University of Michigan, March 28

The IEEE Student Branch of the University of Michigan hosted Prof. Larry Bernstein of Stevens Institute of Technology as a Distinguished Lecturer.







Ruth Wolfish (IEEE Eastern Client Services Manager) Prof. Bernstein, me and Joshua Bartlett, Branch Chair

Texas A&M, January 24

Prof. B. Don Russell spoke to a crowd of graduate students and faculty who attended a lunch hosted by IEEE -- in the lobby of the Zachry Engineering building.





Librarian Jane Stephens (right) helped coordinate the graduate/faculty lunch at Texas A&M, and was joined by colleague Pauline Melgoza.





You can't spell E-l-v-I-s P-r-E-s-l-E-y without IEEE.

Rachel Berrington (IEEE West Coast Client Services Manager), Judy Brady (Senior Marketing Manager, Universities), the King, and me at the American Library Association conference earlier that week in San Antonio

UPP Branch web sites

Berkeley
Stanford
Worcester Polytech
University of Michigan
UCLA
Virginia Tech
UC San Diego
Texas A&M
Columbia
MIT
Caltech
Drexel Grad
Drexel

Virginia Tech, March 24

Graduate students, faculty and librarian Larry Thompson joined IEEE for a lunch and discussion of the IEEE and the IEEE Xplore digital library.

Later that afternoon we had the pleasure of participating in a Student Professional Awareness Conference (SPAC) run by the Virginia Tech IEEE Student Branch. Shown here are the leaders, with a close-up of outgoing chair Abbas Hussain and incoming chair Brian Crosby.

Columbia University. February 22

I enjoyed an evening with the Columbia University IEEE Student Branch leaders, as we brainstormed about their ambitions and plans for spring and beyond.

May 1, 2006 Conference Call

Participating:
Brian Crosby – 2006-2007 Branch Chair – Virginia Tech - undergraduate
Abbas Hussain - -2005-2006 Branch Chair – Virginia Tech – graduating senior
Will Coulter - 2006 – 2007 Chair – California Institute of Technology – graduate
Owen Farrell – 2006 – 2007 Chair – Drexel University – undergraduate
Joshua Bartlett – 2005-2006, continuing through 2007 Chair – U. of Michigan – graduate
John Murphy – 2006-2007 Chair – Dartmouth – graduate

Q: Would students be interested in a UPP Branch Chair “Summit” in Piscataway?
A. Yes, and would like to see the following covered:
o Fundraising strategies
o Generating corporate involvement for technical presentations, class project support, tours, mentoring, etc.
o Methods for keeping students active throughout the year
o Centralization of resources: how do they keep apprised of IEEE opportunities, deadlines, section and regional contacts, etc. throughout the organization/societies
o Scholarship opportunities

Q: Would students support re-instating 1-2 free conference registrations as a benefit of UPP participation?
A: For grads, conference participation is routine, and discount registration a real benefit of IEEE membership (free is even better). If opportunities were communicated effectively, undergraduate interest would be high as well.

How to find presenters/supporters
· IEEE Section and regional activities. Owen says made contacts at Verizon, Boeing and Lockheed Martin at an IEEE Awards Banquet. Take your own business cards if you have them – always try to get business cards from prospects.
· Alumni and previous IEEE officers(use Alumni Affairs office/search your online alumni newsletter)
· Career Resource Center – find out who is coming to recruit and when. Ask them to present as well.
· Career Fairs – same as above, but in person, and ask them to return.
· Tap university faculty for their industry contacts
· IEEE Fellows at your university
Idea: Host an “IEEE Fellows” luncheon or dinner...Spring might be ideal, and you could encourage student members to stay involved the entire year, but making the “Fellows” event an occasion to acknowledge students who have made significant contributions. My ideas only – make it your own. But these women and men are incredibly influential, and in my experience, happy to share their insights with students.

Q. How to find corporate sponsorship (funding) for “project” classes.
A.
· Use IEEE Xplore (affiliation search) and other library resources to find out what regional companies are pursuing similar research.
· Have a detailed proposal (purpose/goal, research conducted to date, budget, seeking funding or donations in kind, time frame, expected outcome, etc) in hand before soliciting support – (DOES ANYONE HAVE A SUCCESSFUL EXAMPLE THEY WOULD LIKE TO SHARE?)

Publicity of events – what works?
· Post to website 2-3 week in advance
· Email once a week, then the night before/hour before
· Posters put up on the day of event
· Flyers placed in engineering study sections in advance
· Word of mouth – announce in classes the day of/before

Who do you invite?
· All IEEE student members culled from opt-in branch listservs or IEEE member mailing list (SAMIEEE, see below)
· Through administration to EE, CE, CS listservs
· Don’t overlook students in other engineering disciplines, i.e. biomed, aero, oceanics, etc.
· Some topics may be of interest outside of the engineering department – patents to law students and financial engineering to business/math majors. (Caution: don’t promise food if you’re inviting the whole school).

Conference call WISH LIST:
· More intercollegiate activities/networking opportunities. (Consider inviting nearby branches to presentations; co-hosting a major speaker such as a Computer Society Distinguished Visitor).
· Centralization of student information/resources – institutional memory. Complaints that it’s difficult to know all of the opportunities/responsibilities available. (I will make this known internally). Suggestion that it is invaluable to get well-acquainted with IEEE Student Activities Chairs/supporters at the section and regional levels. (see below)
· A calendar that can be imported into iCal, Outlook, Mozilla, etc. that lists events, deadlines, etc. (see below).

Links requested:
http://www.ieee.org/
→ Careers → For Students → Resources for Students→ Student Concourse
Look under Branch Operations for much of what I’ve listed below
Branch leadership workbook: http://www.ieee.org/portal/cms_docs/membership/students/Branchworkbook2006.doc
(If you don’t have this information in a binder, give me a mailing address and I’ll have Student Services send one.)
Regional Activities Chairs:
http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/membership/students/sac/rsacs.html
Student Activities Committee Members
http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/membership/students/sac/sac_info.html
Scholarships and awards: http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/membership/students/sc_scholarships.html
Travel grants: See below
Branch calendar:
http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/membership/students/sc_calendar.html
IEEE Branch member mailing list – SAMIEEE:
First, look at the bottom of the following page, under Student Branch Resources
http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/membership/students/sc_oncampus.html
Only then would I approach:
http://www.ieee.org/organizations/vols/samieee/training.html


IEEE Travel Grants

IEEE INFOCOM
http://www.ieee-infocom.org/travel_grants.htm

Computational Intelligence Society http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/membership/students/awards/sc_neural.html

International Power Modulator
http://www.eng.auburn.edu/pmc2006/travel_grant.html

Communications Society
http://www.comsoc.org/socstr/documents/pp/pp_4_1_5.html

Computer Society
http://www.dsn.org/Student%20Forum.html

Computer Society Distributed Computing Systems
http://icdcs2006.di.fc.ul.pt/

Industrial Electronics Society
http://www.iecon06.iut-amiens.fr/index.php?page=student


Here are useful web sites to help with
Finding a conference: http://www.ieee.org/web/conferences/search/index.html

Searching “call for papers” deadlines: http://www.ieee.org/web/conferences/callforpapers/index.html

One of the many benefits of IEEE membership is reduced registration fees: http://www.ieee.org/web/membership/benefits/products/prod_conferences.html