The Institute - December 2020 - TI-3

editor's note

RANDI KLETT

Forging New Career Paths
imperative that IEEE be one of the driving forces within the area of professional
development-taking advantage of the
latest online platforms and our unique
worldwide volunteer community, which
can provide a local-content perspective
from almost anywhere on the planet.
Throughout 2020, we dedicated time,
energy, and expertise to this important
topic.
Action plans have been developed
to create IEEE Academies on artificial
intelligence, the Internet of Things, and
the smart grid. The IEEE Academies
will provide members new and unique
value, as they will be able to take training
with a more thorough learning pathway.
They will also combine resources such
as eLearning courses, webinar recordings, videos, and articles about a key
subject of interest together with new
materials and take learners through a
guided journey that better ties these
concepts and materials together. Our
volunteer educators-in-chief are building these educational products that IEEE
can offer to raise the caliber of professionals in these fields.
In this year of unprecedented challenges and uncertainty, I've had the
remarkable opportunity to witness
IEEE's mission-advancing technology
for the benefit of humanity-in action by
our members, who are making significant
improvements throughout society. That,
in my opinion, is one of the primary benefits of being part of a global community
such as IEEE. Together, IEEE members
have changed our world-and we will
continue do so every day.
A future of promise and possibility
lies ahead for IEEE. We will continue
to build that future together. I thank
you for helping us progress during this
extraordinary year.
Share your thoughts with me at
president@ieee.org.
-TOSHIO FUKUDA,
IEEE president and CEO

BY KATHY PRETZ
Editor in chief, The Institute

IT CAN BE HARD TO LEAVE the comfort of your job

to pursue another opportunity. In this issue, we
highlight two members who made the transition.
Signal processing pioneer Martin Vetterli spent 18
years as a professor at EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, in Lausanne. In 2016 he took on a
big, new set of responsibilities when he was elected
president of the institution (he began his second four-year term this
year). The " head concierge, " as he calls himself, spoke with The
Institute about several issues he is working on, including increasing
the number of female faculty members [page TI-5]. He also talked
about the work he did on multiresolution concepts that underpin
videoconferencing and video streaming services.
This year Kathryn Jablokow took a leave from her job as professor
of engineering design and mechanical engineering at Pennsylvania
State University to join the U.S. National Science Foundation [page
TI-8]. She was appointed as director of the agency's Engineering
Design and Systems Engineering program in the Division of Civil,
Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation. There she plans to focus
on the impact technology has on society.
On page TI-10, The Institute explores how Roberta Williams went
from being a stay-at-home mom to developing early graphic adventure video games. Her creations include the popular King's Quest,
Mystery House, and Phantasmagoria.
We continue to publish articles about those IEEE members who
are working on COVID-related projects, and we have included a few
in this issue.
On page TI-12, read about work done by Diego Loyola, lead researcher
for a new analysis by the European Space Agency that supports the
idea that COVID-19 shutdowns were responsible for cleaner air.
People with a severe case of COVID-19 often have difficulty breathing. Incentive spirometers are used to help improve the functioning of patients' lungs. Farid Farahmand helped develop InSee, an
auxiliary infrared device that attaches to an incentive spirometer to
remind patients to use it [page TI-14].
Learn on page TI-15 how Enzo Jia, founder of startup Longan Vision,
developed a two-camera system to conduct temperature checks of
up to five people at once.
To read about more innovative technologies that members are
developing, check out the COVID-19 News and Resources Hub on
IEEE Spectrum's website. The articles were sponsored in part by the
IEEE Foundation.

FOR UPDATES ABOUT IEEE AND ITS MEMBERS, VISIT US AT
SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG/THE-INSTITUTE
THE INSTITUTE | DEC 2020 | TI-3

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The Institute - December 2020

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