First Official Photo of IEEE/OES-ESPOL student chapter with the local authorities form ESPOL. The chapter was officially created on November 2nd, 2017 with 8 members.

Let Me Tell You a Little Bit About
Our Chapter and How it Began
About a year ago I had the opportunity to obtain a scholarship for traveling to Rio Acoustics Symposium and present a project that I developed with our actual advisor and teacher, whose proposal was to implement a low-cost bathymetry system for easy access to teachers and researchers. During the symposium I experienced great things and met incredible people like Jean Pierre Hermand, who would immediately become our IEEE/OES-ESPOL mentor. During the symposium development I could see the world from a different perspective, with a point of view of a researcher. I truly believe that my partners are potential researchers, they are brilliant, however, Ecuador is a country where the research area in marine sciences is underdeveloped, nonetheless, far from being an obstacle, this was a huge motivation to create the initiative to guide the Ecuadorian youth in different areas of marine research. This was the beginning of my idea to create an OES student chapter in my university. I had the aim that my partners would have the same opportunity of sharing their ideas to the world and of being part of the greatest and important worldwide organization of engineers.

A spinoff of RIO Acoustics 2017: The OES-ESPOL Student Branch Chapter in Ecuador.

Jean Pierre was Always Very Aware of our
Growth and Projects. Following is an
Article Published in the OES Beacon Newsletter
“Following Ecuadorian student Karen Aguirre’s participation, an OES Student Branch Chapter was recently formed at the Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral—ESPOL, Guayaquil. Karen wrote “One of the main objectives when entering the university is to be part of something big and if possible, to found that big thing. Thanks to my teacher and tutor, I had the opportunity to know about IEEE. Later, while we were working on an acoustic project, the call to participate in the RIO Acoustics symposium came to our hands. Thanks to our effort and the support of the organizers of the event, we obtained one of the nine twelve scholarships for Latin American students. When I arrived in Brazil and observed the magnitude of the event organized by IEEE/OES, I knew that my goal was to be part of IEEE/OES, but I also felt that I should share this experience with my colleagues and professors in Ecuador. That is why the idea of creating our chapter was born, where everyone can access the sea of opportunities and benefits offered by IEEE and OES, enter the world of ocean engineering society and contribute with new ideas and projects from the researcher profile. Our current goal is to continue integrating members into the IEEE/OES family and open the doors to a host of new experiences and opportunities that will enrich our professional life.”” (Hermand, 2017)
     Published photo in OES Beacon, DECEMBER 2017, Volume 6, Number 4.

Our First Event as a Chapter was a Basic AutoCad Course
for the Design of Ocean Structures
During the month of May, we organized a meeting with WIE, IEEE and the Georgia Institute of Technology representatives in Atlanta, where, with our IEEE/OES-ESPOL past president, we had the chance to interchange ideas, experiences and to plan future projects together.

AutoCad course.	AutoCad course Closing.

     This year we are honored to have 20 members and volunteers, which represents double the number when we began.
As a student chapter, it is of vital importance to participate and attend scientific congresses, being part of them, and exchange ideas and experiences with long-term researchers. Due to that, and thanks to our continuous communication with Jean Pierre, professor Arthur Ayres Neto and him decided to come and visit us for the planification of future projects, as the Rio Acoustics Symposium in Ecuador and student exchanges for being part of their international projects. Also, we were honored to organize the FIRST CONGRESS OCEAN TECHNOLOGY, taking place on September 1st, 2018; where Jean Pierre Hermand and Arthur Ayres Neto were our main lecturers.

Meeting with WIE and IEEE in Atlanta, Georgia.	Weekly meeting of OES student chapter.

Meeting with Jean Pierre Hermand, Arthur Ayres Neto and ESPOL authorities.
Flyer First Congress “Ocean Technology.”

     Due to our recent creation, and that this event was the first one of this magnitude, we attend a considerable number of assistants, but the acceptance was so great, that we had to manage a bigger auditorium that could afford the increased attendance. Finally, we had 120 assistants divided in: 80 students, 30 professionals, 10 representatives of the main marine science organizations and ESPOL authorities. During the event, 10 distinguished national and international lecturers joined us (Belgium, Brazil, Japan, Ecuador and Venezuela) who developed several topics related to marine science and technology, such as underwater robotic, aquiculture, marine ecosystem remediation, bathymetry using satellites, and other interesting topics. With that, we gave our students a vast panorama to help their initiative in any of the oceanic engineering fields and where they had the most interest. The congress began September 1st, 2018 at 0900 and finished at 1700 the same day. Each lecturer had a period of 45 minutes for the exposition, meanwhile, we gave a space for doing networking between the assistants and the lecturers; in this way they could exchange their ideas and propose projects to work with. Finally, an assistance certificate was given to lecturers and assistants.
     Is important to remark that the event was organized in only three weeks of anticipation, because it was difficult to get some details of Jean Pierre and Arthur’s visit. Also, it was the last event of the semester. That was the reason it was planned for one day after the students went on vacation; with this inconvenience we decided to transmit the event in the social networks. That allowed those who couldn’t participate to at least see the event and ask some questions to the lecturers. This was a total success because we reached more than one thousand visits during the transmission.
     Our Project proposal, for the contest in social network, is to reach the attention of new members and volunteers that are related with the academy, science and oceanic engineering. For that we will keep doing contests, workshops, technical visits and congresses; with these they will become more and more interested in participating and being part of our student chapter.

Our big family OES/IEEE.