IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - May/June 2019 - 18

Membership
membership is changing rapidly. There
is very strong growth in asia (Region
10) and stable growth in the United
states. africa has a small number of
members but has been identified as a
continent of growth. In 2018, the Ieee
launched an africa council, aimed at
kick-starting new initiatives that can
have a large impact and are sustainable. In parallel, Pes is also actively
promoting activities in africa.
more generally, demographics together with economic growth mean
that the number of engineers will increase worldwide, especially in the
Ieee's disciplines, and the Ieee addresses the issue in its strategic plan.
The Ieee now has offices not only
in the United states but also in china,
India, Japan, singapore, and austria.
Journals and magazines are published
in languages other than english. Pes

is active here with its spanish version
of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine.
The Ieee is also increasing its
level of corporate engagement across
asia, in china, Japan, India, and other
countries, and also in europe. after
the Ieee opened its vienna, austria,
office, it launched a european Public Policy committee and is exploring
other possibilities. It is important to
emphasize that Pes did not wait for the
Ieee to take action in signing many
agreements with different companies
and government bodies, particularly in
china and in the United states.

Young Professionals and
Women in Engineering
as I mentioned, students represent onefourth of Ieee memberships, which
proves that we attract younger engineers. It is concerning, however, that the
Ieee's retention rates for student mem-

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bers is low. Therefore, the Ieee is focusing on strengthening its Young Professional (YP) group. I encourage Pes
student members or YPs to participate
in YP activities, visit the group's website, and contribute to its mission, which
is inspiring and equipping our members
to become stronger leaders, more successful professionals, and more conscientious citizens.
another important issue for the
Ieee, which strongly concerns me, is
the low percentage of women: fewer
than 15% of Ieee members are women.
This is lower than the percentage of engineers who are women. although this
issue impacts the organization's image,
its main effects relate to the organization's efficiency and need to maximize
contributions from qualified people
who are being missed. many corporations actively hire and promote women
to realize the benefits of an increased
talent pool, and the Ieee should do
better. actions are being taken. Ieee
Women in engineering (Wie) gathers
a network of more than 20,000 people,
and likewise, Women in Power is also
active on this front for power engineers.
The goal of these networks is to promote women engineers and scientists
and inspire girls around the world to
follow their academic interests to a career in engineering. visit their sites and
participate in their events, whatever
your gender.
The Ieee is working with both YP
and Wie to improve their share in the
organization and increase their roles.

Future Directions:
Breaking All Barriers
The Ieee is at the forefront of innovation and technology. Its members are
active, and many are world-class experts
in their fields. To envisage what the
future may look like and identify new
initiatives that the Ieee could launch,
the Ieee has set up a Future directions committee (Fdc). I encourage
you to visit its website, which has been
visited by more than 100,000 professionals. Topics are wide ranging, from 5g to
smart cities, from the brain initiative to
green information and communication
may/june 2019

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IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - May/June 2019

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