Well, I just finished my first month and a half as IEEE President. I am honored and excited to have this opportunity. In early January we were at the 2024 IEEE Rising Stars Conference and the Consumer Electronics Show. IEEE had a booth and also had a panel discussion session during the conference on “The Impact of AI on Jobs of the Future.”
In mid-January we held our IEEE board retreat in, where the board had an in-depth discussion on the current state of the organization and plans and strategies for the future. The picture below is me at the IEEE retreat.The IEEE had over 470,000 members in over 190 countries at the end of January 2024, the highest member count ever. On the other hand, many of these members were student members and many of these don’t convert to higher grade membership when they graduate.
In addition, many of these younger members end up working industry and in order to attract and keep these members IEEE must engage better with industry and for those working of the practical application of technology. Also, I am making an effort to personally meet with leaders in industry to understand their needs and explore what IEEE can do with them and which would benefit younger workers and strength our value to those involved in the practical applications of technology. In early February I was able to visit ASML, the extreme UV lithography company based in Eindhoven, in the Netherlands.