REGION 10 DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE — January 2021
Happy New Year!
Wish 2021 brings hope, health, and prosperity to you and your loved ones.
There are many lessons to learn from 2020, which was unprecedented and very challenging. But, challenges bring opportunities. It is my great honour and privilege to serve Region 10 as Director for 2021-2022. I take this opportunity to thank you all for your kind support and electing me to this position.
I would like to congratulate the leadership of Prof Akinori Nishihara, which was exemplary and outstanding. He led the 2019-2020 Region 10 team in an excellent way and provided immense value added member engagement during this time of pandemic.
As we march towards 2021, we are fully aware of the challenges brought forward by the pandemic; and we have to look for opportunities in these challenges. IEEE is a ‘member centric, volunteer driven and staff supported organization’. We saw its true reflection during 2020, where volunteers and staffs together made wonderful opportunities available to its members. Numerous events – webinars, conferences, congresses, competitions, awards ceremonies and many other activities were conducted in the virtual format. IEEE also took very prompt initiative and created COVID-19 Resources for members in the form of products, services, courses, and tools from across IEEE to help members and their families.
All our volunteers and staffs deserve sincere appreciation for this. I am truly grateful to them for their selfless contributions. In 2021, it seems, we would be continuing our activities in virtual mode, at least for quite some time. However, it is also pragmatic to see that at some places activities are getting started in a hybrid mode. I too wish that the pandemic gets over soon and we are able to start our in-person events.
Irrespective of how 2021 pans out, the Region 10 team will be committed to go full gear forward with our goals. Following are our thrust areas and major priorities for 2021-2022.
Thrust areas:
Membership Activities: Member retention and continuation of students to Young Professionals.
Technical Activities: Section-Chapter collaborative programs, conference quality and industry engagements.
Professional Activities: Entrepreneurship and career advancement programs.
Major priorities:
• Conferences and its quality
• Member value, member engagement and member satisfaction through collaborative programs
• Industry academia partnership
• Diversity: more leadership and volunteering opportunities for YP and women.
• Programs for students and YP, where YP helps students in their career growth.
• Sustainable ‘Humanitarian Technology’ projects.
• Promote ‘Reaching Locals’ initiative.
Apart from these, if you believe that there need to be any other specific areas of focus, please feel free to reach out to me personally. I am open to your ideas and feedback, and look forward to your continued support in the coming year, to propagate our combined vision of “Joy of Volunteering”.
Wishing you once again a very happy and promising time ahead.
Deepak Mathur
2021-2022 Region 10 Director