The IEEE Joint Chapter C16/COM19 in the Bahia Section, Brazil, was created in 1994. The Bahia Section aggregates members and acitivities in Brazilian’s Northeast region (including nine states). The ComSoc chapter from the Bahia Section is composed of undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and professionals interested on communications in Brazil’s Northeast. Currently ComSoc in the Bahia Section is composed of 42 members, in the following categories: one affiliate member; one associate member; six student members; four graduate student members; 20 members; nine senior members and one life senior member.
We present here a brief summary of the main activites developed by ComSoc members and students in 2016 and 2017.
Different lectures and seminars were organized with recognized telecommunications specialists in the Bahia Section. Life senior member Orlando Baiocchi, from the University of Washington Tacoma, in Tacoma-WA, United States, senior member Marcelo Sampaio de Alencar, from the Federal University of Campina Grande and the Advanced Institute of Communication Studies, both in Campina Grande-PB, Brazil, and senior member Fabrício Braga Soares de Carvalho, from the Federal University of Paraíba, in João Pessoa-PB, are some of the researchers who presented lectures at different institutions and universities in Brazil’s Northeast. These presentations were organized at Federal University of Vale do São Francisco (UNIVASF), in Juazeiro-BA; Federal University of João Pessoa (UFPB), in João Pessoa-PB; Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG), in Campina Grande- PB, and Federal Institute of Paraíba (IFPB) in João Pessoa-PB and Campina Grande-PB.
On August 21, 2017, a Distinguished Lecturer presentation was held in Natal-RN. ComSoc Distinguished Lecturer Prof. Dr. Rui Luis A. Aguiar, from the University of Aveiro, in Portugal, was invited by three different ComSoc Sections in Brazil to present the lecture entitled “A General Overview of Research on 5G.” One of these Sections was the Bahia Section.
The presentation of Prof. Rui Luis A. Aguiar attracted several IEEE members and non-IEEE members to the event. The total number of attendees was 137, including undergraduate and graduate students, faculty members, and professionals. The presentation was organized at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN). During the event, the IEEE Student Branch from UFRN supported the presentation by receiving the audience, distributing folders about IEEE, and recruiting new IEEE members.
The ComSoc Chapter from the Bahia Section technically supported the First IEEE Summer School on Smart Cities, IEEE S3C 2017, which was held in the city of Natal-RN from August 6–11, 2017. This was the first of its series and was intended to provide a valuable forum for knowledge exchange between industry, the scientific community, and municipalities in all fields of smart cities. A total of 23 graduate students, 46 undergraduate students, and 47 professionals (faculty and city representatives) registered and participated in the conference. The IEEE Student Branch from UFRN in the ComSoc Chapter from the Bahia Section supported the organization of this remarkable conference. The conference website with supplementary information is located at http://s3c.imd.ufrn.br/.
The ComSoc chapter from the Bahia Section is supporting the organization of the ENCOM 2017 conference, which is promoted by the Institute of Advanced Studies in Communications (Iecom). This is a meeting for the discussion of different topics on telecommunications, signal processing, cryptography, and networks, annually scheduled at a different city in Brazil, since 2011. The 2017 edition is scheduled for October, 2017 in the city of São Luis, State of Maranhão. ComSoc is supporting the participation of undergraduate and graduate student members in this event. The website of the conference is http://www.iecom.org.br/encom2017/.
The Student Chapter from the Federal Institute of Paraíba (IFPB) in Campina Grande-PB was created in 2016. The advisor is Prof. Marcelo Portela Sousa, an IEEE Senior Member. The Student Chapter is very active with participation in different regional and national communications conferences and the organization of technical lectures weekly. The following workshops were offered to the community of IFPB: Introduction to Phyton; Introduction to Arduino Applications; Radio Link Design; among others.