IEEE Region 8

125th Anniversary Celebration event in London

IEEE is 125 years old this year (2009) and will be holding ‘celebration’ events in several locations around the world. Munich and London have been chosen for IEEE Region 8.

The London event will be held at the Royal Institution of Great Britain (21 Albermarle Street) where Faraday did his famous experiments.

CAVMAG 2010

2010 is the 70th anniversary of the development of the high-power cavity magnetron by Randall and Boot at Birmingham University. This invention, which made high power microwave generation possible, was made into a practical device by the GEC Company in England and put into large-scale production in the USA. It had a decisive impact on military operations in World War Two, and gave birth to much of the radar technology which followed, and much later, to the development of the microwave oven as a widely used and inexpensive consumer product

cavity magnetron.jpg The origins of the cavity magnetron, which are much less well-known go back to at least the mid-1930s with key work being done in Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Russia, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Japan and the USA.

To mark the anniversary and to bring together knowledge of the early work and also to learn how the magnetron has been improved and used since then, the IEEE United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland Section, the UK Defence Electronics History Society, and the Institution of Engineering and Technology are jointly sponsoring an international conference CAVMAG 2010 on the origins and evolution of the cavity magnetron with the support of the R8 History Activities Council and the IEEE History Center.

CAVMAG2010 will take place at Bournemouth University, England, 19th-20th April 2010.

Further information will be shortly be available at www.cavmag2010.org.uk

Offers of papers and suggestions about the conference may be sent to the Conference Chair, Keith Thrower at e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

SIBIRCON - Irkutsk, Russia July 11-15, 2010

SIBIRCON is one of the major international conferences held by the IEEE Region 8. It aims to provide a platform for technical exchange between researchers and practitioners from different technological fields.

Proceedings of the conference will be published in print and on CD-ROM and indexed in IEEE Xplore.

Previously unpublished contributions from a broad range of topics in the scope of the IEEE are solicited, including (but not limited to) the following areas:

information theory
cryptography and data security
education and e-learning
telecommunications
wireless communications
microwave theory and techniques
development and control of energy systems
power electronics
energy conversion and renewable energy
industry applications

Venice 2009

On the 25^th-26^th of April, the picturesque city of Venice was the host for the 92^nd meeting of the IEEE Region 8 Committee. The program of activities and initiatives for this year was very interesting and productive. One of our goals for the future is to continue our best practices and at the same time respond relevantly to the regional and global challenges. There was a lot of idea exchange and the caucus groups produced some very interesting results. The format of our meeting was characterized by a lower number of reports and more time was spent on interactive discussions. OpCom gave its priorities and expressed its vision for the Region’s future. The meeting was attended by the IEEE President and Past President as well as by the new IEEE Executive Director. The three candidates for the IEEE President-Elect were also present, they addressed the meeting and answered the questions from the participants. One of the newly introduced element was also the technical presentation, which was given on Friday evening, following the meeting with the Italy Section officers. Pietro Palella , the CEO of STMicroelectronics gave an excellent speech on the topic “Innovation in a global environment”. The social event on Saturday evening was sponsored by the Italy Section and took place in Venice and included a boat ride, a walk around St. Marks Square and an excellent dinner. For the final version of the reports and the presentations please visit the Venice page.

I would like to express my appreciation to all the participants of the meeting for their active involvement and valuable contribution; in particular to the Italy Section, R8 Secretary and R8 Treasurer for an outstanding preparation of the event.

Jozef Modelski,
Region 8 Director

4th IEEE UAE Student Day

IEEE UAE Student Day has become an annual event of IEEE UAE Section. American University in Dubai (AUD) and Dubai Cable Company (DUCAB) were proud to host it and sponsor it, respectively, for this year on May 2nd, 2009.

This event gathers all IEEE members all around the UAE. Students from all universities in UAE participated in the fun and exciting competitions. This year 10 universities were participating, UAE University (UAEU), University of Sharjah (UOS), American University of Sharjah (AUS), American University in Dubai (AUD), Petroleum Institute (PI), Ajman University of Science and Technology (AUST), Khalifa University of Science, Technology & Research (KUSTAR), BITS Pilani in Dubai (BPD), Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT), and Michigan State University in Dubai (MSU).