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I recently spoke at the 2015 International Microwave and RF Conference in Hyderabad on a panel organized by the Microwave Theory and Techniques Society SIGHT. I was delighted to see humanitarian activities becoming an area of focus for the Society.
Some of the highlights include discussion on the humanitarian applications of HAM Radio. Besides its usefulness in disaster recovery and other situations, HAM is a great hobby for a budding microwave engineer.
There was a design contest in which I saw some interesting projects applying RF communication principles.
Professor Balakrishnan from IIT Delhi presented the SmartCane, which is a great example of university-incubated technology development that has impacted thousands. It has evolved for around a decade within the aegis of IIT Delhi and is now a well done product available for purchase off the shelf. User-centric design, multi-disciplinary collaboration, and engineering for affordability are the hallmarks of this effort.
I think this is the example that SIGHTs at universities should look up to. Continuous, collaborative effort to evolve a project until it is ready for mass adoption is much more valuable than initiating multiple small projects.
I was delighted to see that MTT SIGHT has really kindled a conversation across the board on humanitarian applications and I can see a strong momentum being generated. I congratulate MTT President Tim Lee, and dedicated volunteers such as Ajay Poddar and Tushar Sharma and several others who have worked hard to accomplish thisRead on for highlights from your fellow SIGHT groups around the world. And, as always, thank you for everything that you do!
Kartik Kulkarni, Chair, IEEE SIGHT Steering Committee
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The SIGHT Toolkit is Live
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We are pleased to introduce the new SIGHT Toolkit. These online resources will help SIGHTs meet new requirements in 2016.
Those include:
1. Education (Intro to EGD)
2. Projects
3. Self assessments
4. Capacity building
Explore our new toolkit and please share this link with your SIGHT colleagues, but please note that this site may not be live until the end of the week: sight.ieee.org/toolkit.
Would you like to help us improve the site? Please send feedback through this form.
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Artisanal Deep Sea Fishers SIGHT Unveils Solar Tricycles
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While in India for IMARC 2015, Kartik visited the Artisanal Deep Sea Fishers SIGHT in Chennai. He saw Vincent Jain and his colleagues at the launch of their solar-powered tricycle program, which is providing clean transportation for women who sell fish.
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Thank you to the Steering Committee
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Thank you to the SIGHT Steering Committee for your work and the goodwill to serve. And thank you, too, to the applicants for the 2016 Steering Committee. We'll announce their names in January. But first, let's acknowledge the outgoing committee of 2015:
Kartik Kulkarni (Chair)
Mario Aleman
Ed Aoki
Rajnish Gupta
Alfredo Herrera (Engagement Subcommittee Chair)
Nirupama Prakash Kumar
Ray Larsen (Projects Subcommittee Chair)
Raj Madhavan
Deepak Mathur (Operations Subcommittee Chair)
Humphrey Muhindi
Eduardo Navarro
Jay Pearlman
Arjun Pillai
Sampathkumar Veeraraghavan
Prasanna Venkatesan
Holly Schneider Brown (Staff Lead)
Jackie Halliday (Program Coordinator) |
The 2015 IEEE MTT-S Video Competition is underway
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| The 2014 first place winner:
Phased Array Antennas
By Michael Sinanis, Jenna Hickle, and Mark Hickle, Purdue University |
Create a video that demonstrates a humanitarian application of microwaves and RF, from theory to societal impact. Your entry could win $500 - 2000, awarded by the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society.
The deadline is December 11, 2016. For details please see MTTS' announcement.
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The MGA Awards Favor Humanitarian Work
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The IEEE Member and Geographic Activities (MGA) Board issued 13 volunteer awards for excellence. We are proud to announce that seven of the awards were for humanitarian work and SIGHT leaders figure prominently. And those seven are...
Larry K. Wilson Transnational Award Amarnath Raja (R10), Kerala Section
Leadership Award Mario Alem�n (R9), Nicaragua Section
Ed Aoki (R6), Santa Clara Valley Section
Timothy Wong (R10), Western Australia Section
Achievement Award E-Scientia Project Team (R10), Kerala Section
A.K.M Abdul Malek Azad (R10), Bangladesh Section
Vincent Jain (R10), Madras Section
For the complete list of recipients please see the MGA Awards announcement.
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| Announcing New IEEE Open-Source Licenses for Volunteer Humanitarian Projects |
IEEE has approved two new open-source licenses for humanitarian volunteers. One is an Apache-based license for software projects, and the other is a CERN-based license for hardware and system projects. We expect to start sharing use cases for these licenses in 2016, and we will promote their adoption for new open-source humanitarian projects. Stay tuned for details in an upcoming newsletter as we start building an official Git-Hub repository for our community. If you would like to be part of a new team carrying out this initiative, please contact Alfredo Herrera: alfredo.herera@ieee.org.
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Deadlines for SIGHT Newsletter Submissions
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 Share news about your events, innovations and successes with the worldwide SIGHT community. Submit announcements or story ideas by the first of each month for a chance to see it in the next month's edition.
Submission guidelines:
- 150 words or less
- Include photos! (with captions)
- Include Web links! (Interested people will want more information)
Please send correspondence to Rob Goodier at r.goodier@ieee.org. Thank you! |
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