113th IEEE Region 8 Committee Meeting, Valencia, Spain: The Opportunities of Building IEEE Standards for EMEA

By Oscar M Bonastre - Chair of Standards, Technical and Professional Activities, Chair of IEEE Spain Section 2020-2021

The 113th IEEE Region 8 Committee Meeting was held in Valencia on 12-13 October 2019. In conjunction with this meeting, the Spain Section celebrated the assembly of the IEEE Board of Directors and IEEE DAY on 12 October 2019. To this end, a workshop was prepared related with Standards, a fundamental point of interest for the Communications Society and other IEEE Societies. The workshop aimed to be an opportunity to discuss a broad variety of standards-related topics in the area of communications and others. It covered the role of standards in technical innovation in communications, the effect of intellectual property on technology standardization, and research on standardization methodologies. The workshop also focused on the role of policies and regulations on standardization.

S. Welby, IEEE Executive Director, giving the keynote speech about IEEE Standards. (Photo courtesy of Shmuel Auster, workshop by the IEEE Spain Section.)

The opening ceremony was given by Jesús Fraile, IEEE Spain Section Chair, and Magdalena Salazar, IEEE Region 8 Director. Then, the keynote speech was given by Stephen Welby, Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of IEEE, USA. About the panellists, David Law, Distinguished Technologist at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IEEE representative to the European Commission ICT Standardization Platform, and IEEE R8 standards coordinator, UK, talked about developing standards within IEEE-SA: Process & Governance. Clara Neppel, Senior Director of the IEEE Global Office in Vienna, Austria, talked about IEEE standardization and certification initiatives around Artificial Intelligence. Hermann Brand, European Standards Affairs Director, IEEE Technology Centre, Austria, talked about IEEE standards shaping the future of road transportation. Christopher James, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Director of Warwick Engineering in Biomedicine, University of Warwick, UK, talked about interoperability in the field of e-health. Brian Heinen, Founder, Local Producer Ltd and the Blockchain in Europe Group, talked about the need for Blockchain standards. The moderator was Oscar M. Bonastre, Chair of Standards, Technical and Professional Activities, IEEE Spain. The workshop was followed by more than 120 people representing industry, society, attendees of 113th IEEE Region 8 Committee Meeting and to the general meeting of IEEE Spain Section. The workshop featured extensive interaction between the speakers and questions from audience.

I want to express great gratitude to Stephen Welby for his high quality keynote speech and all panellists for their voluntary contribution to this workshop. The workshop slides are available online at https://ieeer8.org/category/committee/meetings/2019-october-valencia/