The IEEE Jordan Communications Society chapter had a vibrant start in 2016. On Thursday 19 May, 2016, the chapter organized a technical talk by Dr. Desmond McLernon from Leeds University titled “Applications of Mobile Robots and Drones in Future Wireless Communication Systems” at the German Jordan University. The talked was originally geared toward academics and professionals.
Surprisingly, many students attended the talk. As organizers, we felt some unease since the talk’s content was technically beyond the B.Sc. level taught to our students. So we expected the students to lose interest and miss the main objective of the talk, which is to engage engineers in serving the community’s needs by researching new technologies. However, the talk “engineered” such that all the audience (including us) left the auditorium pleased.
First, the speaker credited the talk to his students. The reaction of our students was memorable when the speaker crossed out his name from the introductory slide and put the name of his student. Furthermore, the mathematical ideas in the talk were presented as logical and intuitive concepts in lieu of rigid equations. Also, to aid in explaining some problems encountered in the research presented, famous mathematical examples were used such as the marriage problem from optimal stopping theory. The interest of the audience, academics and students alike, was evident in the question and answer session after the talk.
In conclusion, we were thrilled by how this talk was received, and we encourage our speakers to engage B.Sc. level students in research oriented events.
About the IEEE Jordan Section
The IEEE Jordan Section was established in 1999. The membership in this section is generally rising and reached more than 1,000 members in 2014. About two thirds of these members are student members. The section has four active chapters, two active affinity groups, and eight active student branches. The four chapters are: Joint Computational Intelligence Society and Computer Society Chapter; Communications Society Chapter; Joint Power and Energy/Dielectrics Society and Electrical Insulation Society Chapter; and the Robotics and Automation Society Chapter. The two affinity groups are the Women in Engineering Affinity Group and the Young Professionals Affinity Group.
The eight student branches are in the following Jordanian universities: Hashemite University, The University of Jordan, Yarmouk University, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Princess Sumaya University for Technology, Al-Balqa Applied University, Mutah University, and Al-Hussein Bin Talal University.
The section organizes several activities, including organizing the biannual IEEE Jordan Conference on Applied Electrical Engineering and Computing Technologies (AEECT) conference series, technically co-sponsoring local conferences, conducting technical and professional lectures and workshops, and holding the annual general meetings, in addition to a large variety of student activities.