Ottawa IEEE ComSoc/CESoc/BTS Joint Chapter: Winner of the 2016 Chapter Achievement Award Best Practices and Activities

By Wahab Almuhtadi - Chapter Chair, Ottawa, Canada

The IEEE Ottawa ComSoc/CESoc/BTS Joint Chapter (http://www.ieeeottawa.ca/comsoc) is one of the most active chapters in R1-R10. This is the reason why the Chapter was selected from among all ComSoc chapters worldwide to be the winner of the 2010 ComSoc Chapter of the Year (2010 CoY), as well as the winner of the 2010 Communications Society Chapter Achievement Award (2010 CAA) in the North America Region (R1-R7).

Last year on December 5, 2016 in Washington, DC, USA at GLOBECOM 2016, the Communications Society announced that the Ottawa Chapter is the final winner of the 2016 Communications Society Chapter Achievement Award (2016CAA) in the North America Region (R1-R7).

The Ottawa Chapter’s main focus is “Serving the Members Profession, and Community.” The best practices used by the Chapter to organize its activities and initiatives for serving members every year include: hosting DL seminars/tours; organizing local meetings and workshops; conferences; holding activities for YP, WIE, and student members; relationships with the community; and membership and development. Following are some of the activities that led the Chapter to win the 2016 ComSoc Achievement Award.

DL Seminars/Tours

The Chapter organized five successful distinguished lectures:

  • March 18, 2016, “Joint Symposium on Optical Communications,” by DL: Prof. Bhaskar D. Rao, University of California, San Diego, USA.
  • November 26, 2015, “SDN/NFV Technology Trends and Academic Research in Canada,” by DL: Prof. Bhaskar D. Rao, University of California, San Diego, USA.
  • November 18, 2015, “Terrestrial Broadcast vs. LTE-eMBMS: Competition and Cooperation,” by DL: Marco Breiling, IEEE BTS distinguished lecturer, chief scientist of the Broadband & Broadcast Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (IIS), Erlangen, Germany.
  • November 12, 2015, “Agility for an App-centric Network: Integrated Management of Software Defined Infrastructure,” by DL: Prof. Bhaskar D. Rao, University of California, San Diego, USA.
  • March 30, 2015, “Self-Organizing Small Cell Networks,” by DL: Dr. Ekram Hossain (IEEE Fellow), Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada.

Local Meetings and Workshops

The Chapter organized 15 successful technical seminars, including the following as examples.

  • •April 5, 2016, “IEEE Standards Development Ecosystem and ComSoc Standards and Standards-Related Activities,” by Dr. Alexander D. Gelman, Director–Standardization Programs Development, IEEE Communications Society.
  • April 16, 2015, “Applications of Petri Nets in Communications– Calculation of Probability Distributions of Performance Variable in Petri Net Models,” by Dr. Faruk Hadziomerovic, Independent Consultant, Ottawa.
  • March 26, 2015, “Challenging Problems and Opportunities in Semiconductors and Microsystems,” by Kenneth D. Wagner, ITAC Semiconductor Microsystems Council Chairman, Distinguished Engineer, PMC-Sierra, Inc.
  • March 20, 2015, “Challenges in the Next Wave of Connectivity,“ by Dr. Patrice Gamand, Ph.D., RF Fellow and Technology Manager, Corporate CTO office, NXP Semiconductors.
  • February 4, 2015, “An Overview of the Build in Canada Innovation Program (BCIP),” by Helen Braiter, Director, Build in Canada Innovation Program (BCIP), Ottawa Canada.

Conferences

The Chapter, along with the Ottawa Section, submitted in 2013 a bid for IFIP/IEEE IM 2015 and presented at the IM 2013 in Ghent, Belgium. The chapter won the bid to host IM’15 in Ottawa in May 2015. The Chapter was heavily involved in communication with local industry, academia, Ottawa Tourism, and the City of Ottawa in the preparation for hosting IM 2015 in Ottawa in May 2015 (http://im2015.ieee-im.org).

Holding Activities for Young Professional, WIE, and Student Members

The Ottawa Chapter held meetings, seminars and workshops at Algonquin College, the University of Ottawa, and Carleton University. Many students attended these events, which were co-organized with the student branches of these academic institutes. The Ottawa Chapter held meetings of young professionals (formerly GOLD) and WIE. Many students also participated as volunteers in IM 2015.

Relationship with the Community

The Chapter was heavily involved in a strong relationship with local industry, academia, Ottawa Tourism, and City of Ottawa in preparation for hosting workshops, symposia, and conferences in Ottawa. The local high tech and communications industry (more the 1800) and academia (4) in Ottawa are very supportive in providing funding, sponsorship, speakers, and advertisements, as well as making their facilities available for the seminars, workshops, and field tours.

Chapter Membership Development

The Ottawa Chapter works closely with the Ottawa Section Membership Development Committee with the objective to recruit new members to ComSoc. The Ottawa Chapter is also maintaining membership retention by contacting the members to renew their membership. At the beginning and/or during coffee breaks of each technical seminar or social event, the Chapter promotes membership development and encourages non-members to become IEEE ComSoc members. Also as part of retention and membership development, the Chapter encourages members to apply for Senior Membership and for IEEE Fellow grade. The Chapter also inspires active members to be volunteers with the Chapter or in ComSoc conferences.