Updated: 25 June 2020
IEEE New Initiatives Program Is Looking for Bright Ideas
The IEEE New Initiatives Committee (NIC) helps bring great ideas to light. If you have a particular program, product, or service offering that can make a significant impact on IEEE members, the public, or a technical community, share your vision with the NIC. It can either provide seed funding or higher levels of funding.
NIC’s 2020 focus areas are:
- Increasing IEEE’s connection to industry
- Engaging and recruiting members
- Creating innovative educational opportunities
- Increasing the visibility of IEEE and demonstrating its relevance to different communities
Submission Requirements:
One or more IEEE members, volunteers, or IEEE Organizational Units (OUs) may submit their idea to the committee. IEEE OUs are encouraged to cooperate with each other on proposal submissions.
There are no deadlines for submitting ideas.
You can learn more here.
Special Call for COVID-19 Project Proposal
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the world in an unprecedented manner, and therefore, the IEEE Humanitarian Activities Committee has adapted its requirements to better enable IEEE volunteers to contribute. For that reason, HAC and IEEE SIGHT (Special Interest Group on Humanitarian Technology) projects have joined forces to prioritize proposals that have a strong potential for immediate impact in the fight against COVID-19.
Ideally, projects will have good connections with local IEEE Organizational Units and engage a significant number of IEEE members. But please note this sentence from the Message from IEEE on Coronavirus COVID-19: “We request that all members avoid conducting in-person activities in areas impacted by the coronavirus threat and instead maximize the use of our online and virtual alternatives.”
Proposals may be submitted at any time and will be reviewed continuously through 1 June 2020. An expedited review process will allow selected projects to get started right away.
You can find out more information here.
Educational Resources About the History of Technology
The IEEE History Center’s Raising Engineering Awareness Through the Conduit of History (IEEE REACH) program provides free online educational resources on the history of technology. The program focuses on technology’s impact on society, culture, politics, and economics and is aimed at middle and high school students.
The resources include lesson plans, hands-on activities, multimedia presentations, and primary resource materials—which can be particularly useful for educators, parents, and others during these times of distance learning.
Lesson plans, called inquiry units, cover a variety of topics including lighting, skyscrapers, and early maritime navigation. There are tasks for children to do, documents to read, and civic actions to take—all of which can be done from home.
Parents, for example, after having their children read one of the documents on lighting, could ask them to create a “family tree” that shows the evolution of illumination from ancient torches to incandescent lamps.
You also could have your child watch one of the short videos included in the lighting unit or have her peruse the primary resource materials, which include digital archives from The British Museum that show artifacts such as torches used during the ancient Olympics and Wesleyan University’s digital collection of ancient oil lamps.
Free Course on Sustainable Development
In collaboration with the IEEE Learning Network, the IEEE Humanitarian Activities Committee has developed a collection of courses on Humanitarian Technology and Sustainable Development at IEEE. The online modules cover topics such as community engagement, sustainable development, and how technically trained people can make a real difference in their community.
Each module takes between 20 to 30 minutes to complete.
To accompany these modules, the committee has created the Education Forum, hosted on Facebook by the committee’s staff. It gives those who take the online courses the opportunity to discuss and explore the topics further. The discussion will complement and reinforce what was covered in the modules. IEEE volunteers who are experienced in humanitarian work will also share lessons they’ve learned helping underserved communities and also answer questions.
For those who have more time, check out webinars and courses offered by Engineering for Change, a joint initiative between IEEE and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers that aims to develop technical, locally appropriate, and sustainable solutions to humanitarian challenges.
The IEEE Special Interest Group on Humanitarian Technologies digital classroom also provides webinars, videos, and podcasts that introduce members to the IEEE SIGHT program, which partners with local organizations to bring technology to underserved communities.
