History

The first IEEE student branch in Jamaica was established at The University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech), (formerly The College of Arts, Science & Technology). A petition to form a student branch was signed by twenty-two student engineers in January 1989, and forwarded to the IEEE by Dr Kris K. Murthy, an IEEE Student Branch Counsellor at the institution. Dr Murthy was subsequently advised by the IEEE Membership Development & Student Services, by letter dated 13 March 1989, that the petition was approved by the IEEE Regional Activities Board. The College of Arts, Science & Technology was also welcomed to the IEEE Student Branch Programme.

Clayton Brown was appointed Interim Branch Chairman. Other signatories to the petition were: Hugh Alexander, David Archer, Carl Blackwood, Austin Brown, Paul Green, Andrew Hunter, Phillip Jackson, Everton James, Martin McLeavy, Stephen Legister, Claude Morgan, Rupert Miller, Michael McDowell, Dwight Muschette, Billy Meikle, Derrick Nelson, Oral Palmer, Victor Ramsay, Denfern Simpson, Andrea Small and Beresford Shernan.

Dr Halden Morris (Chair), Ms Carline Senior (Student Activities), and Mr Vincent Hewitt (Student Brancch Counsellor) of the IEEE Jamaica Section spearheaded activities leading to the re-activation of the UTech student branch in August 2000. Mr Hewitt (lecturer) served as Student Branch Counsellor from 2000 to 2011.

Student Branch activities

Students from this branch over the years participated with distinction and enthusiasm in local (JamCon), and regional (SoutheastCon) conferences. SoutheastCon is the IEEE Region 3's technical, professional, and student conference with competitions in the hardware, Web page, software, paper and T-Shirt categories.

SoutheastCon 2003

The University of Technology, Jamaica and the UTech IEEE student branch hosted the Southeastcon 2003 student conference held in Jamaica, at the Renaissance Jamaica Grande Resort in Ocho Rios, April 4-6, 2003. This was the first time the conference was hosted outside the United States of America. One hundred and ninety six students, in addition to twenty student branch counsellors from thirty two universities, registered for the conference. The student programme of the conference included hardware, software, website, paper and T-shirt competitions. The conference was a resounding success.

UTech Faculty of Engineering & Computing

The Faculty of Engineering and Computing of The University of Technology, Jamaica, (UTech) is the second largest faculty within the University. It comprises the School of Engineering, the School of Computing and Information Technology, and the Computing and Engineering Entrepreneurial Centre. The Faculty admits students from diverse academic backgrounds to pursue a wide variety of programmes at various levels and offers, inter alia, courses in the following area: Electrical Engineering -(Power, Telecommunications, Instrumentation and Control, Electronics and Communications), Computer Engineering, Computer Science, and Information Technology