The IEEE ComSoc San Diego chapter has been active in promoting and serving the local communications community. San Diego has long been an innovation hub of the wireless industry. Notably, CDMA, the core technology of the second-generation IS-95 standards and the third-generation (3G) broadband standards, was first publicly demonstrated by Qualcomm in San Diego on November 7, 1989. Initiated by the IEEE San Diego Section, this public demonstration was approved by IEEE as an IEEE Milestone, a significant technical achievement highly honored by IEEE. On November 7, 2017, 28 years after the demonstration, IEEE celebrated this historical event with Qualcomm, IEEE members and the city of San Diego. A bronze plaque was permanently placed on the Qualcomm campus in San Diego.

San Diego has maintained its leadership in wireless innovation throughout the years, and it is the home of many professionals who work in the wireless industry. To help IEEE members and working professionals keep up with the latest advances in wireless and other technologies, on December 8, 2017, the IEEE San Diego Section held a conference, IEEE Smart Tech San Diego, which featured a variety of panel discussions covering not only wireless, but also big data, robotics, smart cities, Internet of Things (IoT), genomics, and intellectual properties. The ComSoc chapter organized a panel discussion on the commercialization of the fifth generation (5G) cellular systems, covering the key technologies, the status of the standards, deployment, the ecosystem, and the impact of the recent change in FCC policies.

The desire and demands to learn the new 5G technology certainly go beyond San Diego! To help IEEE members elsewhere understand the rapid advances of 5G technology and standards, as an IEEE ComSoc Distinguished Lecturer (DL), I travelled to the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas in June and July 2017, respectively, to give a series of talks on 5G. It was great to hear and answer so many questions from the enthusiastic audience, some of which were amazingly insightful.

The IEEE ComSoc San Diego chapter has done an outstanding job in fulfilling its mission to serve working professionals. This would not have been possible without the coordination from the IEEE San Diego section, sister ComSoc chapters, and the valuable time and effort invested by many volunteers. Working together, we can help our community grow.