Goal

Establish a strong presence for IEEE educational activities within the Hampton Roads Section.

Project Ideas

Focus on K-12 educational activities that can provide positive impact and establish IEEE brand recognition within the K-12 community.

• Seek volunteers to provide awareness presentations to K-12 students to foster interest in science and engineering careers.
• Seek volunteers to talk at high school career events to promote science and engineering as well as IEEE involvement in college.
• Seek ways to promote science and engineering education to K-12 educators.

Foster volunteerism within the Section to increase IEEE presence in the K-12 community.

Investigate establishment of an Education Society chapter in the Hampton Roads area.

• Determine EdSoc membership rolls in local area.
• Poll for interest in EdSoc chapter locally.
• Begin process by developing core network of interested parties.

Re-establish and strengthen communication and participation with other IEEE education-related organizations at regional, national, and international levels.

• Foster discussion among PreCollege Technical Education Committee regarding declining skills of incoming college freshmen in engineering, as well as declining enrollment in engineering curriculums.
• Establish Hampton Roads presence on Region 3 Education Committee.
• Participate in Education Society community discussions online.

Approach

To be successful, the Education Committee requires several critical areas of support.

• Volunteers – to be sought through announcements, correspondence, and targeted solicitations
• Materials – IEEE banners for sponsored events, handouts for students, presentation equipment (projectors, stands, etc.) (NOTE: Reliance upon speakers to obtain presentation equipment whenever possible will be primary method to acquire these tools when needed.
• Demographics Information – Member information required to determine potential interest level, areas of expertise, contact information, etc. (NOTE: All confidentiality rules will be respected in the use of this information.)

The primary method for accomplishing projects will be to solicit volunteers to head up the projects. The Chair and Co-Chair roles are expected to be primarily facilitation, communication, and support to the project leaders. If sufficient volunteers are not acquired, project areas will be curtailed.

Chair and Co-Chair responsibilities will include communication and involvement with other IEEE organizations, overall coordination of educational activities within the Section, and ensuring that educational events receive proper support and publicity within the IEEE community. Occasionally, the Chair and/or Co-Chair may also participate in or lead individual projects.    

Project Leaders will keep records of activities and submit a final report upon completion of the project. The Education Committee Chair will develop an annual report to the Section Executive Committee (ExCom) summarizing all activities and presenting plans for future Education Committee efforts.

A charter will be developed by the Education Committee Co-Chair to guide committee activities. This charter will be submitted for approval to the ExCom when completed

Future Directions

There are many other areas of responsibility under the Educational Committee purview, such as continuing education, professional development, and mentoring. Our approach in 2005 is to start small and grow intelligently into those other other areas when possible. We encourage the membership to propose ideas and volunteer to lead projects any area that fosters educational excellence in the Section.

For more info, see http://www.ewh.ieee.org/reg/3/eac/