TRANSLATION ACTIVITIES PRESENTATION
Section Congress (Minneapolis 1999)

Context of the project

• A few years ago, the Canadian Society for Electrical and Computer Engineering was amalgamated into IEEE Canada, which inherited then the double role of being the Canadian national scientific body for Electrical Engineering as well as Region 7 of IEEE.
• This transformation was agreed to by IEEE, which had then started to reflect on its place as a "transnational" scientific body.
• Although Canada is to a large extent an English speaking country. The French speaking population is significant, particularly in Québec, which is about 85% French speaking which is the official language and which counts for about 23% of the Canadian population.
• In May 1997, at the meeting of the Eastern Canada Council (ECC), a translation project was set up to respond to the needs and aspirations of the "francophone" membership of IEEE Canada.

Objectives of the project

• Mainly, to have some important technical and non technical documentation available in French.
• The project includes translation from French to English, and into other languages when needed
• To help retain and even increase the IEEE membership with documentation and written material in the vernacular language.

Starting point

• The project had a modest beginning and aimed particularly at finding out the needs of IEEE Canada members.
• We found a reliable professional translator and after doing several simple translations, such as the bylaws for the St. Maurice and Québec sections, we acquired some experience.
• We then had a major article translated to appear in the IEEE Canadian Review, a professional Journal with general articles published three times a year and distributed to all IEEE Canada members.

Committee

• In 1998, a committee was set up to better define the direction the translation project activities were to take in the future, with the participation of members from New Brunswick, Québec and Ontario.
• The objective of this committee is mainly to define the orientations of the project, although its members are also called upon from time to time when there is an urgent need or to translate short texts.
• In 1999, the committee was enlarged to have a representative from the three councils of the region-7 (East, Center and West).
• The committee targeted, among others, university students as important potential "beneficiaries" and "clients" for the translations, with the objective to help them grasp better the advantages of IEEE.

Documents published

• With the support of the editor of the IEEE Canadian Review, we decided to increase the number of articles translated into French.
• Several were then published in the Review in French accompanied by the original English version and/or appeared on the Review web site.
• This included editorials and technical articles.
• Brochures for employers to support IEEE
• Awards and Recognition brochures and documents.
• Biographies
• Region 7 and ECC (Eastern Canada Council) charters and bylaws (to come)

Support documents

• A glossary of terms has been set up and is being continuously updated to standardise the French terms to be used for IEEE and to avoid the use of different terms by the translators.

Acceptance

• The translation project has become increasingly accepted by the various groups involved, and there is good support to move ahead.
• The unfailing collaboration of the director of Region 7, Dave KEMP, has also helped to move forward.

Future of the project

• To pursue the objectives of providing to IEEE members, and especially to students a French version of the most important working documents as well as of significant articles and reports.
• To publish more articles in French for the Canadian Review.
• More exchange with groups outside the Region-7.

Electronic communication

• To disseminate information on the Translation Project activities a web site has been set up, at " https://www.ieee.org/trad ".

• Among other things, it contains information about the project, the name of the Committee’s members and some translated documents.

Collaboration and international outlook

• This participation at the Section Congress 99, with the collaboration of Celia DESMOND (Region-7 Director elect), is one step in promoting collaboration and exchanges between IEEE Regions.
• We can discuss implementation problems, as well as the more successful aspects of the project and the approaches which gave the best results.
• Along the same line, Mario BARBACCI, of the Computer Society, would like to offer technical translations and is highly interested in this project.
• Ideas can be exchanged, results and resources can be shared with other IEEE Regions, in order to better serve the members and to avoid duplication of efforts in IEEE around the world.

Keeping contact

• We want to share information and resources with other groups involved in translation activities world-wide.
• Please feel free to ask questions or offer comments regarding this project.

Marc PROVENCHER, P.Eng.

• Chairman, Translation Activities Committee (Region 7), 1999-2000
  https://www.ieee.org/trad
• Chairman, Eastern Canada Council (Region-7), 1999-2000
  https://www.ieee.org/cec (French)
  https://www.ieee.org/ecc (English)

E-mail address: m.provencher@ieee.org

1999-07-26