Francesco Maurelli, OES YP-BOOST 2023-2024
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YP, SAC, WiE, MGA, TAB, PSPB, CSTF… and then RAS, OES, MTTS, ITSS, TEMS… What are all these strange words and abbreviations? Welcome to the IEEE World, with its multifaceted organisational levels. With more than 400,000 members in more than 160 countries, it is not a surprise that the world’s largest technical professional society has many subdivisions in order to properly operate. I had the opportunity to learn more at the joint SAC/YP/WiE meeting, which happened in Lisbon from the 14th to the 17th of March, 2024, representing our own Oceanic Engineering Society Young Professionals. Let’s start then to understand the abbreviations of the meeting name. SAC is Student Activity Committee, YP stands for Young Professionals and WiE – probably the most well-known abbreviation in the list – represents Women in Engineering.
OES members who actively follow the society’s activities would surely recognise that we are active in all these areas. Similarly, other IEEE societies have activities in these areas as well. And we should not forget the IEEE Regions: the world has been split into 10 regions and each of them has its own internal structure, with SAC, YP, WiE and so on.
The meeting in Lisbon aimed at getting all key people together, considering both the technical societies and the geographical areas.
Some parts of the program were in common for all three groups, whilst individual meeting rooms were reserved for the individual program, in order to focus on those specific elements relevant for each specific group.
The format of the event was a healthy mix of presentations, group discussions and activities, leaving little time to explore the beauty of the Portuguese capital. Properly designed to support networking, sharing best practices and activity ideas, the event flew very quickly, leaving long-lasting impact among the participants.
Before the Keynote Talk of Prof. Dr. Isabel Trancoso, about her incredible research journey and the IEEE Fellows committee.
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Among the areas of discussion, the transition from student to young professional and the involvement of industrial partners are challenges, which prompted a reflection on the membership value for people in those categories.
Stephanie Berrio Perez – YP Intelligent Transportation Systems Society, Francesco Maurelli – YP Oceanic Engineering Society, Ezio Malis – YP Robotics and Automation Society
My personal three key take-aways from this event, linked to OES:
- There are no – or there should not be – walls among the 39 IEEE Societies. There are several overlaps, and we should focus on synergies between societies and between people. At OES we are perfectly placed to contribute and lead inter-society activities, as many can relate to ocean infrastructures, sensors, systems, vehicles and so on.
- Climate and Sustainability are top in the IEEE Agenda. To use the words of Prof. Dr. Saifur Rahman, IEEE Past President, the Institute goal is to provide engineering solutions to address climate change and sustainable development challenges. This is the way he has presented IEEE to various stakeholders and to the general public. The Oceans are a vital climate stabiliser and with the Ocean Decade Initiative, OES is perfectly in line with the overall IEEE global direction.
- IEEE is the natural home for every engineering professional. The needs are however different from a student to a professor, from a researcher to an industrial employee to a leader. The challenge for individual societies like OES is to show the value for the membership cost, especially when we are talking about industrial members who do not regularly attend conferences.
Overall, it was a fantastic experience, and I am now working to realise some of the ideas that came from the brainstorming and discussions in this event, like an IEEE Ocean Challenge!