or failures. Learning from failures and progressing hard requires lots of courage. The spiritthat I gained from my co-volunteers and my mentors kept me going all through these years having this wonderfulexperience to share with you all!”

R10 Life Member Personality of the Month – A. G. Hareendralal
Kerala Section
A.G. Hareendralal is a Life Senior Member of IEEE. His association with IEEE can be divided into three phases,
namely learning phase in Kerala Section from 1982 to 1993; mentoring phase in UAE Section of R8 from 2000 to
2008; and golden phase, again with Kerala Section from 2012, winning several laurels. Though he came acrossIEEE as a student from IEEE Periodicals, he could not realize his dream of IEEE membership due to the subscription
cost and lack of adequate information about its benefits. But the constant encouragement by his colleagues
paved the way for his obtaining a membership in IEEE in 1982 and continued to be a member in spite of financial
problems.
His first challenge was organizing National Workshop on 'Computer Application in Power System’ in 1985, which
was a grand success. This workshop provided him lot of opportunities: networking throughout the country, andachieving success in implementing computer applications in the power utility by procuring the first computer
systems. This positive step led to a series of innovations in his company. This includes the installation of the first
Wind Electric Generator, non-invasive detection of failures inunderground cables, and attempting cloud seeding for the firsttime by a power utility in the country. This was a milestone in his
career and aided him in his profession to a great extent.
Soon, he served Kerala Section in several capacities and finallybecoming the Chair of Kerala Section in 1992. During this period,
Kerala Section reached a commendable position in India Council
as well as Region 10. He gratefully reminisces those periods
where he worked guided, mentored and supported by thestalwarts of Kerala Section.
He joined the UAE Section as its Secretary in 2000. It was almost
dormant with limited activities, around 200 members and one Student
Branch. When he left UAE in 2008, the Section has more than 3000
members, with 6 Chapters, 11 Student Branches, one Sub-section andseveral International conferences to its credit. He was the founder Chairof PES UAE Chapter from 2000 to 2005. During this period, he could get
recognition from several quarters because of his association with IEEE.

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He was the Chair of PES Kerala Chapter and ViceChair in Charge of LMAG Kerala Section during
2016-2017 and Chair of LMAG for 2018-2019.
During his chairmanship, PES Chapter saw
phenomenal growth in its Membership andbecame the largest PES Chapter of IEEE and the
Chapter won the Outstanding Small Chapter Awardfor 2017. LMAG was also adjudged the Outstanding
LMAG for 2017.
During this period, more than 250 programs under PES and LMAG were organised on different topics for different
target groups in line with the tag line of IEEE, “Advancing Technology for Humanity”. These include programs forhousewives towards “Women Empowerment”, for socially and economically disadvantaged communities to
uplift their social and economic status, and also for pre-university Students, first year Engineering Students,
Student Members, Young Professionals, Women in Engineering, etc. These were organised joining hands withdifferent organisations and different IEEE entities (YPs, WIEs, LMAGs, different government departments,
different NGOs). Variety was the hallmark of the PES Chapter during this period.
He was adjudged the India Council Outstanding Volunteer Award in 2018, and R10 Outstanding Life Member
Volunteer Award in 2020. Currently, as the Chair of Intersociety Activities Committee, he is working with 6 otherprofessional organisations. The committee is successfully organising a Weekly Webinar Series every Wednesday
between 6pm and 7pm IST. The Webinars have been received well by the participants from 15 countries making
it a grand success.
Hareendralal feels that his association with IEEE has imbued a sense of professionalism in him and credits this tohis success in his career and profession. IEEE is a platform where persons with different profiles can perform wellin improving the quality of life for themselves as well as the society.

R10 COVID19 Personalities of the Month – C Subramaniam, Syuhaida
Ismail and Wan Nurul Mardiah Wan Mohd Rani
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Kuala Lumpur (UTMKL)
Communication Effectiveness at Construction Site during COVID-19 Outbreak in Malaysia: Case
Studies of G7 Contractors
The construction industry is severely impacted due to the COVID-19 outbreak. As a labor-intense industry
clocking 7.2 percent annual growth rate, the construction industry is hugely impacted with currently a 60%
decline in the annual turnover due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Movement Control Order (MCO) due to the
COVID-19 pandemic has currently stalled allactivities at the construction sites. The
construction industry is facing a bleak future;
delays at construction sites are a certainty andwould subsequently result in cost escalation. Manycompanies are unable to cope with such losses.
Apart from this, many construction workers arealso in despair as they have lost their jobs. Taking
note of this inimical impact on the constructionindustry, the Government of Malaysia has
cautiously decided to loosen the restrictions under
Briefing and site visit by main contractor at Site-PJS
the MCO and slowly permit various activities to

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resume at the construction sites. The stakeholders majorly affected by this intervention are apparently theconstruction employees, who are largely involved in the day-to-day construction activities at sites, as well asother construction industry stakeholders such as the contractors and sub-contractors, consultants, developers,clients suppliers and those involved in the construction industry supply chain. Hence, effective Communications
Management (CM) is crucial in construction projects as it is very complex and involves various stakeholders,
especially with MCO restrictions, wherein physical meetings and discussions are limited.
Use of online work environments could be the panacea for theconstruction industry, but even these solutions require effective
CM. The construction industry does not have the luxury of working
from home, because there is a substantial need for physicalpresence. Therefore, this study aims to investigate thecommunication effectiveness at the construction site during the
COVID-19 outbreak based on the CM practice in Malaysia. This
investigation involves 3 case studies involving G7 contractor
companies currently working on mixed development projects in
Malaysia. A series of interviews were conducted with the top
management at the construction site to examine each company's
current CM practice. In addition to this, a questionnaire survey was
also distributed to the general workers to assess communication
effectiveness during the COVID-19 outbreak. The findings were thattwo of these contractor companies demonstrated highcommunication effectiveness due to the implementation of theInternet of Things (IoT), morning briefing, single lingual use andfriendly communication approaches. However, the othercontractor displayed poor communication effectiveness due to lackof IoT implementation, multilingual practice and inferiorIEEE students volunteers performing data
communication approach at the construction site. This study
collection with site supervisorsconcluded that CM practice directly affects communication
effectiveness at the construction site. The use of single lingual practice, IoT implementation as well as barcode
scanning for latest instruction and report updates keep site workers updated. Friendly communication approachat the construction site also helps the general workers understand better to increase communication
effectiveness.

IEEE students volunteers performing data collection at Centralised Labour Quarter (CLQ)

Check out the multimedia version of the COVID-19 Personality of the Month at the link below:

http://newsletter.ieeer10.org/home/covid-19-videos/
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R10
ORGANIZATIONALUNITS (OU)
OF THEMONTH

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4. R10 ORGANIZATIONAL UNITS OF THE MONTH
R10 Large Section of the Month – Hong Kong Section
Prepared by: Paulina Chan, Chair for HK Section & Leon Lei, Newsletter Editor for HK Section
The COVID-19 pandemic has generated pendulum
changes in organizational ecosystems and made allembrace new norms. For the Hong Kong (HK)
Section, it was a big challenge but also a huge
opportunity to fulfill our goals of providing individual
benefits and services to current and prospective
members. The Section was inaugurated in 1972. Asof November 2020, the section has 9,570 members,
with 20 Chapters, 3 Affinity Groups, and 5 Student Branches.
The Section has vibrant chapters, student branches, and affinity groups.
Recently, the section received support from IEEE Region 10 Membership
Development and Leadership Training Fund for further enhancing andimproving membership recruitment, retention, and reinstatement (the"3Rs") of the Section. The Section also launched the "IEEE Gift ofMembership Program" to offer complementary memberships tomotivate new entrants of Student Members to all five Student Branches.
The Section and Young Professionals Affinity Group (YPAG) organized a
Tech-in-Life (TIL) Business Hackathon for teams of students fromuniversities. Unlike traditional hackathons, this TIL hackathon focused on
business planning and product development rather than programming a
prototype. The goal was to encourage everyone to think out-of-the-box
and solve problems through effective teamwork. All team members
gained insights beyond their classroom experience towards benefits incareer planning, personal development and networking.
The Section has been recently declared the Winner for the IEEE Region 10 Educational Activities New Innovative
Challenge (Pre-University Category) for its initiative "Empower Diversified Learners in Hong Kong with IEEE
TryEngineering". The section is now actively designing a series of blended activities for local secondary school
students based on the adaption of IEEE TryEngineering resources and VR resources. The first theme will be on"Fighting against COVID-19". Meanwhile, the Education Chapter worked closely with e-learning support teams
in universities for helping teachers to overcome challenges in conducting their remote/hyflex teaching during
COVID-19. This initiative has also been shortlisted for the E-Learning Award in
the Wharton-QS Reimagine Education Awards 2020.
The Section has also closely collaborated with industries and Region 10
committees on professional activities. For example, there is an active
collaboration with external partners on Continuing Education on Deep Learning
workshop. Section members also attended and presented in tracks of Region
10 SYWL Biannual Congress on sharing experiences with other Sections.
Some of the recent achievements of the HK Section include:-

Region 10 Best Membership Growth (Large Section) Award
Region 10 Best Membership Retention (Large Section) Award
Region 10 Student Membership Development and Leadership Training Fund: Recipient
Region 10 Educational Activities New Innovative Challenge (Pre-University Category): Winner
Region 10 Individual Benefits & Services (IBS): Rank 1 Best Proposal Award

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R10 Medium Section of the Month – Tainan Section
Prepared by: Jiann-Fuh Chen, Chair for Tainan Section
The IEEE Tainan Section, located in southern Taiwan, wasinitiated by a preparatory committee and formallyestablished in 2003. It provides services to the members
who reside in Yunlin, Chiayi, Tainan, Kaohsiung andPingtun. It has grown to a medium Section with currently
more than 700 members and 18 Chapters along with twoStudent Branches. The Section is named after the city of
Tainan, an ancient capital city on the island of Taiwan. For
its rich folk culture and countless historical monuments,
Tainan has become one the most popular sites to hostinternational conferences in Taiwan.
The mission of the Tainan Section includes:
1) Basic assistance to members of Tainan Section in membership development,
2) Dissemination of knowledge in the broader fields of electrical and electronics engineering
through holding of technical talks, seminars, conferences, symposia, workshops, tutorials, etc.
3) Assistance to IEEE members in developing chapters and organizing various activities,4) Support to Student Branches.
Among its promotional strategies to recognize the technical achievements of members in industrial
applications, the Section has instituted awards such as IEEE Tainan Section Delta Award, IEEE Tainan
Section Macronix Award, and IEEE Tainan Section Himax Award. These awards have been highly
appreciated by the members.
2020 was a rough year for the Section due to the pandemic. Many sponsored conferences were either
cancelled or held virtually. Nonetheless, the Section has been holding all the regular board meetings
and annual member meetings with adequate safety measures. The constant activities, though not in alarge scale, allowed the Section to bring its members together during these difficult times. Looking
ahead, the Section will continue to stay alert and cooperate with R10 to promote various activities
considering the restrictions.
Thanks to the contributions of the Section officers over the years, the Tainan Section continues to thrive
both in academics and industry relations. For its efforts, the Section was awarded the R10 Best
Membership Growth Medium Section Award in 2020.

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R10 Small Section of the Month – Australian Capital Territory (ACT)
SectionPrepared by: Fouad Karouta, Chair for ACT Section
The ACT Section (http://ieeeact.org/) was established in 1988 with its membership being around 500. Thismembership base is essentially due to a high membership among employees of Government agencies located in
Canberra.
In 2019 the ACT Section held 5 administrative meetings and all the Chapters and Groups maintained the statusof “Active” with a minimum of two reported technical activities. The total technical activities of the Section
totalled 34. Here, we need to highlight the extraordinary effort of one Chapter: the SMC Chapter chaired by Dr.
Daoyi Dong, who organised and reported an impressive 14 technical activities (seminars), likely an all-time recordin the Section or at least in the last 11 years.
The Section is very proud of receiving the R10 award of “Best Small Section” in 2019. This is an excellent stimulus
for our volunteers to keep up with the good work.
This year was a particular year in Australia with drought and bush fires severely hitting the country (December
2019 to February 2020), in particular the New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory regions, with bushfires menacing Canberra around the Christmas/New Year period rendering the atmosphere unbreathable andforcing the population to use masks for protection. In January 2020 Canberra was hit by a severe hail storm
causing numerous damages in properties and cars (thousands of cars). Then came the COVID-19 pandemic
disrupting all socio-economical activities in the country (and the world) forcing all events and meetings to be
carried out online from April 2020 onwards.
With restrictions easing in the last quarter of 2020, the ANU Student Branch organised a hiking tour to the summitof the Black Mountain for ANU students on 1st November 2020. Hiking started after a walkthrough of Australian
National Botanic Gardens, followed by visiting the Telstra tower that offers an impressive view of Canberra (seePicture 1). Aside from this physical activity, the goal of this event was to give IEEE students the opportunity to
get to know each other and thereby strengthen the IEEE community.
Similarly, the AGM was held as a live meeting on 26th
November 2020 with over 40 members attending theevent, some with their partners and children. At the AGM,
the ExCom 2021 was elected. Picture 2 (top) depicts a partof the AGM gathering, and (bottom) shows the outgoing
Section Chair Fouad Karouta with the incoming Section
Chair Ambarsih Natu (seated).

Picture 1- Lake Burley Griffin and Canberra CBD from the
Telstra Tower

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Picture 2- Part of the gathering at the Black Mountain
Peninsula (top) and transfer of power between outgoing andincoming Section Chair.

R10 Student Branch of the Month – UCET Islamia University of
Bahawalpur
Prepared by: Sameea Abbasi & Farasat Ali, IEEE UCET-IUB Student Branch

Branch Introduction
The IEEE UCET – Islamia University of Bahawalpur (IUB) Student Branch, established in April 2010, has six
technical chapters and one affinity group working enthusiastically for the past 10 years. The affinity group WIE
was formed in 2013 under IEEE UCET-IUB and is dedicated to promoting women engineers, scientists, andinspiring girls in the South Punjab region of Pakistan. The technical chapters of IEEE UCET-IUB include IEEE PES,IEEE ComSoc, IEEE IAS, IEEE SMCS, IEEE SPS, and IEEE EMBS student chapters. The IEEE UCET-IUB is one of themost active branches of Pakistan and Region 10. It has won IEEE R10 SAC Best Student Branch Award twice andrecently achieved a historic feat of winning awards in all 8 categories at IEEE Lahore Section AGM 2019. For thelast two years, the branch has been able to achieve a membership count of more than 50 and a retention rate of
60-70% through various incentives offered to its volunteers. The IEEE UCET-IUB and its technical chaptersorganized more than 60 events including 3 mega-events in the last two years and won grants from IEEE
Foundation and a special IEEE HAC grant for the COVID-19 project. The branch aims to achieve more in the
coming years and continue to grow with time - https://www.facebook.com/IEEE.UCET.IUB.SB.

IEEE UCET-IUB Mega Events
3rd IEEE Bahawalpur Subsection Student/YP/WIE Congress 2019 (2-day event, 500+ participants)
The IEEE Bahawalpur Subsection Congress was hosted by the IEEE UCET-IUB student branch in 2019. The twoday event was attended by students and professionals from more thanten engineering and computer science institutes in Southern Punjab.
The main agenda of the event was to provide a platform for students
to meet researchers, entrepreneurs, young professionals, womenengineers, and fellow students to discuss the advancements in theirrespective fields - https://www.facebook.com/bssywc.

4th IEEE Asia/Pacific ComSoc Summer School Program 2019 (4-day event, 150 participants)
The 4th Asia/Pacific IEEE ComSoc Summer School 2019 was organized
by IEEE UCET-IUB SB in collaboration with the IEEE ComSoc Lahore
Chapter, IEEE Bahawalpur Subsection, and KICS-UET Lahore at theIslamia University of Bahawalpur from 9th to 12th October 2019. The
theme of the summer school was ‘Autonomous Systems’. Renowned
professors, researchers, and academicians participated as
distinguished speakers - https://www.facebook.com/IEEE-ComSoc-Summer-School-2019-100507591299359.

IEEE Foundation, Awareness on Production of Sustainable Energy through Bio-Gas Project
The IEEE Foundation approved a grant of USD10,000 for the project “Awareness, Producing of Sustainable
Electricity Bio-Gas”. This project focused on promoting clean and green energy using animal waste. The UCETIUB student branch is the first student branch in Pakistan to secure a grant from the IEEE Foundation. In addition
to a fully functional Bio-Gas plant, the IEEE UCET-IUB organized a series of awareness activities including
seminars, panel discussions and competitions. A national-level virtual seminar and a poster competition wereorganized recently wherein highly qualified panellists joined the discussion and gave their suggestions regarding
the production of energy through Bio-Gas in Pakistan - https://fb.watch/2cCA6PCB8W.

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IEEE UCET-IUB Flagship Events - IEEE AEPEXThe Annual Engineering Project Exhibition is a flagship event of the IEEE UCET-IUB Student Branch, which is beingorganized annually for the past 10 years. The main objective of AEPEX is to provide a platform to the graduatingbatches where they can exhibit their senior design projects for students, professionals, industry representatives,
etc. A large number of attendees visit this exhibition every year wherein more than 50 senior design projects are
displayed - https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=IEEE.UCET.IUB.SB&set=a.2343500412385481.

Other Events Organized by IEEE UCET-IUB in 2020
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

3rd Episode of IEEE SPAA Week 2020
IEEE Foundation Project “Awareness and Production of Sustainable Electricity through Bio Gas”
IEEE YP Local Activity, I Have Degree, Now What?
IEEE Orientation 2020
IEEE HAC Seminar on Utilization of Robotics and Drones against Locust Attacks
IEEE HAC Special Grant for “Automated Hospital Assistance System for Isolated Patients of COVID-19”

The IEEE UCET-IUB SB conducted a series of online and hybrid events during the year 2020. The events were
designed keeping in view the problems faced due to the pandemic. Moreover, the events were an effort tocontinue the activities of the Student Branch and try to engage a diverse audience through an online platform.
We used this opportunity to conduct a membership campaign through our events as well.

IEEE UCET-IUB Local Activity during COVID-19 Pandemic – Hand
Sanitizer Project
The IEEE UCET-IUB SB in collaboration with the IUB Science Society prepared
hand sanitizers in the university lab. These hand sanitizers were distributed
among the staff members and the local community of IUB including thesecurity guards and sweepers free of cost. Moreover, they were also handed
over to the local hospitals and police stations for the on-duty staff https://www.facebook.com/112791492123062/posts/2878765362192314/

IEEE Funded Projects (2020):
IEEE Foundation Grant of USD10,000 for “Awareness and Productionof Sustainable Electricity through Bio Gas”
IEEE HAC Special COVID-19 Project Grant of USD9600 for“Automated Hospital Assistance System for Isolated Patients of
COVID-19”

IEEE UCET-IUB Awards (2019-2020)
1. 2019 IEEE Lahore Section AGMi) Best Student Branch, ii) Best WIE Chapter, iii) Best Branch Counsellor 'Dr.Asjad Amin', iv) Best Student
Volunteer 'Maria Ali', v) Best YP Volunteer 'Usman Zafar', vi) Best Student Technical Chapter (IAS) (RunnerUp), vii) Best WIE Professional 'Anum Farooq' (2nd) viii) Best Student WIE Volunteer 'Syeda Areeba Fatima'(2nd)
2. 2019 IEEE R10 Outstanding Student Branch Award (2nd Place in Asia/Pacific)
3. 2019 Most Valuable Branch Counsellor Award in PSYWSC'19
4. 2020 IEEE MGA 2020 Outstanding Branch Counsellor Award (Dr. Asjad Amin)
5. 2020 IEEE MGA 2020 Darrel Chong Student Activity Award (IEEEE AEPEX 2019)45 | P a g e

R10 Student Branch of the Month – Bangladesh University ofEngineering & Technology
Prepared by: Satyaki Banik, Chair for IEEE BUET Student Branch
Lao Tzu said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” The journey of IEEE BUET Student Branch
started on 19th November 1994 with a rich history of 25 years since inception. It was the very first student branch
formed under IEEE Bangladesh Section, becoming the pioneer in IEEE student activities in Bangladesh. Over time,IEEE BUET Student Branch has become one of the largest andmost vibrant student branches of IEEE Bangladesh Section,
having more than 360 student members, a Women in
Engineering affinity group and seven technical society
chapters such as IEEE Industry Applications Society, IEEE
Electron Devices Society, IEEE Power and Energy Society, IEEE
Robotics and Automation Society, IEEE Signal Processing
Society, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society andIEEE Computer Society. All of these are creating multitude of opportunities for technical advancement of young
students, as well as grooming them to become leaders in their fields.

What we do: Reaching the locals, connecting the global
IEEE BUET Student Branch has been known for theirvibrant and varying activities over the years. With morethan 30 events on average each year, the SB organizes
meaningful and member-driven programs all year
around. The diversified set of events range fromtechnical workshops, talks and seminars tohumanitarian and professional skill development
programs, and industrial visits strengthening industryacademia collaboration. Outreach programs for preuniversity students have been one of the signature
programs to inspire young minds to enjoy the art of engineering and take up engineering for further education.
The Student Branch has organized numerous Section and globally sponsored events; these include IEEE SPS
Winter School 2019 on Multimodal Signal Processing, which was organized for the very first time in Bangladeshwith the sponsorship from IEEE Signal Processing Society; Distinguished Lecture programs by IEEE Industry
Applications Society and IEEE Electron Devices Society; IEEE Students’ Professional Awareness Conference(SPAC); Membership Development and Student Leadership Summit 2020 under the support of IEEE R10 Student
Activity Committee; Teachers-in-Service Program 2019 etc.
The Student Branch has hosted IEEE Bangladesh Section
Student-Young Professionals-Women in EngineeringMembers (SYWM) Congress 2018, IEEE Bangladesh Section
Joint Student Branch Initiative 2019 and many more Section
events. Large number of volunteers from IEEE BUET Student
Branch has volunteered in several big events, such as the IEEE
Region 10 Humanitarian Technology Conference 2017, IEEEWIE Leadership Summit 2018, IEEE Region 10 Symposium(TENSYMP) 2020 etc.

Contributions during the Pandemic
During the Covid-19 pandemic, IEEE BUET Student Branch has organized several technical, non-technical andhumanitarian events to inspire, engage, and motivate IEEE members into doing something meaningful andimpactful to the society. The Student Branch did a fundraising and donated a significant amount of money to

46 | P a g e

provide necessary food and clothing to a community of people who were in need. An online workshop series
with five sessions named Skillshop was arranged along with IEEE BUET SB WIE Affinity Group on fundamentals
of different engineering software. A webinar series named Techtalk was arranged wherein the main focus was‘Research and Innovation Challenges during Covid 19’. With more than 400 participants, seven speakers spoke
about research opportunities in the pandemic era, topics ranging from signal processing, biomedicine, electron
devices to taking care of mental health during the pandemic and embracing the new normal. IEEE BUET Student
Branch and IEEE Bangladesh Section jointly organized two-day long virtual event titled Student Membership &Leadership Summit, with the support of IEEE Region 10 Student Activities Committee. A total of 364 participantsfrom 39 countries from 10 different IEEE Regions attended the summit spread over the two days. IEEE BUET
Student Branch was also one of the supporting student branches of IEEE STEP 2020, arranged by IEEE Young
Professionals Bangladesh and IEEE Bangladesh Section.

Achievements & Recognitions: Motivations to keep going forward
IEEE BUET Student Branch has won several awards and accolades. Some of the recent achievements include:-

IEEE Darrel Chong Student Activity Award 2020 in Silver Category for “Outreach Program for PreUniversity Students” (previously won the same award in 2018, Bronze category)IEEE Regional Exemplary Student Branch Award 2019
IEEE Region 10 SAC Outstanding Volunteer Award 2018: Abhijit Biswas, Chair for IEEE BUET Student
Branch (2017-18)
IEEE Bangladesh Section Best Student Branch Award (2019, 2018, 2017, 2013)
IEEE Bangladesh Section Best Student Volunteer Award (2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 (hon.), 2015 (hon.),2013)
IEEE Bangladesh Section Best Student Volunteer for Humanitarian Activity Award (2019, 2015)
IEEE WIE Student Branch Affinity Group of the Year Award (2019, 2018 (hon.))IEEE R10 WIE Student Branch Affinity Group Award (2018, 2017 (hon.))47 | P a g e

R10
UPDATES48 | P a g e

5. R10 UPDATESR10 Section Incentives 2020
Congratulations to the following Sections/Councils for making great efforts to organize activities andsupport their local IEEE communities.
No.

Council Name

Incentive (K USD)

1

India Council

2

2

Japan Council

1.5

3

Australia Council

1

4

China Council

1

No.

Large Section

Incentive(K USD)

5

Uttar Pradesh Section

4.5

6

Hyderabad Section

4.5

7

Pune Section

3.5

8Bangladesh Section

3.5

9Kerala Section

3.5

10

Bangalore Section

3.5

11

Kolkata Section

3.5

12

Tokyo Section

3.5

13

Victorian Section

3

14

Sri Lanka Section

3

15

Hong Kong Section

3

16

Malaysia Section

3

17

Madras Section

2.5

18

Indonesia Section

2.5

19

Singapore Section

2.5

20

Kansai Section

2.5

21

New South Wales Section

2.5

22

Bombay Section

1.5

23

Delhi Section

1.5

24

Beijing Section149 | P a g e

No.

Medium Section

Incentive(K USD)
3.5

25

Western Australia Section

26

Karachi Section

3

27

Sendai Section

3

28

Hiroshima Section

3

29

Nagoya Section

330

Gujarat Section

2.5

31

Islamabad Section

2.5

32

Lahore Section

2.5

33

Queensland Section

2

34

Fukuoka Section

2

35

Tainan Section

2

36

New Zealand North Section

1

No.

Small Section

Incentive(K USD)

37

Vizag Bay Section

2.5

38

South Australia Section

2.5

39

Northern Australia Section

240

New Zealand Central Section2

41

Republic of Philippines Section

242

Australia Capital Territory Section

1.5

43

Sapporo Section

1.5

44

Shikoku Section

1.5

45

Vietnam Section1

46

Macau Section

0.5

47

Gwangju Section

0.5

No.

Subsection

Incentive(K USD)48

Bhutan Subsection

1.5

49

Brunei Darussalam Subsection

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R10 Educational Activities Committee Update
Prepared by: Chun Che Lance Fung, Chair for IEEE R10 Educational Activities Committee 2020
At the time of writing this article, 2020 is drawing to a close and this serves
as a reflection and summary of the work from the IEEE Region 10 Educational
Activities Committee throughout the year.
These achievements would not have been possible without the dedicatedservices from members of the committee: Prof. Zuhaina Zakaria, A/Prof.
Supavadee Aramvith, Prof. Yoot Khuan Lee, Dr. Iwan Kustiawan, Ms.
Muhfizaturrahmah, Prof. Gao Yun An, Prof. Shaikh Fattah, Dr. Dall'ArmiStoks, Giuseppina, Dr. Luo Sha, and in particular, Mr. Aravindhan Anbazhagan
and Ms. Purva Ekatpure for their help in the promotion of R10 educational
activities, and running of webinars in the past months.
At the beginning of 2020, the Committee launched the R10 EAC Challenge and it received overwhelming
response. After careful consideration by the members of the Committee, Winner and Runner-up were granted
to IEEE Hong Kong Section and the IEEE SB NIT Durgapur respectively in the Pre-University Category; and the IEEEPES Malaysia Chapter and the IEEE University of Malaya SB respectively in the University Category. Eight other
OU’s also received Commendation Support for their proposals.
With regard to the R10 Outstanding Awards, it was a difficult task to choose from the number of excellent
nominations. The choice of the judges finally settled on IEEE Education Society Chapter, Hyderabad Section, andMohammad Hafiz Ismail of Malaysia Section for the Group and Individual Awards respectively.
When the lockdown and mobility restrictions began to affect all nations in the Region, 2020 IEEE President,
Professor Toshio Fukuda and IEEE R10 Director, Professor Akinori Nishihara initiated the Project Reaching Locals
to encourage R10 OU’s to make educational resources available to the community in local languages. Many OU’s
in the Region acted swiftly and conducted numerous activities in the form of Webinars, videos, radio broadcasts,
interviews, production of subtitles for IEEE flagship events, Workshops, Hackathon, MOOC and a range ofinnovative activities in countries such as Japan, India, China, Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Hong
Kong SAR. Languages used have included Japanese, Bengali, Malay, Hindi, Telugu, Urdu, Malayalam, Sindhi,
Kannada, Gujarati and Chinese. Based on the submitted reports, it is exciting to learn that many thousands in thecommunity have attended the events, and viewing of the recorded sessions on social media and different
channels are continuing.
R10 EAC also initiated the R10 EA Virtual Social Media Challenge to encourage participation and promotion ofIEEE EA on social media. Awards were granted to Akhya Katiyar (UP section) in the Popular Category, andChristian Innoval (Philippines Section) and Mallelu Sai Prashanth (Hyderabad Section) in the Innovative Category.
A total of four webinars/forum have also been conducted and facilitated by R10 EAC on 20th June 2020 - “IEEEEA Resources and Getting Involved”; 24th July 2020 - “Launch of Project Reaching Locals”; 8th August 2020 - “IEEE
Code of Ethics & Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous & Intelligent Systems” and on 20th September 2020 R10 SYWL Congress with a session on updates and presentations from several sections (see report at IEEE 2020
SYWL, EA Track)
The IEEE 2021 R10 EAC will be chaired by Professor Preeti Bajaj and she has lined up great plans for the region
on educational activities, just watch this space! I wish you all a prosperous and safe 2021 and thanks again to all
R10 EAC members, volunteers and participants who have contributed towards the educational goals of IEEE. You
have helped advancing technology for the benefits of humanity!

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R10 Webinar: A Dialogue with IEEE Management Council Speakers
Organized by R10 Strategic Planning Committee
Prepared by: Ewell Tan, Project Manager for IEEE Asia-Pacific Ltd.
Region 10 volunteer leaders have expressed
their views on a survey conducted by R10
Strategic Planning Committee in 2019 to havea better connection with the IEEE
management leaders. In response to the
feedback, R10 Strategic Planning Committee
led by Prof. Byung-Gook Park has initiated a
Webinar on 27th October 2020 in order toprovide an opportunity for our R10 volunteers
to have an interactive dialogue session with
the IEEE Management Council leaders.
Region 10 was very honored to have invited
IEEE Chief Information Officer (CIO), Dr. Cherif
Amirat; IEEE Member and Geographic
Activities (MGA) Managing Director, Ms.
Cecelia Jankowski; IEEE Educational Activities(EA) Managing Director, Mr. Jamie Moesch
and IEEE Technical Activities (TA) Managing
Director, Ms. Mary Ward-Callan to share theirstrategic direction, new initiatives and toprovide an insightful view of their respective
departments and expertise.
Prior to this webinar, Region 10 has opened
the door to welcome questions from the R10
organizational units’ volunteer leaders; this is
to ensure that all volunteers have theopportunity to address their concernedquestions. During the webinar, Prof. ByungGook Park gave a welcome message and highlighted the objective of this event. After this welcome, Region 10
Director, Prof. Akinori Nishihara graced the event by delivering an opening address.
Dr. Cherif, IEEE CIO was the first presenter. He highlighted the launch of IEEE APP which represents a global
gateway to IEEE and introduced the NextGen Finance, which is one of the 2020 IEEE Board’s strategic initiatives.
This NextGen platform will streamline and simplify the existing financial process; most importantly, it will
advance the business activities and provide operational efficiency.
Next, IEEE MGA Managing Director, Ms. Cecelia shared about the IEEE MGA specific strategies and operational
responsibilities. Some IEEE volunteer tools were highlighted, for instance, IEEE Centre for Leadership Excellence(CLE), IEEE vTools, IEEE Volunteering Portal, IEEE Badges and etc. These resources are essential in providing
support to the volunteers in managing their local IEEE communities.
Thereafter, IEEE EA Managing Director, Mr. Jamie talked about the educational programs and capabilities thatwill increase the impact and benefit our members, especially on the continuing education and lifelong learningthat will enhance the value of IEEE membership and value proposition.

52 | P a g e

IEEE TA Managing Director, Ms. Mary Ward-Callan also provided an insightful view of technical activities strategic
framework with new technologies, new audience group, new delivery method and new contents. With the newchange of landscape due to the global
pandemic, IEEE has supported many
virtual and hybrid events to keep its
members and communities engaged.
Each of the speaker’s presentations wasfollowed by an interactive Q&A session to
make sure that the concerned topics andquestions were answered. The webinar
was fruitful and was concluded by R10
Strategic Planning Committee Chair, Prof.
Byung-Gook Park with closing remarks.
Region 10 has wrapped the event by
sharing the useful materials for the
benefit of its members on IEEE R10
website. The recorded webinar can befound on IEEE Region 10 Facebook page.

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SECTION AND
SUBSECTION
ACTIVITIES

54 | P a g e

6. SECTION AND SUBSECTION ACTIVITIESIEEE Bangladesh Section
IEEE Bangladesh Section Technical Expert ForumS M Saiduzzaman, Newsletter Editor for IEEE Bangladesh Section
On 26th September 2020, IEEE Bangladesh Section
organized the "IEEE Bangladesh Section Technical Expert
Forum". As the Chair of IEEE Bangladesh Section, Prof.
Celia Shahnaz brainstormed, led and launched thisinitiative. The forum was live on Facebook from the IEEE
Bangladesh Section Facebook Page. This program wasopen for all, and around 900 people watched the forum via
Facebook live.
The objectives of this forum were following: To foster research and innovation
 To promote industry-academia collaboration
 To drive membership grade elevation (IEEE Senior Membership)
 To mentor graduate students for scholarships, travel grants and graduate admission
 To create cell to nurture social entrepreneurship and start-ups
 To advance Women by Skill development
 To enhance member engagement in corporate, public and private industries
Members of the IEEE Bangladesh Section are encouraged to join the forum, which consists of four major
technical divisions focusing on Communication, Computer, Electronics, and Power. IEEE Bangladesh Section
will be strengthening the initiative for Senior Member Elevation, although the first training of this year was
conducted on 30th January 30 2020 that encouraged many to apply for senior memberships throughout theyear
IEEE Bangladesh Section will invite experts from the industry to build a strong industry-academia
collaboration. Members of the IEEE Bangladesh Section Technical Forum will recommend the possible
industry experts. These experts will also be a part of the IEEE Bangladesh Section Technical Forum. These
industries will be approached for internships and research funding.
The other points discussed were to launch new technical chapters to address and include more diverse
research enthusiasts in IEEE Bangladesh Section, to mentor graduate students for scholarships, travel grants
and graduate admission, to create a cell to nurture social entrepreneurship and start-ups, to advance
Women by Skill development and to enhance member engagement in corporate, public and private
industries. At last, it was decided that the forum members will be holding multiple meetups and othersynergistic activities from time to time in order to strengthen the community and ensure the betterment of
the technical professionals for a post-pandemic world. Prof Celia Shahnaz, Chair for IEEE Bangladesh Section,
presided over the whole session. The program was ended by a note of thanks by the Chair.
IEEE Members present in the meeting appreciated this milestone effort in creating the IEEE Bangladesh
Section Technical Forum. They opined that it will enhance collaboration among technical experts and cancreate a borderless platform to share recent research updates. It will also invigorate the efforts towards the
4th industrial revolution for which technical assistance and collaboration would be a dire need.

55 | P a g e

IEEE Day Observations - Dreams, Dialogs, and Directions for a Better Tomorrow
Celia Shahnaz, Chair for IEEE Bangladesh Section
Considering the COVID-19 pandemic, IEEE
Bangladesh Section observed IEEE day through fullvirtual events focusing on “Dreams, Dialogs, andDirections for a Better Tomorrow”. The new modeof these events was “Interactive Dialogs”, instead of
conventional continuous talks.
The five-day program consists of the following: Student Branch Activities: 6th October 2020
 Student Branch Technical Chapter Activities: 7th October 2020
 Women in Engineering Activities: 8th October 2020
 Technical Society Chapter Activities: 9th October 2020
 Members and Young Professionals Activities: 10th October 2020.
The inauguration ceremony on October 6th was adorned with Prof. S. N. Singh, FIEEE, Vice-Chair,
Technical Activities, IEEE Region 10 as the inaugural speaker of the event. Another notable speaker wasProf. V. R. Singh, LFIEEE. Parts of the third and fourth day sessions were held in Bangla Language
following the Reaching Locals project, an initiative of IEEE President & CEO (2020) Dr. Toshio Fukuda.

The First Women in SIGHT Summit (WISE) by IEEE Bangladesh Section and IEEE SIGHT
FLASH Bangladesh
Celia Shahnaz, Chair for IEEE Bangladesh Section
To celebrate 2020 IEEE SIGHT Week (29th November- 6th December 2020), IEEE Bangladesh Section andIEEE SIGHT FLASH Bangladesh organized the first
Women in SIGHT Summit (WISE) on 6th December
2020. Dr. Celia Shahnaz, Chair for IEEE Bangladesh
Section, IEEE SIGHT FLASH, and Women in SIGHT
Working Group (2020) has led this initiative toengage more women in SIGHT/HAC projects/events.
Speakers and panelists from 3 IEEE Regions and 11
Sections joined the Summit. More than 65
participants from over 13 Sections from R10 and R9
joined the Summit. Sampathkumar Veeraraghavan,
2020 Chair for IEEE SIGHT and 2021 Chair for IEEE
HAC was chief guest, and Jennifer Castillo, 2021 Chair
for IEEE WIE was guest of honor. Other panelists
were Antuanett Yomyra Damian Gomez (IEEE Peru); Muhfizaturrahmah (IEEE Indonesia); Iti Saha Misra(IEEE Kolkata); Nadiah Husseini (IEEE Malaysia); Aarti Karande (IEEE Bombay); Pia Torres (IEEE
Argentina); Thiago Alencar (IEEE South Brazil) and Hana Siddiquee from New York, USA. Shaikh Fattah(2020 Education Chair for IEEE HAC) presented IEEE RAS-SIGHT funded project of SIGHT FLASH for
designing and building of disinfection robots to handle Covid 19. Women interested and engaged in
SIGHT/HAC activities have also presented their works in WISE.

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IEEE Gujarat Section
Chirag Paunwala, Secretary for IEEE Gujarat Section

National Seminar on Computer Vision & Image Processing (NaSCoVIP2020)
With the explosion of Internet technology and graphic engines,
there has been a massive growth in the research area ofcomputer vision and image processing. While the field ofimage processing deals with the processing of digital images
that are two-dimensional entities, computer vision adds thethird dimension by computing the object’s depth. A three-day
national seminar was held from 10th September 2020 topromote research and developmental activities in India, witharound 80 participants. The seminar fortifies the computer vision and image processing and related fields
by assembling experts and researchers in the area. The seminar’s primary goal was to promote scientificinformation exchange amongst experts, researchers, developers, engineers, students, and practitioners
working in the country. The scientific program of the seminar consists of presentations by leading experts
worldwide in the field of computer vision and image processing. The experts addressed the recent
developments and trends in the fields.
The speakers for the event were as follows: Ms. Mukta Joshi, Group leader Image Guided Therapy Systems R&D, Philips, Netherlands. Title oftalk: Advances in medical imaging for diagnosis and treatment
 Dr. Chintan Parmar, Senior Expert, Oncology Novartis, Institutes for Biomedical Research, USA. Titleof talk: AI applications for medical imaging biomarkers
 Prof. Chang-Hyun Oh, Professor, Department of Electronics and Information Engineering, Korea
University. Title of talk: Real-Time MR Thermometry using Deep Neural Network Mr. Akbar Doctor, Principal Test Engineer, Fresenius Medical Care, USA. Title of talk: Test
Automation-Medical Devices
 Prof. Ram Bilas Panchori, Professor IIT Indore. Title of talk: Detection of human brain disorders usingnovel machine learning approaches
 Prof. Tolga Kaya, Professor, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, USA. Title of talk: Validation Study ofa Dry Hand Cleaner as a Potential Hand Sanitizer

Self-Branding for Professional Awareness
The Webinar on Self Branding for Professional Awareness, held on
10th April 2020, was aimed at professionals and students who wanted
to further their self-brand and image, thus, improving their future
career aspects. Mr. Deepak Bhatt, an influential individual who iscurrently the Deputy General Manager (HR & Strategy Development)
at Astron Packaging Limited, was the speaker of a day to an audienceof 75 participants. The speaker explained various methods ofpromoting oneself, be it on social media or in real life. The main cruxof the introduction was the value and increasing importance of selfbranding in today’s competitive world. The Webinar was fruitful forthe participants as it resulted in discussions that are of paramountimportance. With this session, all participants left with a sense ofsatisfaction, loads of knowledge and clarity about the matter at hand.

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WiSe (Women in Sensors) Week 2020
In this WiSe Week, held on 9th April 2020, we are reachingout to students and professionals to promote women insensing technology, in particular, and in STEM, ingeneral. We hope that such focused occasions would
provide the opportunity to create communities forfacilitating knowledge sharing and offering support for
women in this domain.
Besides these, we had also planned a networking session,
quiz and some impromptu contests and prizes through virtual platform. All these highly interactive
sessions were designed to foster discussions, networking, collaboration, knowledge sharing, fun andabove all sensitizing the attendees for Women in Sensors. 128 participants joined the event.

IEEE Hiroshima Section
IEEE Metro Area Workshop 2020 in Hiroshima
Chisa Takano, Secretary for IEEE Hiroshima Section
On 16th October 2020, "Metro Area Workshop(MAW) 2020 in Hiroshima" was held at
Hiroshima Garden Palace hotel in Hiroshima
City. In order to prevent COVID-19 infection, ahybrid system of on-site and online meetings
was adopted. At this year's MAW, we invited 7
speakers to deliver special talks regarding
advanced information and communication
technology that supports social infrastructure in
the Mobile era, under the theme of “IoT createdby Mobile, Mobility accelerated by IoT”. We
were very pleased with the interesting and impactful presentations on the latest communication
technologies in high-speed mobile objects such as cars and railways, and the development issues ofvarious communication systems surrounding IoT. There were many participants from many companies,
local governments, and universities: 56 participants at the venue, and 118 participants online, for a
total of 174 participants. The group photo was taken with the online speakers and online participants.
The exchange meeting after the workshop ended with great success with 46 participants.

IEEE Karachi Section
IEEE Day's and IEEE POCO 2020-IEEE Karachi Section
Dr.Bhawani Shankar Chowdhry, Chair for IEEE Karachi Section & M. Rafay Shaikh, Section Student
Representative for IEEE Karachi Section
IEEE Day 1.0: Webinar on Leadership in IEEE (13th October 2020)
We all know that IEEE is not just renowned for its technical facets but is also widely known for cultivating
highly motivated and skilled leaders equipped with the right arsenal to groom their way through theircareers and professional lives. And IEEE Day 2020 is the best opportunity to guide students about what
IEEE offers its members in terms of professional growth and what it's like to be an IEEE leader. As such,
IEEE Karachi Section Student Activities Committee organized a Webinar as part of the IEEE Day 202058 | P a g ecelebrations on 13th October 2020 from 8:00 - 9:00 pm with the profound and well-known Engr. Parkash
Lohana, Chair of R10 Membership Development Committee, as the guest speaker.
Engr. Parkash Lohana gave a very
motivational talk to student
members and potential volunteers
inspiring them about the vast
number of resources andopportunities available to IEEE
members and the benefit ofmembership
in
terms
of
leadershipandprofessional
growth. Around 60 participants
attended the Webinar including
prominent guests.
IEEE Day 2.0: Technology Awareness Programme (16th October 2020)
IEEE Day 2.0 was celebrated virtually. The main theme of the event was centered around TAP Technology Awareness Programme. Students were motivated and felt responsible for the need tounderstand and participate in technological revolution, encouraging each other to serve humanity.
There were professional speakers invited from national and international backgrounds, delivering
Webinars upon emerging technologies and its importance.
IEEE Day 3.0 – Grand Celebration (17th October 2020)
IEEE Karachi Section Student Activities Committee organized a third event to celebrate IEEE Day 2020.
This was our first physical event of 2020. All Student Branch Executive Officers were invited to cometogether on the occasion of IEEE Day 3.0 Celebrations on 17th October 2020 from 10:00 - 12:00pm.
Almost 50 participants enthusiastically attended the event. The event involved a grand meeting
followed by an interactive session and a fabulous cake-cutting ceremony. Several honored guests
including Dr. Bhawani Shankar Chowdhry, Chair of IEEE Karachi Section, Dr. Tariq Rahim Soomro, Vice
Chair of IEEE Karachi Section and Engr. Parkash Lohana, Chair of R10 Membership Development
Committee.
This event proved to be a splendid opportunity for Student Branch ExCom Members to interact andintermingle with each other and also become familiar with prominent members of the Section and SAC.
They were also able to discuss important matters regarding the significance of their role as IEEE
members and the IEEE community as a whole.
IEEE POCO by IEEE Karachi Section in Collaboration with IEEE R10 (21st November 2020)
IEEE Karachi section organized a virtual workshop IEEE PANEL OF CONFERENCE ORGANIZER (POCO) withthe collaboration of IEEE Region 10 on 21st November 2020 for the universities of all over Pakistan withan aim to help them know how to organize topflight conferences by following the standards provided
by IEEE. IEEE POCO also provides complete information for making an evaluation plan for research
papers.
The event started with the name of Almighty Allah and recitation of Kalam E Quran E Paak. After that
Dr. M. Shahid Shaikh initiated the event formally by his opening note. At 9:45 am the honorable Chair
of IEEE Karachi Section Professor Dr. Bhawani Shankar Chowdhry addressed the audience regarding thesignificance of the conference which then led to the oration of Dr. Shahab Siddiqui in which he shared59 | P a g e

his experience from the conferences he had gained throughout his journey. After that, Dr. Shahid Shaikhprovided a brief overview on the role of IEEE conference MOU which followed by the discussion of how
to involve IEEE student volunteers by Sir Atif Fareed. Afterwards Section Treasurer Moiz Rehman
Memon briefed the audience about the financial issues faced by conference organizers. He also
explained how to make a budget plan and how the bank proceeds in its proceedings.
IEEE Karachi Section Vice Chair Dr. Tariq Soomoro delivered his thoughts about conference review
process tools where he also told the audience how to avoid plagiarism in papers. Dr. Asim Ur Rehman,
Section Secretary shared insights about the gravity of the call for papers. IEEE Xplore education
coordinator Dr. Sadiq Ali khan talked about IEEE Xplore's importance, and provided information about
the use of its tools. Our worthy Guest of Honor from India, Dr. S. N. Singh, R10 Vice Chair Technical
Activities, delivered his disquisition about the development of conference theme based on current
issues. After which there was a panel discussion involving Dr. Tariq Somoroo, Moiz Rehman Memon,
Dr. Saeed Khan Abroo, and Dr. S. N. Singh, moderated by Engr. Parkash Lohana. At last Section Chair Dr.
Bhawani Shankar and Engr. Parkash lohana ended the day with a thanking note.

IEEE Madras Section
N. Kumarappan, Chair for IEEE Madras Section

R10 SAC Sponsored Leadership Insight Program
IEEE Madras Section & IEEE R10 organized the Leadership
Insight Program during 12th & 13th September 2020 with 62
participants. Dr. N. Kumarappan, Chair for IEEE Madras
Section highlighted the importance of leadership in
students during the inaugural.
On day 1, Mr. Vidya Shankar G, Founder and CEO, Only
Success Academy shared about “How to build up a
professional career and stories behind success”. Mr. Harish
Bharadwaj, CEO, HUM Consulting talked about “Creative
thinking and decision making”. Mr. Charles, ZOHO HR
Leader, talked about “Smart Work”.
On day 2, Section Chair, Dr. N. Kumarappan delivered a talkon “Awareness for Student and Professional Members”.
Dr. Preethi Bajaj, Vice Chancellor, Galgotias University gave
a talk on “Roles in IEEE after graduation”. Mr. Madhav
Negi, CTO, DXC Technology India, delivered a talk on “How to be a better Leader?”.

IEEE Madras Section R10 POCO 2020
IEEE Madras Section organized an IEEE R10 sponsored Panel of Conference Organizers (POCO) 2020 on
10th and 11th October 2020, with 58 participants. The chief guest Dr. Sri Niwas Singh, Chair for IEEE India
Council explained about educating the conference organizers in maintaining the quality.
On Day 1, Dr. T. Thyagarajan, Dean, MIT, Anna University gave a presentation on “Key Issues andChallenges in Organizing IEEE Conference”. Dr. Amit Kumar, Chair, IEEE Hyderabad Section talked on“Technical Program Overview”. Dr. N. Kumarappan Chair, Madras Section talked about “Publications inIEEE Conference and Journals”.
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On Day 2, Mr. Puneet Kumar Mishra, Secretary, IEEE India Council gave a presentation on “Financially
Co-Sponsored Conference and Conference Success Stories”. Dr. D. Devaraj gave a presentation on“Planning an IEEE Conference and Conference Proposal Submission”.

IEEE Madras Section Student Branch Officers Meet – 2020
IEEE Madras Section & SRM Valliammai Student Branch organized the IEEE Madras Section Student
Branch Officers Meet on 7th November 2020. Dr. N. Kumarappan, Chair for IEEE Madras Section
explained about IEEE Student Membership Awareness. The Chief Guest Mr. Deepak Mathur, DirectorElect, IEEE Region 10 gave insight about the importance of IEEE. Mr. S. Nandan, SAC Chair, IEEE Kerala
Section gave a talk on “Volunteering with IEEE”. Mr. B. Ashvanth, Treasurer, IEEE Madras YP imparted
knowledge about Word Press Web Designing. Mr. M. I. Abdul Halik, ExCom Member, IEEE Madras YP
conducted virtual treasure hunt and quiz competition.

IEEE Day Celebration
IEEE Madras Section organized IEEE Day 2020 technical get together hosted by Sri Ramakrishna
Engineering College, Coimbatore on 18th October 2020, with 130 participants. Dr. N. Kumarapan, Chair
for IEEE Madras Section shared insights about the activities and IEEE project funding. He also
congratulated all members for the membership retention development award 2020.
The chief guest, Dr. S. K. Ramesh, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at California State
University, Northridge USA shared his views about the abundant opportunities provided by IEEE. Dr. M.
Ponnavaikko, former Chairperson of IEEE Madras Section and India Council shared his views on how
IEEE helps one to groom and grow professionally and socially. The guest speaker Dr. N. R. Alamelu,
former Chairperson of IEEE Madras Section provided the awareness about the best practices andopportunities in IEEE. Aravindhan Anbazhagan, Chair for IEEE Madras YP hosted the quiz.

IEEE Malaysia Section
IEEE Malaysia Tech Insights and Student Icon Initiatives Aired on National Radio Station
Fakhrul Zaman Rokhani, Executive Committee for IEEE Malaysia Section
The IEEE Malaysia Tech Insights and Student Icon are
initiatives led by the Strategic Communication committeeof IEEE Malaysia Section, with a smart partnership withleading national radio station Bernama Radio. These
programs were brought live to radio listeners over the air
and the Facebook Live (FBLive) on the Bernama Radio’sCampusLife and I-GEN segments, respectively. The Tech
Insights and Student Icon are strategic initiatives throughmass communication to increase IEEE’s brand awarenessand online presence and strengthen the IEEE's credibility
as a leading contributor in technology in Malaysia. The
programs are also part of the Reaching Locals initiative as
it was conducted in the local Malay language.
Tech Insights initiative highlights IEEE Malaysia Section’s widespread collection of technology andadvanced technology developed by its members that bring benefits to society locally and humanity ingeneral. Three episodes aired by Bernama Radio were (1) Early Detection Technology for Diabetic
Retinopathy by Dr. Fawnizu Azmadi Hussin (IEEE Malaysia Section Chair) on 14th July 2020, (2) Fall
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Prevention Technology for Senior Adults by Dr. Alpha Agape Gopalai and Ir. Dr. Siti Anom Ahmad (EMBS
Chapter Chair and Chair-Elect) on 11th August 2020, and (3) PerfectRide: Technology-Assisted Safe
Driving by Dr. Sazalinsyah Razali (SMC & RAS Chapters ExComm) on 25th August 2020.
Student Icon initiative promotes the voice of IEEE Malaysia Section students and how IEEE shapes theirleadership and personality. The first episode aired on 27th October 2020 was on Holistic Character
Development, given by the Chair of IEEE Student Branch Curtin University Malaysia, Nurul Ain Hamizan,
and Strategic Communication Student ExComm, Muhammad Aiman Hakim Moktar, hoping to inspire
their peers - young generations in shaping their leadership and personality.

IEEE Sri Lanka Section
Recent Activities of IEEE Sri Lanka Section
Windhya Rankothge, Secretary for IEEE Sri Lanka Section
IEEE Sri Lanka Section community has beenchallenged by the COVID-19 pandemic, a global
health crisis that has impacted many members of
the IEEE family. The temporary closure of
educational and professional institutions during
pandemic has abruptly transformed the IEEE Sri
Lanka Section activities landscape in favor of
online activities. Despite the challenges, theSection has conducted several online activities,
including webinars, tech talks, and online
competitions.
A Distinguished Lecture Program (DLP) on“Wireless Grid Integration of EVs for V2GApplications” by Prof. Udaya Madawala (University of Auckland) was held on 1st August 2020, witharound 100 participants as an online event. Even though Electric Vehicles (EVs) are considered as a
remedy to air-quality and depletion of fossil reserves, to address these concerns, EVs require an
efficient, compact, and reliable power electronic interface for grid integration. The DLP discussed trends
in the grid integration of EVs. The IEEE Sri Lanka Section also conducted the IEEE Electronic Design
Competition 2020 as an online competition. It is an annual event of the Section that targets to improve
the knowledge and design skills of Sri Lankan undergraduate. The 1st round was conducted on 25th
August as an online competition. 38 teams participated in the competition, where they were required
to design and develop a given task using a simulation environment.
IEEE BOOST 2020, which was an online awareness program, was conducted on 10th and 11th October
2020, with the participation of 300 student members. It provided an opportunity for the student
members of IEEE Sri Lanka Section to interact with the leadership of IEEE Sri Lanka Section and senior
volunteers of IEEE. The program included a variety of activities based on professional and membershipdevelopments along with enthusiastic competitions.

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IEEE Tokyo Section
IEEE Japan SYWL Workshop in Hiroshima (and Online)
Takashi Yoshida, Chair for IEEE Young Professionals AG TokyoIEEE Japan SYWL Workshop in Hiroshima (and Online)
was held at Hotel Hiroshima Garden Palace and via
Zoom meeting on 17th October 2020. This workshop wasorganized by the committee members from Student
Branch, Young Professionals, Women in Engineeringand Life Member Affinity Groups of all over Japan. There
were 42 participants, almost all of them are IEEE
members.
In spite of the COVID-19, more than 20 IEEE members gathered at the onsite venue. It was challenging
to hold the onsite event together with the online event. Nevertheless, observations were made onsome points that needed to be improved such as the difficulty in conveying the excitement of the onsite side to the online side. Despite the difficult situation in connecting each member, we will revitalize
IEEE's activities by taking advantage of each merit for both online and local activities.

IEEE Western Australia Section
Amit Kunwar, Newsletter Editor for IEEE Western Australia Section

International Conference on Smart Grids and Energy Systems (SGES 2020)
The 2020 International Conference on Smart
Grids and Energy Systems (SGES 2020) was
broadcasted virtually from Perth, Australia, on
23rd to 26th November 2020. The executive
committee of the conference consisted ofGeneral Chair, Professor Fushuan Wen from
Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia, andTechnical Committee Chair, A/Professor Farhad
Shahnia and Secretary, Dr. Moayed Mogbel
from IEEE Western Australia Section.
Additionally, the organizing committee of theconference consisted of 19 colleagues from
Australia, China, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The
technical program of the conference was supported by 20 universities in 10 countries. The colleagues
from the IEEE Western Australia Section, IEEE Western Australia Industrial Electronics Society (IES)
Chapter, and the IEEE Murdoch University Student Branch were the key local organizers of theconference at Perth.
This online conference had attracted over 200 delegates from 35 countries who attended this event
over a 4-day period. Despite COVID-19 has changed many of our current practices in 2020 including
face-to-face conferences, the organizers were very thankful to all authors and delegates who supported
the idea of arranging the SGES 2020 conference on-line.
SGES 2020 had received just below 280 submissions from 42 countries with 610 co-authors across six
continents. Authors from China, Australia, Japan, the United States, Germany, India, Bangladesh, the63 | P a g e

United Kingdom, Korea, Malaysia and Brazil had respectively submitted the highest number of papers
to the Conference. In total, 180 papers from 556 authors were finally accepted and scheduled in the
Conference Program. Of these authors, 485 have one accepted paper, 50 have two accepted papers
and 21 have 3 or more accepted papers. The accepted and scheduled papers were presented in 23 oral
sessions over a 4-day period. The conference also provided 6 Best Student Paper Awards to the top
presented papers.
In addition, the Conference had a very strong technical program, including 12 distinguished keynote
speakers from Australia, China, the US, Canada, Denmark, and Greece. Furthermore, one industry
forum, and 5 tutorial sessions were also arranged and presented during the conference.
The comments and feedback received from the Conference delegates and invited guests at the end of
the conference were extremely positive and encouraging, and all delegates congratulated theorganizers for arranging a successful event.

IEEE DAY 2020 NETWORKING EVENT, PERTHIEEE Western Australia Section organized a
networking event on 20th October 2020 tocelebrate IEEE Day and provide a networking
opportunity for its members. The event wasorganized at QT Perth Hotel in the CBD, and waswell attended by IEEE members with 80
registrations and participation from over 60
members.
Section Secretary, Dr. Shoeb Md Asaduzzaman,delivered a welcome speech; and Section Chair,
A/Professor Farhad Shahnia, presented theactivities and achievements of the section.
Additionally, Dr. Chun Che Lance Fung, 2021/2022
R10 Director-Elect, and Dr. Adam Osseiran, Industry Liaison of the Western Australia Section, alsodelivered speeches. Trophies for the chapters with the highest number of technical activities and thehighest membership growth for 2019/2020 were also presented at the event.
The IEEE Day networking event was a great success, with the participating members celebrating theIEEE day and enjoying the opportunity of socializing with each other.

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AFFINITY GROUP
AND CHAPTER
ACTIVITIES

65 | P a g e

7. AFFINITY GROUP AND CHAPTER ACTIVITIESIEEE Women In Engineering AG Bangladesh
Workshop series on “Web Design from Scratch: HTML, CSS & Bootstrap”
Fardeen Mahbub, Publication Coordinator for IEEE AIUB Student Branch
On 16th and 17th October 2020, the IEEE AIUB SB WIE AG
in collaboration with the IEEE AIUB SB organized a twoday long workshop series, titled “Web Design from
Scratch: HTML, CSS & Bootstrap” through the virtual
platform of CISCO WEBEX Meeting. The first day of theseries titled, “Learning HTML” was conducted by Victor
Stany Rozario, Assistant Professor, FSIT, AIUB where hehighlighted the theoretical ideas of HTML and its importance in web development. The second day of
the workshop titled, “CSS & Bootstrap” was conducted by Md. Tariqul Islam Manon, RWD Mentor &Career Advisor, CodesTrust Bangladesh by emphasizing the concepts of CSS and its importance. Also,from 19th to 28th October 2020, a Front-End Web Design Competition was organized where participants
were given a sample task by the means of their creativity and designing skills. A total of 159 individuals
participated in the series and winners were awarded tokens of appreciation.

Breast Cancer Awareness: From Engineering Point of View
Anamika Bhakta, Industrial Activity Coordinator for IEEE
Bangladesh Section & Chair for IEEE WIE AG Bangladesh
Following the Reaching Locals project, an initiative taken by IEEE
President Dr. Toshio Fukuda, and nurtured by 2019-2020 IEEE
Region 10 Director Dr. Akinori Nishihara, WIE AG IEEE Bangladesh
Section along with IEEE Bangladesh Section organized “Breast
Cancer Awareness: From Engineering Point of View” program on
30th October 2020 from 8pm to 9pm. The live program wasconducted in English. The whole speech was then re-recorded in
Bangla Language and published on the IEEE Bangladesh Section
page so that it can reach a greater number of people. 25 participants joined from 6 IEEE FB pages where
the event was publicized through Facebook Live. The resource person was Dr. Samia Mubin, Associate
Professor, Surgical Oncology Division, Department of General Surgery, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib
Medical University(BSMMU), Bangladesh.

IEEE Women In Engineering AG Sendai
The 3rd Anniversary Ceremony of Sendai WIE
Qiaowei Yuan, Chair for IEEE WIE AG Sendai
The 3rd anniversary of IEEE WIE Sendai was virtually celebrated with 37 attendances on 31st October
2020, which was delayed from the original schedule in April due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The
anniversary consisted of two parts focusing on the topic of “State of the Art Technologies Devoted to

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Society 5.0”. In the first part, three special talks were
provided by Dr. Akinori Nishihara (R10 Director), Prof.
Noriko Osumi (Tohoku University), Prof. Akira Ando (Tohoku
University), respectively. The second part started byintroducing the activities of each Japanese WIE, and then all
attendees were divided into several groups, discussing theimportance of Society 5.0 that Japan should aspire to andsome interesting topics related with a smart tech society.
The pandemic prohibited peoples from connecting inperson, but the anniversary reconnected our technology
groups tightly. Our event definitely was an initial practice tointegrate cyber space (virtual space) and physical space(real space).

IEEE Young Professionals AG Sapporo
Newsletter of JAPAN YP Meet 2020
He Li, Chair for IEEE Young Professionals AG Sapporo
The Japan YP meet was held after the IEEE JapanSYWL Workshop in Hiroshima (and Online) 2020. YP
members from all Sections got together again anddiscussed the status and future plans of each YP
groups. In the group discussion, representatives of
YP from each Section introduced the development
and problems at hand. Nagoya YP considered that
it was difficult to hold events to broaden
knowledge. Tokyo YP indicated that there was stilla small number of active members despite carryingout many events. Compared with the situation in India, it should be attributed to the different
evaluation methods and work styles. Sendai YP considered expanding the coverage of the YP group in
Tohoku as an important developing target in the future. Sapporo YP, which was established this year,
thought on how to increase regional awareness, and developing cooperation between enterprises
would be the initial development focus.

IEEE Young Professionals AG Sendai
The Kickoff Event of Sendai YP
Kota Oikawa, Member for IEEE Young Professionals AG Sendai
IEEE Young Professionals Affinity Group Sendai
conducted the kickoff event online on 30th October
2020, with 16 participants. In the general meetingand the founding commemoration meeting, current
activities and next year's activities were reported
and the officers for the next term were approved.
Then after, a memorial lecture by Mr. Ichikawa ofHarvestX, and an online exchange party were carriedout.
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IEEE Life Members AG Tokyo
LMAG Tokyo’s 10th Anniversary Symposium and IEEE Day Celebrations
Naohisa Ohta, Secretary for IEEE Life Members AG Tokyo
The symposium was held online (Zoom Webinar) at 14:00-17:00 on 8th October 2020 (Thursday)
sponsored by IEEE Tokyo Section and IEEE LMAG Tokyo, and co-sponsored by Japan Council, Tokyo YP,
JC WIE, Tokyo SAC, and Tokyo Section TPC. Altogether 70 people participated; 7 people of the steeringcommittee worked at the main venue in Tokyo and the others participated online. The symposium
started with an opening address by Dr. Imai, LMAG Tokyo Vice Chair. First, Dr. Tokuda, Tokyo Section
Chair, gave a sponsor’s remark on LMAG Tokyo’s 10th anniversary. Then, Dr. Takano, LMAG Tokyo Chair,delivered an address and introduced LMAG Tokyo’s activities for 10 years highlighting the firstexperience of each activity. Next, Dr. Fukuda, IEEE President and Dr. Nishihara, R10 Director delivered
congratulatory speeches for the 10th anniversary. Also, all other LMAG Chairs in Japan, Dr. Nakamuraof Kansai, Dr. Umeno of Nagoya and Dr. Mizuno of Sendai, gave congratulatory addresses.
Dr. Habara, LMAG Tokyo’s founding Chair,gave a talk entitled “Dawn of LMAG Tokyo”
on the initial objectives and activities of
LMAG Tokyo including a hidden story. He
also mentioned that the origin of“Symposium” in Greek is “Drinking
together for a lively conversation”. A panel
discussion on “What contributions are
expected to LMAG” was held inviting 4
panelists moderated by Dr. Ohta, LMAGTokyo Secretary. The panelists were Dr.
Aoyama, the former R10 LMAG Coordinator; Dr. Yoshida, Tokyo YP Chair; Dr. Noda, JC WIE Chair; andDr. Nakamura, LMAG Kansai Chair. Each panelist presented suggestions to LMAG activity from her/his
own viewpoint after the self-introductions, followed by active discussions among panelists and theaudience. Finally, the moderator summarized the panel confirming a common understanding thatLMAGs should actively continue efforts on SYWL and inter-LMAG collaborations utilizing life members’
rich experiences and should disseminate their activities for another 10 years.
After a short break, the second part of the event was held to celebrate IEEE Day along with the 10th
Anniversary of LMAG Tokyo and a variety of congratulatory messages were given. The first message
was from Mr. Asthana, R10 LMC Chair. Then Mr. Hyakutake, IEEE Japan Office Director, introduced theoffice and gave a message. Ms. Suzuki, the former Tokyo YP Committee Chair, also delivered acongratulatory message introducing Japanese Sake and the origin of “Kagami Biraki”. Dr. Sasase, aformer Tokyo Section Chair, gave a congratulatory message introducing useful information aboutChampagne. LMAG Tokyo officers uncorked a champagne bottle and opened a Sake barrel as a “Kagami
Biraki” and Dr. Takano led a toast. Online participants drank a toast depending on their own situations.
Dr. Takano cut a memorial cake after blowing 10 candles out for celebrating the 10th anniversary of
LMAG Tokyo and IEEE Day.
Finally, the event was closed by Dr. Imai. Due to COVID19 pandemic, the event was unusual compared
to conventional ones. However, thanks to the strong support of the affinity groups and all IEEE
members, especially those who attended till the end, this event ended with a great success.
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IEEE Life Members AG South Australia
Annual Report 2020
Don Sinnott, Chair for IEEE Life Members AG South Australia
The IEEE South Australia LMAG holds its meeting in cooperation with the IET Retired Engineers Group,and this year this cooperation has again allowed us to deliver a valuable program of six presentations.
The February 2020 meeting was face to face but Covid-19 came to Australia in March. A week before
our 1st April meeting, it was decided that it was too risky to have a face to face meeting and we decided
to have our meeting via Zoom instead. All subsequent meetings have been held in this way. We arevery thankful to be able to use the Zoom facilities of the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
at the University of Adelaide. As a result, the School staff are given a Zoom invitation to the talks as
well. Despite or because of Covid19 we have had an increase in attendance at our technical talks.
ProgramOur 2020 program was as follows.







5 Feb “BlockChain Technology”, Presenter: Mark Ferraretto, Lecturer in Law at Flinders University (Total
attendance 50, including 8 IEEE)
1 Apr “Planning your home solar and battery system” Presenter: Dr. Keith Kikkert, Adjunct A/Professor
Adelaide University and James Cook University (Total logged on 65, including 11 IEEE)
3 Jun “Virtual Voices.” Presenter: Marty Gauvin and Prof Andrew Downing (Total logged on 27, including
3 IEEE)
5 Aug “How do machines learn.” Presenter: Dr Zygmunt Szpak, The University of Adelaide (Total logged
on 51, including 4 IEEE)
14 Oct “Australian Space Initiatives.” Presenter: A/Professor John Culton, Director, Centre for Sustainable
Planetary and Space Resources, University of Adelaide (Total logged on 35, including 4 IEEE)
4 Nov “Zero carbon long haul aviation: Renewable hydrogen for onboard services and propulsion.”
Presenter: Dr. Robert Dickinson, Director Hydricity. The AGM was held in conjunction with this meeting.
(Total logged on 37, including 4 IEEE)

Financial
We are grateful for the Section’s annual rebate that allows us to cover speaker presentation gifts andany costs associated with holding meetings (such as travel or facility costs – none were incurred thisyear). IEEE does not require LMAGs to provide financial reports. Suffice to say that we have a healthybank balance that will allow ongoing operation of the Retired Engineers Group/LMAG in 2021 andbeyond.
Office bearers
In 2019 the following were the office bearers.
 Chair: Don Sinnott Vice Chair: Cornelis (Keith) Kikkert
At the 4th November 2020 AGM, both of these individuals were re-elected for a further one-year term.

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IEEE EDS Malaysia Chapter
EDS and STEM
Maizatul Zolkapli, Chair for IEEE EDS Malaysia Chapter
In conjunction with the IEEE Day 2020 celebration, IEEE EDS
Malaysia Chapter, led by Dr. Aliza Aini Md Ralib and Dr.
Rosminazuin Ab Rahim, together with Perintis Youth IIUM
Chapter organized a STEM online quiz competition on 16th
October 2020. The quiz, which focused on Nanotechnology,
saw close to 50 participants made up of undergraduate
students from International Islamic University Malaysia(IIUM). The top three winners were announced and allparticipants received a certificate.
IEEE EDS Malaysia Chapter also organized an educational andcommunity program for primary schools on 23rd September
2020. The event titled “Bringing STEM to life (Amazing
Graphite)” was sponsored by IEEE Region 10 EA Fund and IEEE Malaysia Section. The program which
was held at Sekolah Kebangsaan Jalan Batu aimed to introduce primary school children to the world ofelectronics. Two EDS Chapter member with 6 teachers from the school shared their knowledge on STEM
using the IEEE EDS-ETC kits.

IEEE EMBS Malaysia Chapter
IEEE-EMBS Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Sciences (IECBES2020)
Siti Anom Ahmad, Chair-Elect for IEEE EMBS Malaysia Chapter
IEEE EMBS Malaysia Chapter will beorganizing its flagship conference, IEEEEMBS Conference on Biomedical
Engineering and Sciences (IECBES 2020)
from 1st to 3rd March 2021. IECBES2020
was initially scheduled on 7th – 9thDecember 2020, but due to the Covid-19
pandemic, our 6th conference in theseries is postponed and will be held fully
online. Nevertheless, we will still strive
to offer an uncompromised and equivalent experience in sharing the latest development in biomedical
engineering and sciences, and in exchanging ideas and networking among the experts in the field.
IECBES2020 will feature distinguished keynote sessions, special sessions on (1) Computing Techniques
Applied to Covid-19 Scenarios, (2) Artificial Intelligence in Non-invasive Disease Detection, and (3)Emotion Recognition and Stress Assessment using Physiological Signals, and other technical sessions.
For further information, please visit our website http://iecbes.org or email us at info@iecbes.org.

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IEEE PELS Malaysia Chapter
Dr. Ramani Kannan, Secretary for IEEE PELS Malaysia Chapter

MATLAB Webinar for Beginner
The webinar event was held on 25th April 2020 in collaboration withIEEE PES Malaysia Chapter & IEEE UiTM Student Branch. This webinar
is free of charge and open to all, especially undergraduate &postgraduate students. It was conducted by Ir. Ts. Dr. Rahimi Baharom,
Chair for IEEE PELS Malaysia Chapter from UiTM. The aim of thewebinar workshop is to give an overview and exposure of MATLAB
software to the undergraduate, postgraduate, and researchers. During
the event, participants were given the opportunity to design simple power electronics circuits andapplication.

IEEE Senior Membership Elevation Workshop
The IEEE Senior Membership Elevation Workshop was scheduled
and conducted on 20th June 20 2020 (2.00 pm – 4.00 pm) via Cisco
Webex. Organized by the Power Electronics (PELS) Malaysia
Chapter, the speakers are Assoc. Prof. Dr. Shahrin Md Ayob, UTM(Vice Chair for PELS Malaysia Chapter) and Assoc. Prof. Ir. Dr. Tan
Chee Wei, UTM (ExComm for PELS Malaysia Chapter). This virtual
workshop focused on promoting IEEE members to apply forsenior member elevation and serves the society.

PELS Day Celebration cum NLP
Two signature programs in conjunction with IEEE PELS Day
were held on 20th June 2020. In the morning session, theNational Lecture Program (NLP) featured two speakers: Ts. Dr.
Khairul Safuan (UiTM & IEEE PELS Member) and Mr. Arief
Noor Rahman (Research Engineer, Yiqun Green Energy Tech,
National Taiwan University of Science and Technology).
During the events, participants have opportunity to explore
the trends on future of power system: converter applications.

IEEE RAS Malaysia Chapter
Mohamed Khan, Chair for IEEE RAS Malaysia Chapter

Webinar on Engineering Society and Benefits
A webinar on engineering society and benefits was
conducted on 6th November 2020 (9.30-11am) at
UCSI University, Malaysia. The webinar was deliveredby Dr. Mohamed Khan, with 25 participants. IEEE isthe world's largest professional society dedicated toadvancing technological innovation and excellence
for the benefit of humanity. IEEE and its members
inspire a global community through IEEE's highly cited
publications, conferences, technology standards, and
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professional and educational activities. In this talk, students not only gain the complete spectrum ofIEEE Societies and the importance of being a professional IEEE member, they were also exposed to theAccess essential and exclusive benefits offered to IEEE members, including technical information,
networking opportunities, career development, and member discounts.

Research Colloquium at UCSI Research Center
IEEE RAS Malaysia Chapter organized a research
colloquium on 13th November 2020, via MS Team. The
event started by a welcoming speech by the master of
ceremony, during his speech the MC introduced to theaudience the main speaker Dr. M. K. A. Ahamed Khan
who is currently working as Assistant Professor at UCSI
University, Malaysia about his topic of interest on theinvestigation of gait and biomechanical motion fordeveloping energy harvesting system. More than 25
participants involved. A working prototype has beenmodeled and devised based on the findings from theresearch. The prototype has been made from 3D
printing, and a combination of piezoelectric materials,
then tested and the results were explained. The event
ended at 4PM by a closing speech by the MC. The information gained by the participants during thistalk will play a part during their professional career development. The MC thanked all the participants
and the speaker for their participation and commitment.

IEEE SPS Bombay Chapter
Regional SPS Congress 2020
Satyanarayana Bheesette, Chair for IEEE SPS Bombay Chapter
Virtual Regional Signal Processing Society (SPS)
Congress 2020 was organized by the IEEE SPS
Bombay Chapter on 28th November 2020. The
Congress was attended by more than 100
participants from among the twelve SPS
chapters from India and one from Bangladesh.
Dr. Satyanarayana Bheesette [1] welcomed theparticipants and Prof. Suryanarayana Doolla [2]made opening remarks. Profs. K.V.S. Hari [3] and Ken Ma [4] briefed on SPS in R10 and its initiatives.
Profs. Ken Ma and Ami Wisel [5] delivered distinguished lectures, before joining the panel discussion
along with Profs. Yashwant Gupta [6] and Anubha Gupta [7]. A virtual social interaction was organizedusing the “Run The World” App. A Women in Signal Processing Session was conducted by Prof. Celia
Shahnaz [8], followed by a session on Education and Outreach by Profs. Angshul Majumdar [9] andChirag Paunwala [10]. The Congress was concluded with brainstorming on future collaborative events
between the Regional Chapters, in which all the Chapter Chairs participated.

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IEEE MTT/AP/EMC Islamabad Joint Chapter
Webinar Series Update and Chapter Expansion
Nosherwan Shoaib, Chair for IEEE MTT/AP/EMC Islamabad Joint Chapter
The webinar series, initiated by IEEE
MTT/AP/EMC Islamabad Joint Chapter at the
Research Institute for Microwave andMillimeter-Wave Studies (RIMMS), National
University of Sciences and Technology (NUST),
Islamabad, Pakistan, has been a successfuljourney with an aim to promote the knowledge
sharing during COVID-19 pandemic. The
chapter has conducted more than 20 webinars
so far. The speakers include renewed researchers and distinguished lecturers of MTT, AP and EMC
societies. In particular, the chapter has conducted a technical webinar titled “Innovative Applications
in Health and Food Industry through 3-D Microwave Sensing and Imaging” on 6th October 2020 tocelebrate the IEEE Day. The speaker was Prof. Francesca Vipiana from Dept. of Electronics andTelecommunications, Politecnico di Torino, Italy. To amplify the nature of technical activities, thechapter has been expanded to include IEEE Circuits and Systems Society (CAS) in October 2020.

IEEE PELS/IES Bombay Joint Chapter
1st IEEE International Conference STPEC 2020 Organized Virtually
Pradyumn Chaturvedi, Chair for IEEE PELS/IES Bombay Joint Chapter
The 1st IEEE International Conference on Smart
Technologies for Power, Energy and Control(STPEC2020) was hosted by the Department ofElectrical Engineering, VNIT, Nagpur, India during
25th and 26th September 2020. This conference wasfinancially sponsored by the IEEE Industry
Applications Society and technically sponsored by
the IEEE Power Electronics Society; jointly organized
by IEEE PELS-IES Bombay Joint Chapter and EED,VNIT Nagpur. Total number of papers received, accepted & presented were 324, 152 & 141 respectively
from 9 countries. Six keynote talks were delivered by Jih-Sheng Lai, Mangesh Borage, Sushil Soonee,
Subhashish Bhattacharya, Alberto Borghetti and Frede Blaabjerg. Prof. Georges Zissis, President of IEEE
IAS, informed that 20% of the papers from STPEC2020 are eligible for consideration in IEEE Transaction
on Industry Applications. General Chairs for the conference were Jih-Sheng Lai, Akshay Rathore, Hiralal
Suryawanshi and Mohan Aware; General Co-Chairs were Suryanarayana Doolla, Arvind Kumar, Vijay
Borghate, and Madhuri Chaudhari; and Organizing Secretaries were Pradyumn Chaturvedi and Arghya
Mitra.

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STUDENT BRANCHAND STUDENT
CHAPTERACTIVITIES

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8. STUDENT BRANCH AND STUDENT CHAPTER ACTIVITIESIEEE AIUB Student Branch [Bangladesh Section]
Distinguished Lecture Session on “Epilepsy, Algorithms, and AI: Personalized Seizure
Forecasting”
Fardeen Mahbub, Secretary for IEEE AIUB EMBS Student Chapter
On 5th November 2020, the IEEE AIUB Student
Branch in collaboration with the IEEE EMBS AIUB
Student Chapter organized a Distinguished Lecture
session titled “Epilepsy, Algorithms, and AI:
Personalized Seizure Forecasting” via the virtual
platform of GOOGLE MEET. The session was
conducted by IEEE EMBS Distinguished Lecturer,
Prof. David B. Grayden, Clifford Chair, NeuralEngineering; Director, MSE Medical Technologies Research Platform, Department of Biomedical
Engineering, University of Melbourne. In his talk, he focused on the disorder epilepsy including its
significant impacts of AI-based computational studies, and emphasized various ways for providing an
automated and standardized protocol for supporting clinical decisions with the intellect & proficiencyof the engineers. The session witnessed more than 195 participants from different parts of the world,
including numerous renowned researchers in the Biomedical Engineering sector, along with theremarks from Dr. Celia Shanaaz, Chair for IEEE Bangladesh Section, and Dr. Sheikh Anowarul Fattah,
Chair for IEEE EMBS Bangladesh Chapter.

Webinar Session on ‘Application of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) in Precision Agriculture:
Issues and Challenges’
Fardeen Mahbub, Publication Coordinator for IEEE AIUB Student Branch
On 9th October 2020, the IEEE AIUB Student Branchin collaboration with the IEEE Computer Society AIUB
Student Chapter successfully organized a webinar
session titled “Application of Wireless Sensor
Networks (WSN) in Precision Agriculture: Issues andChallenges” through the CISCO WEBEX Meeting
platform. The session was conducted by IEEE
Computer Society Distinguished Speaker, Mohamed
Rawidean Mohd Kassim, who is also R10 Regional
Coordinator for IEEE Computer Society, and R&D Manager at Technology Deployment Department,
Malaysian Institute of Microelectronic Systems, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation
Malaysia. The session focused on the elaborate ideas on Wireless Sensor Networks in the field of
precision agriculture and also explained how WSN, AI, Big Data, robotics, drones, machine vision, andcognitive technologies could play their respective roles in this field considering the world food demandin future. The session ended up with an interactive Q/A session and witnessed the participation of a
total of 93 participants.

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IEEE UCET IUB Student Branch [Bahawalpur Subsection]
Biomedical Robotics for Sustainable Future
Dr. Khan Bahadar Khan, Advisor for IEEE UCET IUB EMBS Student Chapter
IEEE UCET IUB EMBS Student Chapter organized avirtual session on the topic of "Biomedical Robotics
for sustainable future" on 29th October 2020, with
21 participants. The speaker Mehak Azeem
explained “Biomedical Robotics” and the role ofrobots in different medical fields and how theserobots can revolutionize the future of the medical
field. She discussed their importance in thispandemic as we implemented robotic machines totake care of Corona patients. Further, she made the audience aware of the different types of medical
robots which help the doctors to diagnose the disease. Moreover, she explained the different medical
robots and their applications, such as companion robots that help patients who need a regular checkup, and prostheses which can replace damaged human organs. She also discusses Obi robots that canhelp disabled person in which she is currently working. The talk ended with a question and answer
session.

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OTHERARTICLES

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9. OTHER ARTICLESIEEE INMIC 2020
Prepared by: Khan Bahadar Khan, General Secretary for IEEE Bahawalpur Subsection
The 23rd IEEE International Multitopic
Conference (INMIC 2020) was held at the Islamia
University of Bahawalpur (IUB), Pakistan from 5th
to 7th November 2020, sponsored by IEEE
Bahawalpur Subsection and IEEE ComSoc Lahore
Section, and in collaboration with IEEE Lahore
Section. INMIC 2020 is the flagship annual
conference of IEEE Pakistan mainly focused on
multidisciplinary topics in the field of electrical &electronics engineering, computer systems
engineering, computer science, and other related fields. We received an overwhelming response witharound 450 submissions from industries, academia, and research institutions on twelve tracks. 165
papers were accepted (acceptance rate of 40%) for oral presentations and inclusion in conference
proceedings.
Day 1 of the conference started with the opening ceremony at the Main Auditorium, IUB. On behalf of
the Organizing Committee, Patron for INMIC Prof. M. Amjad and Conference Chair Dr. M. Ali Qureshi
expressed sincere gratitude to the distinguished keynote speakers, guests, conference participants,
peer-reviewers, as well as to the authors. Prof. Zainal Bin Salam, distinguished keynote speaker fromCentre of Electrical Energy Systems, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia delivered his talk on “Building theSolar Photovoltaic Systems Industry Ecosystem”. Prof. M. Ali Imran, Dean of University of Glasgow,
UESTC, UK delivered a talk on “Overcoming digital divide by connecting the unconnected – technology
enablers and future overview”. Day 1 also featured four virtual parallel sessions on Renewable Energy,
Image Processing, Intelligent Systems & Applications, and Machine Learning.
Day 2 of the conference started with four virtual parallel sessions on Power Systems, Smart Systems,
Biomedical Image Processing, and Information & Software Technologies. Prof. Anouar Belahcen, Aalto
University, Finland then enlightened the audience on “Numerical Analysis of Synchronous Machines by
Coupled Circuit and Static Field Equations”. Prof. Azeddine Beghdadi, University Paris 13, France
delivered his keynote talk on “Image Quality in the Context of Medical Imaging and Diagnosis”.
The last day of the conference started with four virtual parallel sessions on Signal Processing, Control
Systems, Antenna & Microwave Communications, and Internet of Things. In the closing ceremony
Conference Chair Dr. M. Ali Qureshi, Patron Prof. M. Amjad, and Patron-in-Chief and Vice-Chancellor
IUB Prof. Athar Mehboob presented their closing remarks and thanked all dignitaries, authors, keynote
speakers, participants, and volunteers. The conference was concluded with award distribution and agroup photo.

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IEEE ICCCA 2020
Prepared by: Rabindra Nath Shaw, Chair for IEEE ICCCA 2020 Conference
The 2020 5th IEEE International Conference on Computing,Communication and Automation (ICCCA 2020) was jointly
organized by Aurel Vlaicu University of Arad, Romania &Galgotias University, India on 30th and 31st October 2020.
ICCCA 2020 has emerged as a premier conference to bringresearchers, scientists, and industry professionals to discussnovel ideas in the field of computing, power, andcommunication. This year, the conference was joined byresearchers, students, and industry professionals from fivecountries. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the conference
was organized online.
In the inaugural session of ICCCA 2020, opening remarks
were given by Prof. Ramona Lile Rector, Aurel Vlaicu
University of Arad, Romania and welcome address were
given by Prof. Preeti Bajaj & Prof. R V Babu, Galgotias
University, India. The guests of honour of the conference were Prof. Mohammad S. Obaidat, IEEE Life Fellow; Dr
Tomy Sebastian, IEEE Fellow; Prof. Saifur Rahman, IEEE Fellow; Prof. Vincenzo Piuri, IEEE Fellow; Prof. Bhim Singh,
IEEE Fellow; Prof. Jim Conrad, President of IEEE USA; Prof. Georges Zissis, President of IEEE IAS, USA; Prof. Saad
Mekhilef, Technical Chair for IEEE ICCCA 2020; Prof. Valentina E Balas, Liaisons for IEEE ICCCA 2020 and Prof.
Monica Bianchini, University of Siena, Siena, Italy. The vote of thanks was given by Conference Secretary.

The conference commenced with a keynote speech on “Developments in Vehicle Electrification” by Dr. Tomy
Sebastian, IEEE Fellow. This was followed by concurrent paper presentation panels FD1 to FD6 in 2 technicalsessions wherein 74 papers were presented with the participation of 76 authors. After the first three technicalsessions a keynote speech on “New Biometric Schemes for Risk-Based Authentication in Web Environment” wasgiven by Professor Mohammad S. Obaidat, IEEE Life Fellow. Thereafter, the remaining technical session FD4 to
FD6 for the first day commenced. After this, there were two keynote speeches which were attended by a large
number of participants. The first keynote speech was given by Prof. James M. Conrad of Department of Electricaland Computing Engineering, University of North Carolina Charlotte, North Carolina, USA on “IEEE MOVE disaster

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relief project, vehicle, and technology”. The second keynote speech was given by Prof. Mariesa L. Crow, IEEE
Fellow on “The IEEE Fellow Nomination Process – Best Practices for Success”.
The second and final day started with two keynote speeches. The first one was given by Professor Udaya K.
Madawala, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, The University of Auckland New Zealand on “V2X
Technologies: Wired or Wireless?”. The second keynote speech was given by Prof. Rajkumar Buyya IEEE Fellow
and Director of Cloud Computing and Distributed Systems (CLOUDS) Lab on “Neoteric Frontiers in Cloud andEdge Computing”. Then, technical sessions SD1-SD6 for the second day started in which 72 papers were
presented and attended by 74 authors. The last keynote speech of the conference was given by Prof. Fabio Scotti,
Universitàdegli Studi di Milano on “Artificial Intelligence for Biometric Systems: Applications in Cyber Security
and Ambient Intelligence” which was attended by a large number of students and researchers.
ICCCA 2020 concluded with a closing session which was addressed by Prof. Fabio Scotti, Universitàdegli Studi diMilano. The conference report was given by Dr. Nishad Mendis, Technical Chair for IEEE ICCCA 2020. Vote of
thanks was given by Conference Secretary and with this, the ICCCA 2020 concluded.

IEEE PES Women in Power Congress in Region 10
Prepared by: Dr. Celia Shahnaz, Chair for IEEE Bangladesh Section
IEEE PES Women in Power Congress in Region 10 was organized by WIE Affinity Group Bangladesh
Section, IEEE Bangladesh Section and IEEE PES Women in Power on 12 th & 13th September 2020 from
4PM to 8PM (GMT+6). A world bank initiative WePower was the partner of the event. It was a digital
event where 184 participants from 28 different countries of 6 continents, namely USA, Japan,
Singapore, China, India, Australia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Peru, Bhutan,
Brazil, Colombia, Taiwan, South Korea, Afghanistan, Nepal, France, Kenya, Nigeria, UK, Bolivia, Panama,
Mongolia, Hong Kong and Bangladesh participated. The event started with the program vision sharedby Dr. Celia Shahnaz, Chair for IEEE Bangladesh Section and General Chair for IEEE PES Women in Power
Congress in Region 10. She is also the lead of two strategic partners of WePower, namely, IEEE PESWomen in Power and IEEE Bangladesh Section.

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The chief guest of the event was Dr. Jessica Bian, Vice President of Grid Services, Grid-X Partners andIEEE PES President-Elect (2020-2021). The special guests were Dr. Roumei Li, Chair for IEEE PES and
Women in Power (WIP), and Dr. S N Singh, Vice Chair for R10 Technical Activities and Chair for IEEE
India Council.
The speakers for Day 1 were Dr. Bruno Meyer, Vivian Sin Yee Leung, Dr. Shama Naz Islam, Dr. Zhenfei
Chen, Dr. Nirmal-Kumar C. Nair, Lakshita, Dr. G. Bhuvaneshwari, Dr. Zhiqian Bo, Dr. Yu Juan and Dr.
Chandrasekhar Reddy Atla. While the speakers for Day 2 were Dr. Feifei Bai, Dr. Alan Harvey, Xia Chen,
Prof. Sunitha Beevi. K, Dr. Tong Wang, Jinghan He, Yingjie Liu, Gunjan Gautam, Dr. Tina Chou and Dr.
Zhenfei Chen.
Prof. Dr. Shaikh Anowarul Fattah, IEEE PES E-News Update Editor shared briefly how PES e-News update
can be utilized as a platform to recognize all contributors at the end on both days. Prof. Dr. Bozenna
Pasik-Duncan, lead of strategic partner IEEE WIE of WePower provided closing remarks. Anamika
Bhakta, Nafisa Tasnim, Irtiza Haque, Shaila Sharmin, Jannatul Adan, Sukanya Islam, Joyeta, Sk. Azmaeen
Bin Amir, and Raihan Ur Rashid was part of the amazing volunteer team.
For details, please take a look at the below links:
Facebook link: https://web.facebook.com/events/1021293628312283?_rdc=1&_rdr
Linkedin link: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13909087/
Event Video Link: Day 1: https://youtu.be/5Xhi1fjBlNI
Day 2: https://youtu.be/Cdc7IC7LJl8
Biography Link of Speakers:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Bx0qTcnsEB8asMUK030OYCN2zV5Fd-Za?usp=sharing

Women of Wisdom (WOW) Webinar Series
Prepared by: SunithaBeevi.K, WiP Coordinator for IEEE Kerala Section
Women of Wisdom (WOW) is an International Tech-Talk
Webinar Series jointly organized by IEEE PES WiP Kerala
Section and IEEE WiE Kerala Section, in association with IEEE
R10 PES WiP and hosted by IEEE TKM College ofEngineering, Kollam Student Branch. The objective of thisprogram is to open an international gateway for theaudience to interact with eminent women leaders fromdifferent parts of the world and discuss about the rapidly
emerging technologies. We are aiming to encourage interdisciplinary researches in cutting edge technologies, toencourage research collaboration, to empower women to
take a leadership position and to enhance the POWER of
women through POWERFUL WOMEN TALKS.

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The WOW Tech Talk Series was inaugurated on 25th June 2020 by Dr. Celia Shahnaz, R10 WiP
coordinator and has hence been enlivened with vibrant and charismatic women who joined the forum
to discuss the rapidly emerging technologies. We have conducted 10 such sessions with esteemed
women speakers from different countries of R10 in the year 2020. The world has witnessed several
successful women who seized every opportunity to prove that if a woman is educated, the entire
generation is educated, and Kerala WiP opened an international gateway for them. The event was open
to all professionals and students including IEEE members.

Virtual POCO 2020
Prepared by: Nordin Ramli, Executive Committee for IEEE Malaysia Section
Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, 2020 IEEE R10 Panel of Conference Organizers (POCO 2020) was
successfully organized by IEEE Malaysia Section and broadcasted virtually on 30th November 2020, 9AM– 2PM Malaysia Time. POCO is an annual event for leading conference organizers around the world.
IEEE organizes this event to share resources and ideas with all scientific associations and non-profit
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conference organizers. POCO provides a platform forthought leaders and decision-makers to shareconference leadership practices, discuss challenges
in the conference landscape, envision the future, andlaunch new conference initiatives. This event
provides an opportunity to conference organizers to
network and share ideas with the whole community.
POCO 2020 in Kuala Lumpur was organized for thesecond time after the first successful event held in2017. This POCO 2020 event was supported by IEEE Region 10 Support Grant. The event was joined bymore than 100 participants from various places accross Asia.
The organizing committee of POCO 2020 showcased renowned speakers from Region 10 as well as from
Malaysia. The event started with the officiating remarks by the Director of IEEE Region 10, Prof. Akinori
Nishihara. He emphasized on the importance of preserving quality in conference management, which
was also an important element to be reviewed by the Region 10 office. The keynote address wasdelivered by Prof. Lance Fung, the 2021-2022 R10 Director-Elect, where he again emphasized on quality
control in the process of reviewing conference papers. Other speakers included Prof. Zuhaina Zakaria,
Prof. Celia Shannaz, Dr. Nirmal Nair, Dr. Mohamad Faizal Ahmad Fauzi, Dr. Fawnizu Azmadi Hussein and
Dr. Md Pauzi Abdullah. Mr. Deepak Mathur, IEEE R10 20212020 Director spoke of his vision and plan for year 2021, andshared his idea on enhancing collaboration.
POCO 2020 was also fortunate to have the CEO of Malaysia
Convention & Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB), who shared theirinitiatives and support grants for conferences by thegovernment. IEEE Malaysia Section is hoping this event can
provide the platform to utilize the support iniatives by the
Malaysian government that conference organizers canbenefit from. At the end of the event, a panel session was held to share the experiences of runningvirtual conferences in the midst of the pandemic. The panelists include Prof. Supavadee Aramvith (ViceChair, IEEE SYWL 2020), and Mr. Muhammad Faris Mohd Firdaus & Mr. Muhammad Hisyam Harmizon,
from UTHM Student Branch who had organized IEEE SCORED 2020.
POCO2020 event was successfully organized and benefitted many participants throughout the AsiaPacific region. A similar event is planned in the future to continue the sharing of best practices on
conference management to potential conference organizers within IEEE Region 10.

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Quarter Tech Talk Table 1.0
Prepared by: Ramneek Kalra, IEEE Impact Creator and YP & Shailesh Prabhu, IEEE YP

A group of IEEE Young Professionals & Impact Creators gathered on 29th November 2020 (10:00AM - 11:30AM
IST) to create awareness on technology and form a collaborative environment by initiating “Quarter Tech Talk
Table 1.0 (QT3)” in the form of a panel discussion on the topic - “Technology for Public Safety”.
Motivation: To create a broad collaborative group of Young Professionals and Impact Creators to share someinsights on cutting-edge technologies to all technology enthusiasts by having a panel discussion. The primary
motivation of QT3 comes from the IEEE Strategic Plan 2020-2025 which inspires us to conduct this event with noboundaries. This provides opportunities to volunteers who collaborated to make this event a grand success.
Objectives: The objectives of QT3 are as stated below:●●●●

Creating a broad collaboration for sharing knowledge of Industrial Technologies.
Creating a bridge to connect IEEE Young Professionals through this activity for career and professional
development.
Sharing opportunities for elevating ideas using research-based oriented learning.
Creating an open forum for discussion on recent technological advancements and challenges.

Event Details:
In the 1st Edition of QT3, prominent IEEE
Young Professionals and Impact Creators
across the globe came together for a panel
discussion as listed below:--

Aakash Bansal (PhD Researcher at
Loughborough University, UK)
Shailesh Prabhu (Senior 5G Developer at
Wipro Limited, India)
Ramneek Kalra (Project Engineer at
Wipro Limited, India)
Bhagya Samarakoon (AdCom Member,IEEE WIE Singapore Section, Singapore)
Kirthika Senthil Kumar (AdCom
Member, IEEE WIE Singapore Section,
Singapore)
Pia Torres (RoboTeam Founder &Director, IEEE HAC Member, Argentina)

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Moderators:- Wathmini Sharika (Production Engineer, Central Industries PLC, Sri Lanka)- Naveendra Jayakody (Electrical Engineer, Sunleaf Solar Solutions, Sri Lanka)
General Chair:- Dr. Prashant R. Nair (Associate Professor, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India)

Points of Discussion
Some of the key takeaways from this 1st Edition of QT3 are as listed below:-

Eliminating misconceptions in cutting-edge technologies for public safety including 5G, robotics and edge
computing.

-Since the panel discussion was conducted on 25th November 2020 which is also the International Day of
Elimination of Women Violence, the panelists pointed out how technology can be used to eliminate women
violence from public places and insecure areas. In the same regard, the panelists also highlighted criticalparameters enabled by technology including Reliability, Affordability, Latency and Feasibility.

Round 1 (Open Discussion on Technology for Public Safety):o

One of the panelists highlighted about the application of Robotics during this pandemic situation andhow it has been used to enable public safety by means of examples like hospital spray robots,
shopping mall security robots, elevator cleaning robots etc. Adding to that, having cleanliness robots
and robots for social distancing monitoring in public places were among others.

oFrom the healthcare industry perspective, one of the panelists highlighted two key factors which isapplying robotics and making lives better. One of these was having robotics in the swabbing processof patients for COVID19 which can be automated thereby reducing human interaction.

oFrom the edge computing perspective, one of the panelists put pointers ahead, explaining what canbe achieved if integration of 5G and IoT is done. Adding to that, edge computing can provide thebase framework, which industries are using and implementing in their “Back to Office” infrastructure
to have full monitoring ability on the employees’ activity within the premises.

Round 2 (Panel Q&A Discussion):oWith 5G using high frequency radiations, one of the panelists highlighted that this is because of theincrease in the number of devices we are using these days, which he mentioned is directly
proportional to the bandwidth i.e. the more the devices, the more bandwidth is required to serve
the users. This increases the capacity of the network and thereby fulfils connectivity demands. He
also highlighted about the researches going around along with the expectations from 6G frequency
bands in numerous academic universities and industries. Putting the misconceptions held by a lot of
people about 5G, panelist shared the example of his own experiment of feeling the radiation
between a smart phone and an antenna with a microwave oven to shut the point of “5G causes
cancer”. Evidently, oven causes more danger than our own smart phone.

oAdding to above points, another panelist pointed out one of the common parameters in the adoptionof any technology by the telecommunication units is the compliance to Specific Absorption Rate
(SAR), which is being approved by ITU. Adding to that, he highlighted that 5G is not an exception tothis and will be safe for users giving a proper and safe way of communication. He added theapplications of 5G in mission-critical services including emergency recovery, remote surgery andPush to Talk. He also pointed out how 1/10th reduction of latency in 5G compared to the existing 4G
network can disrupt industry verticals and enable critical operations. Self-driven car is one of theclassical examples to highlight latency as a prime factor for responding to emergency situations andthereby endorsed 5G as a technology for future.

85 | P a g eoHighlighting on the popular question “Will Robots be taking jobs of Humans in coming years?” - Oneof the panelists in robotics domain pointed out her personal experience of having this question asked
from one of the immigration officers from one country, where she had visited for a robotics
conference. She highlighted the possibilities of having more high-skilled jobs in robotics
organizations. Also, she added that the jobs will be taken up by robots where humans cannot achieve
the outcome, or where minor jobs including floor cleaning/maintenance etc. can be automated. In
an optimistic way, she added that it will be a win-win situation for both robots & humans if humans
can be trained well to work for these high-skilled jobs for working in robotics companies.

oComing to the healthcare industry and how robotics can work on the reliability and trust value among
doctors, one of the researchers from the panel pointed it rightly by mentioning it is not the robots
who took the action often in healthcare, but it depends upon the doctor whether to trust that action
or not. She added that it is all about training the control system of robot to act accordingly in therepetitive and smart way. She mentioned that robots cannot replace the doctors’ experience of using
the tools and how much pressure needs to apply on tissues while in open surgery. Putting thosestatements in the robotics trust value, she mentioned the recent transition of having research on
Real-Time Feedback for Surgery purposes done by robots to get the confidence back to doctors. With
that, she concluded that “ultimate decision maker will always be humans”. Robots are intended toassist the critical operations and make life easy.

oAt the end of Round 2, another panelist highlighted how IoT and edge computing can help in turningup the possibilities of having schools/industries open again after this pandemic situation. He started
with sharing his own experience of his organization by having Android application and IoT sensors
deployed over numerous spots including entrance gate, lift panel, breakout rooms near coffee
machine etc. He added that in the upcoming days, the transition of using smart devices for smart
monitoring of campus by not touching objects around them is going to help against infections.

Round 3 (During a natural calamity or a crisis, most of the technology seems to be of no use. How does
technology assist in such scenarios?):o

Altogether every panelist put their own technology aspect how their own domain can put a proactive
approach to natural calamity by highlighting some of the prime factors including prediction using AI
and ML, deployment of smart sensors around cities/countries borders, application of robotics in
rescuing people from emergency locations etc. With that, adding to economic feasibility and having
Technology Acceptance Ratio (TAR) to be counted on priority always comes with trade-off. This
trade-off of not accepting technology can be eliminated by having smart machines deployed withvery less amount of latency which will give outcome in very demanding way.

“Ask the Panelist”: Under this last section of this Tech Talk, virtual floor was open for asking queries on the basisof discussion to the entire panelists, under which one of the attendees asked “How the deployment oftechnologies like 5G and others can be accurately compared to the theoretical promises, especially in rural area?”
In response, the panel mentioned that it will considerably take much time ahead to implement at that level, but
lot of telecommunication companies are already in process of pushing the bars up. This enhancement in frontline
will surely help us to accept the technology in a very accurate way and especially in the rural part of any nation
across the planet.
With the ending of this QT3 1.0, the General Chair put together the thank remarks and shared the next QT3 2.0
date, which is tentative 7th February 2021. Registrations are already open for the QT3 at:https://forms.gle/x2ost6UqqBGiqtxJ6

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AWARDSANDFUNDING87 | P a g e

10. AWARDS AND FUNDING
IEEE Fellows Elevated as of January 2021 - Region 10
Australian Capital Territory Section
for contributions to feature mining and classification of hyperspectral images
Xiuping Jia
Beijing Section
Hongke Zhang
Hua Geng
Huadong Ma
I Chih-lin
Jie TangJunzhi Yu
Lintao Zhang
Shixia Liu
Wenchuan Wu
Xiaofeng Liao
Yu Zheng
Zhao-liang Li
Zhaocheng Wang

for contributions to high-speed railway communications
for contributions to control of renewable energy power converters
for contributions to multimedia sensor networks
for leadership in wireless mobile networks
for contributions to knowledge discovery from data and social network mining
for contributions to bio-inspired swimming robots
for contributions to computer-aided verification with efficient Boolean satisfiability solvers
for contributions to visual text analysis and visual model analysis
for contributions to energy management, operations, and control
for contributions to neurodynamic systems and chaotic cryptography
for contributions to spatio-temporal data mining and urban computing
for contributions to thermal infrared remote sensing
for contributions to pilot design and modulation of OFDM wireless systems

Chengdu Section
Chunming Li

for contributions to computer vision and medical image analysis

Delhi Section
Richa Singhfor contributions to robust and secure biometrics

Fukuoka Section
Gourab Majumdar

for contribution to power semiconductor devices and intelligent power module

Guangzhou Section
for application of optimization methods for real-time economic power system operation
Jizhong Zhu
for contributions in hyperspectral image processing
Jun Li
Hefei Subsection
Houqiang Li
Meng Wang

for contributions to video coding and multimedia content analysis
for contributions to multimedia content analysis and retrieval

Hong Kong Section
for contributions to security of cloud storage and computation
Cong Wang
for contributions to analysis of chaotic comm. systems and low-density parity-check code design
Francis Lau
for contributions to wirelessly powered communications and multi-antenna communications
Kaibin Huang
Matthew Mckay for contributions to random matrix theory in statistical signal processing
for contributions to graphical models for channel coding
Pascal Vontobel
Kansai Section
Jun Ohta
Shinzo Tamai
Tomohiro Nakatanifor contributions to CMOS image sensors and devices for biomedical applications
for contributions to control for motor drives and three-level converters
for contributions to far-field signal processing for speech enhancement and recognition

Nagoya Section
Jianqing Wang

for contributions to electro-magnetic compatibility of biological and wearable/implant devices

Nagpur Subsection
Hiralal Suryawanshi

for contributions to converters for renewable energy systems, drives, and electrical machines

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Nanjing Section
Dong Yue
Geyi Wen
Hanchuan Pengfor contributions to network-based control and its applications to power systems
for contributions to antenna quality factor
for contributions to visualization and quantitative analysis of large-scale biological data

New South Wales Section
for contributions to knowledge and monitoring of arterial hemodynamics
Alberto Avolio
for contributions to the development of advanced piezoelectrics for transducers
Shujun Zhang
for contributions to cloud computing security
Willy Susilo
for contributions to resource allocation for wireless communication networks
Wing Kwan Ng
Queensland Section
Daniel Quevedo
Firuz Zare

for contributions to optimal and model predictive control
for contribution to power converters and leadership role in standardization

Sendai Section
Tetsuya Suemitsu

for contributions to high-frequency high-electron-mobility transistors

Seoul Section
Byoung-hoon Kim
Chan-byoung Chae
Hyundong Shin
Kyoung Mu Lee
Wonjun Lee

for contributions to development and standardization of mobile communication technologies
for contributions to MIMO design and prototypes for emerging communication systems
for contributions to the analysis and design of wireless communication and networking
for contributions to image restoration and visual tracking
for contributions to multiple access and resource allocation in wireless networks

Shanghai Section
Bao-liang Lu
Daoqiang Lu
Huang De Shuang
Jingyi Yu

for contributions to artificial neural networks and affective brain-computer interfaces
for development of materials and manufacturing processes for mobile devices
for contributions to neural networks for pattern recognition and bioinformatics
for contributions to theor. analysis, algorithms and systems for comp. photog. and comp. vision

Shikoku Section
for contributions to medical robots for minimally invasive surgery and biomimetic underwater robots
Shuxiang Guo
Singapore Section
Amit Gupta
Chau Yuen
Danwei Wang
Sanjib Panda
Xudong Jiang

for leadership in power conversion systems
for contributions to energy efficient wireless communications
for contributions to modelling, analysis, and control for constrained robots
for contributions to iterative learning control of motor drives
for contributions to face and fingerprint image recognition

Tainan Section
Mi-ching Tsaifor leadership in magnetic materials for the electric motor industry

Taipei Section
Ai-chun Pang
Vincent Tseng
Yaow-ming Chenfor contributions to resource management and service provisioning for mobile edge networks
for contributions to utility pattern mining and biomedical applications
for contributions to grid-connected power converters for renewable energy applications

Tokyo Section
Hideaki Aochi
Hideaki Ishii
Itsuro Morita
Jinhua She
Shinji Yuasa
Takatoshi Tsujimura

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for contributions to three dimensional flash memories
for contributions to networked control of large-scale systems
for contributions to large-capacity transmissions systems with high-speed optical signals
for contributions to intelligent control of complex metallurgical processes
for contributions to MgO-based magnetic tunnel junctions
for contributions to the development of organic-light-emitting diode systems

Uttar Pradesh Section
for contributions to power system security and stability
Suresh Srivastava
for contributions to compact modeling of Si and GaN transistors
Yogesh Chauhan
Victorian Section
Jianfei Cai

for contributions to multimedia transmission and content analysis

Wuhan Section
Lizhe Wang for contributions to high performance comp. in proc., anal. and applications of remote sensing imagery
for contributions to data-driven communication, caching, and computing
Min Chen
Xian Section
Guangming Shi
Hong Wang
Jiandong Li
Jingdong Chenfor contributions to image representation and image reconstruction
for devel., integ., and comm. of novel dielectric ceramics and composites for passive integration
for leadership in heterogeneous self-organizing wireless networks
for contributions to microphone array proc. and speech enhance. in noisy and reverb. environments

Zhejiang Subsection
for contributions to fault diagnosis in power grids
Fushuan Wen
for contributions to control and modeling of modular multilevel converter based HVDC trans. systems
Zheng Xu
for contributions to DC-DC power conversion and control
Zhengyu Lu

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IEEE Regional Exemplary Student Branch Award 2020
Bangalore Section
 University Visvesvaraya College ofEngineering [UVCE] Central University of Karnataka

Bangladesh Section
 BRAC University
 American International University Bangladesh

Bombay Section
 Sies Graduate School Of Technology
 Vidyalankar Institute of Technology

Delhi Section
 Netaji Subhas University ofTechnology (NSUT)

Hyderabad Section
 Gokaraju Rangaraju Institute ofEngineering and Technology
 University College of Engineering,
Osmania University

Kerala Section








Adi Shankara Institute of Engineering and Technology
St.Joseph's College of Engineering and Technology, Palai
Chengannur College of Engineering
Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology Kottayam
Government College of Engineering – Kannur
College of Engineering – Karunagappally
NSS College Of Engineering

Madras Section
 Panimalar Institute of Technology - Chennai

Malaysia Section










Universiti Tenaga Nasional
Monash University - Sunway Campus
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka
Multimedia University
Malaysia Universiti Teknologi
University of Malaya
Putra Malaysia University
Curtin University Sarawak
Universiti Malaysia Perlis

Sri Lanka Section
 University of Colombo School of Computing

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IEEE Darrel Chong Student Activity Award 2020Gold Category
 IEEE Student Quality Improvement
Programme 2019 - Chengannur College
of Engineering, Kerala Section
 IEEE STEM Challenge Tech Track andScience Track - Curtin University Sarawak, Malaysia Section
 Credenz (National Technical Fest) - Pune
Institute of Computer Technology, Pune
SectionSilver Category
 Outreach Program for Pre-University
Students - Bangladesh Univ Of
Engineering & Technology, Bangladesh
Section Umang - Guru Gobind Singh
Indraprastha University, Delhi Section
 Intel Softwares IoT Workshop - The
NorthCap University, Delhi Section
 EMPNEO 3.0 - Model Engineering College, Kerala Section
 Brainstorm 2019 - University of Moratuwa-Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Section
 Gammeddata IEEE Api (IEEE for the Countryside) - University of Moratuwa-Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Section

Bronze Category Student Professional Awareness Workshop - American International University - Bangladesh, Bangladesh
Section hackNSUT 2019 - Netaji Subhas University of Technology (NSUT), Delhi Section
 IEEE Awareness talk and IEEE Project for Kids: Renewable Energy for Future - Indian Institute of TechnologyMandi, Delhi Section
 IEEE Fusion - Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia Section
 Kaizen 6.0 - College of Engineering, Munnar, Kerala Section
 .hack(); - Mar Athanasius College of Engineering, Kothamangalam, Kerala Section
 42 - Technical Flagship Event - Government Engineering College - Barton Hill, Kerala Section
 Lighting for Humanity - College of Engineering - Karunagappally, Kerala Section
 All Pakistan Electrical Symposium - Univ of Engineering and Tech - Lahore, Lahore Section
 11th IEEE Annual Engineering Project Exhibition - UCET - The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Lahore
Section InternEXP - University of Nottingham - Malaysia Campus, Malaysia Section
 Hackaholics 3.0 - University of Colombo School of Computing, Sri Lanka Section
 GameRush - University of Colombo School of Computing, Sri Lanka Section
 Let Me Hack Eco 2.0 - Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Section

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IEEE Outstanding Branch Counselor and Chapter Advisor Award 2020

Dr. Asjad Amin, UCET - The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Lahore Section
Dr. Mohamad Yusoff Alias, Multimedia University, Malaysia Section
Dr. Vydeki Vijayakumar, Vellore Institute of Technology - Chennai, Madras Section
Prof. Haseena P Y, College of Engineering, Karunagapally, Kerala Section

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IEEE Global Student Branch Website Contest 2019

1st Place (Winner)
Pueruana Cayetano Heredia University, Peru Section (R9)https://www.ieee-upch.org/

2nd Place (Runner)
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Malaysia Section (R10)https://edu.ieee.org/my-utem/

Honourable Mention(s)Universidade do Porto, Portugal Section (R8)
http://ieee.fe.up.pt/
UPIITA - IPN, Mexico Section (R9)https://ieeeupiita.mx/

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Larry K Wilson Regional Student Volunteer Award 2020

R7 - Annika Benson, Dalhousie University, Canadian Atlantic Section
R8 - Theodoros Panagiotis Chatzinikolaou, Democritus Univ of Thrace, Greece Section
R9 - Jonathan Humberto Luzon Carrion, Politecnica Salesiana University, Ecuador Section

R10 - Ali Mustufa Shaikh, A. P. Shah Institute of Technology, Bombay Section

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CONFERENCECALL FOR
PAPERS

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CONFERENCE CALL FOR PAPERS

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August 22 (Sun) – 24 (Tue), 2021

Due to COVID-19, the TENSYMP2021 organizing committee has decided to postpone
TENSYMP2021 to August 22 (Sunday) - 24 (Tuesday), 2021.
The committee has also decided to change the conference Venue to Maison Glad Jeju
Hotel (https://maisongladjeju-hotels.com/web/maison/about).
The conference will be run in mixed online and physical mode.

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